late September, 2005
- Pinky packs up Elvis
By David Delcore
(Times Argus, September 29 2005)
Stop the presses! Elvis has left the building. Sure there are still a few remnants of what is billed on the back of the business card for Charlie-O's as "the nearest shrine to Graceland," - 194 feet separate the Main Street bar and Minuteman Press on State Street where for more than two decades Pinky Clark proudly displayed his impressive collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia. "That's one of the things I'm known for," says the self-described "Elvis fanatic," who recently sold the print shop that he and his wife, Jean, opened in 1983. A colorful Elvis-shaped plaque still hangs on one wall and one of Presley's albums sits on the corner of a cluttered tabletop, but folks who have wandered into the Minuteman Press over the past few weeks have surely noticed the change of décor. "Let's just say Elvis is in storage," jokes Pinky, who is still hoeing out the last of his personal belongings after selling the local Minuteman franchise to Montpelier residents John and Nancy Cunningham. ...
- Elvis's cousin ready to rock Heartbreak Hotel
By Karen Price
(icWales / Western Mail, September 29 2005)
His name is Presley, he has a distinctive American accent - and he's performing in Wales. But before you start thinking Elvis is still alive after all, it's not The King taking to the stage. It's the next best thing - his cousin Jerry Presley. And one of the venues he will be appearing at is the Heartbreak Hotel. Jerry is the first male member of the Presley family to visit the UK. He flew into London last night ahead of the second Porthcawl Elvis Festival, which opens tomorrow. Jerry will be performing five tribute concerts to his iconic cousin during the festival weekend.
... The festival will feature Elvis tribute artists from all over the world, including Mario Kombou, recently crowned in Memphis World Champion Elvis tribute. 'There are a lot of good tribute artists out there,' said Jerry, whose great-grandfather was the brother of Elvis's great-grandfather. It's amazing that 27 years after his death his popularity continues to grow - you can't say that about any other person. He was The King - there will never be another Elvis Presley.'
Jerry believes Elvis, who died on August 16, 1977, would be a little bemused with his iconic status if he were still alive. 'He never liked being called The King, but as far as the phenomenon of his popularity is concerned, he would give credit to all his fans.'
While millions of people loved Elvis's public persona as the music and film legend, Jerry knew the 'real' Elvis. 'He was a typical, everyday, normal human being,' said Jerry. He loved to have fun - he was a big joker.' Jerry does not see much of Elvis's family. 'I don't see Priscilla or Lisa-Marie too often as they are in another part of the country.' ... Jerry travels with a 16-piece band, The Jordanaires, who were Elvis's original backing singers. ...
- Surprise hit for old fireball: at 70, Jerry Lee Lewis has reached another remarkable stage in his rock-music career
By Robert Messenger
(Canberra Times, September 29 2005, Times2 Section, p. 3)
Then there was one. It started 50 years ago in the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. There were the five great, original rockabilly legends: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and Jerry Lee Lewis. Just one survives, and today "The Killer, "The Ferriday Fireball" -- Jerry Lee Lewis -- celebrates, remarkably, his 70th birthday. ... He was one of the first 10 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and, with Ray Charles dying and Fats Domino at apparent flood risk in New Orleans, may be one of the last to join the choir invisible.
... Presley died, bloated and worn out, aged 42 in 1977 (his autopsy will not be in the public domain until 2027), Orbison of a massive heart attack, aged 52 in 1988, Perkins, of throat cancer and after a series of strokes, aged 65 in 1998, and Cash, having overcome the ravages of drugs and alcohol, from complications from diabetes which resulted in respiratory failure, aged 71 in 2003.
... With his pounding piano playing, his lank, wavy fair hair falling all over his face, and girls screaming and stretching out their arms, just aching to get their hands on him and tear him apart, Lewis was - before Elvis - the first to exemplify the spirit of the Devil in rock 'n' roll. ...
While on a tour of Britain in early 1958, Lewis acknowledged he was travelling with his third wife, his 13-year-old second cousin, Myra Gale Brown ... Suddenly he was rock's persona non grata. His booking fee evaporated from $10,000 a night to $250 in any old honky tonk that would have him. The gleeful predictions from the pulpits of America - that rock was evil, and singed by the fiery furnaces of Hell, would soon burn out and die - apparently proving to be right. Elvis was quietly ducked away with the army in Germany. Perkin's career was also on hold, after a terrible car crash ... Perkins was never quite the same performer again. Cash eventually went all country and Orbinson became a balladeer. Only Lewis kept the rockabilly torch ablazing.
... Lewis was pointing to his future when in 1950 he was expelled from the Southwestern Bible Institute in Texas for playing "black music" versions of hymns. After hearing Elvis on radio, Jerry Lee and his father sold 33-dozen eggs at Nelson's market in Ferriday to finance a trip to Phillips's studio. ... Elvis, watching Lewis take his mantle as the one true rocker, remarked that if he could play the piano like Lewis, he'd quit singing. ... One critic wrote " ... Jerry Lee's early recorded work is one of the most amazing collections of American music in existence."
- Elvis managers look toward Las Vegas for expansion
By WOODY BAIRD
(Sun Herald / Associated Press, September 29 2005)
The new owners of Elvis Presley Enterprises are making a first move toward an expansion from Memphis by buying an Elvis museum in Las Vegas. But they expect to close the independently run museum and no firm outline has been drawn for what will replace it. "There are no specific plans," Ed Tagliaferri, a spokesman for CKX Inc., said Thursday. A statement from CKX Inc. says, however, that the overall plan is "to bring a world class Elvis-themed attraction to the Las Vegas strip." ... As part of the agreement, CKX said Davidson will get the rights to open an Elvis museum in Hawaii. Tagliaferri said no plans have been laid out for a project in Hawaii, either. But if one is put together, CKX will hold a "significant" interest in it, the company said. CKX said "Elvis-A-Rama" will be closed and its name and Web site permanently "retired." Elvis Presley Enterprises has jealously guarded the use of Presley's name and image since taking over the business affairs of the Presley state in 1982. ...
