early April, 2006
- 'Live at Woodstock' DVD improves Hendrix experience
By Brett Milano
(Boston Herald April 8 2006)
Jimi Hendrix is nearly as prolific as Elvis Presley these days, thanks to a steady stream of reissues on CD and DVD. But the Hendrix estate's current "Live at Woodstock" DVD is special enough to warrant the splashy release tour that came Thursday to Axis. ...
- Winds of change: History Channel film series focuses on 10 events that shaped America
By MIKE KELLY
(Toledo Blade April 7 2006)
What do Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, and Andrew Carnegie have in common? (And no, they didn't all take part in a jam session at Woodstock.) Each in his own way had a profound impact on the shaping of America's national and cultural landscape, and their disparate stories are among those told in an ambitious series of documentaries that will premiere Sunday night on the History Channel. Called 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America, the series is composed of 10 separate one-hour films, some of which offer fresh perspectives on well-known historical incidents, while others show the impact of less frequently cited events. Each documentary was created by a different award-winning filmmaker. The pro-grams will be aired for two hours each night for five consecutive nights.
... Other films in the series deal with the cultural fallout of Elvis Presley's groundbreaking appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show; the California gold rush; the Scopes trial face-off between William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow; the 1964 killings of three civil rights workers that helped spur passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and Shays' Rebellion, the post- Revolutionary War uprising that led to the drafting of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. ...
- Presley supports Cruise
By WENN
(Yahoo! News UK & Ireland April 7 2006)
Elvis Presley's ex-wife Priscilla has voiced her support for Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' plans for a silent birth later this month, insisting she wishes she had done the same for daughter Lisa Marie. The 60-year-old actress maintains Scientology is misunderstood and is urging more people to study the controversial religion. She says, "If people actually read L Ron Hubbard's teachings they would understand that drug-free silent births show respect to the baby and stop them becoming unbalanced. "I wish I'd had a silent birth when I had Lisa Marie."
- Frank Sinatra's First Driver's License, Thomas Edison's Light Bulb Patent, Elvis Presley-signed High School Yearbook Up for Bid at Bid4Assets' One-Day Online Auction of Intriguing Memorabilia & More: Financial News - Yahoo!
Source: Bid4Assets, Inc.
(Yahoo! Finance / PRNewswire April 5 2006)
Rare, signed, museum-quality memorabilia from Thomas Edison, Elvis Presley, Abraham Lincoln and Tupac Shakur -- plus other famous historical figures and cultural icons -- will be auctioned online next week as part of a special, one-day event on bid4assets.com. Bidding takes place from 5 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, April 11, 2006, until 11 p.m. EDT on Wednesday April 12, 2006. The 600 items from the collection of Paul Sabesky and GovernmentAuction.com can be previewed from now until the start of the auction at http://www.bid4assets.com .
