January 26th in Elvis History

It's January twenty-sixth, and on this day in 1970… Elvis Presley opened a four-week engagement at the International Hotel's showroom in Las Vegas with an invitation-only performance that marked a turning point in his stage career. The star-studded audience included the likes of Fats Domino and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and the reviews were glowing—*The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner* boldly declared, “The new decade will belong to him.”

This performance was historic not only for the crowd it drew but for the debut of Elvis’s now-iconic one-piece jumpsuits, designed by Bill Belew and made by Ice Capades Costumes. The new look offered him more freedom of movement on stage, and he took full advantage of it, weaving karate moves into his performance and setting the tone for the high-energy Vegas shows that would define the 1970s Elvis era.