Life's a Haunted House and We're all In It

Hellooo0O Ladies and Gentlemen!

Welcome back to Graceland Ontario! Your one stop location for connecting the success lessons of Elvis Presley back to your own life. Today, we're finishing our Halloween series with a post about haunted houses, and how they're kinda like life in general.

So, I've had the pleasure to participate in the running of several haunted houses over the years, namely the ones held by my Scout group. The haunted house is not an overnight undertaking - it takes plenty of people to make it work. And even if the people who organize it know how things are meant to go, that doesn't mean diddly squat if the actors don't know what's up. And even if the actors are good, when the people running the effects, lights and sounds are up a different tree, the extra punch is lost. And you need all the punch you can get in a haunted house - plenty of people come to rip apart what you've done and criticize you. Others keep telling themselves it's all fake, thereby destroying the fun of being scared in the setting. And for the people behind the scenes, nothing beats seeing scared customers. I mean, it's even better than the happy and supportive guests.

You built a haunted house to scare people, and when it fulfills that purpose and freaks others out, you've completed your goal. You were successful and the plan worked the way it should, thanks to the perfect cooperation of your staff.

  

This whole scenario reminds me of Elvis: Elvis also had a show to put on. Unlike the goal of the haunted house − to scare people − Elvis's goal was to reach people at a deep level, a doctor of voice. The goal was to get inside his audience’s heart and improve whatever he found there with the songs he sang.

And like a haunted house, there were people there who probably shouldn't have come out − the ones who came to make fun of him, to look at him from 'an objective standpoint', who listened because they wanted to be trendy. The show had to blow peoples’s minds or Elvis's goal of reaching people at that deep level wouldn't be realised. And all the while, he'd be taking abuse for every error he made along the way.

Elvis couldn't take care of all the details. He probably wasn't as professional in all areas as some his staff were. And even if he was, you can't mix yourself when you're singing to 10,000 people. The simple truth is you need a team. And not just any, out of the dryer team. You need people who work together darn well and stand by you, whatever happens.

I remember writing a post sometime ago about people working together in unity to make a better whole - the importance of the team. Well, here we go again... the haunted house would not be possible without the group. All the people being in the right place, the sound people, the guide, the actors - they're all kernels in the bag of popcorn, and only when they're popped in the right bag, at the right temperature, in the right microwave will someone want to eat them. It takes someone to put together that bag, that team. And, as the bad guy in all the old kid's cartoons said, "You can't trust anyone but yourself".

What?

Didn't I just say you have to make a team… but it's up to you because you can only trust yourself? Well, yes. But initiative is a funny thing. Just because people do a good job working jointly doesn't mean they would’ve worked collectively had someone not put them together. Every project, every team, needs a mayor to cut the ribbon, the driver to give the ticket, the suitor to pop the champagne. Someone has to start things going. And when you're the one with the idea and the plan and you dream about it every night and know what you want, it's gotta be you! No one else will do it, and even if they try, they'll never do it the way you do, the best. It's like one of those 30's Busby Berkeley movies with all the girls following the brass band choreography - sure someone else could have thought of it, marching bands have been going for millennia, but it took Barkley to do it right. And no one else will ever do it the same. Hitchcock? Same thing. Suspense is an old genre still created to this day, but no one stands near Hitchcock's silhouette when it comes to creating it.

Life can move you or you can move it, depending on your disposition. The teams are there, but you’ve got to bring them together or never at all. And once they’re one, you’ve got to lead them or watch your dream disappear.

 

In short, going back to the popcorn metaphor, you've gotta be the microwave, too − the guy who gets things going. I mean, those kernels would sit in a bag forever, untouched. It's the microwave who's the leader, the person who makes it all work. Elvis was that person in his group - there was no doubting who was the King and who called the shots. Perhaps it's time you became the King of your little group. You can be nice-ish about it, just make sure you're getting your say in. And if you need any help with that, check out the Dale Carnegie classic How to Win Friends and Influence People. It will go a long way in improving your persuasion and social skills. But, that post will have to wait to another day, in a month where orange and black aren’t the colours of state and witches and vampires don't rule in a land of never ceasing darkness and treats.

 

Elvis's Lessons:

Elvis and a haunted house bear similarity (as insulting as that sounds). You need a team to make it all happen. But that's not all - you need that team to work together so things are going flawlessly. Moving to my popcorn metaphor (so proud I thought that one up), you're the person with the initiative to put together the raw materials (bag, kernels), your team, and also the microwave who cooks things (leads) so they pop just right. But remember, no one likes being bossed about. Keep a persuasive attitude - and if you need help with that, check out the Dale Carnegie classic, How to Win Friends and Influence People − that should get you fixed up in no time…

Thanks for reading, Happy Halloween, and see you in November!

 

P.S. If this post got you ticking (in a good or bad way), leave a comment below or at my email at alexghilson@gmail.com and I'll give you a reply as soon as I can.

P.P.S. If you're interested in hearing some Halloween Elvis, check out this Youtube video of Elvis singing “Night Rider”.

If you like this post, you may also like these other FR.EE Graceland Ontario posts:

• What You Have in Common with a Teenage Girl
• The Witches's Marketing Secret
• Alice Cooper Knows How to Live Life Better than Most Celebrities: Know Why?
• Elvis's Olympic Team
• They're Exceptional − And YOU Can Be, Too!
• Elvis Presley meets Usain Bolt: Do You Use THIS the Way They Do?

Make Good Friends

When Elvis got called back to Sun Studios by Sam Phillips in 1954, Phillips hooked him up with Scotty Moore, a guitarist, and Bill Black, an upright bassist. It’s said that the two older session musicians weren’t too impressed with the young Presley when they first met him. He was several years younger than either one of them and less experienced. But after they played together a bit, the rapport started building and first impressions disappeared in place of friendship.

