Early August, 2002
- 17m Americans 'have impersonated Elvis'
(Ananova, August 13, 2002)
The Harris Interactive poll also shows nearly 72 million have seen an impersonator of the King. The survey of 2,000 adults found male impersonators outnumber females by a ratio of two to one. It also found nearly a third of Americans have bought Elvis records, CDs or videos and 10% have visited Graceland. The poll also shows 5% saw him perform live. He died on August 16 1977.
- Elvis is leading dead money-maker
By WOODY BAIRD
(Ananova, August 13, 2002)
Elvis Presley sales totalled $37 million in the last year. He leads the list of the top-earning dead celebrities for the second year running. According to Forbes magazine, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz is number two with $28 million in earnings. The JXL remix of Elvis's A Little Less Conversation made $4 million. John Lennon and racing driver Dale Earnhardt, who's new to the list this year, both made $20 million in the year to June 2002.
- Upper Crust Art: Elvis, the Toast of the Town
(iWon News, August 13, 2002)
A New Zealand supermarket owner has spent two months fashioning his own unique toast to mark the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Maurice Bennett has constructed a portrait measuring 62 square feet in area of the King of Rock 'n' Roll crafted out of more than 4,000 small slices of toast. Bennett, whose previous toast portraits include Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and New Zealand rugby star Jonah Lomu, says Elvis has a special place in his heart. ... Using a commercial oven capable of cooking up to 90 full-sized slices of toast at a time, Bennett grilled the bread to six different shades ranging from burned for Elvis' hair to lightly warmed for his skin.
- On the Web, e-shrines to Elvis: All things Presley find a home on the Net
By Lisa Napoli
(MSNBC, August 13, 2002)
At this stage of the Internet game, we know that anyone can build a Web shrine for any old celebrity. But a different order of magnitude applies to anything involving Elvis of course: The King warrants an entire search engine. Wouter Broekman was born the year Elvis died, but this young, enterprising Dutchman slash Elvis fan realized three years ago that in cyberspace, sites in Presley's honor were found willy-nilly. He took it upon himself to organize them, and ElvisFind.com was born. ... For some curious reason that proves American popular culture knows no geographic bounds, another major Elvis site is also maintained by the Dutch. The zine Elvis News offers a compendium of just that (only with Elvis, dead for so long, could there be so much current to report) as well as archival information, such as reviews, and the chance to be part of an Elvis community by signing up for a weekly e-mail update.
- Long live the King: on the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death, his art still outwits the Grim Reaper
By Lee Siegel
(Time, August 12, 2002)
Don't get all shook up, and don't be cruel, but can we please have a little less conversation about the deep cultural significance of Elvis Presley? You thought only a small cult of Presley fanatics believed that Elvis, who died in 1977 of a heart attack brought on by years of heavy drug use, was still alive? Now, it seems, all of America does. And this Aug.16 is the 25th anniversary of the King's death, a commercially over-driven event that's sure to set off a howl of commentary about the King as American tragedy, as vulnerable trangressive, as daring racial-boundary breaker, as revolutionary synthesizer of musical styles, and on and on. ... Though the stubborn presence of the past is all around us, Elvis is the only cultural icon to have inspired a passionate denial of the fact of extinction. ... For the ardent, the living death of Elvis' sad decline might have supplied paradoxical proof of supernatural powers, but the strongest evidence of the King's capacity to outwit the Grim Reaper lies in Elvis' art itself. He outwitted - outlived - the heartbreak he sang about even as he sang about it. ... The emotions he belted out never took him in. His sobs are more like a parody of sobs. ...
- Elvis' Gal Pal Shares Memories Of Singer
By Linda Deutsch
(CBS News, August 12, 2002)
She was the sister Elvis Presley never had, a companion, confidante and keeper of secrets in the exciting days of his early career. They drove bumper cars in Las Vegas, rode horses in California and hung out at Graceland, the Memphis home he had just bought for his mother. Her name is Judy Spreckels, and she agreed to her first sit-down interview this week, with a reporter who was once the president of an Elvis fan club. As the 25th anniversary of Presley's Aug. 16 death approaches, memories were bubbling to the surface - although there were still some things Spreckels wouldn't discuss. "He told me secrets that I never told and will never tell," says Spreckels, now 70. "I had nothing to do with being a yes man for him and obviously he trusted me. Anything he told me was not going to go to any publication. I am the only person who was around Elvis who was a writer and didn't write a book. I felt secrets were secrets." ... In later years, she attended his Las Vegas concerts and he would stop the show to introduce her to the audience. She had married by then and so had he. By the time drugs invaded his life, she was less involved. "I never think of him as he was the last year or year and a half," she says. "I think of him as so vibrant and beautiful and funny. When he died, a whole part of my life changed and I died a little."
