New Footage Shows the Way It Was for Elvis, in Concert

“Oh, my God, there he is!”

Hero worship was the last thing filmmaker Rick Schmidlin expected as he stood in the last row of a Memphis theater during Graceland’s annual Elvis Week last August. He was there to screen “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (Special Edition),” his re-cut version of the 1970 concert film that will air Jan. 15 on cable’s Turner Classic Movies. As the lights went on, Schmidlin founding himself awash in a surreal Warholian moment as he faced a sea of 2,500 staring Elvis fans.

“Over there! In the back of the theater!” A crush of fans descended, stalling his departure for nearly three hours. Schmidlin had never met the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. He had no anecdotes to relay. But he was the latest to breathe life into the legendary entertainer, by incorporating into the reedited version 40 minutes of never-before-seen footage of a vibrant Elvis and his band rehearsing and performing a Las Vegas show. The result was a more intimate look at Elvis, and it was all this audience needed to embrace him as one of their own.

“I was a fan from when I was a child, so I understand what his fans are interested in,” says Schmidlin, best known for the documentary “Doors: Live at the Hollywood Bowl” and the reedit of Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil.” “This film shows Elvis on his own terms. The director may have pointed the camera, but Elvis called all the action. It’s a way for fans to see who Elvis really was.”

That’s why “The Way It Is” is the centerpiece of TCM’s monthlong Elvisfest, which kicks off today. The movie channel is celebrating what would have been the singer’s 66th birthday on Jan. 8 with 20 movies and documentaries, such as “Jailhouse Rock,” “Girl Happy” and “Viva Las Vegas,” and interviews with band members and friends. An Elvis micro-site on the newly designed TurnerClassicMovies.com Web site features electronic postcards, games, articles, a video jukebox, photo gallery, band tree, contest and streaming video clips, and link to Elvis.com, the official site of the Elvis estate.

But the revamped movie remains the focal point. TCM commissioned the nine-month, $1-million project after 50,000 feet of original film negative and 12 recordings were found in the vaults at Warner Bros., which shares a parent company, Time Warner, with the cable channel. Where the original film was essentially a promotional concert, Schmidlin describes the TCM version as “a visual narrative of what it took to get his show onto the stage and the experience while there. More significantly, it shows his personality, sense of humor, warmth and strong connection with his band.”

The re-cut alternates Elvis’ intense work ethic with a sillier side that has him accidentally ripping his pants seat, falling off a piano stool in jest, breaking into spontaneous yodeling, and making a racy gesture with his microphone. The film tracks the mounting excitement of the Vegas opening.

“Elvis told me that the main thing he missed when he was doing movies was performing live,” says James Burton, Elvis’ lead guitarist from 1969 to the singer’s death in 1977 at age 42. “He loved to joke around a lot. We’d be onstage, and he’d lean over and whisper something funny and die laughing. It was an inside joke that no one in the audience would get. He was a clown, but also very serious about his life and music.”

Elvis’ collaborative nature extended to other aspects of his act, such as his costumes. “He was terrific to work with and very receptive,” says Bill Belew, Elvis’ costume designer from 1968. “We started with a jumpsuit, because it gave him freedom of movement. But neither one of us was sure of how it would be received. But as I began experimenting with the flamboyance that was going on in the early ‘70s, the fans just started responding.”

So much so, that even his wardrobe became deified. Once, when Belew’s colleague transported a rhinestone-embossed cape for Elvis to wear in concert, the flight attendants stopped by his seat to reverently touch the garment. Sadly, the singer’s death cut short Belew’s most ambitious outfit--a diamond-studded jumpsuit wired to shoot lasers. It exists only as a sketch.

* “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (Special Edition)” airs Jan. 15 at 5 and 9 p.m. on TCM. Elvis films and interviews will be featured Mondays throughout the month. Tonight beginning at 5, “Blue Hawaii”; 7 p.m., “Girls! Girls! Girls!”; 9 p.m.,”Fun in Acapulco”; 11 p.m., “Girl Happy;” and 1 a.m., “Clambake.”