He told us that cause similar to that worn by the strange entity that I had encountered in the cold licks to scatter whom had been used by priests conducting funerals land centuries ago as part of my work as a priest today I frequently conduct. Was it I'm not a funeral pretty strong ago that I had encountered in the Catacomb Was he aware of what I only did and curious about the differences between oh. We can only gain. Line often Thorp the producer was Paul Arnold. B.b.c. Radio 4 extra early when. It's 3 o'clock and Elvis is in the building next then we've drama 10 guests are invited to an island by a person none of them knows very well an anonymous voice accuses them of having murdered someone Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None is it for and after that we've a special program from the beyond today podcast teen they take a look back at the last decade in signed at $530.00. 9 archive on 4 which was 1st broadcast in January 20th teen the writer Paul Morley presents a parallel story of Elvis and America from the vantage point of the king's finest hour in 1968 in Elvis Presley comeback special. It's on the bush I fight your heart. We're already quite. Aware of the House Ways the dollar down Thank you. Very. Working here on the upstate. That's for you. We. Are Here we go. They want to see. Why if the comeback special was so magnificent and so explosive in the hearts of so many Why didn't it stick with the seductions just too great was the kernel just too powerful there's no real way to tell what was going on in his thinking he was on a slippery slope of losing him self and so even a wonderful moment of clarity like the comeback special is short lived and of course wasn't it also so for America. To listen to see. Because it was in 1988 it was the lunar new year the Tet the decisive offensive of the war I think what American made me think is that they want to kill me. But right now are we going to tackle the summer very possibly very rare the Kerry side that one already heard. Today. Pretty girl. Who I Am Good morning Carol Tommie Smith and John column 2 great American Negro sprinters get the back possibly as they receive the medal event on wishing gun in their. A 100 yards away. No generation of Americans has possessed more power and wealth Yes No generation of Americans as such fit for the future. I would not buy satellite or a report from Memphis Tennessee. But overall thank you please know we're going to make up and out of nowhere it seemed or out of some kind of exile the man who was crowned king dramatically made an unexpected public appearance you know with no more time than I got in this part is hard to get really into it. On television obviously so that he could reach full of his subjects live from Hollywood the capital of fantasy the American Dream was he back to save himself back to save the nation will simply offer hope and comfort intends turbulent times for a long time Jack I'm trying. For a while to effect a management technique. I don't even know we're going to train it for talent so I thought what became known as the $68.00 comeback special is a vital component in the myth of Elvis Presley goodnight. Without this radiant sign that he was still the charged and corrupted Elvis of the 1950 s. Alive with himself and the bright future of America the myth of Elvis would not have been as complete donor drama. Who more embodies the American dream than Elvis Presley and if Elvis is the American dream then what does Elvis's rise and fall mean what filmmaker using Recchi has devoted his career to examining the properties and perils of the American dream and how it was doomed to fail to turn into a nightmare. For his latest film The King he drove Elvis's old Rolls Royce around America a classic road trip to test the states of the nation and summon up what's left of the king a journey deep into Miss and where it can distort reality I grew up in their seventy's when Elvis is lost and dissolute So the Elvis of Memphis years that beautiful heart throb he's a piece of nostalgia he's something hanging on the wall of a vintage store but I was in those vintage stores and I was dressing like Elvis there are embarrassing photographs of me in high school with a pompadour and I think it was me at a time growing up in the seventy's and into the eighty's trying to reach back to what felt like a bluer sky America not the Reagan America that was crushing down on the dream and crushing down on our sense of what was possible so reaching back felt like a rosier time but then as I grew older of course I started to understand that there's mythology everywhere you look I mean the American dream itself was a myth it wasn't available to everybody it was available to white guys like Alice it wasn't available to black people to women to so many people and so as I grew older Elvis transmogrified from this horrid ornament of nostalgia for me to something that made me question my own a stone and think about the contemporary challenges that the country faces in the way in which Elvis in many ways reminds us of the long journey that we're on the unfinished business of the American dream. With us mail because I was born. I was in a town was on the Mall. I'm assuming this happens. Southeast portion of the United States and that's a matter of fact you know where. I just call myself the u.s. Maybe. It's you know Pete Earley son. By 968 there were. Community helped inspire that long overtaken Elvis is any kind of vital innovative presence the coolest had become the coolest original heat turned right down or he'd been tamed by his in the toys manager Colonel Tom Parker who treated his boys a cash cow if not circus act and was not interested in the art of Pop only the money. The Colonel's original idea for the t.v. Special was to produce a then typical mainstream prying time audience attracting star showcase a nice simple very profitable pheasant ace and all the family of Elvis singing nicely chosen Christmas songs which he could do in his sleep and often seemed to have more time. To present something stirred inside Elvis have some longed for straight instant and for once he disobey the ruinous kernel he remembered himself and where he had come from take one all for. Production on the special began at the beginning of 1968 it was recorded in the summer and broadcast in December after all it was meant to be a Christmas special. You know there are more guys who are they and that thing more ammunition for cargo right now than there are. Gun and they're going to and then. The Bucks special trainings this tumultuous year and although it was all about Elvis it