Mid August 2002
- Elvis the bird's not in the house
By Nancy Olson
(Marshfield News Herald, August 21, 2002)
A gray cockatiel in custory at Tula Haldes' house is not her lost bird, Elvis. A story in the News-Herald on Saturday reported a possible sighting of the fugitive bird. Haldes said she received a lot of calls about what was believed to [be] Elvis, missing since July 30.
- FYE Hosts Touring Elvis Exhibit
By JESSICA WOLF
(Video Store Magazine, August 21, 2002)
The King has boarded the tour bus! Commemorating Elvis Presely's death 25 years ago, entertainment retailer FYE is teaming up with Elvis Presley Enterprises, RCA Records and Harrah's Casinos to create Mobile Graceland. The traveling museum of Elvis history will visit 21 FYE stores across the country between now and Nov. 14.
- Summer of Elvis
Editorial
(Washington Post, August 21, 2002)
HE WAS, and is, possibly the most famous stand-alone first name in history -- not counting the ones credited with founding a major organized religion. Which isn't to say that Elvis Presley got anything like deity treatment on the anniversary of his death this month. "Twenty-five years ago," began a CNN program marking the occasion, "an aging singer with more then 10 different pharmaceutical drugs in his bloodstream had a heart attack, fell to the bathroom floor and entered history."
Actually, he had entered it some time before, with his appearances on Ed Sullivan's Sunday night variety show, which in those days of only three networks seemed to be watched by the entire country. Elvis did some path-breaking gyrations there -- triggering a generation's worth of earnest theorizing on the nation's socio-sexual perturbations -- but looking back on the old TV clips, what's most striking now is how nice he seemed, at least when he finished a number and stopped swiveling: like a fresh-faced, respectful kid just off the Greyhound to start a job at the shoe store.
Not long after the Sullivan shows, he went into the Army, as was expected of healthy young men at the time, then made an endless number of hit records -- most of which wouldn't offend anybody -- and turned out several dozen unmemorable movies that would not, as we recall, merit even a PG-13.
He died young, but not quite young enough to escape the temptations of aging show business figures in general and Las Vegas entertainers in particular. His excesses made him a figure of fun to some in his final years, but today record companies are doing him the posthumous honor of trying to exploit his talents once again. To judge by the attention paid during this month's anniversary, Elvis is likely to be reentering history every now and then for some time to come. And while his life and death contain elements of tragedy, there is this to be thankful for: He is not, at age 67, struggling to belt out "Blue Suede Shoes" on one of those public TV fundraising specials.
- Groucho vs. Elvis: Is Marx the Real King of Pop Culture? You Bet Your Life!
By Buck Wolf
(ABC News, August 13, 2002)
... According to news reports, Groucho had died on Aug. 19, 1977, just three days after Elvis. But if one man could leading a secret life, why can't it be a double death hoax? Call Oliver Stone! I think I've plotted his next movie, Elvis and Groucho Lost in America.
Elvis 'The Stubbed Toe' Presley
Ironically, in the late 1950s, the president of the Elvis Presley Fan Club appeared on You Bet Your Life. True to form, Groucho was so unimpressed, he didn't think her club was worth talking about. Here's what happened:
Groucho: "Are you interested in matrimony?"
Fan Club President: "Indeed I am."
Groucho: "Do you have any other interests?"
Fan Club President: "You haven't mentioned Elvis Presley."
Groucho: "I seldom do, unless I stub my toe."
Needless to say, the Elvis Presley Fan Club never had Groucho Marx as a member.
- Elvis faithful stay together through fan clubs around the world
By WOODY BAIRD
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, August 21, 2002)
For retiree Rosina O'Connor, being in an Elvis Presley fan club brings a special reward: "It keeps him closer to you." O'Connor is a member of the one in Glasgow, Scotland, one of the 435 official Elvis Presley fan clubs spread across the globe.