- Elvis-A-Rama museum to be purchased
(Las Vegas Sun, September 27 2005)
CKX Inc., which controls the name, image and likeness of Elvis Presley, said it agreed to acquire the Elvis-A-Rama museum near the Las Vegas Strip, a related Web site and most of the memorabilia on display for an undisclosed price. The museum will be closed to make way for a world-class Elvis-themed attraction, New York-based CKX said today in a statement distributed by Business Wire.
Chris Davidson, the Elvis memorabilia collector who will sell the museum, will be granted the right to open an Elvis museum in Hawaii, the company said. CKX said it will get a licensing fee and hold a "significant" equity interest in a Hawaii museum. Davidson said his museum on Industrial Road will close "sometime into next year." The 12 employees have been offered incentives to "stay with me until the end," he said, adding that he would offer assistance in finding them future employment.
Maui and Honolulu are the likely locations for the Hawaii museum, but the timeline is uncertain, Davidson said. "I'll wait until this settles to start on that, probably in the first quarter of next year," he said. Davidson declined to disclose the sale price of Elvis-A-Rama, pointing out that a few details must still be worked out in reaching the official price tag. ...
- CKX, Inc. to Acquire and Shut Down 'Elvis' Themed Museum in Las Vegas: Company Will Cease Operations, Clearing Path for Major Themed Attraction
(Yahoo! Finance / PRNewswire-FirstCall, September 27 2005)
CKX, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., has agreed to acquire the assets of the Elvis-A-Rama museum, located off the strip in Las Vegas, including the trademark to the name "Elvis-A-Rama," the related website and a substantial portion of the memorabilia currently on display at the Las Vegas-based establishment. The existing museum will be permanently closed and the Elvis-A-Rama name retired as part of CKX's overall plan to bring a world class Elvis-themed attraction to the Las Vegas strip.
Robert F.X. Sillerman, Chairman and CEO of CKX commented, "As we have mentioned on numerous occasions, establishing a major presence for the 'Elvis' brand in Las Vegas is an important priority of the company. The closure of the museum together with the purchase of the artifacts and memorabilia currently located there, clears the way for implementation of our plan."
CKX is acquiring these assets from Chris Davidson and certain other minority partners. Mr. Davidson has been collecting Elvis memorabilia for over ten years and is among the world's most well known private collectors of such items.
As part of the purchase, the Company will grant to Mr. Davidson the right to open a licensed Elvis-themed museum in Hawaii, a location often associated with Mr. Presley. In addition to receipt of the licensing fee, the Company will retain the right to acquire a significant equity interest in the Hawaiian operations. Hawaii served as the location for three of Mr. Presley's films and perhaps most famously, was home to the 1973 concert "Elvis, Aloha from Hawaii," which was broadcast worldwide and ultimately viewed by more than 1.5 billion people around the world. ...
- Another brooding epic
Reviewed by John Aizlewood, Evening Standard
(This is London, September 27 2005)
King Of The Mountain - Kate Bush
This is a reminder of what we have been missing with Kate Bush's absence.Tori Amos, Björk and others have attempted to eclipse Bush's otherworldliness, musicality and sheer weirdness, but none has come close and King Of The Mountain shows why. It's a brooding epic which begins with an ominous guitar riff before that instantly recognisable voice charges in. "Could you see the aisles of women? Could you see them screaming and weeping?" she asks. As ever, she is too subtle a writer to offer answers to who the king is and where his mountain might be, but there are references to Elvis (Presley?) and Rosebud, the talismanic sledge in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. The allegorical lyrical mystery makes her music more alluring. Bush was always a uniquely physical writer, but the more this song progresses, the more she sounds buffeted by the elements atop a frozen mountain. Gales howl around her before she concludes: "The wind, it blows the door closed." It is not easy listening, but it is a landmark work. I can't wait for Aerial.
- Spector Murder Trial Likely To Start In January
(NBC 4, September 27 2005)
Rock music producer Phil Spector made a brief court appearance in Los Angeles Monday to learn from his judge that his murder trial would probably begin in January. Spector is accused of shooting to death actress Lana Clarkson at his suburban Los Angeles mansion in February 2003. The trial was originally scheduled to start this month. Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler called the hearing to change the dates for pretrial motions in the case to Oct. 27 and 28. Spector's attorney, Roger Rosen, also said he anticipates the trial would start in January or February. The producer made no comments other than to waive his speedy trial rights. The legendary music mogul is known for creating the rock 'n' roll "Wall of Sound" production technique in the 1960s. He produced hits for several artists, including Elvis Presley, the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers and the Beatles. ...
- Ann-Margret unwraps role in 'Santa 3'
By Borys Kit
(Yahoo! News / Hollywood Reporter / Reuters, September 27 2005)
Tim Allen is returning as Santa in order to save Christmas from Jack Frost while trying keep his family life in order. Martin Short already has been cast as the evil Frost. Ann-Margret will play Allen's mother-in-law, who is waspish and very critical of her daughter. Michael Lembeck is directing the script, which was written by Ed Decter and John Strauss. All three worked on "The Santa Clause 2," the 2002 sequel to the 1994 holiday smash. Ann-Margret was nominated for Oscars for her performances in "Carnal Knowledge" and "Tommy," and starred opposite Elvis Presley in "Viva Las Vegas." Her recent credits include "Taxi," opposite Jimmy Fallon and Queen Latifah, and a three-episode arc on NBC's "Third Watch" last season.
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