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- Elvis: The way he was
(BBC News Online, 16 March, 2001)
Elvis -That's the Way It Is, is a revamped version of a 1970 concert documentary. It shows Elvis the performer, singer and person at his potent and charismatic best.
- Elvis Thats The Way It Is, 2001
Reviews are appearing for the London screening of TTWII on Elvis World Japan. Reactions are mixed, depending on the tastes, prejudices and intellectual snobbery of the reporter. Those who don't feel enthusiastic seem to feel the need to make the same old put-downs.
- East Bay police officers sing to promote driver safety
BY LISA FERNANDEZ
(San Jose Mercury News, March 16, 2001)
US police are using pop music to educate kids on driving safely. Cops don't normally suit up in jeweled white pantsuits and don slick black wigs so that they can sing about buckling up. But that's what Albany police Lt. Bill Palmini -- a.k.a. Elvis -- has been doing for years. Palmini is the creator of the Chief Operator Teen Driver Program -- a multipronged effort to teach students about driving safely. He's toured 15 states and Canada, and made TV and music videos. Now the program has expanded to include cop-musicians from all over the Bay Area. The next generation of singing cops is branching out by singing the kind of music the kids like more now.
- The Krewe of Elvis Marching Club, March 16, 2001
The Krewe of Elvis (KOE) Marching Club marches annually at the New Orleans Mardi Gras dressed in Elvis costumes and carrying "throws" to throw away, such as beads, candy, scarves, leis, stickers, wooden doubloons, KOE cups, and trinkets. The last march was on 27th February 2001, when the parade theme was "2001 ... An Elvis Odyssey". The KOE web site is at http://mglinks.com/elvis.htm
- OBITUARIES: Benny Martin, 72, bluegrass fiddler
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution / Associated Press, March 16, 2001)
Benny Martin, a fiddler who worked with the top bandleaders in bluegrass and invented the eight-string fiddle, died Tuesday at his home. Mr. Martin, 72 played with Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs, Roy Acuff, Kitty Wells and many other stars. He wrote songs and as a solo act scored the hit ''Rosebuds and You'' in 1963. He was briefly managed by Colonel Tom Parker, before Mr. Parker managed the career of Elvis Presley.
- Theme weddings all the rage in Las Vegas
By Alan Elsner
(Excite News, March 15, 2001)
Elaborate "theme" nuptials are the hottest trend in the Vegas wedding industry and Ron Decar, owner of a Las Vegas wedding chapel, is high priest of the trend. A man of many parts, Decar has married people dressed as the Phantom of the Opera, Merlin the Magician, the Godfather, Dracula and Mr. Spock from "Star Trek." Then there are the kings he impersonates -- King Tut, King Arthur, and of course the king of kings in Vegas, Elvis Presley. Decar is doing 300 weddings a month. Apart from the Elvis wedding, his most popular production is probably the Gothic ceremony, for which the chapel is decorated like a cemetery with tombstones and wrought iron railings, the minister rises out of a coffin through a cloud of theatrical fog dressed as the Grim Reaper and Dracula plays the organ.
- THAT'S THE WAY HE WAS
(NME.com / New Musical Express, March 15, 2001)
Various celebrities were among the audience last night at the premiere of 'ELVIS - THAT'S THE WAY IT IS' at a cinema in LONDON's LEICESTER SQUARE. The premiere marks the beginning of a weekend of Elvis activity in London. On Friday (March 16), 'Elvis: The Concert 2001' hits Wembley Arena.
- Sinister side of the gameshow (exhibition review)
By Nick Hackworth
(London Evening Standard, March 15, 2001)
Nathaniel Mellors, Matt's Galley, Until April 1st
Eight video works are scattered throughout the large darkened gallery, some projected onto large screens and others displayed on video monitors of various sizes. A number of the pieces take aim, more or less explicitly, at standard TV programme formats. Two of the shows parodied are Gameshow and Transport Cafe. Elsewhere, Nathaniel Mellors reveals an alarming fixation with Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's infamously exploitative manager. Bravely donning prosthetics and false facial hair, Mellors easily succeeds in emulating the low-down hound dog. In one piece, the Colonel Parker character chomps on the dog-end of a cigar and fills us in on his own evening's television viewing. In another, the Colonel lies, inexplicably but to good comic affect, between the doors of an elevator that repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, attempt to close around him.
