early July, 2005
On July 4th listen to Elvis singing "America the Beautiful" at teamhouse.tni.net.
- Images of fame go on display
By Charlotte Higgins
(Guardian Unlimited, July 6, 2005)
Languid, erotic, brooding, with one hand running contemplatively through his locks and his other sensuously curved around a cigarette, James Dean looked dangerously sexy in the photograph, right, taken by Roy Schatt in 1954. In fact the picture was regarded as too homoerotic to be published, according to the curator of a new National Portrait Gallery exhibition, and has barely been seen for half a century. ... "He wanted to be represented as a sexual thing. It was fine for his fan base but not for middle America, as far as the editors of Life magazine were concerned. He was too languid, too decadent. In the end he had to go down the wholesome route." The wholesome route involved a series of pictures taken on his uncle's farm in Fairmount, Indiana. Dean wore a cap and hung out with farm animals; the photographs, by Dennis Stock, duly appeared in Life. The actor also fooled around in, of all places, a funeral parlour, and Stock photographed him lying in an elaborate open casket. Later that same year he would lie in the same funeral parlour - after the car crash that killed him aged 23.
The World's Most Photographed, which opens today, shows how the famous have manipulated their images and how, at times, they in turn have been manipulated. The exhibition shows the kind of images that slipped off the radar or got edited from history, either by the subject or their protectors or, in the case of a series of photos of Elvis Presley, through pure chance. Presley's manager, the soi-disant Colonel Tom Parker, controlled his image mercilessly, but the star was beyond Parker's reach when he was drafted into the US army in 1959. At the Moulin Rouge strip bar in Munich one night, Presley was photographed surrounded by excited strippers and showgirls. "They didn't surface for another 20 years, until after Presley's death," said Muir. The pictures, of a terribly handsome, rather vulnera ble-looking boy, are a million miles from the lamé-clad star with the cantilevered hairdo that the Colonel had contrived.
- Victoria and Gandhi masters of image control
By Mike Collett-White
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, July 5, 2005)
Fifty, or even 150 years ago, long before the advent of PR machines and paparazzi, stars and leaders had the kind of control over their image that today's celebrities could only dream of, a new exhibition shows. "The World's Most Photographed" at the National Portrait Gallery in London analyzes how 10 famous figures manipulated their image and how that image could in turn be used against them, starting with Queen Victoria and ending with Muhammad Ali. "It is about how these figures used photography and in some instances, how photographers ended up using them," said curator Robin Muir ahead of the exhibition's opening on Wednesday.
Surprisingly, there was no place for Princess Diana, whose image seemed to be everywhere and who died when her car crashed having been chased by paparazzi in Paris. "The reason we decided not to include her was because it was increasingly difficult to find images out there that were not already well known," Muir told Reuters. "Diana ... rose to fame at a time when everything was seen, every movement documented," he said.
One of the first people to realize the power of photography was Queen Victoria, whose reign began as it was being invented. She would become the most photographed woman of her age, using the images to connect with her people. Late in her reign she authorized a rare picture of her smiling, to soften her image as stern monarch.
GANDHI, MONROE, GARBO AND ELVIS
The exhibition shows Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi as a skilled self-publicist who harnessed the media to great effect. A pair of pictures, taken over 40 years apart, show him as a young lawyer, the picture of British middle class wearing bow tie and winged collar, and later as a bald Indian in ordinary dress who would appeal to the masses.
Adolf Hitler initially kept photographers away, but came to recognize their importance as a propaganda tool. The leader's favorite photographer, Heinrich Hoffman, and assistants took an estimated 2.5 million pictures of the Fuehrer from 1935 to 1945.
Screen siren Greta Garbo's relationship with the media was complex. She was famously camera-shy, but the more she shrank from the limelight the more it sought her out. Freelance photographer and obsessive fan Ted Leyson pursued her almost daily in New York during her later years, and took what was probably the last photograph of the enigma in 1990.
At the other end of the spectrum came Marilyn Monroe and her love affair with the lens. It returned to haunt her when a shot of her naked taken years earlier appeared in Playboy, threatening her budding movie career. According to Muir, she averted disaster by coming clean over the reason for posing; she needed the $50.
