The "Elvis Summer Festival 1975" ran from August 18th to September 1st and included 29 shows. Or at least, this was the plan. In fact the king canceled the engagement after the midnight show on August 20th.
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 Joe Guercio Orchestra. The harmony vocals were provided by The Sweet Inspirations (Myrna Smith, Sylvia Shemwell & Estelle Brown), J.D. Sumner & The Stamps (Bill Baize, Ed Enoch, Ed Hill & Larry Strickland) as well as Kathy Westmoreland and Sherrill Nielsen.
About The Engagement
On August 15th Elvis flew to Vegas to prepare for his upcoming engagement at the Hilton. During the flight he suddenly sustained respiratory problems, which caused a stopover in Dallas, where he had to be treated by a physician. After a recovery break of several hours the trip to Vegas was continued. On the following day Elvis held a single rehearsal-session. Like he had done on tour in Ashville, he wanted to install a request box in the lobby of the hotel, where the fans could ask for the songs they wanted to hear. In May and July Elvis had received several versions of the "Phoenix Suit" as well as the "Indian Chief Suit", the "Eskimo Totem Pole Suit" and the "Chicken Rib Suit". For the last two costumes he now also had received the original belts. Because of all the new outfits he didn't order further ones for this stint.
On stage Elvis fulfilled several requests and performed unusual songs like "Young And Beautiful" or "Crying In The Chapel". After a year he re-vived "Suspicious Minds", accompanied himself on guitar during "Are You Lonesome Tonight" and presented "And I Love You So" and "Fairytale" from his current longplayer "Elvis Today". He also sang "T-R-O-U-B-L-E" and "My Boy", the a-sides of his latest singles. The king's mood was bright and his voice was good. But it was obvious, that he lacked energy and stamnia. During every show he had to sit down for a while and appeared to be tired. On August 20th Elvis told his manager, that he wanted to cancel the remainder of the engagement. But because the audience of the dinner show was already seated and the first visitors of the midnight show were arriving, Colonel Parker refused to announce the cancellation. He told his client, that he would have to do this himself, if he wasn't able to make up his mind early enough. Of course the king didn't have to balls to do so and went on stage.
While the midnight show was still underway, the staff of the Hilton began to remove all promo items and posters. Within a few hours there was no sign, that Elvis had ever appeared at the resort. The king flew directly to Memphis and checked into the Baptist Memorial Hospital. Officially it was reported, that Elvis suffered from chronic fatigue, but in fact Dr. Nicopolous diagnosted his patient of depression, chronic intestinal problems and a way too high level of cholesterol. Even though he had gone through a drugs rehabilitation in February, Elvis still was addicted to several substances and most of his problems were caused by over 15 years of drug abuse.
The Hilton Group paid Elvis 53,571.45 USD for the five shows he had done, but because Colonel Parker insisted on paying all musicians, singers and technicians for the full engagement and due to the incurred marketing costs the team Presley/Parker lost 39,010.47 USD. To compensate for the canceled shows, it was agreed to stage a "Pre-Holiday Jubilee" from December 2nd to 15th. With the exception of Saturdays Elvis would perform once each day and receive a fee of 263,142.85 USD. With this stint his contract with the Las Vegas Hilton ran out.
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