Early January 2005
- Long live the 'King'
Prescott Valley woman enshrines Elvis Presley
By KEN HEDLER
(The Daily Courier, January 7, 2005)
PRESCOTT VALLEY - Elvis Presley died in 1977, but a long-time fan is keeping his memory alive by devoting a spare bedroom in her home to the "King of Rock 'n' Roll". Debbie Spedding said she has collected Elvis memorabilia since her youngest son, Clayton Edward Elvis Spedding, was born on Elvis' birthday 20 years ago. (Elvis would have turned 70 today if he were still alive.) ...
- What if Elvis's twin had lived?
By Robert Messenger
(Canberra Times, January 7, 2005, Times 2 section, pp 1-3)
Something in Elvis Aaron Presley was dead befiore The King was even born. His twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, had been delivered stillborn 35 minutes earlier at 4 am on Tuesday, January 8, 1935, 60 years ago tomorrow. Elvis himself has been dead almost 27 1/2 years, yet he will still top the British hit parade on the anniversary of his birth, with a re-release of Jailhour Rock. Such is his enduring power to enthral and entertain. ... here's a whole new avenue to explore: What if there had been the Presley Twins? Would two heads with long sideburns and slicked back hair have been better than one? Would two voices harmonising hillbilly music with gospel and blues been twice as forceful as one? ...
- Elvis king again
(Canberra Times, January 6, 2005)
Elvis Presley is back on course to top the British charts, 7 years after his death. The re-release of "Jailhouse Rock" is outselling the current no. 1 by Steve Brockstein. ...
- Hearts And Minds : Larry Durstin : What Would Elvis Do?: Just like in the '50s, we're caught in a trap
By Larry Durstin
(Cleveland Free Times, January 5, 2005)
JANUARY 8, 2005, marks the 70th anniversary of Elvis Presley's birth. The man who, in the words of 1960s activist Abbie Hoffman, "killed Ike Eisenhower" is rightly honored each year with birthday bashes all over the world celebrating both his music and his role as a cultural revolutionary.
But if he were alive today - and many believe that they are just one 7-11 visit away from seeing him in the flesh - would the septuagenarian Presley be struck by the troubling societal similarities between now and when he first exploded onto the landscape 50 years ago?
In 1955, as Presley's first Sun recordings were radio-rumbling around the South, America was at the tail end of the McCarthy era, still terrified by Godless communists and air-raid-sirened to death in fear of both atomic bombs and mysterious aliens from strange worlds. The phrase "Under God" had just been ramrodded into the Pledge of Allegiance by Congress, J. Edgar Hoover was snooping on "dissidents," the Catholic Church was headed by a long-serving super-conservative Pope (Pius XII, best known for coddling Nazis and issuing repressive dictums to the faithful), and a "hate your next door neighbor but don't forget to say grace" brand of religiosity permeated the populace.
This was a sad, shallow culture nibbling on the genial jingoism of Norman Vincent Peale - a stale, waist-up America decked out in tuxes and tales; a tasteful semi-corpse living with stifling secrets and stuffed feelings and suffocating denial and institutional racism/sexism. It was a society where the accumulated hypocrisy of all the piled centuries since Paradise had rendered it ready to split in two.
It was into this America that Elvis, the "Hillbilly Cat," as he was called, strode with amused, defiant cool - his music bleeding menace and lust - and struck like an erotic lightning bolt. By brilliantly mixing the music of poor whites and poor blacks, Presley scared the bejesus out of racist America and had the wrath of Jehovah called down upon him by just about every preacher, teacher and parent in the land. Later he was devoured by his own mythology, but not before having liberated a generation to such an extent that John Lennon would say, "Before Elvis there was nothing."
But fast-forwarding to the America of today reveals a society that, despite tectonic changes, appears to again be in need of, if not liberation, than a healthy dose of deliverance from the same kind of evil religious and political repression that earmarked the fearful '50s.
