VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Why Elvis Didn’t Open the International

Posted on: October 7, 2024, 07:47h. 

Last updated on: October 7, 2024, 09:53h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Las Vegas Myths.

It was the opening of the world’s biggest hotel, the International, so the world’s biggest entertainer had been hired to underline that fact. But the headliner didn’t feel up to the task, even with weeks of rehearsal.

Elvis plays the first of his 636 sold-out appearances at the International Hotel on July 31, 1969. (Image: Bob Klein/Elvis Presley Enterprises)

That headliner was not Elvis Presley.

The King’s first concert, and the famous press conference preceding it, didn’t happen until July 31, 1969. It was Barbra Streisand who opened the International on July 2.

That’s a fact that many remember incorrectly. The following was published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2015 …

However, the reason Elvis didn’t open the International is the myth we’re busting today…

Not a Colonel of Truth

This is how the marquee read on opening day of the International Hotel in Las Vegas. (Image: X/Twitter/Barbra Streisand)

Col. Tom Parker, Presley’s manager, claimed he made the King of Rock n’ Roll wait it out because the theater was an unknown commodity. Its sound and lighting kinks hadn’t been worked out yet.

Of the websites that do acknowledge Streisand as the International’s opening headliner, many simply repeat Parker’s explanation as to why it wasn’t Elvis.

But Parker lied a lot. It was his specialty.

For instance, the real reason Elvis never toured abroad was that Parker was secretly an illegal immigrant from the Netherlands. Born Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk, Parker feared he would be found out and denied re-entry to the US. Elvis didn’t even know this. Parker always made up other reasons why touring abroad was unwise for him.

And the real reason Elvis didn’t open the International was simple …

He wasn’t asked to. And that’s because, at the time, Barbara Streisand was bigger than Elvis.

Fresh off her famous concert in Central Park and an Oscar for “Funny Girl,” Babs was hot. Elvis was not — at least not anymore (and not again yet).

Ooh, Elvis, you lost weight! (Image: Warner Bros. Pictures)

Though his 1968 NBC comeback special proved he still sounded great and could draw a television audience, Presley was still “really unknown as a stage property in Las Vegas,” as Nick Naff, the International’s former publicity director, explained to entertainment journalist Mike Weatherford for his 2001 book, ”Cult Vegas.”

“He had been doing nothing but making these lousy pictures, and he hadn’t worked on a stage for years.”

Still Not Convinced?

Streisand was paid $1 million for her four-week engagement. Presley earned exactly half that amount for his first four weeks.

But they never let the gender pay gap spoil what blossomed into a beautiful friendship.

The two attended each other’s Las Vegas concerts, and he reportedly once surprised her in the dressing room by dropping to his knees and picking up a bottle of nail polish.

You are the only one who ever intimidated me,” he told her while painting her nails.

After Streisand opened the International, Presley and Parker sent her a joint congratulatory telegram.

It read: “We are greatly honored to have the International Hotel folks think enough of Elvis to engage him to follow a great star like you.”

Streisand returned the niceties by asking Presley to co-star with her in the 1976 film “A Star is Born.” Presley, loving the script and dying to reverse the damage caused by all those D-movies Parker committed him to in the ’60s, couldn’t say yes quickly enough.

But Parker even ruined this for Elvis. He reportedly demanded that his client receive a salary of $1 million (double the original offer), half the film’s profits, all soundtrack rights, and top billing on all promotional materials above Streisand.

These outrageous demands eventually slid the role into the hands of Kris Kristofferson, who of course we just lost last week at age 88. And if there are any silver linings to the nearly criminal mismanagement of Elvis by Parker, one of them is that a star truly was born because of it.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.