... For fans of all ages, joining an Elvis club is for more than just socializing, though that's a big part of the attraction, too. They say, seemingly without variation, it's also to help keep Presley's memory alive. ...
Managers of the Presley estate, the multi-million-dollar Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc., see that value, too. And the estate likes to keep its business affairs under tight control. ... Now, to become a "sanctioned" fan club, Graceland's permission is required. "They're all over the world. It's really amazing," said Patsy Andersen, Graceland's fan club coordinator. "We have one in Croatia, even in Malaysia. We've got one in Istanbul." The clubs must sign an annual agreement with Graceland to conduct themselves in "an honorable, dignified way," Andersen said. Graceland tightly controls the use of Presley's name. If a fan club wants to make its own T-shirts or put on a fund-raising dance, it has to get Graceland's OK. The T-shirt designs and party plans must be approved, too. Many clubs raise money for various charities, and members readily note their memory of Presley as a generous person. To foster good fan relations, Graceland invites club officers to Memphis annually and gives them the red-carpet treatment with a dinner and meetings with estate officials. The clubs also are kept abreast of the latest news at Graceland. Organizational help is provided to groups wanting to form new clubs. Anyone wanting to join a club can call Graceland or go to www.elvis.com on the Internet to locate a group they might like.
- Proud Elvis collector surrounded by the King
By Louie Villalobos
(Florida Times-Union, August 21, 2002)
It's a house decorated for a king. The mix of Elvis commemorative plates and Elvis dolls draws a visitor's eyes to the collection of Elvis mugs next to the Elvis pictures. That's just one wall in one room of Laura Tinney's Columbia County home. "It's our little Graceland," Tinney said while wearing Elvis earrings that match her Elvis necklaces, which is concealed by her Elvis shirt, tucked under her Elvis belt buckle. The proud 55-year-old talks about her favorite singer while pointing to almost each of her approximately 1,000 collectibles.
- Elvis fan from Indiana reports being shot, robbed, dumped
By Jimmie Covington
(gomemphis.com, August 21, 2002)
Collierville police are investigating the case of an Indiana man who said he was shot and robbed by a woman and a man inCollierville after getting into a van with them in the Beale Street area. Capt. T. E. McCaskill said the man, identified as Tim Miller, 43, was found early Sunday at Byhalia and Collierville roads by a motorist who took him to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Collierville. McCaskill said the man, who was later transferred to the Regional Medical Center at Memphis, was wounded in the leg and was scheduled to be released Tuesday.
- Nissans & Cadillacs & Elvis just goes on
By DAVID HINCKLEY
(New York Daily News, August 20, 2002)
So I'm cruising down I-240 working my way over to the Highway 51 exit when zoom, Elvis cuts me off. He's driving a red Nissan Maxima, maybe a '97. He's checking his hair in the rearview mirror It's 7:20 on a muggy Memphis morning, and he's late to work. Now the real Elvis would be just turning in around 7:20 a.m. But since he died in 1977, the personal-appearance part of his work is carried on by thousands of Elvis tribute artists, most of whom blanketed the town all last week. When a rainstorm of Biblical proportions delayed Thursday's candlelight vigil, I ducked into a storefront with the Elvis Fan Club of Denmark, four nice Texas ladies wearing orange plastic bags and three Elvises. Plus a knockout blond who wanted a picture with all three. Even 25 years gone, Elvis gets the girl. A lot of what today's Elvises do is photo-ops. When they aren't singing, theycirculate and pose with fans, who are quite good-humored about it. They'll take their Elvis associations where they find them, which is why people who actually knew Elvis, like disc jockey George Klein, could make a living as full-time friends of Elvis. In fact, some do. Leslie Alexander isn't on the circuit, but he went to Humes High with Elvis. Played touch football with him. If asked, he'll tell you Elvis was a nice guy. "Too nice," says Alexander. "People took advantage of him. But he was generous to a fault. The first money he made, he bought washers and dryers for the Humes football team. One time I know personally, he was at Madison Cadillac and there was a black couple by one of the cars. The salesman asked if he could help and they said no, they just liked to come down to look at their dream. Elvis heard 'em and said, 'Give it to 'em.'"
