Mid December 2003
- Lions Club holiday gala features Elvis, Santa
(nola.com / Times-Picayne, December 21 2003)
Elvis was seen recently at the Mandeville Lions Club along with the jolly old fellow, Saint Nick. Michael Allsure of Slidell was the entertainer for the Mandeville Lions Club Christmas celebration. Mandeville Police Chief Tom Buell and other officers escorted Santa Claus and gave out boxes of chocolate-covered cherries during the meeting. ...
- From Dickens to Disney
(Guardian, December 20 2003)
In film, literature and in music, Christmas has come to signal a feast of sentimentality. But, in the best, there's a darkness under the blanket of snow, says Blake Morrison, and a hint of the alien beyond the glow of the hearth...
[About three-quarters of the way through the article]
... In fact, the Americans and British have been in cahoots over Christmas for more than 200 years, swapping and refining each other's customs but studiously avoiding major innovations. Things are done in a certain way because they've always been done that way, and it's blasphemous to modernise the script. In a job on a newspaper's literary pages once, I was keen to publish a nativity ode by a highly respected contemporary poet. But, in its evocation of the holy birth, the poem used the image of afterbirth in a bucket, and the editor wasn't having it. It's no time of the year for iconoclasm. Elvis Presley discovered this in 1957 when he recorded a rock version of Irving Berlin's White Christmas. The words were the same - "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas/Just like the ones I used to know" - but Elvis was the voice of reckless youth and all true Americans (Berlin included) were outraged. Blue Christmas, on the same album, was derided, too. Red, green and silver are allowable Christmas colours - but not yellow, blue or black. White remains the ideal: the white of snow; the white of fairy lights (coloured lights being naff); the white of Father Christmas's beard, which makes him look like an archetypal Dead White European Male, despite the fact that he's still living (and even though it's Mother Christmas who does all the work).
Christmases are traditionally white in the Wasp sense, too. When radio stations across the deep south refused to play the Elvis version of White Christmas, one of their objections was that it sounded "too coloured". You do see the occasional black person in Christmas movies, as housekeepers (It's A Wonderful Life, Miracle On 34th Street), criminals (The Family Man) or in bit parts (Love Actually). But Christmases as black people celebrate them have barely featured since the 1870s, when there was a brief vogue for magazine illustrations of poor black families in the deep south trapping possum for Christmas lunch or paying homage to Sandy Claws. ...
- Elvis a part of Memphis Hanukkah program
(OregonLive.com / Associated Press, December 20 2003)
This year's Hanukkah program at Beth Sholom Synagogue featured a uniquely Memphis touch - telling the story of the religious miracle through retooled versions of Elvis Presley's hits. ... [as below]
- Memphis synagogue tells Hanukkah story with retooled versions of Elvis tunes
(Yahoo! News / Canadian Press, December 20 2003)
This year's Hanukkah program at Beth Sholom Synagogue featured a uniquely Memphis touch - telling the story of the religious miracle through retooled versions of Elvis Presley's hits. ... [as below]
- Memphis school children, impersonator sing altered hits of Elvis
(Sun Herald / Associated Press, December 19 2003)
This year's Hanukkah program at Beth Sholom Synagogue featured a uniquely Memphis touch - telling the story of the religious miracle through retooled versions of Elvis Presley's hits. The synagogue featured an Elvis impersonator and students from Solomon Schechter Day School singing slightly altered hits of the King, including "Blue Suede Jews" and "Heartbreak Kotel," a reference to Jerusalem's Western Wall that's also known as the Kotel Ha Maaravi. "It's a fun way to get the kids involved in the history of what Hanukkah means," said Jonathan Ross, who helped produce the program. "Since we're in Memphis and Elvis is such a force here, we thought it would be a perfect way to blend modern culture and ancient customs." Hanukkah began at sundown Friday and continues through Dec. 27.
- Elvis, Faulkner and the South
By Bruce Lowry
(annistonstar.com, December 19 2003)
Growing up in Louisiana I heard the rumor more than once - Elvis was "passing." Elvis Presley, that is; passing for white, that is. Those who spread the rumor were mostly older folks who liked country and bluegrass and didn't understand how a younger generation could so embrace the young Mississippian with the swiveling hips and the golden voice. He sang like a Negro, they'd say. Must have Negro blood from somewhere down the line. They didn't realize that yes, his music had been influenced by African-American musicians, blues players he'd hung around with in Tupelo and Memphis, because their ways intrigued him, not because their blood flowed through his veins.
