After having broken the attendance records in Vegas and Houston Elvis was booked for an engagement at Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel in Stateline/Nevada. The stint ran from July 20th to August 2nd 1971 and included 27 shows.
Musicians
James Burton (guitar), John Wilkinson (guitar), Charlie Hodge (guitar and harmony vocals), Jerry Scheff (bass), Ronnie Tutt (drums), Glen D. Hardin (piano) and The Al Tronti Orchestra (conducted by Joe Guercio). The harmony vocals were provided by The Sweet Inspirations (Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shemwell & Estelle Brown), The Imperials (Jim Murray, Armond Morales, Terry Blackwood, Roger Wiles & Joe Moscheo) and Kathy Westmoreland.
About The Engagement
To lure Elvis into the comparatively small High Sierra Showroom, the management of Del Webb's Sahara Tahoe Hotel didn't just match the weekly fee the International Hotel in Vegas was paying him, but added another $25,000 per week. Just like in Sin City the king had to pay the costs of the show from that money, but after all costs and the share of Colonel Parker had been deducted, Elvis took home 142,062.50 USD. To earn the money back, the hotel enlarged the capacity of the showroom from 1,200 to 1,700 seats by putting chairs on every empty spot in the room and even managed to squeeze in 2,000 people during the closing show. Colonel Parker created a merchandise bag with a copy of his client's latest budget album "C'mon Everybody", a scarf, a photo book, a button and a teddy bear. During some of the shows Elvis himself gave out copies of the forthcoming boxed set "The Other Sides - Worldwide 50 Gold Award Hits Volume 2". The rehearsals started at July 6th at the RCA Studio in Los Angeles/California. On the 15th the group moved to the High Sierra Showroom and was joined by the harmony singers and the orchestra. Musically Elvis used bits and pieces from his previous Vegas engagements as well as his new single "I'm Leavin'" and the oldies "Little Siter" and "Memphis, Tennessee". He also included "I, John" from the gospel album "He Touched Me", which wasn't about to be released until April of the following year. Besides some of the previously worn jumpsuits Elvis used the "Mint Suit", the "Cob Web Two Piece Suit", the "Light Blue Cob Web Two Piece Suit", the "Two Piece Square Nail Suit", the "Two Piece Tassel Suit" and several versions of the "Cisco Kid" suits. Some of them were regular jumpsuits, others were combinations of pants, shirt and jacket. The king often wore the golden belt, the management of the International Hotel had given to him. The outfits were finalized with matching scarfs. As a special gimmick Elvis threw plush bears into the audience while performing his hit "Teddy Bear". The king appeared to be very motivated, one critic even wrote, that the singer was working so hard, one might think, he needed the money.
Audio
