I came across this 2011 story on the EIN website and was wondering if anyone here has seen this film or knows what happen with this film, is it available on any DVD becouse it’s not on Youtube. I have done a search and can’t find anything about the whereabouts of this film today.
New Film Of 1957 Elvis Fort Wayne Concert Discovered: A little more than 54 years ago Elvis Presley performed at Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum. The Ellenberger Brothers auction company in northeast Indiana has been “all shook up” over a piece of history that dates back to Elvis Presley’s 1957 performance at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
The business was preparing for a large auction of model toy trains to hit the block Sept. 10 when an unrelated item was brought to its attention.
The woman who will have the auction offered a small tin can to the company in addition to the trains. On top, a small piece of tape reading “Elvis 1957 Coliseum,” inside the tin protected a film reel of the King’s appearance. “Rarely do you ever see anything like this but this is just maybe a once in a lifetime thing,” auctioneer Glenn Ellenberger said. “It appears to be the full concert.”
The auctioneer said his curiosity encouraged a peek at the strip frame by frame sitting at his kitchen table. “I couldn’t help but pull it open and look at the first few feet of it,” Ellenberger said. “I can see the coliseum. I can see people in the seats in front of it and I can see someone on the stage who I’m sure is Elvis.” The young rock star was just 22 when he spent about 30 minutes on the coliseum stage. Few artifacts are known to exist in the area from the visit, including a couple newspaper articles seen in the microfilm archives of the Allen County Library. The film will be on sale in an online auction, the date for which has not been determined.
By Frank Grey from The Journal Gazette (Fort Worth, Texas)
This film from a 1957 concert by Elvis Presley at Memorial Coliseum was recently evaluated by Indiana University archive specialist Rachael
Stoeltje and auctioneer Glenn Ellenberger view the film of Elvis Presley at Memorial Coliseum in 1957. He had his gold leaf suit coat……..He whirled his arms like a windmill……..He danced with the microphone stand……..Indeed, a film purported to be of Elvis Presley performing in a 1957 concert at Memorial Coliseum is what the label on the can claims: Elvis live, 54 years ago.
The film surfaced about two weeks ago when a woman who was planning to auction off her late husband’s huge collection of model trains pulled the old Elvis film out of the attic and suggested tossing it into the mix.The auctioneer, Glen Ellenberger of Ellenberger Brothers Auctions in Bluffton, didn’t think that was a good idea. Toy train buffs aren’t necessarily Elvis fans, and vice versa. So Ellenberger pulled the film out of the auction with plans to have an auction for the film alone, and he went on the hunt to figure out exactly
what his client had.
The problem was that the half-century-old 16 mm film could be brittle. Viewing it on a projector could tear it to shreds in seconds, so Ellenberger contacted Indiana University’s film archives to have it properly evaluated – and finally get a look at exactly what was on the film. I.U’s film archives contain nearly 100,000 old films, about 1,000 made by Indiana University and the rest made by movie makers and educational film makers.
Remember those corny movies you used to see in junior high school where you were lectured on how to behave on a date and the importance of cleaning your fingernails? Almost everybody eventually threw the old movies away – except, it seems, IU, giving the university one of the biggest hoards of old film around. But we digress. Rachael Stoeltje, the film archivist with the I.U library, gave the old Elvis film a quick inspection and pronounced it in pretty good shape. It had shrunk by only 0.5 percent and it didn’t smell of vinegar, which means the film isn’t deteriorating.
It could stand to be cleaned, and an expert could treat it to increase its flexibility and reduce any brittleness, but its overall condition is good.
But there are some disappointments. The film has no sound. It is just a silent film of the King doing his act before a huge Coliseum crowd, most of them armed with cameras with flashes.
The film was also shot far from the stage where Elvis swiveled his hips. When run at 16 frames per second, which is the normal speed, there is about 4 minutes of Elvis strutting on the stage, singing, dancing and posing for the fans.That’s not as much as Ellenberger hoped, but it’s a pretty good chunk of footage from Elvis’s early concert days. It never occurred to any of his managers or promoters to record any of his concerts themselves.
Meanwhile, IU is excited the film at least passed through its hands, if only for a few minutes. On Oct. 15, the university will have a home movie day at the IU Cinema, where it will show home movies by Hollywood director John Ford. The school hopes it will also be able to show the Elvis footage during that event, bringing a little attention to itself.Meanwhile, Ellenberger hopes the showing will bring a little additional attention to his client’s 4 minutes of footage.
In reviewing the film, one of the school’s librarians speculated that the film might actually be a copy, which means there could be another film lurking out there somewhere, perhaps in a stack of additional film reels belonging to the deceased railroad collector.For now, plans are for an auction, maybe in late October.
Winning bid:$13,750. A 16mm film of Elvis Presley performing at a March 30, 1957, performance at the Allen County Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The video, with a running time of 2 minutes and 38 seconds, shows brief clips of the opening acts. The rest of the reel is devoted to Presley’s performance showing his iconic dance moves and interaction with the crowd. Presley’s gold jacket is apparent despite the black and white presentation of the film.
The film is silent Kodak safety 16mm black and white, 95 ft, film housed in the original canister and on the original metal reel. The outside of the canister is labeled “Elvis 1957 Coliseum.” Accompanied by a DVD of the film.
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