Some of the items include:
One-of-a-kind, Museum Quality Memorabilia
* Thomas Edison Signed Patent for the Incandescent Light Bulb
* Babe Ruth Signed Document with exceptional Full Signature
* Frank Sinatra's Signed First Driver's License
* Elvis Presley Signed 1953 High School Yearbook
* Elvis Presley & Colonel Tom Parker Early Signed Document
* George Washington Signed Continental Army Discharge
* Thomas Jefferson Signed Naval Commission 1808
* Jefferson & Madison Signed Land Grant from 1807
* Abraham Lincoln Signed Military Commission
* Abraham Lincoln 1855 Three-Page Handwritten Legal Brief
* Gone With The Wind: A Shawl Worn by Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O' Hara
* Gone With The Wind: Margaret Mitchell Signed 1st Year Printing
* Muhammad Ali Worn 1980 Training Robe (Ali vs. Holmes)
* Muhammad Ali Ring Worn Signed Trunks
* Tupac Shakur One-of-a-Kind Personal Relic Display
Unique Personal Property
* 99 Coin auctions, including:
* Museum-quality Roman Silver Coin (200 BC - 45 BC)
* 1911 $5 US Gold Coin
* 1893 US Columbian Half Dollar Chicago World Exposition Coin
* 1881 $10 US Gold Coin
* 1829 Bust Half Dollar
* 122 Jewelry auctions, including:
* 35.33 carat emerald gemstone
* 13.52 carat emerald gemstone
* 128.57 carat emerald parcel
* 0.45 carat 14K gold, diamond earrings
* 76.21 carat marquise ruby parcel
* 14K Gold .97 carat princess diamond ring
* 1.41 carat blue diamond ring
* 115 Artwork auctions, including:
* Western Bronze: Cowboy with Horse Bronze
* Tiffany Style Handmade Lamp
Valuable Land and Commercial Real Estate
* Laguna Beach, California -- Commercial / Apartment Building (fully
leased)
* Multiple parcels, 136-320 acres, in Lassen Co. Northern California
* 80 acres near Elgin, Arkansas -- Fantastic Duck Hunting Land
* 125 acres near Cord, Arizona -- Fronts on County Rd.-Full Access
About Bid4Assets Special Auction Events
In a Bid4Assets Special Auction Event, a collection of diverse and often one-of-a-kind items is made available for a limited time. The combination of unique items and limited time give the Special Auction Event an urgency, intensity and excitement similar to a "bricks and mortar" auction.
The personal property in a Bid4Assets Special Auction Event consists of extremely rare or one-of-a-kind items. The real estate is typically premium land and exceptionally valuable commercial property.
About Bid4Assets, Inc.
Bid4Assets (http://www.bid4assets.com ) specializes in online auctions for high value real estate and personal property. Government agencies like the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Department of Treasury as well as an extensive community of private sellers rely on Bid4Assets to connect them with buyers interested in unique personal and real property. Auctions have included everything from one-of-a-kind historic cars, luxurious estates and spectacular jewelry to the Presidential Yacht Sequoia. The privately-held company, launched in 1999, is based in Silver Spring, MD.
- Koizumi becomes Japan's third-longest serving postwar PM
(Yahoo! News / Reuters April 5 2006)
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who plans to step down in September, became Japan's third-longest serving postwar leader on Wednesday, attributing his political longevity to both voter support and dose of good luck. The wavy-haired Koizumi, known more for his appeal to ordinary Japanese than for playing by time-honored political rules, even now enjoys a public support rating of more than 40 percent, a figure many of his global counterparts might envy. The 64-year-old, who took office in April 2001, on Wednesday tied Yasuhiro Nakasone, who served as prime minister for nearly five years between November 1982 and November 1987. "I think I've always been protected by something," Koizumi told reporters this week. "The reason an ordinary person like myself was able to come this far is due to the support and cooperation of the people -- and also, I've probably been lucky."
... The public was initially fascinated with everything about Koizumi, from his "lion mane" of hair to his love of Elvis Presley, with whom he shares a January 8 birthday. Although this faded, the media-savvy Koizumi was still able to turn to the people when needed, most notably by leading his Liberal Democratic Party to an overwhelming victory in a general election last September. ...
- SOUR NOTES: Costuming is more than mere 'Idol' talk
By Robin Givhan
(Columbus Dispatch / WASHINGTON POST AND THE FLIP SIDE, April 4 2006)
Would Johnny Cash have become a country superstar he were known as the Man in Plaid? Would Elvis Presley have been crowned the King if he had swiveled hips in a Nehru jacket? Would Madonna have been anointed the Material Girl in a Maidenform One Fabulous Fit Full-Support Tailored Bra? No. No. Probably not. Costumes matter. And American Idol is no exception. ...