provides a window into a period of American unease and unrest in the middle of national disruption Elvis and the special can be read as an anomalous and delightful moment of certainty. That I was. I was born in Nashville Tennessee in 1938. And I lived during a period of legal segregation in the south Mary Frances Berry is a historian and former chair of the u.s. Commission on Civil Rights in 1988 she was in law school she'd grown up not a 1000000 miles away from Elvis in Nashville Tennessee same place perhaps but in many ways a very different world in every aspect of your life there was supposed to be separation I remember going to a diner like the crystal diner where they sell inexpensive hamburgers you could go in there or any place that served whites and you could stand at the end of the counter or go through the back door and you could order and you could wait for whatever it is you wanted and when it was made you could pick it up and go stay outside and eat it you couldn't go into the restaurant and sit down if as a child you tried to do something like that your parent would say you not supposed to do that you can't do that you're going to get us in trouble. Yes we will discuss the problems of the mammoth sanitation department if with these gentlemen here if and when you really go back to work immediately I mean you at the beginning of 1968 Elvis Presley was in l.a. Back at home in Memphis the streets around his Graceland refuge were becoming filthy the base went on collected protesting poverty wages and dangerous working conditions the city sanitation workers were on strike. The city didn't recognize the union and greeted the strikers with force and images of pickets as marching with black outs because I am a man will broadcast around the world it wasn't simply a strike for higher wages. It was part of the struggle the dignity status equal opportunity to the rights to the medical need for. The economic sufferings of the Senate Asian workers in Memphis and the fact that the job was and still is very dangerous and there were even case of sanitation workers who were caught up in the machinery killed and in the segregated society in which we lived for so long the people who worked at those jobs in southern cities were mainly black will and no matter how you dress it up and terms of whether or not a union can organize it's still racism for at the heart of racism is the idea that a man is not a man. Oh. Oh yeah it's all sugar. One and man. Should have one in there use. Some muscle bones are wrong for me I mention all the men and all the fuzzy treat a friend same mind wot as a boat coming. I'm all shook up. That was what are your plans now that you are about to leave the army. The 1st thing I plan to do naturally is to go home . And Minister and on the picture. Yeah paramount to us. To picture the 20th Century Fox The Colonel apparently decided that Elvis joined the Army in 1958 at the height of his powers even though he hadn't been drafted it was as much one of the Colonel's stunts as anything going to plenty of publicity and making Elvis seem a good decent boy rather than a wild one who scared the grownups with just a little physical movement and a very dangerous tendency to sound like a black man and dress like a homosexual. There were no tolls and without that kind of performance where really he was most at home he almost ceased to exist certainly as any kind of groundbreaking artist pocket created an apparently accessible Elvis by making him actually inaccessible this body of mine that's just that girl and a lot so. Colonel Parker saw that you could make Elvis into merchandise you could make him into a 1000000 endless sequels you could make him into all the b. Movies you want because Colonel Parker was in the business of Elvis incorporated he was not in the business of Elvis the artist Elvis the authentic glimpse of the depth of the American story that I'm profitable that's just great for the tombstone I'm afraid of her hair is planning a European tour sometime in 60 or 610 yes maybe in 61 I'm not saying yes or no that's not my end of the business. Managers the managers and. But I would like to very much channel to fix. Things. While Linda Johnson was a proud man on March the 31st he announced more of a look partial bombing hold. I shall not see. And I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your brother looking for ways. Taken with. Elvis Presley never did. He never performed outside of America he never got to do what he wanted to do the Colonel was in control by whatever method. G.i. Blues Flaming Star wild in the country Blue Hawaii follow that dream Kid Galahad girls girls girls films from a paper thin Freak Zone laser Leaks ploy to current popular trends moving out the actual intensity of one of the world's great idols between leaving the Army in 1960 and the comeback special in 1968 Elvis Presley starred in 24 films these out of time Elvis films created a novel of ludicrous space for Elvis to frivolously carry on being Elvis representing America as a place of fantasy and dreams. Take a trip down to find you'll. Be making. The right Luke songs closely monitors the crazy twists and turns of American culture with a shrewd eye of an outsider. Born in Belgium he made his own young journey from Europe to America in the years when Elvis was in the army Elvis may not have traveled but his image said in the days. Back in Belgium we lived next door to a family of 12 children the eldest was 15 years older than me and he was the only one of the kids who had a private bedroom and it was completely plastered floor to ceiling with pictures of Elvis and so Elvis became just completely bound up with this eldest brother of the valves and put pass fail Belgium and what about his music I mean when you could put the idea of Elvis together in your life how how how he impacted upon you well I do I did go see one of his movies this is much later this is 6364 I went to a local movie house in the New Jersey town where we lived and saw fun in Acapulco on a double The Bob Hope sleeping here. And you know it was a pool light of a nest and I forgot about it the minute I walked out of the theater but I got into big trouble at home because my mother always suspected anything she didn't know for sure that wasn't storing the Trop Family singers she was sure we had to be pornography so Elvis you know was and interesting territory probably a work of the devil. Oh everybody this is I was honest I'm especially proud of all my friends and Great Britain are all to be able to bring you the kind of for foreign pictures that you are right thanks from the bottom of