After 1956, Elvis Presley's image was carefully controlled by manager Tom Parker, whose methods of media manipulation would not be out of place today. One exception came in 1959, when Elvis was drafted into the army and traveled without Parker. He was photographed in a sleazy European nightclub with waitresses and dancers draped over him. Incredibly, the pictures were not published until after Elvis died. Instead they gathered dust in the club where they were taken. ...
- Queen emerge as UK's most popular act
(Sound Generator, July 5, 2005)
Chart experts writing for the current edition of the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles have surprised many this week, naming classic rockers Queen as the UK's most popular band of all time. According to the list, which many expected to be led by the Beatles, the band have notched up 1,322 weeks in total on the official album and singles charts - made even more remarkable by the timeframes involved - Queen first charted 11 years after the Beatles. However, the Liverpool act came a close second, with 1,293 weeks in total, ahead of Elvis Presley's 1,280.
- Independent Elvis shops get order to vacate mall
By Michael Lollar
(Commercial Appeal, July 4, 2005)
Prepare to say goodbye to the Elvis Presley cookie cutter, the Elvis "Kiss Me Quick" lip gloss with its passion fruit flavor and the Elvis Band-Aid dispenser with the message "Stuck On You."
Those are among roughly 200 items not sold by Elvis Presley Enterprises, but available in independently owned gift shops getting the boot from the Elvis estate. Shop owners at Memories of Elvis and Loose Ends in the Graceland Crossing shopping center said they have been told their leases won't be extended, and they must move by Nov. 30.
"It's a tragedy with the big people squeezing out the little man," said Carol Light, an Elvis fan who moved to Memphis from Illinois 27 years ago and turned her Memories of Elvis shop into a Graceland tradition. Within easy walking distance of Graceland, it has carried merchandise from Elvis flyswatters to Elvis golf balls that weren't available in the more reverential Graceland-owned gift shops.
Elvis Presley Enterprises spokesman Todd Morgan said EPE made the business decision that "it doesn't make a lot of sense to lease space to a competing business." Morgan said EPE is constantly considering ideas to expand its visitor center complex, including Graceland Crossing, which is just north of Graceland and situated in front of EPE's Heartbreak Hotel.
EPE bought Graceland Crossing in 1997. It has long considered building a major Elvis museum to tell the Elvis Presley story in minute detail. That museum likely would be in the larger Graceland Plaza complex, across the street from Graceland. That could mean moving some attractions in Graceland Plaza to Graceland Crossing, less than a quarter-mile north. Morgan said museum plans remain indefinite, and there are no specific plans for use of the Graceland Crossing space. "We have nothing on the drawing board," he said.
EPE had extended leases in the strip-shopping mall on a month-to-month basis for independent shops, promising to give them six months' notice if it decided to cancel the leases. They were notified in late May, giving them until Nov. 30 to vacate. If EPE and its new partner, majority owner Robert Sillerman, came up with an idea for the property it would not want to have to wait another six months to get the project under way, Morgan said.
Light, 57, said she is unable to retire and has 12 employees who depend on her. She has been unable to find a workable location for another Elvis store within easy walking distance of Graceland, she said. Light had become an Elvis licensee, designing some merchandise that was licensed through Graceland and sold exclusively through her store. She paid annual royalties to EPE, but declined to discuss how much she contributes to Elvis coffers each year because of nondisclosure agreements in her contract. "I have a hard time thinking they could make the money per square foot that I do by putting one of their own stores in here." When she moved to Memphis after Elvis's death in 1977, she said it was a struggle at first. "We were here on the ground floor. We made the area what it is -- myself and other stores that opened up after Elvis died. Only because of us did EPE get the idea to open up the house (Graceland). I feel we laid the groundwork."
At Loose Ends, next door to Light's store, co-owner Lisa Keith said she isn't sure what she will do either, but she considers the EPE move "just a business decision."