Then again, in the great scheme of things what would it have mattered? What would it matter now, all these years later, if some historian popped up with some evidence that linked Elvis' family to antebellum slaves? Elvis and the rumors of his lineage came to mind this week as I read, like fascinated news hounds all over this land, the story of Essie Mae Washington-Williams. If you haven't heard by now, the 78-year-old retired school teacher has stepped forward after decades of silence to gain acknowledgement as the daughter of former U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, a Southerner who spent his political life as a staunch segregationist. Ms. Williams' mother Carrie Butler, who was black, was a maid in the Thurmond household in the 1920s, and Thurmond kept money going to the closeted daughter they shared up until the time of his death. ...
- Elvis singer returns in triumph to home town
By Charles Heslett
(Leeds Today, December 18 2003)
ELVIS tribute singer Jack Smink made it an English trilogy with a triumphant return to Leeds as part of a week-long Christmas tour. He played his first gig in London on Tuesday after flying into Heathrow the previous day. After a midweek show in Windsor, the 46-year-old will travel to his adopted second city with righthand man Jeff Vandenberg to star at the Cleavesty Centre in East Keswick on Saturday night.
It is the third visit in a year for the Orlando-based entertainer, whose motto is Lightning Strikes Twice. ... The OBE holder met Elvis Presley in the 1960s as a young Radio Luxembourg DJ and Elvis grabbed his newly peroxided locks, with the photograph making the cover of the singer's official fanzine. The YEP later fixed it for Jack to re-create that famous scene.
- Blunkett urged to help Eastenders actor
(ananova, December 18 2003)
David Blunkett has been urged to intervene to ensure an Eastenders actor is not removed from Britain over work permit rules. Labour former minister Keith Vaz said he has tabled a House of Commons motion on behalf of Dalip Tahil who plays Elvis-obsessed dad Dan Ferreira in the long-running BBC soap. ...
- West Primary students shake, rattle and roll
By JESSICA WALDON
(Natchez Democrat, December 17 2003)
Tucked away in Santa's workshop, up at the North Pole, the elves even have their scuffles that Santa has to solve.
Tuesday morning at Susie B. West Primary School three kindergarten classes presented "The Elves' Impersonator," a play about an elf that doesn't quite fit in with the rest. "Have you seen that new elf?" one of the pointy-eared characters asks. "He's always got that guitar with him," another elf answers. "Maybe he's not really an elf at all," one elf pondered.
"Maybe he's an elf impersonator," one guessed as the whole crew gave a gasp.
And in walks the impersonator, Elfis himself. Dressed in a gold and white cap with a white shirt and pants and a gold cape and belt, this elf is dressed up and looked down upon.
But, the other elves just thought he looked "funny" and "ridiculous." So what did Elfis do? He sang, "Boo hoo, I'm blue," brought down the house with a guitar solo and shook his hips like the king himself. The reindeer, little heads sticking out of green costumes with antlers on their heads, told the elves to accept Elfis' differences. "We accepted the one with the red nose. We thought he as an imposter," one reindeer told the elves, who had run Elfis off. "Elfis has left the building!" one elf answered when Santa Claus asked where he was. "He was almost an elf-sicle," a reindeer replied. The children sang, "Look past faces, look past clothes ... let us all be kind, let us cause no pain or harm, let us walk arm in arm." The elves gave in, said their apologies and joined Elfis in a song, "Santa Claus Rock."
They clapped their hands, stomped their feet and shook their hips, which brought a wave of laughter to the cafeteria full of students each and every time they shook their hips. Elfis shook so hard, his Santa cap and curly hair almost fell off.
But where did this kindergarten Elvis get his moves?
"They picked me (to be Elfis) because I already knew how to do the moves," Lyndon Ivory said. But, he conceded that janitor Debra Fuller, who is a big Elvis fan, taught him how to shake those hips. ...
