De Agostini Publishing, in partnership with Elvis Presley Enterprises, is proud to announce the publication of "Elvis: The Official Collector’s Edition" in the U.S. and Canada. This three-volume book and DVD gift set contains never-before-seen footage of the king and is an essential purchase for all true Elvis fans.
The set includes a new 256-page full-color hardbound biography, replica artifacts and memorabilia from Elvis’ life, 10 DVDs of Elvis’ performances plus interviews, unseen footage and much more. The deluxe hardcover book chronicles the story of Elvis’ life, from his early childhood to stardom in music and movies. Created in collaboration with Elvis Presley Enterprises, the book paints an intimate portrait of the king of rock ’n’ roll and features hundreds of photographs from the archives of Graceland.
The accompanying artifact collection includes high-quality, life-size replicas of some of the most important private documents in Elvis’ life. These include his birth certificate, hand-written notes, original costume sketches, the first contract with Colonel Tom Parker, and many more, each item faithfully reproduced to closely match the originals stored in Graceland’s archives.
The 10-disc DVD set is a record of Elvis' finest musical performances, from his early rockabilly days to the world-spanning concerts of the 1970s. In addition, the collection includes the full-length versions of all three historic Ed Sullivan shows in which Elvis won the heart of the nation. In addition to rare historic radio interviews and press conferences, the DVDs also showcase Cinecam footage of Elvis at Graceland and on-set, some of which has never-before been released to the public.
I would like to hear more about what is on those DVD's.
Although this looks like a monumental piece of work and will welcome any "never-before-seen" footage I can't understand the inclusion of the Ed Sullivan Shows. Don't we already have these? Want we want, or at least what I want, is the full-length versions of the "Jackie Gleason Stage Shows," the "Milton Berle Shows," and the "Frank Sinatra Welcome Home Elvis" Show to name a few that spring immediately to mind.
EPE bought the Parker Collection when he died containing i.e. 30.000 unpublished photos and interesting footage. But they are not able to share all this material in a appropriated way. Instead I have to buy another 'monumental' project to get some snippets and pieces. No thank you. They are not even able to get the Aloha show on Blu-Ray. Instead I have to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the show with a poor low bitrate DVD on which Elvis' hair wobbles like jelly. They are totally loosing contact with the fans, just ripping them off.
It would be great to have unique new material, hopefully brushed up with the best possible modern techniques. Yet I am not so sure about the value of the 'never-before' statement as it is followed by 'the public'. A lot of bits and pieces are already circulating amongst the hard core fandom, so I wonder whether these items are really 'never before' in all senses. Also I am more interested in the footage and less in photos. It is in the same line, like EJF already stated, strange to mention the Ed Sullivan Shows as these are already in their entirety released. So there is no need to add that - and possibly later on come up with a Vol.2 under the false pretence that there was not enough space on the first set or even worse to state that 'again' new material popped up. So before even considering of a purchase I will wait and see/read first. Too many 'rare' that ultimately meant 'not released on general releases before'.
Fully agree with Boxcar's comments ! EPE is loosing contact with us, the fans and consumers who still buy E product...
Too bad Cilla nor LisaM are able to "demand better service" from Soden and Sony ! They should be doing much more. Now is another opportunity coming up soon with the Aloha in January ! More new releases like Planet stuff (MSqG concerts in one pack) or the suggested 4 CD Box of Sony with "Elvis at American Studios" 1969 (incl; all recorded session songs plus all the outtakes and work parts, thus replacing original albums From E in Memphis and Back in Memphis). They also should finally release all remaining movie soundtrack songs with outtakes (after acquiring them from egoïstic fans, indeed). Lawyers for EPE Inc. do not do a good job.
Sorry, also forgot to say that I fully endorse the suggestions hereunder made by ELJ and Iray. Good positive creative
fans whose comments I always read carefully and most of the time, share ! Keep rockin' them friends !
I am only interested in new film as found in the Prince From Another Planet DVD so at first sight 10 DVD's of material seemed very exciting. On closer examination 3 DVD's will disappear with the Ed Sullivan Shows and I expect a couple more with the other 1956 appearances. Then what do we end up with, a half hearted disconnected partial anthology when most fans want the whole deal. Someone on this site gave the opinion that this would not happen as we would not need to buy anything else. True to a degree, but if I was producing it then I would use 25%-50% of material available depending on the circumstances of that performance/interview and there would still be hours of film not used
Yep, I agree. No doubt a few seconds of home movie footage lost in a re-hash of evrything we've already got. And how many times are they going to use the, now quite predictable "high-quality, life-size replicas of some of the most important private documents in Elvis’ life". That's been done to death as well. Yet again EPE sell Elvis short.
With regard to the comment below about the lack of a Blu-ray edition of "Aloha From Hawaii", I'm afraid the problem is with the source material. The concert was not recorded in high definition and before our marketing friend starts jumping up and down about the greed of Ernst, the reason for this is obviously because it was yet to be invented. The concert was recorded on 525 line videotape using the NTSC format, the standard of the time. Film is very different, that can be scanned in hi-def, allowing for much earlier things like "Jailhouse Rock" show be released on Blu-ray.
They still seem to use the same old strategy. Release lots of old stuff and add 5% new stuff and people will buy. Except for Todd Morgan who gave us the complete 68 special and Aloha. If he would have been alive today releases would have been way more exciting.
Here link to their site, view four of the DVDs that included, hope will be available in UK in time, elvis.deagostiniusa.com
It seems like mostly already released DVDs
Lots of negative comments, gonna wait 'til its actually out and we know whats on all those dvds before passing judgement.
