On May 12, 1960 at 9:30 pm ABC aired the fouth and final episode of "The Frank Sinatra - Timex Show". It was subtitled "It's Nice To Go Traveling, Or Welcome Home Elvis". Trendex calculated a rating of 41.5%, so the people were obviously curious about the comeback of the rock'n'roll king.

Production

In July of 1959 ABC announced that Elvis would perform on the final episode of Frank Sinatra's forthcoming series of tv shows sponsored by Timex. This was surprisingly early, because the rock'n'roll king wouldn't be released from the US Army before March 1960. It soon became public, that ABC paid Elvis a record amount of money for his first tv appearance in three years. Back in 1956 he had received $100,000 from 20th Century Fox for his first movie, now he was about to make $125,000 for eight minutes (!) in front of a tv camera. Using the factor of 15 to translate the figure into the present, it would be 1.9 million USD.

Even though Sinatra would do many more tv shows, he didn't like them too much. Back then he just wanted to complete his contract with ABC-TV with as little effort as possible. And so the show was filmed on March 26, 1960 at the Grand Ballroom of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Maiami Beach were Frank was performing his live show anyway. As guest stars he simply recruited the ensemble of his stage show, in this case members of his "rat pack" and The Hansen Dancers. Dean Martin, besides Sinatra the biggest celebrity of the group, was there for the rehearsals, but not for the tv show. His place was taken by Nancy Sinatra, the daughter of Frank. At the time she was a rising star and media-effectively engaged to teen idol Tommy Sands.

It was big news that Elvis received more money than the host of the show, but Sinatra didn't care all that much. He held the rights to the production and therefore had a major asset on his side. What really bothered him were the many jokes at his expense and the fact, that Colonel Parker insisted on putting many members of Presley fanclubs in the audience. As a result everything Frank did was met with polite applause while everything Elvis did caused a mild hysteria. But Ol' Blue Eyes (as Sinatra was nicknamed) was enough of a professional to know, that it catered his reputation to stage the comeback of the most popular entertainer of the new generation and to end his string of shows with exceptional high ratings. On stage he played it cool and was his old charming self.

May 12, 1960

The show is opened by Sinatra singing "It's Nice To Go Traveling", a song from his album "Come, Fly With Me". While the singer does his job, Nancy Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Sammy Davis jr. and The Hansen Dancers appear and line up to greet the star of the evening. Elvis appears in a military uniform and is saluted by Frank and Joey. The rock'n'roll king now also sings a verse of "It's Nice To Go Traveling", the others throw in stuff like "he's here in person!" (Frank), "I may pass out" (Nancy), "where the heck are the sideburns?" (Joey) and "I'll be a hound dog" (Sammy). Frank Sinatra ends the song with "and that's the opening, friends", Elvis leaves with Nancy in one arm and one of the dancers in the other.

Now there's a comedy routine between Frank Sinatra and Joey Bishop. Nancy Sinatra and two male dancers perform as a time machine to display what Elvis had missed while serving the Army in Germany. Sinatra sings "Witchcraft", Sammy follows with "There's A Boat That's Leaving" and The Hansen Dancers perform a chinese dance. Once again there's a little bit of comedy, then Frank sings "Gone With The Wind" and The Hansen Dancers appear again. Sammy Davis jr. impersonates different people with Sinatra and Bishop commentating in a ironc way. After almost 40 minutes the host asks if he should sing another song to which the audience replies (as rehearsed) "We want Elvis!".

This is the cue for the second appearance of the star, this time dressed in a tuxedo. But in contrast to "The Steve Allen Show" the suit isn't used for comedy. This time it's to present Elvis as a matured artist for the whole family, playing in the same league as Sinatra and his friends. Mr. Presley sings a ballad named "Fame And Fortune", followed by an uptempo song called "Stuck On You". During the last mentioned one the singer moves quite a bit, but not nearly as wild as he had done just three years before. After a few jokes Elvis and Frank perform a medley of "Witchcraft" and "Love Me Tender" with Presley singing the song of Sinatra and vice versa. When the rock'n'roll kings imitates Frank's typical shoulder movements, he comments "We work in the same way, only in different areas". The medley ends with both men singing the last line of "Love Me Tender" together.

After Elvis has left the stage Frank and Nancy present "You Make Me Feel So You" with the father changing the lyrics to "you make me feel so old". Afterwards Nancy performs with The Hansen Dancers and Ol' Blue Eyes reprises "It's Nice To Go Traveling". He thanks all participants of the show, especially Elvis Presley and Colonel Parker and of course he also mentions Elvis' forthcoming movie "G.I. Blues". 

Elvis performing "Stuck On You"