Every week we take a look in the RTÉ Guide archives to check out the stories from years gone by. On this week 39 years ago, the Guide cover story marked the tenth anniversary of the death of the King of Rock'n'roll.
To mark the occasion, RTÉ screened the documentary This Is Elvis, and the RTÉ Guide explained how the film makers had approached the project. "'Our greatest find," says director Malcolm Leo, "was a mountain of home movies chronicling the star's private life, collecting dust in a basement closet. We dove in as if it were a newly discovered Egyptian pyramid."" What producer Malcolm Leo is describing is their visit to Elvis Presley's mansion, Gracelands in Memphis,which was the first time ever that outsiders, especially those armed with cameras, were allowed in. When permission was finally granted by Presley's former manager, Colonel Tom Parker and others, to use the previously unseen footage it distinguished the TV film This Is Elvis from others and gave it a unique authenticity. It is a film about Presley's life and career from childhood until his death at the age of 42 in 1977."
The film was a 1980s version of what are now known as "docu-dramas". As the article pointed out, "there were periods in the singer's life of which no footage existed - before he turned 21 and even later moments in his life which escaped the camera's eye - so the producers recreated them using Presley lookalikes. Paul Boensch is Elvis at 12, David Scott at 18 and Lawrence Koller and Debbie Edge are Elvis's parents. The three romances at various times in his life- wife Priscilla Beaulieu, beauty queen Linda Thompson and final girlfriend Ginger Alden - are portrayed by Rhonda Lyn, Cheryl Needham and Andrea Cyril."
Making the film was clearly a bittersweet experience for the film makers. "Producer David Wolper summed up his feelings when they had finished making the film: " We crave heroes and gods and demand they be larger than life. Fame has its mouth-watering rewards, but it brings a burden only the superstars themselves can fully comprehend. They are all vulnerable in one way or another and sadly, so few of them survive."