- Elvis: Still King Of The Earners
(Sky News, August 12, 2002)
Elvis Presley is the world's top-earning dead celebrity it was revealed. The King, who died 25 years ago this week, earned $37m US dollars in the last year alone, according to the Earnings from the Crypt list by US business website Forbes.com.
- Actor Nicolas Cage marries Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in Hawaii
(Ottawa Citizen, August 12, 2002)
Oscar-winning actor Nicolas Cage married Elvis Presley' daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, in a romantic Hawaiian Island ceremony witnessed by family and close friends, publicists confirmed Monday. The couple recited wedding vows Saturday evening at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows on the Big Island of Hawaii, Cage spokeswoman Annett Wolf and Presley spokesman Paul Block said. Cage is 38, Presley is 34.
- Nicolas Cage marries Elvis' daughter in Hawaii
(Ananova, August 12, 2002)
Nicolas Cage has married Lisa Marie Presley in a Hawaiian Island ceremony witnessed by family and close friends. The couple recited wedding vows at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel and Bungalows on the Big Island of Hawaii. It is Presley's third marriage; she was married previously to musician Danny Keough and pop star Michael Jackson. It was the second marriage for Cage, who divorced actress Patricia Arquette in 2000. They had no children.
- The King and I
[Interview with Joyce Bova]
By Annette Witheridge
(New Idea [Australian ed.], August 17, 2002, pp. 24-26)
Joyce Bova was Elvis Presley's secret lover for three years. She was expecting his baby, but when she heard Elvis say "A mother is different. Once a woman is a mama, she changes. When a woman has a child, it's a gift from God. It's God's way of telling her she's not a little girl anymore. She has to be respected", she knew that she couldn't tell Elvis about the baby, and she had it aborted. Joyce tells of her life trying to hold down her job and spend time with Elvis, the pill-popping, and the concern for his health.
- Daily Record debate: was Elvis rock 'n' roll's greatest?
(Daily Record, August 12, 2002)
Elvis fans were quick to let us know that their hero will never be bettered but many reckoned that the King was over-hyped and over-rated.
[The results seem to have been selectively listed to support their original case. My entry certainly wasn't quoted - Ed.]
- Elvis's Graceland goes on tour
(BBC News, August 12, 2002)
Some of the most famous items from Elvis Prelsey's home, Graceland, are to be taken on a tour of the US to mark the 25th anniversary of his death on Friday. The Mobile Graceland Tour will give visitors the chance to see Elvis's US Army jacket, some of his stage outfits and a letter from President Richard M Nixon. Other highlights include costumes Elvis wore in the film Viva Las Vegas and a comb which he used in the 1950s to shape his famous hair. The tour begins in Memphis, Tennessee, this week, before moving on to Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, St Louis, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Atlantic City and Reno, Nevada. "We have more artefacts than we have the space or time to display at Graceland," said Jennifer Burgess, director of marketing for Elvis Presley Enterprises.
- Chuck D Speaks on Elvis' Legacy
(Yahoo! News, August 12, 2002)
Public Enemy frontman Chuck D derided Elvis Presley on the group's 1989 anthem "Fight The Power," but it turns out his feelings for Presley are a little more complicated than the song suggests. "As a musicologist - and I consider myself one - there was always a great deal of respect for Elvis, especially during his Sun sessions. As a black people, we all knew that," the rapper said. "My whole thing was the one-sidedness - like, Elvis' icon status in America made it like nobody else counted. ... My heroes came from someone else. My heroes came before him. My heroes were probably his heroes. As far as Elvis being 'The King,' I couldn't buy that." Chuck D spoke to Newsday about Presley's legacy for a 25th anniversary story on the singer's death. On "Fight the Power," he said of Presley, "Elvis was a hero to most/But he never meant (expletive) to me, you see/Straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain."
- Elvis: The once and future King?