- The Paris Hilton Effect
By Leah Hoffmann
(Forbes, April 4 2006)
From 1933 to 1935, the number of baby girls in the U.S. who were given the name "Shirley" tripled. It was one of the sharpest spikes the country has ever seen. Though the name was already quite common in the late 1920s and early 1930s (it was the 10th most popular name in 1928), its dramatic surge in popularity over the next six years produced tens of thousands more Shirleys. What accounts for the jump? None other than child actress Shirley Temple, who shot to fame in 1934 with her role in the movie Bright Eyes. According to Laura Wattenberg, a baby name blogger and author of The Baby Name Wizard, Temple's effect on names in America was so strong that it even extended to the characters she played. Popularity of the name "Rebecca" jumped 12% in 1938, when Temple starred in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Popularity of the name "Penelope" rose more than 17% in 1935, a year after Temple's appearance as Penelope "Penny" Day in Now and Forever.
Like fashion, baby naming trends are fickle and slightly mysterious. But it's clear that celebrities exert a powerful influence on the popularity of a particular name. The Social Security Administration has tracked the top 1,000 most popular names for boys and girls since 1879, and it's therefore possible to chart the popularity of a given name--so long as it appears on that list--through a search feature on the Administration's Web site (the latest data available are for 2004).
The name "Elvis," for example, rose almost 60% (from position 888 to 361) in 1956--the year Elvis Presley released Heartbreak Hotel. And the name "Denzel" didn't even register among the top 1,000 most popular boys' names until 1990, when the actor Denzel Washington starred in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. It hit the charts that year at position 445, an increase of at least 55% from the previous year.
"Parents don't necessarily name their babies after celebrities," Wattenberg says. "What's more likely is that they hear a certain name and take a liking to it." Names must be compatible with the larger cultural moment to wield any influence. (That's why there weren't thousands of little Madonnas running around playgrounds in the eighties.) But they needn't necessarily be linked to a celebrity with a "wholesome" image--after all, "Paris" spiked in 2003, the year Paris Hilton's infamous sex tape was leaked online. ...
- PRISCILLA: 'ELVIS WOULD LOVE THE TOURISTS'
(contactmusic.com/, April 3 2006)
ELVIS PRESLEY's ex-wife PRISCILLA has endorsed the designation of the singer's former home, Graceland, as a US National Historic Landmark, because he would have loved the attention. The rock 'n' roll legend's Memphis, Tennessee mansion was awarded the status last week (27MAR06), joining a select list of American sites including the White House, Pearl Harbor and the Alamo. And Priscilla insists the late star would be thrilled by the honour. She says, "It's very strange to have Graceland declared a National Historic Landmark, because it was our home first and foremost. "I had no idea when I opened the house to the public in 1982 that it would receive so many visitors. Elvis would be very pleased about it."
- PRISCILLA PRESLEY: 'I FELT LIKE I WAS SERVING TWO MASTERS'
(.pr-inside.com, April 3 2006)
PRISCILLA PRESLEY blames divided loyalties on the breakdown of her marriage to rock 'n' roll king ELVIS PRESLEY, revealing the birth of their daughter made it "too difficult" to support him fully. The 60-year-old actress admits she was consumed by her husband's fame and hectic lifestyle, and after LISA MARIE was born in 1968 she found it increasingly difficult to balance being his wife with motherhood.
She says, "He (Elvis) was always the first, he was the first of everything he did. I lost my identity to an extent. Anyone can get lost in that world. "When Lisa Marie came I felt like I was serving two masters. "I stopped travelling with him but it was still very difficult. He was very demanding."
- Elvis: 6 feet away, 6 feet under
By Jim Heffernan
(Duluth News Tribune, April 2 2006)
Last Sunday the News Tribune published a column by Rob Karwath, the paper's executive editor, in which he described the lamentable practice by some entertainers' representatives to control media coverage of their artists when they perform on tour. Specifically, he recounted how a News Tribune photographer, assigned to shoot photos at a recent DECC concert by pop/rock singer Rob Thomas, was unable to take pictures because Thomas' managers insisted the rights to any photos become the property of the managers. The photographer rightly refused, so no pictures were included with the paper's coverage of the event.
