Late December 2002
- Elvis sightings to leave library patrons all shook up
(newsOK.com, December 24, 2002)
Elvis Presley will be shaking up Metropolitan Library System customers the week of Jan. 6-11 with a series of appearances at area libraries. "It's hard to imagine that Elvis would have been 68 years old on Jan. 8, but our Elvis will be a lot younger than that," said Scott Carter, director of public relations. "This is an Elvis you'll recognize." Geoffrey Voss, a musical theater major at the University of Oklahoma, will portray The King. Voss has appeared in more than a dozen live productions and one independent film. Carter said the library system plans to put Elvis to work. If Elvis is the person who helps you check out books, compact discs or videos, ask him to sign your receipt. You can then take the receipt to the KOMA radio studio and claim an Elvis CD. "Elvis will also be happy to pose for pictures," Carter said, "and you might even convince him to sing a bar or two from one of his songs." And Jan. 10 will be Dress as Your Favorite Elvis Day for Metro Libraries staff and customers, Carter said. Appearances include: Jan. 6 -- Del City and Midwest City. Jan. 8 -- Ralph Ellison and Choctaw.
- Christmas Elvis entertains in couple's front yard
(WRICTV8, December 25, 2002)
If you're searching for Elvis this Christmas season, look no further than the front yard of Richard and Barbara Green's house. The King is holding forth on a stage built by the Gloucester), Virginia, couple, belting out songs from his holiday album every weekend night through New Year's. The Greens have been decorating their home and yard with thousands of lights and figurines for the past 20 years. The life-size Elvis statue is a fairly new addition, and this year, Richard bought an old Cadillac for 200 dollars, painted it pink and added it to the show. Barbara says they've only had one complaint about the display -- too loud. That was the same complaint Elvis heard more than 40 years ago.
- Mahwah couple's holiday display draws crowds of admirers
By BOB IVRY
(North Jersey News, December 24, 2002)
Josette Gernhardt stands on her front porch, cigarette squeezed between her manicured fingers, glasses low on her nose. "I love it!" she says in her tangy French accent. The view is, at least this time of year, one of the most famous in the region, and certainly the biggest holiday draw in Mahwah. Seventeen million Christmas lights festoon the three-acre yard of Gernhardt's neighbors, Tony and Shani Destro. On the roof: two Santas (one arriving via helicopter), the RCA dog, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Elvis, and Marilyn (her dress flying up à la "Seven Year Itch"). A replica Statue of Liberty floats in a pond in the back yard. Wire reindeer play.
- Bizarre behaviour makes for memorable pop year
(ctv.ca, December 24, 2002)
It's been an eventful year in pop music -- the return of hard-edged rock 'n' roll, the tattooed foul-mouthed father of three redefining family values, the boy-band singer who tried to become an astronaut and the scrawny kid from small town Ontario continuing the Canadian diva tradition. But once the dust of 2002 settles, it's most likely the music industry memory of the year will be the televised images of Michael Jackson precariously dangling his squirming toddler over a balcony in Germany. The once-mighty 44-year-old "King of Pop" started baffling fans earlier in the year when he called Tommy Mottola, chairman of Sony Music, a racist and "very devilish" after Jackson's latest album, Invincible, failed to become the blockbuster he'd hoped for. Next he appeared sporting a surgical mask in a California courtroom to face a $21 million lawsuit by his longtime concert promoter who accuses the singer of backing out of two millennium shows on New Year's Eve 1999. When Jackson removed the mask, what was underneath was even more startling: a tiny nose, its cartilage exposed, apparently inalterably damaged from years of botched plastic surgery. If that wasn't enough to leave observers aghast, days later Jackson dangled his baby son, Prince Michael II, from a hotel balcony with a cloth draped over the child's head. It was a move that left even some fans gathered below looking horrified. Thankfully, there was lots of music news besides Jackson's erratic behaviour. ... Old-fashioned, guitar-driven rock 'n' roll made a triumphant return with the remix of Elvis Presley's A Little Less Conversation earning him another No. 1 hit on the 25th anniversary of his death; the Rolling Stones returning to Toronto to rehearse for a world tour; Paul McCartney hitting the road; and the release of a Nirvana track after Kurt Cobain's wife Courtney Love settled with the label over music rights. ...