By DAN DELUCA
(Philadelphia Inquirer, August 11, 2002)
Elvis Presley has been gone for only a quarter-century, and already he's having a mid-death crisis. "Elvis is everywhere," Mojo Nixon declared in 1987, a decade after Presley expired in his Graceland bathroom, on Aug. 16, 1977. But in recent years, the King hasn't been quite so ubiquitous. In 2001, all of his catalog titles combined sold 1.4 million copies. That's a far cry from the more than eight million units of the Beatles-hits anthology 1 that dominated the year - another indignity suffered at the hands of the pesky British invaders who rendered Presley culturally superfluous in 1964. With anniversaries, though, come marketing campaigns. And Elvis' 25th is being seized upon by RCA Records and Elvis Presley Enterprises as an opportunity to repackage the King, who would now be 67, in hopes of reaching the grandchildren of Presley's graying core demo. The last few months have seen an explosion of Presley-iana.
Comments to ddeluca@phillynews.com
- That's showbiz: Elvis appreciates over the years
By MICHAEL DOUGAN
(San Francisco Chronicle, August 11, 2002)
Elvis found in death what he lacked in life: a good business manager. Ex-wife Priscilla Presley -- along with a management partner -- took control of Elvis' estate after he died 25 years ago. Their plan for marketing his image (and his Graceland mansion in Memphis) is now at the core of what's estimated as a half-billion-dollar-a-year Elvis industry. At the time of his death, the King reportedly was worth a puny $4.5 million. His notorious manager, the late Col. Tom Parker, took half of Elvis' earnings. Rather than sink the rest in tax shelters, Presley gave the government an estimated 80 percent of his income. Today, Graceland and related businesses run by Elvis Presley Enterprises draw more than 600,000 visitors a year to Memphis, generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue for the city.
- Elvis clone just a hair's breadth away?
By MICHAEL LOLLAR
(Corpus Christi Caller-Times, August 11, 2002)
When it comes to Elvis, some fans have always refused to let go. Now with advances in biotechnology comes the intriguing possibility of turning Elvis into the once - and future - king. No one has initiated a cloning of the rock icon, but at least one devoted collector of Elvis memorabilia said last week he has one of the "ultimate" keepsakes - and a necessary ingredient for a cloning attempt. Tom Morgan, a friend of Elvis's late hair stylist, has roughly a half-pound of Elvis' hair ... The chief executive officer of Elvis Presley Enterprises and a spokesman for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. say there are no cryogenically preserved living tissue samples of Elvis that could be used in a cloning attempt. But with the hair, cloning experts say, science now could stage the ultimate Elvis comeback through tedious DNA sequencing procedures so risky, a new Elvis could be literally all shook up. "We can do it. The only problem is that there's a tendency for genetic abnormality to occur. We'd get an Elvis, but maybe he would just want to deliver the mail," says Dr. Dan Goldowitz, a member of the mouse genome project and director of the Center of Excellence for Genomics and Bioinformatics at the University of Tennessee. ... EPE, which owns Elvis's name, image and likeness, conceivably could try to legally block such an attempt. "The question is so laden with all sorts of philosophical and theological issues, and, if I'm correct, the whole efficacy of cloning humans is still in doubt," Soden says. He said Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, ultimately would have to make the decision whether to take legal action.
- 25 years later, Elvis fans are still all shook up
By Jim Abbott
(Orlando Sentinel, August 11, 2002)
Elvis is dead. After decades of tabloid sightings at remote roadside gas stations, most folks finally agree on that. The question is whether we'll ever make it past the mourning. Emotions will peak again this week as hundreds of thousands of fans make the 25th anniversary pilgrimmage to Graceland for Elvis Week. "It's going to be a real barn-burner," says Sue Manuszak, president of the Elvis Presley Continentals, an Orlando fan club that will be represented in Memphis, Tenn., by some 800 members. "We look for addresses of old record studios, places he visited." For those who honor him this week, that is the ultimate fantasy: to brush against the magic and keep it alive.
- Still in love with Elvis
By Mike Morgan
(The Sun News, August 11, 2002)
The ghost of Elvis Presley haunts America. It hovers at the edges of our lives, as past memory and present love, whether we love the music or the man, whether we recognize him or not. [Reminiscences by various fans follow.]