the arc from. Some My best wishes for your health from after all it. Was burglarized. Saying Jim is Celeron he was visiting over there. Are like 2 are alike 2 or wish to The Beatles. Much continued success. As well as the other recording artist and I. Think you. Wouldn't need to do. It. In the way women are some only a. Human with energy. I. Could. Be a minister maybe I did it one man pleasures my behavior. He stands up to Colonel Parker who has become affectively a father figure to him running every every aspect of his existence and he demands that it be the way that he wants it and the way he wants it is to go back to the original band go back to the original songs try to reconnect with that which once made him so extraordinary and enduring and as such it sent a huge message to the entirety of America we're talking about the Vietnam timeframe we're talking about the dissolution of the civil rights movement and so the country is in this soul searching Who are we place not very different from Elvis when you might have counted the country itself out and just thought it is going to go anywhere from here and then out he steps onto national television and he inspires everybody to think that you can go back to your roots you can go back to the original key that was so winning and won the hearts of so many. Good evening yesterday at the end of a turbulent week in American politics Senator Robert Kennedy announced that he was running for the Democratic nomination for president it was a move that liberal Democrats had been urging kind of thing to make for months as their frustration with President Johnson's conduct of the Vietnam War mounted I think it's just a moment and he completely reliant on military power in Southeast Asia was a major mistake I think that we can do better in Southeast Asia I can think we can cut down on the killing. 40 people to go to. The center of the village. Or town of Kalak came over and said you know what they were. But ordinary. I don't think you want to secure want to want to go to. You can't get. Back up into do you. Know you don't restructure shorter assured mark for collection to this group. And you killed how many and that are all just for the area and are you going to kill me you came from the from those who were. Killed about 1015 are men women and children. And babies and. You. See. The director of the Elvis Presley 68 special was the experienced Steve binned immediately before working with Elvis he had made a t.v. Special for another Stahl of the 1960 s. But you look the program simply called to choose. The guest on not program was how he Belafonte. Has generated its own absurd controversy it was the 1st time in what we consider prime time where a white person and a black person actually touched on the air and it was one of the 2 was an anti-war songs taking place during the Vietnam War and it created a national news incident actually an international one with Newsweek and Time magazine picking up on it that touch on the hand incidentally wasn't just a white hand on a black hand it was a white female hand on a black male hand and that touches the deepest sensibilities of racists think. I got a call from Bob Think over who was the n.b.c. Executive producer who said I read about your butt to a Clark heard Belafonte incident and decided based on your age maybe you and others could hit it off you seem to be a rebel he's a rebel and you know I'd like to put you guys together and talk about doing this special ready channel for. Security. The 2 o'clock television program was both cost to America on April the 2nd 1968 the next day a Pulitzer back in Elvis's hometown of men face the striking sanitation workers received an important visit to highlight that cools. The window. It was the noise of April the 3rd night in 68 in Memphis Tennessee a strike by the city's black dustman had been dragging on the city all thought it is met the nonviolent protest with a sullen and stubborn resistance Martin Luther King came to Memphis to add his weight to the dustman struggle somewhere where. The freedom. Still with. Us. Tonight. I was on the campus at the University of Michigan where I was in law school historian Mary Frances Berry and I had come from a summer of being in Vietnam and seeing all kinds of horrific things and it was Martin speech at Riverside Church in 1967 that let me finally to go and see for myself in Vietnam and I had spent months not only being in law school but going around the state speaking to audiences about the need to get out of Vietnam. Actually we were sitting on a bench out set the law school and there were some people dressed up as Indians from a social group at the university who were having some kind of exhibit a conference or something and they were yelling and screaming and someone came and told us that he had been assassinated Dr Martin Luther King were shot and killed on the balcony of his motel in Memphis apparently by a white man with a rifle the governor of Tennessee quickly declared a curfew one called in National Guardsmen to keep order from looting has been a. Bit of a light hearted let me know we're all out. Today the world is weekend give special expanded coverage to America at war with itself in a moment we'll be going over live to New York and Washington we look into the progression of the American Negro from slave to rebel Charles wheel is in our Washington studio general piece and you knew we had riots in major cities Washington d.c. Every city people were just furious and there were some white people there were many who were sympathetic but there were some who were heard to say things like Martin get what he deserved We heard someone say that when in line in the law school some people were talking and saying to each other well you just get what he deserved you know I mean he had men going around creating trouble one also had to pay tribute to the church and the negro organization. People in the street like like chunks of ice. I gather the President Johnson's plans talk with King a few must learn certain Surely there will be massive security problems and any attendance by the president at the funeral yes this I think makes it doubtful whether you will in fact go I think that what Senator Robert Kennedy is it is going I think one must be a little bit. I don't if they have morning I think truth requires one to say that not all Americans are mourning Martin Luther King it is primarily I think an attempt to show the negro that white America cares but I don't think one can assume that all white American I really would like to 2nd that travelling about the last few days one has come across an a