After writing a critically praised biography of film star Bob Hope (Hope: Entertainer of the Century), entertainment journalist Richard Zoglin turned to Las Vegas as the subject of his next book. Zoglin wanted to write a history of Vegas entertainment, a subject that, surprisingly enough, has received scant coverage.
“There are plenty of books on the mob, the gambling, the hotels, the architecture in Vegas,” Zoglin says. “But there were almost no books on the shows, outside of a few picture books. The Vegas shows are a really distinctive form of American entertainment. Vegas was the place to be in the ’50’s and ’60’s. Everybody played Vegas. Every singer, every comedian. If you got a call, you went.”
And the capstone of the Vegas show of that time was Elvis Presley’s. Zoglin writes about the Presley-Vegas phenomenon in Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Las Vegas Show (July 23), but by his account, Presley first had to defy the man who groomed his career, Col. Tom Parker, before performing there. Parker didn’t 
want Presley performing live. After Presley insisted on doing the show, Parker stepped aside, sticking to the business side of Presley’s career.
“Presley reasserted his autonomy as an artist,” Zoglin says. “He wanted to do the biggest Vegas show ever seen. He and his musicians made all the creative decisions. He put a rhythm group behind him along with two backup groups and probably the biggest orchestra—40 pieces—ever assembled in Vegas.”
When he began work on the book, Zoglin admits he was “not a huge Presley fan.” But by the time he finished, he fully appreciated the King’s greatness. “Presley took rhythm and blues and synthesized it into something new, “ he says. “He was really a great, revolutionary artist.”
Gerald Bartell is a freelance writer in Manhattan.