- The Roger Clinton Experience (online reading - plug-in needed)
Read by Greil Marcus
(Salon, March 15, 2001)
Listen online to an exerpt from Greil Marcus' latest book, "Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives". In the book, Marcus explores the bizarre kinship between America's president and America's king of rock 'n' roll.
- Elvis.com Relaunches With New Features Today
(URLwire, March 14, 2001)
Elvis.com, the official Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) Web site devoted to all things Elvis, has just launched personalized free e-mail addresses. The offer officially kicks off the new name
of the site, Elvis.com, previously known as elvis-presley.com.
- Napster Strives to Obey Court Order
By Benny Evangelista
(San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 2001)
Napster Inc. said yesterday that it has blocked about 115,000 songs by artists like 98 Degrees, Bare Naked Ladies and Elvis Presley as the online song service scrambles to meet a federal judge's order to stop mass copyright infringement. Overall, the Redwood City company said it is blocking about 400 million potential song trades per day. Even at that rate, it still has much further to go to comply with the terms of the federal preliminary injunction ordered March 5.
- A real antiques road show show
By Douglas Quan
(Ottawa Citizen Online, March 12, 2001)
E-com entrepreneur Erik Kafrissen is taking his online business and his family on the road on a four-month marketing and networking blitz across the United States to promote his new, online appraisal service, www.WhatsItWorthToYou.com. For a modest fee of $9.95 U.S., collectors of everything from baseball cards to coins to silverware can send in information and pictures of an item to the site and have it appraised by an expert. Kafrissen says his service is also valuable for people who may want a "second opinion" about the worth of an item being sold on an online auction before they buy it. Unique items have included a 1953 yearbook from L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tennessee, signed by Elvis Presley during his senior year ($7,500 to $10,000).
- Hot Off The Press -- New hardcovers and paperbacks
By Bruce Dancis
(Sacramento Bee, March 11, 2001)
"Just Walkin' in the Rain" by Jay Warner (Renaissance Books, $24.95)
The title of this book comes from a hit R&B song from 1953 (not to be confused with the Ronettes' hit of the '60s, "Walking in the Rain"). The song was written by Johnny Bragg, who was serving a 594-year sentence in the Tennessee State Prison (for crimes that author Warner believes Bragg could not have committed), and recorded by Bragg and the Prisonaires, a group of inmates. The Prisonaires became a special cause for Tennessee's young and progressive governor, Frank Clements, who recognized both their talent and their capacity for rehabilitation.
He let the group leave the prison to record at Sam Phillips' soon-to-be-famous Sun Records studio in Memphis (where Bragg became friends with a soon-to-be-famous Elvis Presley), enabled them to perform outside prison and eventually pardoned each member of the group -- including, in 1959, Johnny Bragg. Yet Bragg's story didn't end there, as he continued to record and continued to have troubles with the law -- both criminal law and segregationist law -- before settling into a calmer old age. He is now 75 and living in Nashville.
- Ain't nothing but a fashion hound (2nd item)
By LOUIS B. HOBSON
(Canoe / Calgary Sun, March 11, 2001)
David Arquette, who plays an Elvis impersonator in the heist movie 3000 Miles to Graceland, is the first to admit he has the wildest of fashion senses. "I'd love it if those platform shoes and bejewelled jumpsuits came back into fashion. I love what Elvis wore for his Las Vegas shows. I've tried to set the trend, but nobody seems to pick up on my fashion ideas," says Arquette.
Arquette's wife, Courteney Cox, says her husband wears several complete outfits each day.
Kurt talk (3rd item)
Kurt Russell also plays one of the Elvis impersonators in 3000 Miles to Graceland. He admits it was the chance to get back into an Elvis mode that attracted him to the project. "There's no question my history serves this movie in a fun way," says Russell who, as a child actor, starred opposite Presley in the 1963 film "It Happened At the World's Fair". In 1979, Russell received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Elvis in the TV film "This is Elvis". "My history adds a little twist for viewers who are willing to dig a bit deeper. Kevin (Costner) plays a guy who is convinced he is Elvis' illegitimate son where, in reality, it might be my character who actually is and doesn't realize it or really care."
- Stage Notes: Ann-Margret to appear at Starlight in 'Whorehouse'
By ROBERT TRUSSELL
(The Kansas City Star, March 10, 2001)
Ann-Margret will grace the stage of Starlight Theatre in Kansas City this summer in a touring production of "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," the Broadway hit by composer Carol Hall and authors Larry L. King and Peter Masterson. Among the co-stars she has shared screen time with are Elvis Presley, Steve McQueen, Jack Nicholson, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau and Roy Scheider.
- HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
(NME.com News, March 10, 2001)
In a bid to enhance their media tarnished reputation, WHITNEY HOUSTON and her husband BOBBY BROWN are to join a slew of acts from the worlds of acting and music in a tribute to acting and political heavyweight PAUL ROBESON. Proceeds from the forthcoming performances will go to the Paul Robeson Foundation, which was established to raise awareness of the socio-political actor's life. He was the first black actor to star in a Shakespearean play, and his beliefs led to witch-hunt during the McCarthy era. Robeson, who died in 1976, has inspired a show that will feature James Earl Jones (the voice of 'Star Wars' villain Darth Vader), legendary soul vocalists Angela Bofill and Melba Moore, as well as Whitney's mother Cissy Houston (a former backing singer with Elvis Presley).
- Concert Preview: Shaggy's musical appetite takes him to the top of the charts
By Patrick MacDonald
(Seattle Times, March 9, 2001)
What do Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Diana Ross and Shaggy have in common? They all have had two singles in the Top Five at the same time, a very rare occurrence in pop music. Shaggy is the first one to accomplish the feat in the 21st century.
- 'Songs of the Century' aims to teach
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 9, 2001)
Judy Garland singing "Over the Rainbow" and Bing Crosby dreaming of a "White Christmas" top the 365 "Songs of the Century" announced by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America. The list is designed as a way for schools to teach the appreciation of how music is developed, they said in a joint statement. An NEA official said the songs also could open a window on social and economic conditions of the times when they appeared. They are almost all American popular songs.
- 'RAINBOW' SELECTA!
(nme.com News, March 9, 2001)
JUDY GARLAND's 'OVER THE RAINBOW' has topped a new list of 20th-century songs, well ahead of entries from THE BEATLES, the ROLLING STONES and ELVIS PRESLEY.
The list was compiled by the Recording Industry Of America Association (RIAA) and the National Endowment For The Arts (NEA) "for young people" to "help further an appreciation for the music development process, including songwriting, musicianship, recording, performing, producing, distributing and the development of distribution and cultural values," according to an RIAA press release.
- Newspaper stories - MUSIC: Bono, Moby do Hall of Fame honors
ByElysa Gardner
(USA Today, March 7, 2001)
Keith Richards, Bono, members of the Foo Fighters and dance icon Moby will be among the presenters at the 16th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction dinner March 19 at New York's Waldorf -Astoria Hotel. Richards will recognize ''sidemen'' James Burton, who was Elvis Presley's and Rick Nelson's legendary guitarist, and Johnnie Johnson, Chuck Berry's pianist. Bono will lend his noted oratorical skills to saluting this year's ''non-performer'' inductee, Chris Blackwell, the founder of U2's former label, Island Records. Other 2001 honorees include Aerosmith, Paul Simon, Ritchie Valens and Michael Jackson, whom 'N Sync will induc. The ceremony will air on VH1 on March 21.
- Elvis, king of postmortem profiteers
By DOUG CAMILLI
(Montreal Gazette, March 7, 2001)
Forbes magazine comes out every year with this bizarre list of celebrities who are still earning top dollar even though they're dead. Based on calculations of estate income, Forbes says Elvis - if dead, of course - is the king of the stiffs, with income of $35 million U.S., of which $15 million came from admissions to Graceland, his Tennessee mansion. Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schulz was second ($20 million) followed by John Lennon, Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Andy Warhol, J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Sinatra, and Jerry Garcia of the, err, Grateful Dead.
- Songs of the century
(Seattle Times / Associated Press, March 2001)
The National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Industry Association of America has made its somewhat strange selection of the 365 top songs of the 20th century. Elvis has "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" at no. 68 and "Heartbreak Hotel" at no. 87. These are the top 10:
1 Over the Rainbow - Judy Garland
2 White Christmas - Bing Crosby
3 This Land Is Your Land - Woody Guthrie
4 Respect - Aretha Franklin
5 American Pie - Don McLean
6 Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrews Sisters
7 West Side Story - Original Cast
8 Take Me Out to the Ball Game - Billy Murray
9 You've Lost That Lovin Feelin - The Righteous Brothers
10 The Entertainer - Scott Joplin
- Olney's 'Bye Bye Birdie': No Get-Up-and-Go (Theatre review)
By Nelson Pressley
Washington Post, March 6, 2001; Page C01
Nothing much goes right in the Olney Theatre Center's production of "Bye Bye Birdie". There is no dancing, no zip in the music, and the creaky set changes are better amplified than the singers, who are all game but undistinguished. Watching it is like watching a young Elvis trying to perform in a straitjacket.