- DJ's Elvis concert tape finally hits the big time
By ANGELA SIMONEAUX
(The Advocate Online News, August 20, 2002)
It didn't take Ray Green long to make the first recording of an Elvis concert. "He only sang a few songs, the scoundrel," Green says. But it took nearly 50 years to get that recording released. This summer, a 46-year dream came true for Green when his recording of The King's 1956 Little Rock, Ark., concert was released as part of "Elvis Today, Tomorrow and Forever." The four-CD set features "100 rare or previously unheard outtakes, private recordings and concert recordings" that chronicle the performer's career.
- West Nile Virus Takes a Bite Out of Dragonball, Becoming Most Searched Term on the Internet; Web Users Get All Shook Up, Pushing Elvis Into Top Ten
Source: Terra Lycos
(Yahoo! Finance, August 20, 2002)
Terra Lycos, the largest global Internet network, today announced the following information from The Lycos 50(TM), the 50 most popular user searches for the week ending August 17, 2002. Elvis Presley is number 6 on the list. Lisa Marie Presley is number 42, as people search for information about her secret Hawaiian wedding to Nicolas Cage. Although short of making the list, searches for Priscilla Presley also went up 1,600 percent this week.
- New mysteries feature Elvis as crime-solver
(Nando Times / Associated Press, August 20, 2002)
Elvis the amateur sleuth. The King lives on in many ways, and one of those ways is as an amateur crime-solver in the novels of Daniel Klein. The titles are enough to interest the legions of Presley fans: Kill Me Tender, Blue Suede Clues, and one due out next year called Viva Las Vengeance. Klein says he got the idea of Elvis as sleuth after reading that Presley had an interest in law enforcement manuals and forensic guides and had a collection of law enforcement badges.
- Elvis hype was way overblown
By Stanley Crouch
(Tallahassee Democrat, August 20, 2002)
All the hoopla about Elvis Presley last week seems to me to have been largely wrongheaded because too many things were mixed up. Presley was an important cultural figure, but he was not an artist; he was an entertainer. His "revolution" was not at all musical because he was not capable of making a musical revolution. His abilities were too small for anything of that sort. He was no Louis Armstrong or any derivation of that level of talent, the sort of genius who provides truly new ways of expressing the human condition. Those claims for Elvis are bunk. Those who claim that he symbolizes the supreme example of the white man stealing the music of black people are serving equal portions of hogwash. All artists and all entertainers steal from one another. When they are sufficiently gifted, they don't really remind others, even fellow professionals, of their sources.
The idea that Elvis was something new in the game is also out of pocket. The tradition of white musicians making use of what they heard from black musicians is just as true as the fact that black musicians, whenever they heard something they liked, put it in their music, no matter where it came from. What people mean when they go into that is that Elvis got the gold that others "should" have gotten.
But that is not Elvis' fault. What I find most amusing about Elvis now is that he was, like all who deeply appeal to adolescents, corny. ... Like most adolescent things, Elvis Presley was himself disposable, finally.
Comments to: scrouch@edit.nydailynews.com
- Bennett wins world Elvis title
By Deon Roberts
(Daily Star, August 19, 2002)
On Sunday, Brandon Bennett left with the honor of being the youngest person to win th biggens Elvis competition in the world. He competed in the Images of the King competition last week. The contest was spread over the course of several days with awards presented afte the last round of competition Saturday night. More than 80 Elvis wannabes from around the globe entered the 17-year-old contest this year.