Why should you care? Well, if you were looking forward to seeing Thomas' picture in the paper, you were disappointed. That's about it for you. Rob Thomas (whoever he is; as a registered geezer I'd never heard of him) should care. As a fledgling soloist, he needs all of the publicity he can get.
As nearly everyone around here knows (a couple of times through this column), Elvis Presley came to Duluth twice in the last year of his life (he died in 1977) and both times his people did everything in their power to prevent media coverage of any kind. In those days -- it's no longer the case -- media usually were given tickets, called ducats, by most performers so that their events could be covered. In more recent decades -- and I mean decades -- the paper buys tickets for reporters. Photographers duck in and out, and are usually welcome. So when I was assigned to cover Elvis' concerts along with a photographer, we had no way to get in. Even if we'd wanted to buy tickets, we couldn't. Sold out.
So I cooked a deal with the manager of the Duluth Arena Auditorium (as it was called then), the late Joe Sturckler. He agreed to meet the photographer and me at the arena's side door at a given time and slip us into the Elvis concert. "But after that, you're on your own," Sturckler said. "If Elvis' people catch you and throw you out, I can't do a thing for you." He mentioned that they particularly didn't like photographers.
Well, the scheme worked. Both times Elvis came, Sturckler slipped us in, and we moved about the concert unmolested. Hundreds of excited women vacated their seats to move closer to the stage, many of whom behaved as though they wouldn't have minded a little molestation on the part of Elvis. And Elvis' picture was plastered all over the front page of the next morning's News Tribune. A few months later he was dead.
I've always felt a little guilty about how we sneaked into the Elvis concerts, and I was thinking about it last month when, on a car trip home from Florida, we stopped by Elvis' Memphis mansion, Graceland. After you tour the house, the last stop is a grotto where Elvis, his parents and his grandmother are buried, a huge granite angel hovering nearby.
When Elvis was in Duluth I got within about 6 feet of him outside the Radisson Hotel, where he stayed, and standing at his grave it occurred to me that I was about 6 feet away from him once again, almost 30 years later and under decidedly different circumstances. I'm older and he's, well...
You wonder where pop/rock singer Rob Thomas will be in 30 years. Will people be touring his home? If that's what he hopes for, he'll need to get better publicity than his own people allowed him to get in Duluth. Why should he care? Because there are a thousand Duluths.
- Churchill Beats Elvis In Time Poll
(Sky News, April 2 2006)
Winston Churchill is the individual people would most like to meet if they could travel back in time. Rock n' Roll legend Elvis Presley came second behind the World War 11 leader in a survey with scientist Albert Einstein third. The poll was carried out for a new BBC magazine, Dr Who Adventures. Screen siren Marilyn Monroe's fourth spot shows she has lost none of her allure. She was followed in fifth place by US civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in 1968. Princess Diana came eighth, ahead of Isaac Newton, Queen Elizabeth 1 and former Beatle John Lennon. The Swinging Sixties was voted the historical period that people would most like to be part of. The present, 2006, came a surprise second, and the Victorian era third.
The Historical Figures People Would Most Like to Meet
1. Winston Churchill
2. Elvis Presley
3. Albert Einstein
4. Marilyn Monro
5. Martin Luther King Jr
6. Ghandi
7. Princess Diana
8. Nelson Mandela
=9. Isaac Newton
=9. Elizabeth I
= 9. John Lennon
:The Period in History People Would Most Like to Experience
1. Swinging Sixties
2. 2006
3. Victorian times
4. 1966 World Cup
5. 1800s/19th Century
6. 1950s
7. Second World War
8. 1970s New York Disco Era
9. 1920s Jazz Age
10. 1900s
- Hotel maintains its free spirit
By DAVE HOEKSTRA
(Chicago Sun-Times, April 2 2006)
The best hotel creates a community within a borrowed city. You are no longer a stranger in town. You have arrived. This was not lost on the Elvis Presley entourage, who knew something about weird road trips. Anyone who has paid attention to a tour of the Lisa Marie airplane in Memphis will notice a closet that has a wooden hanger from the Edgewater Hotel in Madison. During the mid-1970s Elvis and his pals took over two floors of the Art Deco hotel on the shores of Lake Mendota. Someone wanted to keep this borrowed moment. I catch the King's drift. I've been staying at the Edgewater for years. It is my favorite Midwest weekend destination. You can have the French brie, wine and weekend traffic of New Buffalo, Mich. I prefer to head north for Wisconsin cheese, beer and a stroll back in time. ...
- Evansville cancer victim gets visit from 'The King'
By Gina Duwe
(Janesville Gazette, April 2 2006)
Fifty-nine-year-old Janice Scoville sat perched up in bed gazing intently at her all-time favorite singer, Elvis. "I'm flabbergasted and overwhelmed and oh crap!" she said of her surprise visit by Elvis tribute artist Jesse Aron. Holding her hand, Aron sat on a chair next to her bed singing everything from "Return to Sender" to "Amazing Grace" with musical accompaniment from a laptop computer.
Scoville was diagnosed about a month ago with terminal brain and lung cancer, but that hasn't stopped her love for Elvis. She never saw "The King" in concert, so her family and members of HospiceCare arranged Aron's visit Saturday afternoon at her Evansville home. "I didn't even think twice about it when they asked me," Aron told her, describing how he enjoys meeting other Elvis fans.
A walk through Scoville's home is more like a tour at an Elvis museum. Pictures decorate the walls; dressers and shelves display a plate collection, teddy bears, a Barbie doll, whiskey bottles and much more, all covered in Elvis. ...
"A lot of your stuff is better than mine," Aron told her.
- A look at work from a ship of fools
By REGINA HACKETT & Gene Stout
(seattlepi.nwsource.com, April 1 2006)
If you time-traveled back to 16th-century England to tell Queen Elizabeth, "I'm a fool for you, baby," she'd think you were angling for a job, not a date. Free speech hadnšt been invented yet, but fools had license to straight-talk their employers as long as the challenge came wrapped in jokes, riddles, dancing and a little juggling. Fools ruled. They were the first advice columnists, with license to say what others had better not. ... By the 20th century, jesters had become comics, and fools were dimwits. .. Today, calling someone a fool is a casual insult. ... Artists, however, continue to fool around with the concept. Here, on April Fools' Day, we take a quick look at what fools have been up to in movies, books and music, and recommend a few aptly named works. Enjoy, and go do something silly.
THE FOOL'S LIST: POPULAR MUSIC
... "Fool" Elvis Presley (1973) This warmed-over collection of Presley songs recorded in the early '70s includes "Padre," which Elvis once described as one of his favorite songs, and "It's Impossible," recorded live in Las Vegas in 1972. There's also a nice version of the classic "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right." But the bland title track (backed with "Steamroller Blues") flopped as a single. This album isn't currently available new, but try looking for a copy on eBay or at secondhand record stores. ...
- Must-Mail/Must-Not-Mail
By Bill Singleton
(multichannelmerchant.com, April 1 2006)
A hotel I stayed at this week had no hot water. A circuit breaker had tripped during the night, so in the morning no one had hot water. I will remember that every time I see the chain's name, because they goofed on a basic part of the hotel trade.
Catalog recipients complain a lot about mailers making equally basic mistakes. ... Two common mistakes: mailing to people who do not want to be mailed, and not getting mail through to people who do want it. The DMA Mail Preference file is a great start to avoid mailing people who do not want any commercial mail. Good second and third steps include "soft kill" and "hard kill" files. Some consumers want direct mail but not your direct mail. A soft-kill file of individuals' names and addresses can go into your merge/purge to suppress specific people at an address while allowing others at that address to request and receive your mail. I started a hard-kill file when I got requests to mail to Elvis Presley and Johnny B. Goode at a nonexistent address. That file was used to suppress physical addresses regardless of who requested mail to be sent there. ...
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