The Elvis concert that drew a bigger audience than the 1969 moon landing
If the reported viewing figures are correct, more people saw Elvis Presley mark the end of his silver age than Neil Armstrong’s famous descent from the Eagle lunar module.
‘The King’ was in the midst of a serious revival. Ever since he’d joined the army in 1958, the rock and roll magic had ebbed in the eyes of many original fans, spending the following decade stuck in tired Hollywood vehicles increasingly out of step with the surrounding counterculture’s rapidly shifting trends. Then came the ‘Comeback Special’. Just as Presley teetered on the brink of complete artistic oblivion, NBC’s Elvis TV concert injected some serious vitality back into the Memphis star.
He was back, with a string of acclaimed Las Vegas residencies to follow. Presley’s 13 years away from the stage, aside from TV spots, had created an explosion of interest, with the shows that formed the bulk of the Elvis on Tour film coming to a standout close in 1972 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, amid the Vegas Hilton dates. While the US had been treated to Presley’s live return, the rest of the world, as ever, was left wanting.
As it later transpired, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, had never settled his immigration status since entering the United States from the Netherlands in the 1920s, resulting in Presley forever playing shows in North America exclusively. Yet, he enjoyed a dedicated fan base all around the globe, just as fervent across Asia and Oceania as his European following, with Parker finding a way around his anxieties about exiting the country.
Inspired by the recent broadcast of President Richard Nixon’s visit to communist China, the Colonel announced at a press conference following the Madison Square Garden show the aim to deliver a mammoth concert to millions via satellite technology.
Settling on the Honolulu International Centre as the venue, a performance time of 00:30 on January 14th, 1973, was confirmed to meet the prime time TV scheduling of Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, South Vietnam, the Philippines, and Australia, Europe receiving a delayed version and the US having to wait till April due to Superbowl conflicts and his Elvis on Tour still doing the rounds in movie theatres.
While it wasn’t the first-ever live satellite performance, The Beatles having enjoyed such a milestone with their Our World ‘All You Need is Love’ debut five years earlier, Presley’s Aloha from Hawaii was the first satellite broadcast of a solo artist. It also quite possibly kicked the Apollo 11 viewing figures into touch. The 1969 moon landing is thought to have glued between 500million and 1billion eyes to screens during the 20th century’s iconic TV moment.
Ever the PT Barnum mythmaker, it’s possible Parker had plumped the number a little for Aloha from Hawaii, but promoters and concert organisers had maintained as many as 1.5b viewers across 36 countries. Conservative estimates would bring the total number down to several hundred million live before the cumulative total via delayed broadcasts, but the higher end of Presley’s viewing figures speaks to how he was able to cut through such disparate markets and cultures, a satellite gamble only ‘The King’ with such universal musical appeal could ever manage.
It was the last time he’d ever roll with essentiality again. Soon enough, drug dependency and health issues would begin to dog his energy on stage, artistically lapsing into self-parody, and dying at just 42 years old in 1977.