- Aiken 'Measures' Up In November: Latest 'American Idol' Sensation Receives Double Platinum Honors
(www.riaa.com, dated December 2, found December 17 2003)
On the heels of the first 'American Idol' winner's debut multi-Platinum album, second season runner-up Clay Aiken got his recording career off to a good start as well with the release of his RCA Records debut "Measure of a Man." His debut album was quickly certified Gold, Platinum and double Platinum for sales of more than two million copies according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
... "2nd To None," the collection of Elvis Presley singles that follows up 2002's "30 #1 Hits" was certified both Gold and Platinum for sales of more than one million copies. In all, Presley has been certified for 104 million in U.S. album sales. These latest certifications represent the 90th Gold and 47th Platinum albums of his career.
- Holiday Gift Guide: From Elvis to Toby: What Country Fans Might Want for Christmas
By Craig Shelburn
(cmt.com, dated November 26, found December 17, 2003)
Once the Thanksgiving turkey has been gobbled, you're entitled to take a long winter's nap. But don't oversleep because there's shopping to do! These good tidings will put some sugar and spice into your favorite country fan's Christmas.
Hot Off the Presley (4th item)
These two new books are welcome additions to the Presley canon. Elvis Presley, part of the Penguin Lives series, revisits his rags-to-riches story, with help from Southern author Bobbie Ann Mason. It's a quick read, yet captures the highs and lows of his brilliant career. Alanna Nash's The Colonel describes how Presley's carnival-trained manager reined in the King to protect his own sketchy background. ($19.95 for Elvis Presley; $25 for The Colonel)
- Elvis: pop's top fashion guru
By Susie Rushton
(iol.co.za, dated November 26, found December 16, 2003)
The King: Elvis Presley had a keen sense of style - and he knew what people wanted to see him wearing.
"My favourite hobby is collecting these real cool outfits," Elvis Presley once said, before adding, like a true fashionista, "I'd almost rather wear them than eat!" In the end, of course it was food which beat fashion to the singer's heart, and anyway you would be forgiven for thinking that despite this early enthusiasm, when it came to clothes, the King of rock 'n roll was something of a one-hit wonder. His most distinctive contribution to fashion was, after all, the white caped jumpsuit and chunky aviator-style sunglasses combo which, to this day, provides a core business for any fancy-dress hire company.
But there is more to his wardrobe than the dazzlingly kitsch stage outfits designed by Bill Belew for the singer's performances in the late 1960s and 1970s. Right from the start Presley had a unique eye for fashion. And not all of it was in the high-camp style that would later influence the onstage appearance of pop performers from Elton John to Britney Spears. In fact, early photographs reveal Presley to be an instinctively sharp dresser, in woollen box-shaped jackets, pegged trousers and black-and-white Oxford shoes.
As a 17-year-old high school kid, with a part-time job as a cinema usher, Presley would window-shop at the Memphis menswear store, Lansky Brothers. With his first taste of success, Presley became a loyal customer of the Lanskys, ordering glamorous silk shirts and fur jackets for his appearances at regional fairs, jamborees and, eventually, his national television debut.
In Elvis Fashion: From Memphis to Vegas, published this month, author Julie Mundy provides a close commentary on the icon's relationship with clothes. While the field of Elvisology is one of the most hotly contested in pop cultural studies, this book, produced with the full co-operation of Graceland, claims to be the first to gather photographs and anecdotes that focus solely on the great man's wardrobe
Within his own lifetime, of course, Presley's personal style was constantly scrutinised by adoring fans and a fascinated media. In March 1953, several years before he achieved any fame, Presley attended an interview at the state Employment Security Office; records show that the state found the boy who would become the King of rock 'n roll to be a "rather flashily dressed, playboy type".
Later in that same decade, when Presley's sexually charged stage act was sending teenaged bobbysoxers into a frenzy, but arousing only outrage from the conservative media, his choice of clothes was still subject to painstaking attention. "They ask me why I wear the clothes I do," he said at the time, with insouciant charm, "What can I say, I just like nice clothes, that's all."
Of course, later, as the star of 31 movies, Presley was required to adapt his personal style to the requirements of the role, whether playing a GI, racing-car driver or tour guide. In 1957's Jailhouse Rock he makes the rockabilly look - denim, sports coats, two-tone loafers - entirely his own.
