Late June 2001
- Diana at 40: museum celebrates her legacy
(CNN.com, June 29, 2001)
Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, is re-opening the Diana exhibition and grounds of Althorp, home to Diana's family since 1508, on Sunday, which would have been her 40th birthday.
Princess Diana is a money-losing operation, her brother says, but then he wasn't trying to create an English equivalent of Graceland. Althorp "must never become Britain's answer to Graceland," he has said, referring to Elvis Presley's home-cum-shrine. "Whilst I live, it will never do so."
- Colonel Tom Parker (2nd book review in column)
Reviewed by Nat Whilk
(Gadfly Online, June 29, 2001)
COLONEL TOM PARKER: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager, James L. Dickerson, Cooper Square Press, 2001. 262 pp. $27.95
Questions had been raised about Tom Parker even before Albert Goldman did a hard take on Parker in his 1981 bio on Elvis. But James Dickerson finally gives us the lowdown, and it's about time. ... Dickerson clears up many aspects of the controversial manager's life and career, starting with his nebulous origins. Coming to America from Holland (where he was known as Andreas van Kuijk), the Colonel started his show-biz career as a carny in the South, becoming a manager for Eddy Arnold and Hank Snow before hustling his way into the fledging career of Elvis Presley (only a regional performer at the time). In time, Parker would form close ties with Lyndon B. Johnson, organized crime and the FBI. ... This book also details how Parker's decisions, and Elvis' complete subservience to the Colonel, transformed the singer from an innovative rocker whose early landmark songs personified an unequaled joy in singing and music-making, to an obese, drug-addicted, Liberace-garbed Las Vegas spectacle. His death at age forty-two was, in Parker's view, simply another opportunity -perhaps the best one yet - to reap millions.
- Colonel of Lies (Book review)
Reviewed by Jonathan Yardley
(Washington Post, Page C02, June 28, 2001)
COLONEL TOM PARKER: The Curious Life of Elvis Presley's Eccentric Manager By James L. Dickerson, Cooper Square. 262 pp. $27.95
... The tale of Parker and Presley is well known. Dickerson adds little of note to what we already know. The chief source remains Peter Guralnik's overlong (two-volume) but authoritative biography of Presley. Dickerson has read the FBI's Presley files -- they are repeatedly cited as sources in his notes -- but his main contributions to the record are pedestrian prose and insights to match. What he most emphatically fails to do is answer the two big questions: What did Parker really do to enhance Presley's career, and why did Presley stick with him long after it surely had become clear that he was being exploited and cheated?
- Still taking care of business: "The universe's, the galaxy's, the planet's and the world's ultimate Elvis fan" spends every minute of every day filling Graceland Too with -- with what?
By Mike Batistick
(Salon, June 27, 2001)
Paul MacLeod of Holly Springs, Miss. is the world's biggest Elvis fan. He has sired only one child in his 58 years, a son, whose birth name is Elvis Aaron Presley MacLeod. Four years ago, his wife and the mother of his child, Serita, gave him an ultimatum: "Choose me or choose Elvis." MacLeod chose Elvis. MacLeod has welcomed over 220,000 curiosityseekers into his overstuffed antebellum home, which the girthy, Mississippi-born quinquagenarian calls "Graceland Too". The house is so crammed with Elvis paraphernalia that it's unclear where this former Detroit autoworker sleeps.
He says he never sleeps. He's too busy completing his life's work. MacLeod has taped every TV program that has mentioned Elvis since the King died. All this information -- whether in newspapers, on VHS tape or printed in a magazine -- is meticulously cross-referenced and stored in steamer trunks, which cover an entire wall in his living room. What he plans to do with this information, however, remains unclear. His most prized possession is a Super 8 film that MacLeod claims contains the last images of Elvis before his death.
- Puppet King: Audi's Elvis-Like Doll Attains Cult Status in Germany
(ABC News / Associated Press, June 27, 2001)
The German Audi car company used an Elvis-like doll on the dashboard in a television advertisment to demonstrate the smoothness of its new transmission. To Audi's surprise, they were swamped with orders for the doll. Sales are expected to reach 200,000. The doll isn't supposed to be Elvis, but only representative of the "rock 'n' roll times.
- LOVE ME TENDER, MOTHERF***ER!
(NME.com News, June 27, 2001)
EMINEM is like ELVIS, MIKE STOLLER, the legendary songwriter partly responsible for the hits that made PRESLEY a legend has told NME.COM. However, despite drawing a link between the two Stoller, who was joined by songwriting partner Jerry Leiber in London today ahead of a tribute show at the Hammersmith Apollo, was keen to condemn Eminem's approach and subject matter. "There's a similarity between them in a sense," he told NME.COM. "Elvis sold primarily to a white audience, but did include everyone. And many rap records, particularly these sexploitation, misogynistic ones, also mostly sell to young whites."