In the past few years we have heard the reverends Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson lay the blame for the 9/11 attacks on secular humanists and their affinity for abortion and homosexuals. We've seen crackpot politicians equating removing the Ten Commandments from public buildings with the Christians being fed to the lions. During the last year we saw the Catholic Church hierarchy - headed by a long-serving, reactionary pope - threatening pro-choice politicians with excommunication while turning a blind eye to its own criminal cover-up of the sexual abuse carried out by many of its priests.
In the recent presidential election we saw the kind of "moral values" that scapegoat gays and lesbians turn up as the number one issue on voters' minds. We are now entering the second term of a theocratic administration that worries about undraped nude statues and is committed to ensuring that Israel is primed to make straight the way for the Lord's Second Coming and that infidels can be tortured as part of God's will. We have the Patriot Act spying on "persons of interest" while school boards and state legislatures all over the country ramrod the teaching of creationism into classrooms. We have media that are Bible-thumping a corporate-religious agenda, and the FCC fining every nipple in sight.
And, oh yes, we just went through an end-of-the-year period in which we were treated to the unholy experience of Christian groups and their media sycophants screaming bloody murder because department stores posted "Happy Holidays" signs and not enough people were saying "Merry Christmas." So now we find ourselves in a preposterous situation in which the dominant force in our cultural existence claims to be the helpless victims of a cruel, society-wide conspiracy of Christian-bashing fueled by insidious liberals.
The real problem is that - in the face of such religious bullying - there hasn't been the kind of righteously rollicking backlash that was seen in those early days of Elvis, when for every smashed record, canceled concert and fire-and-brimstone sermon, a thousand voices screamed defiance. Now, it seems, too many are too willing to retreat without a fight.
That's why it's way past time for people of good will and progressive spirit to rise up, tell the truth to power and, like a hunk of burning love, take back our sacred secular culture before it's too late.
- French Elvis fans seem to fit with Little Rock's appeal
(WKRN-TV / Associated Press, January 5, 2005)
Little Rock, get ready for the invasion of the French Elvises.
Sixty members of the Paris Elvis Presley Fan Club have decided to take a day trip from Graceland in Memphis to Little Rock this Sunday to visit the Clinton Library. Skip Rutherford, president of the Clinton Presidential Foundation, said it just shows how the library is becoming a tourist hot sport. Rutherford said he expected a big grand opening, but not the immediate and sustained national and international tourism that has followed. The Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau said today that the Clinton Library opening in November created enormous spikes in income for area hotels and restaurants and in city tax revenues.
- History and Elvis, Alive!
(21st item)
By Neal Schindler
(Seattle Weekly, January 5-11, 2005)
Elvis Invitationals: At tonight's EMP-sponsored competition, you should get a heapin' helpin' of faux Presley fever, with Elvis impersonators running the gamut from precocious teenagers to octogenarian AARPsters. 325 Fifth Ave. N., 206-770-2702 (to attend) or 206-517-4826 (to enter; deadline is Thurs., Jan. 6!). $15. 8 p.m. Fri., Jan. 7.
- Elvis fans gather to commemorate his 70th birthday
(Taipei Times, January 5, 2005)
Fans of Elvis Presley will celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday on Saturday with a roster of activities at his Graceland home, a string of movie reruns on cable television and shows by Elvis impersonators in nightclubs around the country. Presley, whose trademark quiff was recently voted the most famous haircut in history, died suddenly at 42 in 1977. Although some of his diehard fans still believe that his death was an elaborate hoax by rock'n'roll revolutionary to allow him to escape the glare of constant public attention, most Elvis followers have long accepted his death.
Hundreds, if not thousands, were expected to turn up at the gates of Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee, for a candlelit vigil paying homage to the star. Other events planned around Memphis included a cake cutting and Elvis Day proclamation by local officials; tours of the Elvis Automobile Museum; a memorial hockey game and distribution of limited-edition Elvis Presley Commemorative Hockey Pucks and a birthday dance at a local hotel.
Talk is likely to center on the recent sale of the Elvis estate by the daughter of "The King," Lisa Marie Presley, to sports entrepreneur F.X. Sillerman for US$100 million. Sillerman said he believes that despite the string of posthumous hits, Elvis' brand is dramatically underused and he plans an aggressive strategy to yield even more international hits from Presley's library of music.
Fans will also wonder what Elvis would have been like had he lived. A Memphis paper asked its readers what Elvis would be doing were he alive and got some surprising answers. Some said he would be appearing in Viagra or Cadillac commercials. Others believed he would still be pulling in the crowds with a long stint in Las Vegas or acting as an ageing tough guy in a Quentin Tarantino movie. "Just imagine -- Elvis at 70," wrote the TV columnist in Newsday. "White suede shoes. Heartbreak hospital. A little more conversation, a little less action."
- Long-dead Elvis set for yet another British chart hit
(Yahoo! News / AFP, January 5, 2005)
Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, was on his way to scoring his 19th number-one record in Britain -- 27 years after his death. Midweek sales figures showed that a re-release of the 1957 hit "Jailhouse Rock" is outselling the current chart-topper, Steve Brookstein's "Against All Odds", by 2,000 copies, music industry sources said. Each of Elvis's 18 number-one hits in Britain is being re-released on a weekly basis by record label SonyBMG to mark what would have been his 70th birthday this Saturday.
SonyBMG says it is "the most ambitious singles release campaign in the history of the UK record industry" -- with "One Night" and "A Fool Such As I" up next for re-release in the coming fortnight. Elvis, who died in August 1977 at the age of 42, was last atop the singles charts in June 2002 with "A Little Less Conversation" after the song was featured in a TV commercial for running shoes.
- Elvis cup auction won by Colo. diet company
(azcentral.com / Associated Press, January 4, 2005)
Guess who shelled out the money for an appearance with the cup Elvis drank from? Nutballz. A company called Nutballz put in the winning eBay bid for an appearance of the Styrofoam cup. Wade Jones of Belmont, N.C., sold the water from a cup from which Elvis drank in 1977, then auctioned off an appearance with the cup, since he didn't want to sell it.
Nutballz is a company that makes diet alternatives for those with celiac disease, who cannot eat gluten products. It bought the appearance to raise awareness of celiac disease. It will feature the cup at its "Nutballz Night Out" in Boulder on Jan. 25. Guests will be able to have their photos taken with the cup for a dollar, to raise money for celiac research. Nutballz isn't saying how much it paid for the cup appearance.
- Band's version of one-time Presley tune hits sour note with some
(Duluth News Tribune / Associated Press, January 4, 2005)
As if the incoming Legislature didn't have enough problems, a high school band's rendition of a tune that was an Elvis Presley hit decades ago drew a complaint from a newly elected member of the Senate. The Richland Center High School band played "An American Trilogy" at the Senate's inaugural ceremony at the Capitol Monday - the first day of a session expected to be dominated by battles over budget-cutting, a tax-freeze amendment and a myriad of other issues.
Sen. Spencer Coggs, who is black, said he was shocked, as were his family and other guests, to hear the strains of the Southern anthem "Dixie" played in the Senate chamber as part of the trilogy, along with "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "All My Trials." Coggs, a Democrat from Milwaukee, complained in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center. "Whether the slight was intentional or not, the selection was not appropriate," he wrote, noting that "Dixie" is often associated with slavery. "While now it should be unnecessary to suggest, in the future a list of songs should be submitted prior to a performance and the list should be reviewed for its appropriateness," he said. "It is unfortunate that this special day was marred by such an unnecessary event."
Schultz had invited the band and choir to play at the ceremony. He said the complaint caught him by surprise. "A simple apology is what's needed," Schultz said, "and I will certainly be happy to do that." He said he wasn't aware of every musical selection the band prepared for the event, and the piece has some historical significance. "But I want everyone to feel included. If Sen. Coggs felt offended, I would want to extend my hand in apology."
