Monthly Archives: July 2022

For years cable channel Turner Classic Movies has featured a marathon of Elvis films. This year, TCM will do it again starting at 6AM on Monday, August 1. Here is the complete schedule.  Have a great time watching as many as you can,

6AM       This Is Elvis

8AM       The Trouble With Girls

10AM      Speedway

12:00      Double Trouble

2PM       Elvis on Tour

4PM       Kissin’ Cousins

6PM       Girl Happy

8PM       Viva Las Vegas

10PM     Elvis: That’s The Way It Is

12PM     It Happened at The World’s Fair

2AM      Spinout

4AM       Live A Little, Love A Little

Well, its a pretty good selection.  TCM must not have the rights to Jailhouse Rock or Blue Hawaii, because these two personal favorites never seem to show up in their Elvis marathons.  I will probably start watching at 4PM with Kissin’ Cousins, followed by Girl Happy at 6PM and Viva Las Vegas at 8PM. That will take me right up to bedtime.

Hopefully, this post will alert a lot of folks who weren’t aware of the Elvis movie marathon.  I hope you all enjoy as many Elvis movies as you can.

I’ve said it many times on ElvisBlog — Elvis is everywhere! And I’ve posted many blogs that validate that thought.

Here I am in the kitchen of my best friend, Curtis Piper. I am standing in front of his refrigerator, and you can see Elvis performing.  The screen is built into the door. You can program many different things on it, but Curtis always puts on Elvis YouTube videos when I am visiting.  So, Elvis is everywhere…. even on refrigerators.

My friend Curtis’ has just published a new new novel, The Shogun’s Gold—Solving a Historical Mystery. He manages to slip in an Elvis reference here, too. Curtis is a retired Foreign Service Officer. He speaks Japanese, having spent two years at a Japanese university. He has the perfect background to write this story.

One exciting scene in The Shogun’s Gold takes place in Shinjuku, Tokyo’s famous entertainment quarter, where there are said to be over 5,000 bars per square mile.

It is also a big hang-out for cosplayers, short for “costume players.” Anime characters inspire many cosplayers, but in Shinjuku, you can find superman, Dracula, demons, etc. And this is where Elvis pops up.

Two criminals, intent on murder, are stalking Jason Tanaka, one of the featured characters. Tanaka and his niece Terry escape by renting outfits in a cosplayer costume shop. Terry dresses up as Raggedy Ann, and Jason disguises himself in an Elvis jumpsuit.

Another exciting scene occurs with GODZILLA, a “life-size” figure that leers over the top of a high-rise hotel. It is one of Shinjuku’s main attractions.

The Shogun’s Gold highlights fascinating information about the Japanese language, customs, and traditions. I found the plot quite riveting, one populated with several intriguing characters. Curtis did a great job with this novel.

For more information on my friend’s book, use this link to Amazon:

A number of you have mentioned on Comments that you were interested in what I thought of ELVIS starring  Austin Butler and Tom Hanks.  Well, I watched it yesterday, and I was impressed big time.  There have been a number of actors portraying Elvis in movies over the last 40 years, but Austin Butler was the best. He was totally believable as Elvis.

And Tom Hanks did a masterful job as Col. Parker.  I loved the glitz, the dazzling energy, and just the grand theatrically of it all.  The music was outstanding.

Movie reviews have never been my thing, but I did check out some on the internet. The worst was from RogerEbert.com who gave it 1-1/2 stars out of five. Audience ratings were quite a different thing.  One site reported 4.6 out of 5, and another had it at 9.4 out of 10.  Put me in the latter camp.

Here are some random thoughts on the movie:

I never knew Elvis went through such turmoil in 1956.  But I guess a movie needs conflict to be successful.

I had never heard of the New Elvis stuff.  They probably took a little theatrical license on that.

I noticed liberal use of the affectionate nickname Satnin. Elvis to Gladys, Elvis to Priscilla, Priscilla to Elvis.

There was no mention of Bob Neal who was Elvis’ manager before Col. Parker came into the picture. There was precious little about Scotty, Bill, and DJ.

I thought the guy doing Little Richard was great.

Did you notice that during one of the transitional scenes the background music was rap?

One thing I like to do when watching a movie about Elvis is to look for little things they have wrong.  There were a few, but after the fact, I can remember only three. They showed Vernon with a mustache right from the start in the 50s. He didn’t have one until the later years.

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t remember seeing anything about Milton Berle. After all, it was Elvis’ second appearance on his show that caused all the ruckus about Elvis being such a bad influence on teenagers.

The film chronicled Elvis’ multi-year performances at the International Hotel. However, even though it changed ownership and became the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971, they still continued to show exterior shots with the International name. I don’t know why they did that.

A couple of you sent me your review of ELVIS.  I’d like to share one with you.

I had the privilege of seeing the Elvis movie last night, and I am now Austin Butler’s #1 fan. I did not see any acting; however, I did witness a spiritual take over. Kudos to all responsible for this extraordinary film. Simply put, Austin drove his performance in a LAMBORGHINI on a smooth rode faster than the speed of light with E. P. as his copilot. Thank you  Austin for your hard work in your transformation, and thank you  for your massive generosity, you gave Elvis fans and movie lovers around the world THE best gift!