Earlier Jerry Leiber revealed that he and Stoller didn't initially like Elvis' version of 'Hound Dog' - the track that was to make both him and them household names. "We were disappointed," he said. "We thought it was too fast, too nervous, that he was too white. But after seven or eight million [sales] it sounds better." Leiber and Stoller also penned classics such as 'Jailhouse Rock', 'Love Me Tender' and 'Stand By Me' for Ben E King.
- TABLOID HELL - ELVIS has been spotted. The burger-loving king of rock'n'roll has not been working down the chip shop since his 1977 'disappearance', rather he has moved to the moon.
(NME.com News, February 2, added to newswire June 27, 2001)
ELVIS has been spotted. The burger-loving king of rock'n'roll has not been working down the chip shop since his 1977 'disappearance', rather he has moved to the moon. According to this morning's Daily Star, Norman Crossland from Wigan in Lancashire spotted an uncanny likeness to the King while gazing skywards during the recent lunar eclipse. So taken was Norm, that he captured the image for posterity. If you squint, hold the picture four feet from you face and jiggle it a little, you can just make out the silhouette of a blob with a bit of a nose and questionable quiff. Obviously Elvis then.
- More weddings march to different drummers: Couples say 'I do' with flair, individuality
By Olivia Barker
(USA Today, June 26, 2001)
Themed weddings are becoming increasingly popular. Perhaps the only place where wacky weddings are increasingly the rule rather than the exception is the town that's themed down to the last cocktail napkin: Las Vegas. Couples no longer simply ask Elvis to preside over the ceremony. Quickie chapels now offer a choice of Hound Dog-era Elvis, Blue Hawaii Elvis and, of course, jumpsuited Elvis, the Vegas years. ''I started this as a side business, and now I've created a nightmare,'' jokes a weary Ron DeCar, owner of the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel. DeCar, a former Elvis impersonator who still plays the part on occasion, says themed weddings account for 40% of the 350 weddings he does a month, a tripling from a few years ago. Among his 13 ways to say ''I do'': the Egyptian, wherein the Cleopatra-clad bride arrives borne high by slaves and is presented to her mate by King Tut. And the Camelot (Merlin acts as minister), complete with attendant fair ladies and the groom gussied up as Sir Lancelot.
- THE VENT: Where You Live: YOUR VOICE, YOUR QUESTIONS, YOUR COMMUNITY NEWS
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 25, 2001)
" ... I remember my father talking about seeing Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Guy Lombardo and Duke Ellington. He didn't see the big deal with the Beatles and Elvis. See how it works? Enjoy your generation's music, because the next will not. All rock bands from the past will die with their generation. That's why the Eagles concerts looked like an osteoporosis fund-raiser. ... "
- No. 3 is No. 1
(USA Today, June 22, 2001)
The number of Dale Earnhardt items presently available for bid through the online auction site eBay dwarfs the number of available items related to other popular figures: Dale Earnhardt 14,286; The Beatles 8,751; Madonna 6,372; Michael Jordan 4,465; Elvis Presley 3,739; Marilyn Monroe 3,446; Mickey Mantle 2,240; Princess Diana 1,443; John F. Kennedy 883; Joe DiMaggio 652; Bill Clinton 213; George W. Bush 121.
- Home run: Japan idolizes Ichiro
By J. Freedom du Lac
(Sacramento Bee, June 20, 2001)
When you're a daily story in your homeland -- a place where you've been hailed as a sex symbol similar to Brad Pitt, a sporting hero not unlike Michael Jordan and a cultural icon on par with Elvis Presley -- even your most mundane movements are newsworthy. So here is Ichiro Suzuki -- the brilliant Japanese baseball player who's currently tearing up the major leagues for the sizzling Seattle Mariners -- participating in the typically uneventful pregame ritual of the hamstring stretch. ... He's so beloved back home that he outranked the emperor of Japan in a recent popularity poll.
- ACTION JACKSON
By MEGAN TURNER
(New York Post, June 19, 2001)
Sony Music executives who got a sneak preview last week of 15 new songs from Michael Jackson's upcoming album, "Invincible," are saying the Gloved One could have another "Thriller"-size hit. Levy compares his comeback attempt to the dilemma Elvis Presley - who happens to be Jackson's late ex-father-in-law - confronted in 1968. "It's similar to what Elvis faced at the time of his 1968 comeback special," he says. "Jackson's in a position where the [record-buying public] either don't know or care who he is or consider him a punch line to a joke. But Elvis proved 'em wrong. When he wanted them to care about the music, he could do a good job. It seems possible to me that Michael Jackson could do the exact same thing."
- THE BEST OF BRYANT PARK FEST
By V.A. MUSETTO
(NEW YORK POST, June 18, 2001)
WHAT could be more New York than sitting in the wide expanse of Bryant Park watching Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret dance their way through "Viva Las Vegas"? The tunes include "The Yellow Rose of Texas," "The Lady Loves Me" plus, of course, the popular title tune. Elvis' flick is one of 10 movies unspooling through Aug. 20. "Viva Las Vegas" (1964) unspools tonight, opening the annual HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival, with free Monday-night screenings of vintage flicks on a big screen in the oasis on 42nd Street. The movies begin at sunset, but get there early for good seating.
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