In fact it was Oscar-winning movie costume designer Edith Head who was charged by Paramount Studios to oversee the onscreen Presley image. But even Head, a notorious diva, realised that Presley was hardly an innocent in need of a Hollywood-style makeover. "He was like a male version of Mae West," stated Head. "In that sense, he knew the Elvis look."
Presley was not one to bite his tongue on the subject of what suited him - and his onscreen characters. According to Mundy, he "preferred solid colours and avoided large prints".
Presley's friend, Joe Esposito, recalled: "If Elvis didn't like something, he didn't have to wear it. But he was very co-operative and figured, 'Hey, it's not me on stage, it's just a movie, so if that's what they want me to wear, I'll wear it'."
Yet Presley's barely concealed ambivalence on this matter is perhaps best summed up by an intriguing series of photographs which were taken as a test run of costume designs for the movie Roustabout. Modelling three different pairs of particularly unflattering dungarees, the King looks sullen. None of these humiliating outfits, all devised by Head, made it into the final edit of Roustabout.
Mundy's book is at its most illuminating when she uses the evolution of Presley's wardrobe to provide insight into the singer's impact on the social mores of mid-century America. Following Presley's inflammatory performance of Hound Dog on The Milton Berle Show in June 1956, a sartorially chastened King made an appearance on The Steve Allen Show the following month. Edging awkwardly onto the stage dressed in a stiff tuxedo, with a top hat lodged under one arm, Presley reprised Hound Dog in a sedate performance. The formal attire saw to that.
Presley always eschewed a dressier look. "I like real conservative clothes," he said in 1956. "Something that's not too flashy. But onstage I like 'em as flashy as you can get." While he felt uncomfortable in the black tie he was encouraged to wear on The Steve Allen Show, Presley often wore tuxedos, but they were altered to fit his singular tastes, with an of-the-moment shawl collar and Western-style droopy bow tie.
At his wedding to Priscilla Beaulieu on May 1, 1967, Elvis wore a jazzy tuxedo in paisley Jacquard and a lace-trimmed white shirt, its opulence threatening to overshadow his young bride's modest beaded dress.
Although, Mundy relates that one rhinestone-studded, gold-and-silver lame tuxedo, which featured on the cover of Elvis's 1957 album, 50 000 000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, was felt by the singer to be de trop: "Elvis felt the suit, commissioned by Colonel Tom Parker, looked more carnival than cool." Neither were denim jeans favoured by Presley; he associated the ubiquitous garment, invented as workwear and glamourised by James Dean and Marlon Brando, with the poverty of his youth in Memphis.
A costume change that did alter Presley's personal style was of course his conscript's uniform; an amazed television audience watched the famous pompadour hair reduced to a buzz cut by a US Army barber. From 1960, Mundy writes, "His new, post-army look was more mature and more tailored, reflecting the European fashions of the time."
During the new decade, the earlier Graceland years, Presley lived out his fashion fantasies. Playing the rock 'n roll pasha, he would relax at home with Priscilla in an elaborately beaded and gold-embroidered caftan; living out his rancher dream, he bought dozens of Western-style shirts and fringed chaps. His passion for dressing up extended to the circle of friends who joined him at Graceland. "Elvis bought us a lot of jackets, so we all looked the same," relates Joe Esposito.
It was another hobby, karate, which was to mould his most distinctive onstage looks. Presley had earned his black belt in 1960 after studying the martial art while on active service in Germany and, over the years, he personalised the traditional white costume. Eventually the dynamic lines of the karate GI evolved into Presley's most famous stage costume, the heavily beaded white jumpsuit designed by Belew.
The trousers of the gi became flared; embroideries of leaping tigers, patriotic spread eagles or Presley's personal motto, TCB (Taking Care of Business), added yet more pizzazz; a heavy, gold-plated belt replaced the fabric karate belt.
In 1971 the first sighting of his signature cape occurred. However, at end of 1973 it was abandoned; as more and more jewellery was smothered on to his costumes, their weight became too much to bear.
Presley was one of rock's most memorable dandies. And he understood the power of branding well in advance of J-Lo, P Diddy et al - his EP initials stamped on everything from loafers to sunglasses. Long before the advent of the celebrity stylist, Presley demonstrated an intuitive understanding of the power of clothes and how the right costume could amplify his image.