- Health food firm borrows cup Elvis used: Use of souvenir won in oddball eBay bid
By David Milstead
(Rocky Mountain News, January 4, 2005)
We know. Only a nutball would pay good money to borrow a plastic foam cup allegedly used by Elvis. Or more specifically, Nutballz, a Boulder-based company - founded by a former professional snowboarder - that makes cookies that are free of wheat or refined sugars. Nutballz won an eBay auction to borrow Elvis' styrofoam cup and will use it to raise money at the Nutballz Night Out Fundraiser Party Jan. 25 at the Boulder Theater.
It is hard to determine which part of this story is stranger. Let's start with Wade Jones of Belmont, N.C., who says he saw Elvis in Charlotte, N.C., in February 1977. Searching for a souvenir after the show, he asked a policeman for the plastic foam cup that Elvis drank out of. "When I got home, I didn't know exactly what to do with it, so I put some Saran Wrap over the cup, put a rubber band around it, and placed it in the door of our deep freezer," Jones writes in his eBay posting. Last month, Jones auctioned off the water that Elvis had left in the cup for $455, but refused to sell the cup. Instead, he came upon the idea of auctioning off the right to see the cup for a day - an auction which Nutballz apparently won.
"After 27 years, the 'Elvis Cup' will finally go on TOUR once again!" Jones says on eBay. "The Elvis Cup and I are flying to Boulder, Colorado for a charity event/promotional tour." Jones could not be reached late Monday for an interview. All comments are taken from the narrative in his latest auction - an autographed photo of Elvis and the cup. Not autographed by Elvis, mind you - "Signed personally by me . . . 'The Elvis Water Cup Guy, Wade Jones.' "
Now for Nutballz. The company will charge attendees at the Nutballz Night Out $1 to have their picture taken with the cup. "A portion of the money raised" will benefit the University of Maryland's Center for Celiac Research, which studies gluten intolerance. Also, the company hopes "to help raise awareness for celiac disease." Because we wrote this story, it worked. Nutballz, according to the company's Web site, "give you energy through protein-packed whey and rice, coupled with delicious, fiberful nut butters!" People who love to eat wheat, refined sugars and fat are excused from wondering if they might like chewing on plastic foam better. Those who feel left out of all the hysteria have alternatives on eBay.
One seller offers a chance to "See a cup that Elvis never saw or touched." This cup, he says, "was made in the late '80s, almost a decade after Elvis' . . . This is a nice ceramic cup - not some cheap Styrofoam cup - and has a starting bid that's much less than the cost of some other prominent cup auctions." No one has bid the minimum $3.
- Elvis Meets Eraserhead: LC Selects 25 Films for National Registry
(Library Journal, January 4, 2005)
The Library of Congress (LC) December 28 announced the names of 2004's crop of 25 films selected for its National Film Registry. Typically, it's an eclectic mix, ranging from Elvis Presley musical vehicles (Jailhouse Rock) and golden Hollywood Goliaths (Ben Hur) to cult favorites (Eraserhead), cartoons (Popeye the Sailor Meets Sinbad the Sailor), and comedy shorts (Our Gang's Pups Is Pups). "We realized that a number of cultural icons hadn't been included," said Gregory Lupow, chief of the LC's motion picture, broadcast and recorded sound division. "It's the first time Elvis, Popeye, and Andy Warhol have been selected. These are three of the American filmmaking icons of one kind or another." Also included are the Bruce Lee chop sockey fest Enter the Dragon, Steven Spielberg's Holocaust epic Schindler's List, and Clint Eastwood's myth-shattering Western Unforgiven. The inclusion of the 2004 titles brings the total number of Registry films to 400.
- Were these Davey's 15 minutes of fame?
By Ron Borges
(Boston Globe, January 3, 2005)
Rohan Davey understands the position he's in. He's every vice president there ever was. He's a heartbeat away from being the leader of a team that frankly has no interest in seeing him perform those duties. He's one-third of the Tennessee Three standing behind Elvis humming when nobody is listening. He's not Gladys Knight. He's one of the Pips. ...