- ELVIS' SON AND HAIR
(DQ Daily News, August 19, 2002)
A man who claims to be the son of Elvis Presley is hoping to be proved right, thanks to modern science and a lock of hair. Jason Peter Presley, 31, wants to submit clippings from the King's head to DNA tests but first he must get permission from the fan who owns the hair, Memphis city official Tom Morgan. And sadly Morgan, who received the jet-black strands in a Taystee bread bag from Elvis' former barber Homer Gilleland, doesn't sound too willing to cooperate. "One legend's enough," he tells reporters. Jason Presley was born nine months after his mother, Patricia Parker, reportedly enjoyed a one-night stand with Elvis in Las Vegas, in 1969. Primitive blood tests, demanded by Presley at the time, showed that he could be the father without being conclusive. But the proof is in the offspring. "I look a lot like him," says Jason. "I've got his hair, his hairline, his eyes. I'm willing to do whatever I've got to do." As a last resort, Jason has said that he may ask Elvis' daughter, newlywed Lisa Marie, to undergo a DNA test to see if they could be siblings. As the sole heir to her Daddy's $100 million estate, we're sure she'd be delighted to help outŠ
- 19-year-old wins top prize at Elvis impersonating contest - dlrs 1,500 for new jumpsuit
By Clare Cook
(Yahoo! News, August 19, 2002)
At 19, Elvis Presley was still into his cool cat look. But Memphis' newest Elvis headliner, also 19, likes the King's jumpsuit style.
After a weeklong Elvis impersonator contest, Brandon Bennett of Ponchatoula, Louisiana, was named winner following a set of four songs, including "Viva Las Vegas" delivered in a bespangled jumpsuit.
- Did Elvis own this Cadillac?
By Clare Cook
(Lancashire Evening Telegraph, August 19, 2002)
A PINK cadillac registered to Elvis Presley has been taken off the market as an international investigation into the car's history is launched. The classic 20-ft monster was put up for sale by car collector Ted Lethbridge, who recently retired to Spain, as fans were marking the 25th anniversary of the star's death. John Wallwark, who was put in charge of selling the remaining classic cars in Mr Lethbridge's collection at Mill Hill car yard, Blackburn, took a closer look at the car's registration documents after seeing a television programme on Elvis. And he found that the American certificate of titlement, the equivalent of the British log book, revealed that Elvis Aaron Presley was the registered owner of the Coupe de Ville cadillac in 1960. But so much interest has been generated by the discovery that the owner is re-thinking the original £15,000 asking price. And experts on both sides of the world are researching the VFO 302 registration to check out its authenticity. One expert believes the Coupe De Ville cadillac could at one point have been a present to Elvis's friend Marty Lacker.
- Gwent all shook up over Elvis
By Tom Whiteley
(This is Gwent, August 19, 2002)
[Wales] - IF YOU'RE going out in Gwent this week, be careful not to step on anyone's blue suede shoes - or you could get all shook up. Because the 25th anniversary of the King's death last Friday has sparked a wave of Elvis fever across the area. Carol Mutlow, owner of Hannah's Music in Chepstow, last week decided to spark a little more conversation by placing a life-size statue of the King in the window. She said: 'It was worth it because we've had lots of people looking in the window and calling in.' Byron Harris, of Music Hitman, in Newport said: 'Interest really picked up on Friday morning - it was something we all definitely noticed. 'People were coming in and checking out the box sets, and we've sold shedloads of Elvis albums. Anything with his American Trilogy on seemed to go straight out the door.' William Durrant, manager of HMV in Newport, agreed: 'There's been quite a lot of interest in Elvis - and sales have gone up big time. 'The anniversary and his number one single have put him back in the public's mind and people in Newport are going mad for it. 'And there's people of every age buying it, from older ones who used to have all the albums on vinyl, to people in their 20s who are getting into Elvis for the first time.'
Carl Cottrell manages Cwmbran entertainment agency DMC Productions. He said: `On Friday night we did a karaoke and we had four or five people up singing Elvis stuff - normally we'd have one, if that. `A guy who normally does Tom Jones songs was doing Elvis instead. There's an amazing amount of talent about - but Elvis couldn't have been among them because the oldest was about 50.' And fancy-dress hire company Danceland in Newport reported that all their Elvis costumes were on loan over the weekend.