- Elvis Presley's relative found dead in Mississippi prison cell
By Phillip Zonkel
(Canadian Press /Associated Press, December 17, 2003)
PARCHMAN, Miss.- A relative of Elvis Presley, imprisoned for a drug-related accident that killed a woman, was found dead in his cell Tuesday, an apparent suicide, authorities said ... [As below].
- Elvis Presley's relative found dead in Mississippi prison cell
(Duluth News Tribune /Associated Press, December 16, 2003)
PARCHMAN, Miss.- A relative of Elvis Presley, imprisoned for a drug-related accident that killed a woman, was found dead in his cell Tuesday, an apparent suicide, authorities said ... [As below].
- Presley relative found dead in prison
(bradenton.com /Associated Press, December 16, 2003)
PARCHMAN, Miss.- A relative of Elvis Presley, imprisoned for a drug-related accident that killed a woman, was found dead in his cell Tuesday, an apparent suicide, authorities said. Mississippi Department of Corrections officials said Patrick Presley, 31, was found hanging in his cell shortly after midnight. Officials said security officers had observed Presley in his cell during a security check less than a half-hour earlier. Presley's father was Lee County Sheriff Harold Ray Presley, who was killed in a shootout during a manhunt in 2001. The younger Presley was convicted in March of being under the influence of drugs when his vehicle was involved in a collision that killed Melissa White, 37, in July 2002. Tests showed Presley had methamphetamine in his system.
He was sentenced to life in prison under Mississippi's "depraved heart" murder statute, which applies to deaths caused by reckless conduct. The late sheriff's father was the brother of Elvis Presley's grandfather, making them first cousins once removed. After he became sheriff in 1993, Harold Presley received calls from Elvis fans and covered a wall of his office with Elvis pictures and posters. Officials said that while there had been no specific threats against the younger Presley, he was given extra protection in prison because of his father's office.
- A year in the life of Depeche Mode
By Phillip Zonkel
(U-Daily Bulletin, December 15, 2003)
A SPRING 1988 Depeche Mode concert in the Bay Area was an eye-opening ritual for D A Pennebaker. He and wife-filmmaking partner Chris Hegedus were invited to the show by a record label executive who hoped the couple might find the band worthy of a documentary. Until then, the acclaimed filmmaker's experience with live rock consisted of directing such music documentaries as the Bob Dylan film, 1967's "Don" t Look Back,'' 1968's "Monterey Pop" ' and 1973's "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" ' or taking a couple of cases of beer to Golden Gate Park and listening to the Grateful Dead. The Depeche Mode concert, however, seemed to be more of a black celebration. ... "It was like breaking into a Druid seance, the rapt devotion, the audience dressed mostly in black," ' says Pennebaker, 78. ... They didn" t know the difference between deserts, but they sure knew the difference between Andy Warhol and his look-a-likes,'' Pennebaker says. "And when the subject of Elvis Presley came up, they all looked away and said, 'Boring." You began to realize you breached some wall of a generation gap.''
- Local arts members deserve tip of the hat
By RON COWAN
(Statesman Journal, December 15, 2003)
Sometimes we recognize what those among us have achieved, and sometimes we just take it for granted. As we look back over the past year, there are a lot of unsung heroes in our cultural community, people and places that make things happen to make Salem a better place. ... Miles isn't getting rich doing this, just making a few people happier, more informed and possessed of more knowledge of the world than their peers. Who else would show movies such as "Bubba Ho-Tep," with a geriatric Elvis Presley going mano-a-mano with a soul-sucking mummy in an East Texas nursing home?
- 'We got Elvis and he's going back to Vegas'
John Burns, Colin Freeman and Edward Wong
(Scotsman, December 15, 2003)
TO the accompaniment of hundreds of AK-47s being fired into the air, Iraqis poured on to Baghdad's streets yesterday to dance and wave flags in celebration at the capture of Saddam Hussein. ... In the pause after Paul Bremer, the US administrator, announced in a live televised address the capture of Saddam, one soldier shouted: "That's right, we got Elvis, we know where he is and he's going back to Vegas." ...
Go to earlier articles
|