The Blue Moon Boys, as they were then called, created their own unique sound, a mix of country, gospel and blues, later called rockabilly. They first made magic together when they had their first regional hit, a cover of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s Alright, Mama” in 1954. More songs followed, including a breakthrough into the national charts with “Baby Let’s Play House”. Scotty Moore was the original manager and the group started getting a regular local tour circuit.

Soon, Phillips decided that the trio could use a drummer. D.J. Fontana, who met Elvis off the Louisiana Hayride in 1954, got the gig and soon started becoming a feature of the group’s recordings and live performances.

When Elvis’s contract was sold from Sun to RCA in late 1955, Scotty, Bill and D. J. followed right along. The final original addition to the Presley sound came with the vocal group The Jordanaires. When Elvis’s first RCA LP came out in 1956, the legendary Elvis Presley, this group backed Elvis up to Platinum.

But life wasn’t all good; when Elvis was told by the talent agent of the Grand Ole Opry that he should go back to driving trucks, his band, now close friends, stood behind him. Then, when Elvis and the group got lukewarm results with their first shows in Las Vegas, his group stood behind him. And when Elvis was nearly banned for his ‘overly sexual’ dance moves on the Milton Berle show, this band followed him through it, to his return and humiliation on the Steve Allen show (Elvis was required to sing “Hound Dog”, the song who’s dance moves got him in trouble, to a real hound) and later with his big comeback to popularity on the Ed Sullivan show. Even when Elvis’s popularity eclipsed the personas of the rest of the group, they stood behind him.

This group were in his movies and backed Elvis up until 1958. Then, after a pay disagreement with Elvis’s manager, the Colonel, Elvis and his original band parted ways, except for the Jordanaires who continued to back him up until 1970.

But Elvis still needed a group of friends to help guide him. With childhood friends such as Red and Sonny West and George Klein, these men became known as the Memphis Mafia, Elvis’s personal escort of friends, who stayed with him for the rest of his life.

And if you’re wondering about what happened to his original group, Scotty, Bill and D.J., it worked out better than you may have worried. Scotty and D.J. continued their friendship with Elvis and worked with him on his ’68 Comeback Special, when he was returning back to public performing, during the informal, sit-down portion of the show. Only Bill completely severed ties with Elvis, dieing suddenly in 1965.

Elvis’s Lessons:
Ø Make friends, a couple will do, that have positive mindsets and similar interests to you. Then go through a couple memorable occasions with them. Life will change but your friendships will provide stability.
Ø When friendships break up, as they might, it’s not an excuse to go friendless and remain hurt. Be like Elvis; move on and make more and different friends. Everybody is unique and has something to offer and as a result will impact your life positively in different and unique ways (if they’re good friends − those who impact you negatively are generally not true friends).

P.S. If you're interested in seeing Elvis singing "Hound Dog" to a Hound on Steve Allen's show, check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xypX3lsF2nE

Have a Job You Love (or "Don't Do a 'Normal' Job"!)

As I mentioned in another post on my blog, Elvis was born Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8th 1935. His youth was a life of poverty, rarely having enough to get by despite his family’s best intentions. Luck was rarely on their side and bad stuff did happen, such as when his father, Vernon, was imprisoned after forging a check. Still, Elvis went to church with his overly religious mother to hear gospel music. Furthermore, he listened to country music on the radios and heard the blues the local blacks would play. When Elvis was older, his parents saved enough to buy him a guitar. Music and singing became a regular part of Elvis’s life and when he was ten, he won second place in a talent show, winning a five dollar prize and free admission to certain fairground rides.

But even so, Elvis went through the regular school system. He wasn’t exceptional, but he did earn his diploma from Humes High School in 1953. And, like every other kid who gets out of the school system, he now had a greater problem – what to do next.

His father had got into trucking and so did Elvis. But this wasn’t anything special even back in the fifties so, meanwhile, the king-to-be also took an apprenticeship to become an electrician – a well-paid but normal job.

This might have been all for the rest of Elvis’s life ­­­– perhaps still physically the same and good-natured, but unremarkable and at the very most a sought-after tradesman. Then something incredible happened in 1953; Elvis took action and went to Sam Phillips’s small Memphis studio which allowed customers to pay to record themselves. Elvis allegedly went in to create his mother a birthday present. He sang a version of “My Happiness” and “That’s When Your Heartache Begins”. The recording is still available, not the best by far, but you can still hear Elvis emerging through the verses as he backs himself up on acoustic guitar.

Perhaps it wasn’t the best recording, but Sam Phillips liked what he heard and, in 1954, called Elvis back to meet a couple musicians of his, Scotty Moore and Bill Black. They jammed around a bit and eventually, after a few months, created their first local hit, a cover of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s Alright Mama”. Elvis realised he preferring exploiting his talent in music more than anything he’d done before so gradually he stopped truck driving and halted his apprenticeship. Remember, this is the 50’s – the music business certainly wasn’t any safer then. If anything, it was probably harder to promote yourself then than now (no internet…). But Elvis burnt the ships and focussed on what he loved to do, did it as best as he could and created history along the way.

Elvis’s Lessons

Ø There will always be others to take ‘normal’ jobs. Exploit your talents, do what you love and be the best you can possibly be at it and you’ll do your bit in changing the world. And if you want to work 9 to 5 in office for the rest of your life – as long as you’re still exploiting your talent, doing what you love and being the best you possible can be – that’s fine, too.

P.S. If you're interested in hearing Elvis singing "My Happiness" in the recording from that first fateful day when he walked in to Sun Studios back in 1953, here's a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTdFrFFdLM