Mid November 2002
Other news: [ Circle G Ranch developments ] [ Elvis in Asia ]
- Clive to Drive RCA Music
By Justin Oppelaar
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, November 20, 2002)
Clive Davis is back in the saddle at Bertelsmann Music Group.
Ending weeks of feverish speculation in the record business, the major-label group is fully absorbing J Records, its 50/50 venture with Davis, into the newly formed RCA Music Group, and handing the whole shebang over to the veteran music executive. ... For the moment both labels [BMG and RCA] will stick to standard operating procedure for the holiday-sales season -- by far the busiest time of year for the record industry. RCA, in particular, is banking on the continued success of its Elvis Presley hits collection to keep the registers ringing over the holidays.
- Clive Davis returns to the fold at BMG
By Peter Thal Larsen
(Yahoo! Finance, November 19, 2002)
Bertelsmann's music division, BMG, on Tuesday merged two of its record labels in a move that puts Clive Davis, the renowned record executive, in charge of a roster of artists ranging from Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys to the late Elvis Presley.
- Another great gig in a lifetime of music
By Andy Vineberg
(Bucks County Courier Times, November 19, 2002)
Bucky Harris, still spry at 79, bounces around the cluttered music studio inside his Levittown home, rummaging through boxes of cassette tapes as another melody drifts into his head. The man who hung out with Liberace, worked as Bobby Rydell's vocal coach and offered professional advice to a young Elvis Presley has collected more than 50 years of memories inside that studio. If Harris has played it, written it, arranged it, sang it, chances are it's there somewhere. Unfortunately, he's not nearly as adept at labeling the tapes as he is at making the music. "So many tapes, I don't what the heck I did with them all," Harris says, handing out the cassettes like a grandmother hands out cookies. ... After a gig with Billy Duke at the New Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas in 1956, Harris was approached by a young rock 'n' roll singer named Elvis Presley. "(Elvis) wasn't feeling very well about his performance," Arden says. "Bucky was giving him advice, although he didn't think he had any possibilities." "I just thought he was a hillbilly who played guitar," Harris recalls. "But he was very nice. I told him, 'we've all got a job to do, just go out and do it.'"
- Chewing the Fat with Nigella Lawson
By Thane Peterson
(Yahoo! Finance / BusinessWeek Online, November 19, 2002)
If -- Star Trek-style -- I could beam up anyone in the world to cook Thanksgiving dinner at my house this year, my first choice would be the London-based food writer Nigella Lawson, who seems to be everywhere these days. She has three best-selling cookbooks out: How to Eat, How to Be a Domestic Goddess, and, most recently, Nigella Bites. Plus, she has a Style Network cooking show [also called Nigella Bites] and sometimes writes cooking articles for The New York Times.
Lawson is socially prominent. Her father is British Conservative Party politician Nigel Lawson, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer -- that's what thry call the budget honcho on the other side of the Atlantic -- in the 1980s. And her companion these days is Charles Saatchi, the wealthy advertising man and art collector. But she loves rich food and is entirely unpretentious about what she eats. Her latest cookbook, for instance, includes recipes for such trashy food as Elvis' fried peanut butter and banana sandwich and ham cooked in Coca-Cola.
- Elvis' hair, JFK's drug list: Celebs never rest in peace
By RICHARD ROEPER
(Sun-Times, November 18, 2002)
Elvis and JFK. Beyond
legendary, long gone--but still
making news over the weekend.
First the King, then the
president.
Last month, an Oak
Brook-based company called
MastroNet Inc. began an
auction for a hunka-hunka hair
from Elvis Presley's head. The
ball of dyed-black hair reportedly
had been clipped and saved by
Presley's longtime barber Homer
Gilleland, who kept it in a plastic
bag for years before giving it to
a friend, Tom Morgan, who put
the hair in play this year
because he wanted to fund his
retirement.
Gilleland died in 1995. No DNA
testing has been done on the
hair. However, some
celebrity-hair experts--and yes,
apparently there is such a field--offered testimonials stating the hair indeed was the King's.
However, without a DNA comparison there's just no way to confirm the hair's authenticity. At some
point you just gotta believe.
Now, if by some circumstance you were to come across a ball of greasy dyed-black Elvis-hair, would
you say "Yuck!" and sweep it into the garbage, or would you say "Yuck!" and put it in a plastic
baggie and give it to some Presley-loving friend as a jokey present?
Amazingly, the answer is neither. What you should do is put the hair in a jar, obtain expert
testimony from your friendly neighborhood celebrity-hair-collectible specialists, strike a deal with an
online auction firm and sit back and wait for the insane bidding frenzy to begin.
By last Saturday morning, an undisclosed collector had agreed to pay $115,000 for that small jar of
Elvis clippings. No word yet on what the winning bidder plans to do with the hair, though one
imagines it will go on display in some type of creepy Elvis-theme "museum" featuring hundreds of
garish items connected to a dead pop singer who is worshipped by millions as some sort of
modern-day saint.
In the meantime, if you're a fabulously wealthy and slightly deranged Elvis-obsessed collector and
you missed out on the hairball, don't despair. As we speak, Presley's "personal lion's claw
necklace," perhaps the most hideous single piece of jewelry in the history of humankind, is available
on eBay, with a minimum bid of $250,000.
But can you really put a price on a religious artifact?
***
Hours after bidding closed on the Elvis hairball, reports began to surface about the first
comprehensive examination of President John F. Kennedy's medical records--and we learned that
at times Kennedy was taking eight medications a day, only four fewer than Elvis circa 1977.
Historian Robert Dallek, who is working on a biography of Kennedy, will publish some of his findings
in the December issue of the Atlantic; in the meantime, Dallek talked to the New York Times.
We knew that Kennedy suffered from excruciating back pains and he had Addison's disease, a
potentially life-threatening adrenal problem. But the Times reports that Kennedy was often
hospitalized for back problems and intestinal ailments in the 1950s and 1960s--without the public's
knowledge.
As president, he would take "seven or eight injections of procaine in his back in the same sitting"
before public appearances, according to a physician who examined the records with Dallek.
Kennedy had severe abdominal cramps. He was in so much pain from vertebrae damage caused
by osteoporosis that he couldn't put a sock and shoe on his left foot without help.
He took a thyroid hormone; Demerol, methadone and codeine for pain; Ritalin as a stimulant;
barbiturates to come down; librium and meprobamate for anxiety; gamma globulin to battle
infections. Suffering from spastic colitis that caused severe diarrhea, he took anti-diarrheal drugs
that caused him to lose so much weight that he had to counter them with doses of the male
hormone, testosterone. And the adrenal insufficiency caused fatigue, vomiting and low blood
pressure.
It's evident that the images of a vigorous JFK playing touch football, sailing and cavorting with his
young children must have left the president wincing in pain once he was behind closed doors.
Which brings up the other thought--the thought that was not explored in the New York Times article.
For years, we've been told that the White House in the early 1960s saw more action than the
Playboy Mansion, with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Judith Campbell Exner to a roster of
bimbos bedding the president. Obviously, Kennedy wasn't monogamous--but given what we know
about his physical condition, can all the tales be true?
If Kennedy's libido really did trump all that pain, wow. That's just one more area in which Bill Clinton
couldn't match his hero.
- Teens Invited to Submit Original Songs to Statewide Contest
Source: Chief Operator Teen Driver Program
(Yahoo! Finance / Businesswire, November 18, 2002)
Do you know a teen who dreams of music stardom? A California traffic safety program is offering them a chance to showcase their talents!
The Chief Operator Teen Driver Program is currently recruiting California middle school and high school students to submit original songs or rap compositions that promote responsible driving. Themes may range from drinking and driving to peer pressures, preventable car accidents, and the importance of buckling up. This project is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the Business Transportation and Housing Agency. ... The Chief Operator Teen Driver Program also provides musical traffic safety presentations by police officers known as Elvis & The Lawmen, who are available for school assemblies and community events at no cost. The program's spokesman, Police Lieutenant Bill "Elvis" Palmini, has conducted over 500 traffic safety school and community events across 15 states and in Canada.
- Bruce, Norah join "Elvis": The King rocks on with NBC Special
By Augustin Sedgewick
(Rolling Stone, November 18, 2002)
Bruce Springsteen, Norah Jones, Cher and Steven Tyler are the latest artists to sign on to NBC's "Elvis Lives!", a tribute the King set to air Thanksgiving night (November 28th) at 10 pm, ET. They'll join previously announced guests Britney Spears, Bono, Tom Petty, Sheryl Crow, No Doubt, Dave Matthew and Leann Rimes to perform Elvis' hit and offer commentary on his continuing influence and legacy.
- From Vitale to Walton, ESPN's Nessler feels the eccentricity
By Michael Hiestand
(Yahoo! News / USA TODAY, November 18, 2002)
BC/ESPN's Brad Nessler, like most play-by-play announcers, could end up with all kinds of on-air analyst partners. But this seems like a rigged Pick Six bet paying off: After teaming for a decade on college hoops with the idiosyncratic Dick Vitale, Nessler moves on to work NBA games with another unorthodox type -- Bill Walton. Nessler, who also calls college football, takes away this lasting Vitale memory: ''Now I can imagine what it must have been like to work with Elvis. People flock to Dick. Not just in arenas, but in hotels, airports, everywhere.''
- Elvis Hair Sells for Over $100,000
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 16, 2002)
A hunka hunka Elvis hair has a new home. A wad of Presley's jet black locks, about the size of a baseball, sold at auction Saturday for $115,120. The bidder was anonymous.
MastroNet Inc., a suburban Oak Brook Internet auction house, listed the hair in a sale that began last month and ended about 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Bidding started at $10,000. Thirty-two bids were placed, said Julie Stoklosa, spokeswoman for MastroNet.
"As soon as one bid would be placed, it would get hit again. It was quite fun," she said.
A hair sample from a favorite celebrity gives a fan "an association much more personal than that of a simple autograph," a catalog from the auction said. The Elvis locks were collected by the king of rock 'n' roll's former hairstylist, Homer "Mr. Gill" Gilleland, said Brian Marren, MastroNet vice president of acquisitions. Gilleland, now deceased, gave the hair to friend Tom Morgan, who sold it through the auction house. The clippings, which Gilleland had in a plastic bag, are now kept in a jar with a vacuum seal.
- Figure Skater Weiss Wins Lalique
By PAMELA SAMPSON
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, November 16, 2002)
PARIS - American Michael Weiss skated a clean, emotionally charged free program Saturday, rallying from fifth place to win the Lalique Trophy. ... In the ice dancing, Belbin and Agosto skated to a medley of Elvis Presley songs, while Grushina and Goncharov used innovative steps like a handstand by Grushina on her partner's skates.
- Canada Kinder To U2 Best-Of Than U.S.
By Gary Graff
(Yahoo! News / LAUNCH Music, November 15, 2002)
U2's The Best Of 1990-2000 was bested by Eminem's 8 Mile soundtrack in the U.S., but the Irish quartet prevailed north of the border. The Best Of 1990-2000 is the Number One album in Canada, with first-week sales of nearly 56,000, topping the Number Two 8 Mile by more than 11,300 copies. U2 guitarist the Edge tells LAUNCH that he sees music as a way to reach people on a deep, personal plane. ... U2 is not the only classic rock favorite in the Canadian top 10 this week: Elvis Presley's Elvis 30 #1 Hits sits at Number Five, Santana's Shaman is Number Nine, and the Rolling Stones' Forty Licks is Number 10.
- A Considerable Town: The Performer's Life
By Adam Davidson
(Yahoo! News / Los Angeles Weekly, November 15, 2002)
EVERY SATURDAY IN THE BIG OPEN SPACE IN THE OLD FARMERS Market (where it's still possible to pretend that the new Vegas-like Grove shopping mall next door doesn't exist), some tables are pushed aside to make room for a stage and a few large speakers. It starts getting crowded early -- all tables are taken by 7 -- and then there's a wild scramble for the next hour as strangers come up and beg to sit next to you. ... By the time the karaoke starts at 8, the sign-up sheet is filled for the night. ... There's the young, skinny Vegas guy who is decked out in a leisure suit, gigantic Elvis glasses, big chain and open polyester shirt. It's hard to tell if he's kidding or not, but who cares? His dance moves are so original (especially the one where he leans back like he's going for some limbo world record as his arms and hands shake toward his partner) that you're just glad he's there.
- World's Biggest Liar fends off opposition
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, November 14, 2002)
LONDON -- The World's Biggest Liar has kept his title for a second year, fending off competitors at a northern pub by boasting of his exploits on a wooden motorcycle. George Kemp, 35, told how he rode a balsa wood motorcycle to victory at the Isle of Man TT race, stopping to take advice from formula one driver Nigel Mansell who was walking his dog on the course. "It was very tight this year," competition organiser Ian Congdon said by phone from the Bridge Inn, Santon Bridge, where competitors were still noisily celebrating. "It could have gone any way between two or three people." One competitor boasted of how he had disproved a theory that French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte had only one testicle, while another told of an expedition to Africa where he had met Elvis Presley.
- Vegas Elvises All Shook Up Over Pay Rise
(Yahoo! News / Variety, November 14, 2002)
Ersatz Elvises received a healthy raise this week. As part of a new agreement with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Board of Directors, stand-ins for the rock 'n' roll icon will receive $650 per daily appearance, up from $350. The new figure is nearly double the amount that model showgirls are paid for similar four-hour gigs. Nonetheless, the talent agencies that book "meet and greet" Elvis impersonators for trade shows, marketing events and such feel they are getting a good deal. "We rely on Elvis impersonators to generate foot traffic into our booth and to generate excitement," said board spokesman Terry Jicinsky.
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