- BUSHELL ON THE BOX: VARIETY'S A DEAD LOSS FOR PRINCE
(icSurreyOnline, December 24, 2002)
VARIETY isn't dead but last week's Royal show felt like a televised autopsy. Gareth Gates sings Elvis? I ask you. That's like Dean Gaffney playing De Niro. What will they have next year, Ashley Peacock sings Barry White? Perhaps producer Kevin Bishop's brain has been corroded by over-exposure to the naff pop acts he booked. Bond "tributes" from Liberty X and Will Young (who must never be allowed to talk on stage again) were followed by third-raters like dull ventriloquist Paul Zerdin, who has been doing that ugly routine on TV since 1996. Oi, pretty boy, invest in new material or sod off. The show had no compere, little coherence, and half-way through for reasons that defy logic, the BBC broke away to the news. WHY? Nothing had happened. Their lead story was: Our railways don't work. Do they think we don't know this already? ...
- I'm gonna be Elvis this Christmas
By Aidan Radnedge
(this is Eastbourne, December 24, 2002)
All Ray Colwell wants for Christmas is to change his name to Elvis. Ray, deputy court keeper at Brighton Magistrates Court, is already known as Elvis to colleagues, police officers, magistrates and prisoners. Solicitor Andreas Serghis suggested he might as well change his name legally and be known as Elvis Aaron Colwell. Mr Serghis offered to handle all the legal arrangements in time for Christmas. The front room of Ray's home in Forge Close, Portslade, features a shrine to the King, including posters, calendars, clocks, medals and records. He also performs as Presley three times a year at a holiday camp in Devon. Ray, 41, said: "Changing my name is something I have had on my mind for a long time. "It makes sense - no one calls me Ray. When I told my wife, she just laughed. "A lot of paperwork will need changing, such as my passport and my bank details, but it will be worth it. "His music means so much to me and thousands of others."
- RCA's ELV1S 30 #1 HITS DVD-Audio Debuts At No. 1
Source: RCA Records
(Yahoo! Finance / PRNewswire, December 23, 2002)
The record-breaking success of RCA Records' compilation of the 30 definitive #1 singles of Elvis Presley reached a new level as BMG and RCA announced today that ELV1S 30 #1 HITS DVD-Audio debuted at No. 1. The DVD-Audio, released on December 10 as BMG's first ever DVD-Audio, follows the success of the ELV1S 30 #1 HITS CD, released by RCA Records on September 24. The CD made history by becoming the first album ever released by Elvis Presley to debut at the top of the charts in the U.S. To date ELV1S 30 #1 HITS has sold over 8 million albums worldwide.
- The Blue Cross RiverRink is Rockin' with . . . 'SKATE WITH ELVIS'
Source: Penn's Landing Corporation
(Yahoo! Finance / Primezone, December 23, 2002)
From ``Jailhouse Rock'' to ``Blue Suede Shoes,'' there will be nothin' but hound dogs at the Blue Cross RiverRink on Saturday, January 11 from 3 to 6 p.m. during ``SKATE WITH ELVIS.'' This special attraction during regular Saturday ice skating hours with be filled with fun when WXTU's Cadillac Jack is the deejay spinnin' those great ol' Elvis hits while ice skaters rock n' roll on the Olympic-size rink at the Blue Cross RiverRink on Festival Pier at Penn's Landing, Columbus Boulevard and Spring Garden Streets in Philadelphia. Calling himself Cadillac Elvis for this event, the popular radio host known as Cadillac Jack was born in Chicago and at the young age of three was already an Elvis fan. He always wanted to imitate him, he admits. ``Being a deejay playing his music is great fun for me,'' he said.
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