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In 2002, after much anticipation, this long awaited documentary finally found its way to thousands of fans. The critics were enthusiastic and the DVD is still available and selling well everywhere in the world. To celebrate the upcoming sequel "Elvis Behind The Image Vol. 2 Welcome To His World", we want to go back in history to let (especially the younger) fans know what this special is all about. The DVD is filled with great quality 8mm footage digitally transferred from the original master- reels to it's perfection for the very first time. You can enjoy thrilling interviews with Sandi Miller, Kathy Westmoreland and John Wilkinson, who share their personal memories of Elvis on this DVD for the very first time. Finally a there's a sneak-peek inside the famous "Elvis-A-Rama " museum in Las Vegas. This was the first and only time that they allowed filming inside! This special preview of the biggest museum outside of Graceland was definitely a nice bonus.

Furthermore this DVD set new standards in quality, content and running time.
Normally we get our 60 minutes and the fun is over! Here we have 75 min., which is the longest running time of a DVD in this genre. Compared  to all the other collectors DVD´s, this release was a real bargain. At only US$ 39,95 (official retail) it was about 10-15 US$ cheaper than other releases ! (hey producers out there.. please follow this standard of great quality and content at a reasonable price!)
Unlike the cheap midi file quality background music of so many productions in the past, Behind the Image had incredible background music custom performed in true James Burton fashion. The theme song "Behind The Image" written by the executive producer, Bud Glass and sung by Russ Howe was really touching and one of the highlights of this DVD.

Beside seeing Elvis in 1970 on tour, this DVD sheds a light into the unknown parts in Elvis life. We all have seen Vegas and Graceland over and over again. But Lake Tahoe (not included on this DVD, this is meant as an example), or California is very less known. On Elvis-Behind The Image Vol.1 we are able to see (for the first time ever) the Californian houses of Elvis. We can see (from 8mm film) what they looked like when he was living there. But that wasn't all. We also got the man himself in private!!! I will never forget the moment when I first saw this killer footage. You see Elvis crystal clear and so near that he almost bumps with his nose into the camera. This is a dream come true and every real fan has to thank Bud Glass for sharing it with the fans! If you don't get goose bumps while watching this incredible candid footage than you better stick to watching "Tickle Me" or "Aloha fron Hawaii" compilations ! 
To me the candid part alone is worth more than I've paid for the complete DVD.

You have to understand that BTI is so much more than just pure 8mm footage. This is just one part of the whole content of this DVD. The Co-Producer (Praytome) and the inventor (Bud Glass) of Behind The Image, always stated in many interviews in the past that the 8mm footage (no matter how good it is) is only a bonus feature on their DVD´s and this is how it's labeled on the menu of this DVD.

Still, on this DVD you'll find the longest running concert footage ever released on an official and legal release  (for example; on the nice Ed Bonja DVD you only get short clips of concert footage. On Return To Splendour  you get a nice variety of jumpsuits but only short fragments of the show).

Funny enough, this wasn't welcomed by all with enthusiasm. One so called news web site even claimed in their review that there is only 8 minutes of Elvis on this DVD, which was a complete lie. (Later on they got caught by the fans a few times for incorrect reviews and statements and the fans gave them the new nickname "Faked-Reviews.com") 
It seems to be a personal thing, because when Praytome Publishing released the Behind the Image book, they stated that the pictures in the book were "only the same photos which were on the DVD and nothing new".  Strange behavior, since there is no slide show on the DVD (and the book contains over 400 photos, most of them never seen before).  It is hard to understand the intentions behind this, but if the fans buy these products and find out that every written word was a lie, they look stupid afterwards. Don't they?

To fully understand why the fans reacted so extremely positive on this DVD you have to understand the history of this kind of footage.


In the 80´s, a few years after Elvis' untimely
death, all we got were the same pictures, the same jumpsuits, the same footage, the same songs again and again.
Maybe because of the coolness of the outfit (which can be seen on the "You'll never Walk Alone" LP), the fans always dreamed about seeing pictures of Elvis wearing this classic
and very rare outfit, known as "The Fringe Suit"
(Elvis wore this stage costume only on a few occasions).

You must know, that under the big collectors there were much more pictures circulating than there
were published. But from these concerts there was nothing! You couldn't even find a blurry picture taken by a fan in those days! There was completely nothing!Than the myth of these concerts and the outfit started. The big picture-collectors started doing heavy research and hunting .... but there was nothing .... and the myth started to get even bigger!
In late 1997 -17 years later- rumours were circulating that there were pictures from this big event. No one believed that rumours, because it just couldn't be!
Then suddenly, out of the blue in 1998, Paul Lichter released his book " Elvis - Thank You Very Much" (a coffee table book selling for US$ 65).
This Book was packed with (b/w) shots of Elvis wearing the fringe suit on stage. This book was a sensation, it was breathtaking, even for insiders and the big collectors. A pure beauty !
This added to the myth.
No one in these days knew about what would happen in the future ....

we still had six years to go!