- Michael Jackson goes to Oxford: Singer to speak about child welfare; also, appearance at Apollo Theater expected
By PHILIP MARTIN
(MSNBC, March 5, 2001)
Pop superstar Michael Jackson, his leg in a cast, hobbled into Britain for a brief visit to deliver a lecture on child welfare and be the best man at a psychic's wedding. The normally reclusive self-proclaimed "King of Pop", who broke his right foot in a fall at his California ranch last week, winced in pain as he negotiated a staircase at London's Heathrow airport before being whisked away in a limousine. Jackson's "Heal the Kids" charity - dedicated to "promoting nurturing relationships between parents and children" - was founded last year by the 42-year-old with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, the author of titles such as "Kosher Sex". Members of the charity's board include former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Jackson's close friend, actress Elizabeth Taylor. Jackson, who has two children by former wife Deborah Rowe and was also briefly married to Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie, will be the best man at the famed psychic Uri Geller's wedding on Wednesday. He is also expected to appear at the 10th annual Michael Jackson Day at London's Apollo Theatre on Wednesday evening, an event organized by his international fan club.
- American Studies: Revolution rock: Ever get the feeling that maybe you've been swindled?
By PHILIP MARTIN
(Arkansan Democrat-Gazette, March 4, 2001)
Discusses rebellion and activism in rock 'n' roll and how commercial success affects artistic integrity. Rock 'n' roll won its revolution and is now mainstream, a business rather than an incitement to revolution.
The birth of rock 'n' roll coincided with the emergence of the "teen-ager" as a viable target market. Until after World War II, there wasn't any particular "teen culture"; there wasn't even any music that especially targeted young people until Frank Sinatra. Black rhythm & blues was pirated from black America - a genuine underclass that had been enslaved not 100 years before - it included the seeds of vague but palpable resentment and alienation, the unregenerate pose refined by James Dean and Marlon Brando and perfected in Elvis Presley. While rock 'n' roll was - from the very beginning - a business, for the first 20 years or so of its tenure it had a genuinely subversive edge. Little Richard was dangerous - Billy Lee Riley and Dale Hawkins and Elvis Presley were backwoods "naturals" who became Ithyphallic gods behind their ornamental guitars. In the '50s, rock 'n' roll should have worried The Establishment. Zack de la Rocha, of "Rage Against the Machine" won't cause any tired old men to lose any sleep by his announcement last fall that he was leaving the group.
- The Parker Solution (Letter)
JEFF CAHN, Granada Hills
(Los Angeles Times, March 3, 2001)
Re Patrick Goldstein's "You Too Can Be a Producer!" (Feb. 20):
In an effort to stem the tide of multiple producer credits given to people who do little to nothing on a feature film, I suggest that movie companies follow the lead of the late Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager. He took a "technical advisor" credit on all of Presley's films, a joke in itself.
- Dead celebrities still raking in the dollars
By Lewis Lord
(ABC News Online [Australian Broadcasting Corporation], March 3, 2001)
In the United States, just because you are dead does not mean you cannot earn a good living. The latest edition of Forbes magazine shows while you cannot take it with you, that does not mean you cannot still make it. According to Forbes, while there are Elvis Presley impersonators everywhere in the United States who do not pay royalties, he is still the richest man in the celebrity graveyard Forbes says last year the Elvis estate earned $70 million, making him king of the deceased. Peanuts' cartoonist Charles Schultz, who died in February last year, earned $40 million, along with former Beatle John Lennon. Rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix, reggae star Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe were among the other dead, $1 million-plus earners, listed in the magazine.
- Girl Power: The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree remain the sweethearts of the wrestling ring
By Robert Wilonsky
(dallasobserver.com, March 3, 2001)
David Dennard has made a career out of rescuing deserving, discarded musicians out of history's dustbin. 'The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree' is a companion disc to last year's two-CD release. The collection features performances by women who appeared on the Sportatorium stage, among them Helen Hall, Charline Arthur, Sunshine Ruby, The Lovett Singers, Sherry Davis, and Betty Lou Lobb. Of the 11 artists found on the collection, only one's been remembered by history: Henrietta-born Charline Arthur, who joined the Jamboree in 1952, recorded for RCA Records from 1953 till 1956 (thanks to some help from Colonel Tom Parker, no less), and kept trying to make records until the mid-1970s.