- 25 years after his death, Elvis still reigns
By John W. Barry
(Poughkeepsie Journal, August 11, 2002)
On Aug. 16, 1977, the hound dog stopped crying, the ''No Vacancy'' sign was switched on at the Heartbreak Hotel and millions were feeling ''All Shook Up'' in an awful way. Elvis Presley had died, leaving in his wake a lifetime of hit records, memorable films and broken hearts. ''He was the perfect human being,'' said Hollywood Wentworth of the Town of Poughkeepsie, who owns 32 Elvis plates and copies of each Elvis movie. ''He was always a good person. He loved his mother. He loved his father -- but he really loved his mother. He was a down-to-earth human being and I think that's what really attracted me to him.'' From the Hudson Valley to the gates of Graceland this week, music fans with memories that they covet like a mint piece of grooved vinyl will mark 25 years since the death of a legend. Elvis fans say he stood for the best of what's American, even after the creaky bones and overweight flesh settled in during his waning days as an aging rock star.
- Elvis lives
By David J. Jefferson
(Newsweek, August 19 issue, 2002)
His fan base is graying, but the folks who run Presley Enterprises are luring a new generation. Forget Fat Elvis. The King's become Disneyfied, digitized - and may head for Broadway. Fifty-five-year-old Sandy Cox of Hernando, Miss., stands silently with her young nieces and nephews over the grave adorned with plastic roses, a "Love Me Tender" votive candle and a headstone that reads ELVIS AARON PRESLEY. Cox figures she's made the pilgrimage to Graceland "at least 200 times" ("I just like being where he was, walking on his turf," she says). But this is a first for the kids, who are visiting from Ft. Worth, Texas. Standing dutifully next to their gray-haired aunt in the Elvis T shirts she's given them, they look as if they've just been dragged through a tour of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Weren't they impressed with Elvis's green-shag-carpeted Jungle Room, his clamshell-shape furry bed, his white studded "American Eagle" jumpsuit? "I guess it was kinda cool," is all 8-year-old Chance Brown can muster. OK, but what about all those gold records? "I like Nelly and Eminem," says his sister Cassi, 15. "I never listen to Elvis."
- A legend in his own lounge room
By Larry Schwartz
(The Age [Melbourne], August 11, 2002)
Mark Andrew is off on the ultimate Elvis odyssey. Just because you think you're so pretty in "dead give-away" L-shaped sideburns, gold-lame jacket or rhinestone and gold-plated studs doesn't mean you really want to be The King. And just because the eldest of your four children happens to have the same name as Elvis' still-born twin brother, Jesse, doesn't mean you want to be hailed as Presley every time you go shopping in Narre Warren.
"I hate being called Elvis when I'm offstage and out of character," says Mark Andrew, impersonator at venues as diverse as the Casa D'Abruzzo Club, in Epping and the Ferntree Gully Hotel, whose promotion claims Presley "certainly left his Mark on the world today".
It's hard to be an Elvis from the suburbs. "Mark's a pretty sane sort of bloke," he says. "I like to be myself." His wife and backing singer, Vikki, prefers Enya to Elvis and notes that eight-year-old Jesse's name is purely coincidental and, with younger children Tahlia, 6, Aliana, 2, and, in her arms, five-month-old Leticia, there's "no Lisa Maries, nothing like that".
Caption: We three kings: Mark Andrew portrays the three ages of Elvis.
Photomontage JOHN DONEGAN
- Long live the King
By Amanda Rogers
(Sunday Canberra Times / Knight-Ridder, August 11, 2002, Relax section, pp. 36-37)
Rock lost its royalty 25 years ago, but Elvis lives on. Overview of Elvis' life.
- Thousands devoted to maintaining the memory of the King
By Georgia Curry
(Sunday Canberra Times, August 11, 2002, Relax section, pp. 26-27)
Elvis Presley's physical has done nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of his fans. There are 2 courses running in Canberra and a course at Griffith University. Includes photos of and interviews with local people: Nigel Patterson of Elvis Information Network, public servant Ian Garfield, radio announcer Rod Quinn, tribute artist Vince Gelonese. Local activities around the 25th anniversary include 2 impersonator shows, a Candlelight Tribute memorial service and various radio programs.
