Maura Sweeney: Living Happy Inside Out | Personal Growth | Influence | The Power of Happiness
Aug 15, 2026 · 43 min · 9 segments
Caught in some crazy surroundings and not sure how you got there? You're not alone and there's always hope! We visit a hall of mirrors scene from the 2022 Elvis movie, then take a quick trip to…
Maura SweeneyHost
A few friends and I had gone to see it one afternoon and there was so much in this story.
The Colonel was played by another famous actor, Tom Hanks, who did a phenomenal job.
Usually Tom Hanks plays these very... simple, likable guys in his movies, but in this, he played a very dark, manipulative character.
Now, I know that there was a lot of, let's say, poetic license taken up in this movie, but there was one scene, and I thought, oh my gosh, I hope I could find it to review it and share it with you all today, and sure enough, I did.
And I'm going to speak specifically about the Colonel who was the man who, let's say, discovered, found, targeted, managed, and ultimately nearly consumed Elvis.
And I've actually watched this a few times because as we all, several years ago, my friends and I saw this movie, we knew that there was so much symbolism to it and there were so many underlying messages that whoever designed the movie wanted certain viewers to see.
Well, let me give you this picture that we have back in the 1950s, probably somewhere down south.
This is a carnival, carnival environment, probably a traveling carnival where the colonel is the main person running it or running a series of acts at this movable carnival.
And you know, in carnival land, we don't see too many of them today, but they used to refer to it as kind of like the freak show.
So you'd find the bearded woman, you'd see midgets, you would see crazy acts of people supposedly going through magic, and a woman is cut in half, and then she pops back up and she's there.
A few friends and I had gone to see it one afternoon and there was so much in this story.
The Colonel was played by another famous actor, Tom Hanks, who did a phenomenal job.
Usually Tom Hanks plays these very... simple, likable guys in his movies, but in this, he played a very dark, manipulative character.
Now, I know that there was a lot of, let's say, poetic license taken up in this movie, but there was one scene, and I thought, oh my gosh, I hope I could find it to review it and share it with you all today, and sure enough, I did.
And I'm going to speak specifically about the Colonel who was the man who, let's say, discovered, found, targeted, managed, and ultimately nearly consumed Elvis.
And I've actually watched this a few times because as we all, several years ago, my friends and I saw this movie, we knew that there was so much symbolism to it and there were so many underlying messages that whoever designed the movie wanted certain viewers to see.
Well, let me give you this picture that we have back in the 1950s, probably somewhere down south.
This is a carnival, carnival environment, probably a traveling carnival where the colonel is the main person running it or running a series of acts at this movable carnival.
And you know, in carnival land, we don't see too many of them today, but they used to refer to it as kind of like the freak show.
So you'd find the bearded woman, you'd see midgets, you would see crazy acts of people supposedly going through magic, and a woman is cut in half, and then she pops back up and she's there.
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