8mm material had it's big, all time high in the 80´s. All 8mm fans spend a lot of money to get their hands on the different (mostly import) releases of these days. Most of the time this material was shot from row twenty and Elvis was only a blurry white dot. Because some "heroes" who did not own the original material started copying it and selling twentieth generation copies for as much as 50 to 60 dollars per tape (a very high price in the 80's),  many fans stopped buying them. In the end no one was interested in them anymore. Highlights of this time were without doubt Return To Splendour and Joe Esposito's  "Home Movies" (for the candid material).

When the CD appeared on the market these same "heroes" did the same as they did before,
only this time using a new media. They put their bad (stolen) VHS copy  on a VCD, using a bad encoder and a wrong compression making the endresult even worse.They sell this crap with nice covers illegal on Ebay and earn a lot of money.
This market is again nearly destroyed and our "heroes" only profit from the newbies who were not active collectors when it was being pirated in the late 80's.
90 % of the market on 8mm film is a trade-market and the real insiders do not even put this crap in their packed bookshelves anymore. Still, the enthusiasm for this kind of material never leaves because it is the only possibility to see how Elvis was on stage.

Now, how can anyone invest thousands of dollars these days, to produce such nice things as "Return To Splendour", when our "heroes" copy this new release one day after it's release.
So it looks bad for a major project of this size.
Then the new century came with a big bang. No one believed anymore that we would have big surprises on the 8mm market. Even if collectors would've given their right arm to get bad quality footage of this 70 events and a short glimpse of the concert with the famous fringe suit, there was nothing.
Suddenly the famous American mega collector Bud Glass got his hands on one of the biggest collector dreams of 8mm material. He already left his footprint in the Elvis world, he was one of the guys who discovered the first signature ever given by Elvis and was known as a huge 8 mm collector.  -The reels not the VHS- 
This new original footage would be the rarest and best quality home movie footage that was ever known to exist.
Still more then 2 years to go!
To make a long story short, Bud spend more money on this footage alone than other people pay for their mid-class car. But that doesn't mean already have a DVD. He partnered with a friend in Hollywood who helped him with this huge project.  They worked together with Spotlight films.
For the digital transfer they used the same machines the big Hollywood companies used to transfer their celluloid Motion Pictures on DVD. In the end this project was the most expensive private production ever to see the light of day in the Elvis World.
 
Note : "The Definitive Collection" beat this large production price later on. But remember this was a set of 8 DVD´s and they got in serious law problems afterwards, because they used material which was not their own. You must also consider that it was produced for the "normal" market and BTI was only produced from fans for fans.

When the Behind the Image DVD finally came out it hit the scene like a bomb.

What we got was unbelievable: Not only the exclusive guest list but also the great, never before seen candid footage.
Finally after 32 years we got to see Elvis performing live "on tour" in 1970 wearing the legendary fringe suit. And the quality? To say it in one word: stunning. The most steadiest footage we have ever seen in our lives. And as an answer to our prayers..center stage, first row and crystal clear!

But there was so much more:

We got footage never shown or circulated in any kind of form from the famous I got lucky suit (See picture on the left).
On this footage our man moved so much, that you understand why they called him "the atomic powered singer" in the 50´s. And if this wouldn't  be enough, we got Vegas footage of Elvis in the suit he wears on the cover shot of the Elvis LP "Now".

This DVD offers us the whole treatment. Unedited footage nearly the complete thing (as much as possible for the 8mm format) and not only little clips from the original longer footage.
Maybe you can now understand why the biggest persons and magazines in the Elvis world already state that Elvis Behind the Image Vol.1 is a classic.

Hope you liked our little time-travel back in time to celebrate the new upcoming Bud Glass Production and Praytome Publishing release "Elvis Behind The Image Vol. 2 - Welcome To His World".
In part two of this article we will talk about BTI - The Book and hopefully we will have the first news on the new DVD. So please stay tuned!

Happy End

When this exiting DVD came out it was only copied a few times and not circulating very much !
It looks like the fans understand the situation and supported this project from the very first second of it's release. They want to have that item in their collection and they have understand if people
buy cheap copies instead of supporting the efforts of the people who are working hard to bring us this great material, there will be no more volumes in the future
.

Text and Pictures were taken from the Elvisbay Website
Review © 2003 www.elvisbay.com

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