In the end, what makes something like The Gals of the Big "D" Jamboree so intoxicating isn't just the music but the lost tales these women tell - of sharing stages with the likes of Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton, of playing with the Light Crust Doughboys, and of sacrificing their careers for their families. That, more than anything else, is why so many of these women have vanished from the history books. More often than not, they willingly settled down, had children, and left behind the hellish life of the touring bus. That's the very reason Sherry Davis gives for quitting the show-business life in 1971 - despite the fact she once recorded with Buddy Holly and the Crickets, toured Texas with Elvis Presley, and performed in Las Vegas for several years with Esquivel, whose music would, in the 1990s, become the soundtrack for would-be hipsters living in their space-age bachelor pads.
- The fastest-growing sport loses its hero: Earnhardt's death marks the end of an era
By Lewis Lord
(Science & Ideas, March 3, 2001)
As a folk figure, Dale Earnhardt was Elvis on wheels. Thus the Presley-like outpouring of grief that followed his Daytona 500 death last weekthe thousand-mile pilgrimages, the tearful interviews with teenage girls and middle-aged men, the memorial service televised live across Americaand the flood of Internet tributes. Stock car racing's greatest now runs with God and a host of departed drivers on a speedway in heaven, one Georgian messaged the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Web site. "And in all likelihood, he is bumping God going around."
- Elvis chases UK singles crown
By Richard Simpson
(London Evening Standard/This is London, March 2, 2001)
Elvis Presley is going head-to-head from beyond the grave with The Beatles, in a fight for the title of King of the UK singles charts. The transatlantic battle is taking place almost a quarter of a century after Elvis died and 31 years after the Beatles split. Presley and The Fab Four have been joint holders of the title for most UK No 1 singles for some time - with 17 each. But that could be about to change when, on 26 March, Elvis's "Suspicious Minds" is rereleased here. The single is bound to be a colossal hit as it is backed by a previously unreleased version of "The Wonder of You". It will be also be accompanied by a promotional video, featuring rare live footage. The release ties in with the launch of "Greatest Hits Live", a compilation featuring classic concert versions of some of The King's most famous tracks, including "Blue Suede "Shoes", "Heartbreak Hotel", "One Night" and "Hound Dog". News of the release has fuelled intense rivalries between Beatles and Elvis fans.
- Elvis look-alike reveres the King
(Detroit News, March 2, 2001)
The possibility of a union of Elvis impersonators was announced at the Livonia Business Expo. Prospective members would have to be voted in. At the expo impersonator Matt King (a stage name) posed for 190 digital pictures in five hours. King has 25 jumpsuits, a Web site called elvisentertainer.com, and a nice side job procuring Elvi for a Presley-starved world. King's criteria for a good impersonator are: someone who can hit all the notes, looks reasonably similar to Elvis and doesn't mock the King. "And the hair is the most important thing."
- Hors D'Oeuvres A la Vahl
By Eric A. Carlson
(Metro, Silicon Valley's Weekly Newspaper, March 1-7, 2001)
Mme. X and I discussed Elvis Presley zealots, long gone Frontier Village, and ways to infiltrate the secret chambers of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency - on the 11th floor of a building on San Fernando Street.
Mme. X described her work in the field of Elvismania. She had joined Elvis organizations in San Jose and environs to get a better understanding of the phenomenon, finding, among other things, that most believers refuse to believe Elvis took drugs or engaged in other mischievous acts. She spoke of a woman who had acquired an Elvis jumpsuit--which she kept behind bulletproof glass and worshipped. X's most harrowing Elvis moment was at The Bold Knight in Sunnyvale when the stage was stormed by drunken, and possibly hallucinating, middle-aged housewives, who savagely mauled an Elvis impersonator. Also disturbing were the annual Elvis Now events at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds where impersonators contested for best sounding Elvis and best look-alike Elvis. Mme. X recalls that the look-alikes resembled old fat debauched Elvis, while the sound-alikes took after the young innocent one. Another notable event was The Traveling Elvis Museum. X stumbled into this event by accident, when visiting the San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View.
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