- Elvis fans gather for anniversary
(onzoom.com, August 11, 2002)
Sporting blue suede shoes and pompadour wigs, thousands of Elvis Presley fans will shake rattle and roll their way to Presley's famed Graceland mansion this week, still captivated by burning love of the rock and roll king on the 25th anniversary of his death. Beginning Thursday and stretching into the early morning hours of Aug. 16, the date in 1977 Presley died of a drug-induced heart attack at age 42, fans bearing candles and tributes will file past his grave in the garden of his white-columned home on the outskirts of Memphis.
- The Elvis industry [photograph]
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, August 10, 2002)
- 25 years later New generation keeps Elvis a pop-culture icon
By Jim Patterson
(Brunswick News / Associated Press, August 10, 2002)
The reigning king of rock 'n' roll or an easy punchline ... [Same as several previous reports.]
- Elvis week kicks off
By M. SCOTT MORRIS
(abc28.com / Associated Press,, August 10, 2002)
Elvis week begins today in Memphis. The annual pilgrimage to the home of the king of rock 'n' roll marks his death in 1977. This Friday is the 25th anniversary. Thousands are expected to pay tribute to the king. The week of festivities kicks off with a parade tonight. Area merchants are preparing for big business. Local economists say Elvis events this week will pump up to 50 (M) million dollars into the city.
- Birthplace welcomes residents of 'Elvis World' to home of 'The King'
By M. SCOTT MORRIS
(Daily Journal, August 10, 2002)
Elvis Presley's medley of "Dixie" and "Battle Hymn of the Republic" played over loudspeakers as 15 busloads of international fans arrived at his birthplace Friday. "We are proud of Elvis. We are proud of his accomplishments. We are proud of his legacy. We are proud that Tupelo is his home," Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation Chairman Henry Dodge said. "We are proud that you, the fans, are here to celebrate Fan Appreciation Day with us."
- Elvis lives ... in pop culture
(The State: South Carolina's Home Page / Cox News Service, August 10, 2002)
A sampling of all things Elvis available, covering lotteries, Eminem, JXL vs Elvis, Disney's Lilo and Stitch, etc.
- Just don't 'get' all the Elvis hoopla?
By BILL WYMAN
(The State: South Carolina's Home Page / Cox News Service, August 10, 2002)
In the days leading to the 25th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, the skeptical and the uninitiated may wonder what all the fuss is about. Here's a quick primer - and you can decide for yourself. [A question and answer session follows, with answers being mainly derogatory.]
- Elvis Memories Still Live: 25 Years After His Death, Elvis Fans Still Idolize The King Of Rock And Roll
By SEAN KENNEDY, AMY S. PETRIK and TERA BODEN
(Press and Dakotan, August 10, 2002)
As the novelty 1980s song joyously proclaimed, "Elvis is everywhere!" For his longtime fans, there has never been any doubt. Even now -- a quarter-century after Presley's death. On Aug. 16, 1977, rock and roll lost its first true superstar -- a term earned by adulation and adoration in the days before "superstars" were invented and marketed. Elvis was the genuine article -- a social and musical icon who stirred controversy as well as sales, who changed a generation as well as an art form. But in the summer of 1977, the superstar died at age 42. But the phenomenon lived on. Next week is the 25th anniversary of Presley's death, and it is a day that stirs memories in the heads of Elvis fans everywhere. Some are still fans and are still remembering the day that, for them, the music died ...
- Attention Tourists: Elvis Was Born Here
By WOODY BAIRD
(Los Angeles Times / Associated Press, August 9, 2002)
The wallpaper is a cheap flower print, and a single, bare light bulb hangs from the ceiling in each of the two small rooms. ... [As below]
- Tupelo draws tourists with sites from Elvis' hard-luck childhood
By WOODY BAIRD
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, August 8, 2002)
The wallpaper is a cheap flower print, and a single, bare light bulb hangs from the ceiling in each of the two small rooms. "I knew he had humble beginnings," said Mark Moody, a tourist from Dundee, Scotland, on a visit to Elvis Presley's birthplace. "But it's a lot more humble than I thought it would be." The house lacked even those small niceties on the morning of Presley's birth - Jan. 8, 1935. One of thousands of shotgun shanties that were scattered across the rural South, it's now a tourist attraction drawing up to 100,000 visitors a year. And it's the pride of Tupelo, a town of about 34,000 people two hours south of Memphis, Tennessee, where Presley began his rock 'n' roll career.
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