1973 - A SPACE ODYSSEY
By Anne E.Nixon
from Elvis Special 1985
The 20th century has seen technological advances beyond man's wildest dreams. When I was eleven years old I can recall reading space magazines with stories of rockets jetting off for the moon, and all sorts of outer-space gadgetry which was then only a figment of the writer's imagination. But it was only a few years later that Russia's Sputnik was launched, and the space-age escalated. Before we knew it, man really had stepped onto the moon. A very important part of the new technology was the use of communications satellites.
Around the time I was immersed in my space stories, dreaming I'd be the first woman in space (yes, I know, I must have had a headful of space!) in Memphis, Tennessee, a young man named Elvis Presley also had stars in his eyes and a head full of dreams. His dreams were more down to earth. He wanted to be a singer. While my notions of going into space soon evaporated into thin air, Elvis' dreams became reality. He became a singer; in fact, the most famous singer on earth.
Elvis' meteoric career and the space-age grew alongside each other (co-incidentally, within days of the first moon landing, Elvis was taking his own giant step by coming back to live concerts) and so it was only natural that the two should come together. The two greatest wonders of the 20th century finally met on 14th January, 1973, when an historic live concert was beamed to many countries via a communications satellite orbiting high above the earth.
Intelsat and Elvis Presley combined to produce a starburst of sparkling entertainment that set a new high in TV viewing figures, and a new peak in the king's career. From the tropical islands of Hawaii, encapsulated in a circular domed auditorium not unlike a spaceship, Elvis, preceded by his apt theme music, 2001, A Space Odyssey, sang his heart out. The music was beamed up towards the cosmic, starlit skies above, and sent halfway across the world, across the thousands of miles of vast, empty ocean, until it hit land, and was wondered at and appreciated by millions upon millions of people. Many of these people probably didn't understand English, but they knew of Elvis, and hopefully they understood the technological significance and musically historical importance of the telecast. The choice of Hawaii as the place from which the show originated was significant, too, for it's a cosmopolitan paradise, the world's melting pot where all races and creeds live in mutual harmony.
Thanks to the space-age, the earth has shrunk, and nations have come together in understanding. Elvis, too, united people across the world, spreading his infectious brand of happiness and understanding between countless individuals with his music. He was his country's finest ambassador of song, and never more so than on that memorable and exciting night when, clad in white jumpsuit with patriotic American eagle motif and presidential seal belt, he sang his Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite to the peoples of the world.