- Celebrity Clothier Manuel Helps Elvis, Dylan Sparkle
By Pat Harris
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, January 3, 2005)
The Mexican-born fashion designer who created glittering jackets for such stars as Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton thinks that today's celebrities don't measure up. The man whose rhinestone fetish puts the sparkle in the stage presence of many stars is silver-haired Manuel Cuevas, 65, who reserves his harshest criticism for men's lack of fashion sense. "You get young men who don't have the culture or the brains to understand culture with their plastic hats and bad-looking jeans. They actually look dirty," said the designer, who is based in Nashville and is known by his first name. Manuel made his name designing glittering outfits for dozens of movie and music stars including Parton, Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan, who once wore a Manuel suit while performing for the pope. He outfitted Elvis Presley with his first spangled outfit and put the skulls and roses on the Grateful Dead's duds and the tongue on outfits worn by the Rolling Stones. ...
- Rockin' representative: House District 45's new lawmaker will entertain at Mitch Daniels' inauguration party
By Dan McFeely
(Indianapolis Star, January 3, 2005)
Reaching from her wheelchair, the 60-year-old woman grabbed Bruce Borders by the leg as his body gyrated in rhythm to Elvis' "Devil in Disguise." "Hey, there," Borders said with a smile, the tempo of his grinding hips momentarily broken. "I will give you exactly 20 minutes to stop that." With that, he finished his song as a blur of rhinestones danced in front of the nursing-home crowd. Just another public appearance for Borders. Also known as Elvis Presley (and a pretty good one).
Also known as a life insurance salesman from Jasonville -- where, by the way, he also was mayor for eight years. And this week he will be known as state Rep. Bruce Borders, representing District 45 in Sullivan County and parts of four other southwestern counties. The state legislator's first order of business has nothing to do with General Assembly bills. He will be performing for new Gov. Mitch Daniels at the inauguration dance Sunday. Mitch, you see, is a fan. ...
photo by Mike Fender
- You ain't nothin' with a blank contract
Editorial
(amednew.com, January 3, 2005)
Health plans often ask physicians to sign contracts that don't tell how much is paid for each procedure. The AMA House of Delegates is calling for state regulators to require that private insurers reveal their fee schedules.
The legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller penned "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog" and other big hits that propelled Elvis Presley to superstardom in the 1950s. What thanks did they get? Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded Leiber and Stoller sign a contract consisting of nothing but a blank piece of paper and lines for their signatures -- if they wanted to keep writing for Elvis.
Physicians surely can relate to Leiber and Stoller's story. Physicians get contracts from health care plans that, though they aren't actually blank, may as well be. Often, these contracts don't state what a managed care company plans to pay for each procedure.
Leiber and Stoller, operating with an explosion of rock and R&B acts at their disposal, declined Parker's contract. Physicians, faced with a lack of health plans at their disposal as companies consolidate and gain a greater stranglehold in their communities, often feel they must accept a major health plan's contract. That is, unless the practice plans on treating patients on a cash-only basis. ...
- History center looking for Elvis memorabilia
(Southbend Tribune, January 2, 2005)
The Northern Indiana Center for History is looking for people who own records by Elvis Presley or any other Elvis-related collectibles. The memorabilia will be included in "Do you collect Elvis Presley?," an exhibition that will open on Feb. 11 in conjunction with a traveling exhibition called "Processing Elvis." "Processing Elvis" chronicles the day Presley was inducted into the U.S. Army. Both exhibitions will be on view through May 6.
"Processing Elvis" showcases a unique photo essay taken by William Leaptrott, who had been a classmate of Elvis Presley at L.C. Humes High School in Memphis, Tenn. It also explores an important passage in Presley's transformation into an international icon. The exhibition originates from the Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science. For information, call (574) 235-9664, or e-mail exhibits@centerforhistory.org.
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