One other independent business, the Rock & Roll Cafe, will remain in Graceland Crossing. Morgan said EPE considers the restaurant a "service for our guests, an amenity." He said EPE, which operates two restaurants of its own in Graceland Plaza, did not want to expand its in-house food and beverage operations to Graceland Crossing. "Food and beverage is not a high-margin business for us."
That leaves the EPE-owned gift shop, Souvenirs of Elvis, as the only other business in Graceland Crossing. It carries only merchandise licensed by or manufactured through EPE.
At Memories of Elvis, Light's merchandise is a mix of items licensed through EPE and those designed by and manufactured exclusively for Memories of Elvis. Those include the $10.99 cookie cutter, Elvis temporary tattoos ($3.99), air fresheners ($1.99), T-shirts and fancy dress shirts with appliqued and embroidered designs ($17.99-$79.99), teddy bears in white silk Elvis jumpsuits ($19.99), a full line of Elvis baby clothes and accessories and $15.99 Elvis clocks with legs that swing as a rhythmic reminder of the passing time since Elvis's death.
- MOVIE LEGENDS 'WERE SEXIER'
(dailyrecord.co.uk, July 4, 2005)
CLASSIC stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley were sexier than today's Hollywood heart-throbs, according to a survey. Current big names, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, do not rank as highly as the screen legends when it comes to sex appeal, even with the younger generation. The poll, commissioned by Muller, asked 1000 Britons which American stars they would most like to spend the night with. Fifties screen legend Marilyn Monroe was the preferred choice for men, followed by Calamity Jane actress Doris Day. Modern-day stars Angelina Jolie, Madonna and Halle Berry came next Elvis came top among the women polled, followed by John Wayne, crooner Frank Sinatra, 1950s rebel James Dean and Humphrey Bogart. Robert De Niro was next, while Tom Cruise and Pitt languished behind their classic counterparts. Muller brand manager Angela Paine said: 'It's clearly evident from the poll that the British public hankers after the sophistication and glamour of American classics. ...The younger generation of Britons, aged 16-24, also reckoned that Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe were twice as desirable as Robert De Niro and Madonna.
- MOVIE LEGENDS 'WERE SEXIER'
(dailyrecord.co.uk, July 4, 2005)
CLASSIC stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley were sexier than today's Hollywood heart-throbs, according to a survey. Current big names, including Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, do not rank as highly as the screen legends when it comes to sex appeal, even with the younger generation. The poll, commissioned by Muller, asked 1000 Britons which American stars they would most like to spend the night with. Fifties screen legend Marilyn Monroe was the preferred choice for men, followed by Calamity Jane actress Doris Day. Modern-day stars Angelina Jolie, Madonna and Halle Berry came next Elvis came top among the women polled, followed by John Wayne, crooner Frank Sinatra, 1950s rebel James Dean and Humphrey Bogart. Robert De Niro was next, while Tom Cruise and Pitt languished behind their classic counterparts. Muller brand manager Angela Paine said: 'It's clearly evident from the poll that the British public hankers after the sophistication and glamour of American classics. ...The younger generation of Britons, aged 16-24, also reckoned that Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe were twice as desirable as Robert De Niro and Madonna.
- Classic appeal
(The Scotsman, July 4, 2005)
CLASSIC American stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley are more sexy than today's Hollywood icons, according to a survey. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt do not rank as highly as the screen legends when it comes to sex appeal, even with the younger generation.
- You'll know Jack: new format hits the radio dial
By LARRY McSHANE
(Myrtle Beach Online / Associated Press, July 3, 2005)
... Radio's hottest new programming trend, most often compared to broadcasting an iPod on shuffle, is creating a buzz on stations from New York to Los Angeles to Greensboro, N.C. Bruce Springsteen followed by the Beastie Boys? Led Zeppelin and Black Box? Elton John and Jet? Yes, yes, and yes.
Such genre-bending mixes of songs, once derided by radio programmers as "train wrecks," provide the format's foundation. "It's everything from Elvis Presley to the Black Eyed Peas," said Rob Barnett, director of programming for Infinity Radio and its eight Jack converts. But it's more than that. The new format peddles attitude along with music, presenting itself as a voice of unfettered expression in an era where corporate radio serves up micromanaged playlists. ... Jack, according to its boosters, is different. Its mantra is "Playing what we want," offering hits from the '70s through the present. It aims for listeners in the lucrative 24-to-45-year-old demographic, using a 1,200-plus song library that's often six times the size of a typical station's choices. ... "People say, `It's just like an iPod on shuffle.' Well, whose iPod?" McKenzie said. "It's still very programmed. What you're going to hear depends on the market." ...
- Memphis Rockabilly... Then
(Charlotte Observer, July 3, 2005)
ROCKABILLY was the blues-country fusion at Memphis' Sun Studio in the mid-'50s. It spawned rock 'n' roll and launched the careers of its earliest stars, including ELVIS PRESLEY, JERRY LEE LEWIS and CARL PERKINS -- as well as JOHNNY CASH. Blues legends B.B. KING and HOWLIN' WOLF were first recorded there by owner Sam Phillips, for different labels..
... and Now
Catch the Memphis-based DEMPSEYS, a stellar rockabilly trio, live. RECORD "That's All Right Mama" or any of 1,000 other songs at the Sun Studio custom karaoke session; your copy of it has a Sun label sticker. $30 for first song. Learn about rockabilly on the INTERNET at www.rockabilly.net and www.rockabillyhall.com
Eatin' and Sleepin' and More
EAT at The Arcade, 540 S. Main St., where Elvis would dine before he got too famous. (It's just blocks from the National Civil Rights Museum -- the onetime Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968.) SLEEP where Elvis and his parents lived -- Apartment 328 at Lauderdale Courts, 252 N. Lauderdale. Cost: $249 per night (two-night minimum). Details: (901) 521-8219; www.lauderdalecourts.com. CELEBRATE at concerts held Elvis Week (Aug. 10-17, keyed to the anniversary of his death in 1977); Elvis Birthday Week (Jan. 5-10).
- Luther Vandross, 54, dead from stroke complications
By Temple Stark
(blogcritics.org, July 2, 2005)
Luther Vandross, most everyone's first favorite "big poppa" died yesterday in New Jersey. The legendary soul man had never fully recovered from an April 2003 stroke I, sadly, had forgotten about, where he lay unconscious for almost a month. Vandross had a smoother, silkier Barry White vibe going on throughout his career; a career that saw, like Elvis, his weight fluctuate as high and low as his range. Lately, Vandross has been a memory, a shadow who, still when people hear his name, they likely remember a romantic moment they've shared. ...
- Desperately funny: The Man Who Was Screaming Lord Sutch
(book review)
By Simon Callow
(Guardian Unlimited, July 2, 2005)
In the first result of the most recent election, Sunderland South, the Official Monster Raving Loony party, represented by Mad Cow Girl Warner, won 0.5% of the votes. Warner thus got no nearer than the party's founder, David "Screaming Lord" Sutch, to realising his supreme dream: receiving no votes whatever. Nevertheless, she triumphantly succeeded in maintaining the party's fine tradition of making an absolute mockery of the proceedings, spoiling the perfect picture of democracy at its noblest moment: the people's will expressed, policies endorsed, selfless aspiration rewarded with the political crown. Sutch himself had provided the supreme instance of the Monster Loony tradition when, in 1983, he contested Margaret Thatcher's seat of Finchley North, canvassing with a giant tin-opener in his hand ("to open the Iron Lady up") and appearing on the platform alongside her to hear the results in leopard-skin and top hat, in the inexplicable company of an Elvis lookalike. ...
- Avoid the Estate Planning Blunders of Marilyn and Elvis
By Sue Stevens
(Forbes.com, July 1, 2005)
It's probably not something that you like to spend time dwelling on, but there is a reason that every actuarial table has death as a 100% probability -- we're all mortal. A good estate plan can provide for your family, preserve your assets for future generations, and minimize taxes. You'd think if you had the same kind of money as some of the greatest stars of all time, that you'd have the best advisors and be able to leave your family well provided for. But you'd be surprised how many celebrities have had real problems with their estate planning.
Consider the estate of Marilyn Monroe. When Monroe died in 1962, she left the rights to her licensing and royalty deals to her acting coach, Lee Strasberg. Today, those royalties generate millions of dollars a year. The odd thing is that they're enriching a woman that Monroe never met, as Strasberg left them to his widow in 1982. If your estate is substantial enough that it could (or should) last for more than one generation, and if you agree with Warren Buffett, who said that he wants to leave his children "enough money so that they would feel they could do anything, but not so much that they could do nothing," then you need to carefully consider how to set up your estate to make sure your money gets to the people you intend it to go to.
... Trusts
Consider the estate of Elvis Presley. When he died in 1977, his estate was valued at more than $10 million. Unfortunately, his estate went through probate, and taxes and fees consumed a stunning 73% of the estate's value, leaving his heirs with less than $3 million. Much of that could have been avoided if Presley had established a trust. Do you need a trust? ...
- After settling a trademark infringement suit with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, a new Web site honoring Jewish rockers with a "Shul of Rock" and "Challah Fame" is open for business
(Yahoo! News / Reuters, July 1, 2005)
The suit was dismissed earlier this week when the founders of Jewsrock.org agreed to refrain from using the phrase "Jewish Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" in connection with their site, a lawyer for the site told Reuters on Friday. That didn't stop sponsors of the site from establishing a "Challah Fame" -- using the Yiddish word for a braided egg bread -- to label their alphabetical listing of Hebraic-born pop stars, among them Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Lou Reed, Carole King and David Lee Roth. Visitors to the site also can link to various essays on Semitic rockers under the heading "Shul of Rock" (borrowing from the Yiddish word for a synagogue). One article chronicles the origins of the all-Jewish L.A. band the Knack and its 1979 hit single "My Sharona." Another charts the rise of celebrity tailor "Nudie" Cohn, who designed suits for Elvis Presley and Hank Williams. ...
- Preferring a Taste and Recognizing It May Involve Separate Brain Areas, Study Shows
(physorg.com, July 1, 2005)
Are you disgusted when you hear about Elvis Presley's fried peanut butter 'n 'nanner sandwiches? A new study shows that it could all be in your head. In fact, our taste preferences may have little to do with whether we can even recognize the substance we're eating or drinking. In the current issue of "Nature Neuroscience", California Institute of Technology neuroscientist Ralph Adolphs and his colleagues at the University of Iowa report on their examinations of a patient whose sense of taste has been severely compromised. The patient suffered from a herpes brain infection years ago that left him with brain damage. Today, the patient is unable to name even familiar foods by taste or by smell, and shows remarkably little preference in his choice of food and drink. ... What does this mean for us regular tasters? According to Adolphs, taste information "that is meaningless for an isolated individual stimulus can yield relative values when the taste is structured as a comparison." In other words, there's something in your brain that indeed has a preference for a sweet drink over a salty one, but there's something else in your brain that disgusts you when you're given a salty drink when you know you could've had a cola.
- Elvis Presley Enterprises Selects eFashion Solutions, LLC to Manage Worldwide Web Retailing
By Paul Jackson
(Yahoo! Finance / BUSINESS WIRE, July 1, 2005)
Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) announced today it has signed the nation's leading ecommerce provider, eFashion Solutions, LLC,(www.efashionsolutions.com) to manage the global web-retailing for officially licensed and trademarked Elvis products. eFashion Solutions, LLC will be responsible for the worldwide web-marketing and web-retailing for web, catalogue and fan club sales for all merchandise that bears the Elvis trademark, likeness and image of Elvis. ...
- Elvis Presley Enterprises Selects eFashion Solutions, LLC to Manage Worldwide Web Retailing
By Paul Jackson
(Yahoo! Finance / BUSINESS WIRE, July 1, 2005)
Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) announced today it has signed the nation's leading ecommerce provider, eFashion Solutions, LLC,(www.efashionsolutions.com) to manage the global web-retailing for officially licensed and trademarked Elvis products. eFashion Solutions, LLC will be responsible for the worldwide web-marketing and web-retailing for web, catalogue and fan club sales for all merchandise that bears the Elvis trademark, likeness and image of Elvis. ...
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