There was even a reported sighting of the King at The George in Maindee on Friday night - but according to bar staff the man in white had only donned the costume as a surprise for his wife's birthday. A barman said: `The guy was up singing and it was pretty amusing - but he definitely wasn't Elvis.'
- In depth: Elvis 25 years later
(CNN, August 19, 2002)
Before there was Madonna, before there was Eminem, before there was Sting or Cher or Bono, there was Elvis. Twenty-five years after his death, music and popular culture still bear Elvis Presley's influence. He was, and remains, the King.
- Nicolas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley's surprise nuptials
(CNN, August 19, 2002)
Let ordinary fans flock to Memphis to honor the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Nicolas Cage marked the occasion by marrying the King's only heir. Nearly two years after Cage, 38, met Lisa Marie Presley, 34, at a party hosted by Ramones guitarist Johnny Ramone, the two were wed in a simple ceremony shortly before sunset on August 10 on the big island of Hawaii.
- Elvis, a lamb with a death wish, has rescuers all shook up
(Northern Echo, August 19, 2002)
ELVIS the lamb left firefighters lost for words when he made a dash for a 70ft clifftop - moments after they had rescued him from a ledge 10ft down. Bent on doing it My Way again, it was Now or Never as the wayward lamb came within inches of the precipitous drop. But he was forced to Surrender when a bystander tackled him to the ground.
- Elvis Hits Collection Gets Royal Treatment
By Derek Caney
(Lycos, August 18, 2002)
"Elvis is in your jeans." "He's in your cheeseburgers." "Elvis is in Nutty Buddies!" "Elvis is in your mom!" Never has punk novelty act Mojo Nixon's 1987 song "Elvis is Everywhere"+ been more accurate than now. In the year of the 25th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death, the King of rock 'n' roll topped the British charts. His songs grace Walt Disney's "Lilo & Stitch" movie soundtrack. Hundreds of thousands of fans each year converge at Graceland, his home in Memphis, to pay homage to "The King." Now, taking a page from the handbook of his most loyal subjects, The Beatles, his record company will release on Sept. 24 "Elvis 30 #1 Hits," a new collection of his chart-topping tunes with vastly improved sound aimed at reaching a new generation of fans.
- Elvis, Still Very Big Business
By Ellis Henican
(Newsday, August 18, 2002)
Don't be cruel. Just tell me, when is this Elvis anniversary orgy ever going to end? I like the King. I do. The pre-Vegas, pre-jumpsuit, pre-bloated King, anyway. He had cool hair, for the Fifties. He had that wonderful sneer. He came from Mississippi, which is close to Louisiana. He wasn't Bing Crosby, thank God, not even close. He helped to midwife rock-and-roll. He got white people listening to what had been black music, even if he did grab most of the money and the credit for his ex-carnie manager and himself. True enough. But that news about Elvis is - what? - half a century old.And yet, for a solid two weeks now, it's been wall-to-wall Elvis around here, a genuine Elvis explosion, Elvis and more Elvis everywhere - a media overdose of Elvis so mind-numbingly huge, I figure it could only come from the prescription pad of Dr. Nick. Elvis may have left the building 25 years ago. But his diehard fans still won't let the poor boy off the stage. Friday, as you surely know if you haven't been in a coma, was the anniversary of Elvis Presley's 1977 death - a death that even his starry-eyed fans haven't found a way to glamorize.
Comments to henican@newsday.com
- 25 years on, Elvis is back in the building
By Roy Eccleston
(Weekend Australian, August 17-18, 2002, p. 16)
Eccleston wonders why Elvis is still so popular, given the nature of his demise, and whether his popularity will continue as the ageing fans dwindle in number. According to some fans, Elvis has an aura and is timeless. One accademic identifies Elvis' mix of styles as a jet to his success. According to another academic, Elvis' continued fame remains "a mystery".
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