early August, 2006
- End of a Park Fit for the King: Memphis Fairground Was a Playground for Elvis
By Theo Emery
(Washington Post August 7, 2006)
During hot summer nights in the 1970s, the Memphis fairground would close down to the strains of "Goodnight Sweetheart," but neighborhood residents sometimes heard the rumble of the roller coaster, the Pippin, long after the gates were locked. The rides kept running and the lights stayed on for a special customer, Elvis Presley. He would rent the park, bring family and friends, and ride the roller coaster in privacy around and around the wooden track.
The Zippin Pippin, as it was later renamed, is silent now. Libertyland park closed to the public last fall and has not reopened. This is only the third summer in generations that the Pippin has not clattered over its tracks. The park's historic Grand Carousel is dark, its painted wooden horses stabled behind locked doors. The other rides and attractions have been sold and are being trucked away piece by piece. The padlocking of Libertyland angered some Memphians, who fought to keep the park open and get the Pippin and the historic carousel off the auction block. In the end, the city claimed the carousel, and two Nashville collectors with a traveling museum bought the coaster in June. "Memphis has become a little less unique, a little more generic," said Steven J. Mulroy, an assistant professor of law at the University of Memphis. He acted as spokesman for the group Save Libertyland and was elected county commissioner last week.
The carousel, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will likely turn again. Preservationists are looking for a new home for it, such as the zoo or the Children's Museum of Memphis. The future is less certain for the Pippin. Stephen M. Shutts, 42, came to the June auction with his business partner, musician Robert Reynolds, hoping to buy just the Pippin's lead car -- Elvis's favorite -- for their traveling museum, the Honky Tonk Hall of Fame & Rock-N-Roll Roadshow. They were not allowed to bid on just the car, so they decided to try for the entire roller coaster. To their surprise, they had the winning bid: $2,500. Now, they are trying to figure out what to do with the coaster.
Shutts, a former Elvis impersonator, recently visited the park to inspect his new acquisition. Shutts said he would love to find a corporate partner that would pay to move and operate the Pippin in Memphis -- or at least find a preservation-minded park owner that would keep it intact elsewhere.
... After he became too famous to easily go out in public, Elvis would rent the park so he could ride the bumper cars and the Pippin uninterrupted. The park got a facelift and reopened in 1976 with a new, patriotic name, and the Pippin became the Zippin Pippin. ...
But Libertyland never thrived, according to the Mid-South Fair, which ran the park and the eponymous fall fair. In nearly 30 years, the park turned a profit in just four, losing about $600,000 annually in recent years. The board decided to close it last fall.
... The closure upset 9-year-old Leanna Ritter, whose mother, Mary, worked summers waxing the tracks for one of the park rides. Leanna said she cried herself to sleep when she heard Libertyland had closed. As she sat outside the park, squinting in the bright sunlight, she mused: "I wonder what Elvis would think about them taking this place down."
- Self-Realization Fellowship Celebrates 60th Anniversary of 'Autobiography of a Yogi'
By Louis Sahagun
(Los Angeles Times August 6, 2006)
The Self-Realization Fellowship is holding its annual convocation in L.A., honoring the 60th anniversary of the yogi's `Autobiography.'
Indian swami Paramahansa Yogananda strode onto the sunny canvas of Los Angeles in 1925 with tales of magic in a far-off place and a meditation technique he said could liberate the soul. The charismatic founder of the religious organization headquartered in Mount Washington went on to introduce America to yoga and, with his "Autobiography of a Yogi," become the 20th century's first superstar guru.
More than 4,500 people from around the world will gather at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles today for the Self-Realization Fellowship's annual convocation, featuring a full week of group meditations and evening classes with titles that include "Balancing Our Spiritual and Material Goals." "The bliss you feel in meditation is proof of God's existence," Yogananda liked to say. It was a potent message that attracted fans, as varied as housewives and President Coolidge, who once met with him in the White House. It also spawned a global religious empire of publications, recordings and valuable real estate that has figured in recent bare-knuckles court battles.
... Residents of the Mount Washington complex still talk about the time in the late 1960s when Elvis Presley showed up at their door. "Elvis looked at one of our monks and said, 'Man, you made the right choice,' " recalled Brother Paramananda, who left a promising acting career to devote his life to the fellowship. "Elvis said, 'People don't know my life or that I sometimes cry myself to sleep because I don't know God.' " Fellowship leaders encouraged him to continue singing.
Yogananda's teaching blended Christianity and the 2nd century Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a yoga school of philosophy stressing nonviolence, self-discipline, physical exercises, breath control and meditation. ...
- Graceland to Celebrate Elvis Week 2006 August 8-16
Source: Elvis Presley Enterprises
(Yahoo!
Finance / PRNewswire August 4, 2006)
The nine-day celebration of the late superstar's life is held throughout the city of Memphis with numerous events and charity benefits, culminating in the annual Candlelight Vigil on August 15th attended by thousands. This year also commemorates the Golden Anniversary of his 'break out year' of 1956.
Each year since Elvis' death in 1977, thousands of people from around the world have gathered at his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee to celebrate his life in a week of events now known as Elvis Week. This year's Elvis Week not only celebrates the life of Elvis Presley, but also commemorates the Golden Anniversary of his "break out year" of 1956 -- the year in which he released his first RCA single, made his first
television appearances, released his first movie and achieved other career benchmarks.
Elvis Week (http://www.elvis.com/elvisweek/2006/ew_events.asp ) 2006 runs from August 8th-16th. For a complete, detailed list of events visit http://www.elvis.com/ . The week is filled with numerous and varied activities such as the Annual Elvis Art Contest & Exhibit, 2006 Elvis Film Festival, Elvis Week Dance Party, Elvis Presley International Art Show and a special Graceland Scavenger Hunt.
Official Elvis Insiders (http://www.elvisinsiders.com/ ) club members from around the world gather for the Official Elvis Insiders Conference. Also returning this year is the annual Elvis Trivia Contest and the 24th Annual Elvis Presley International 5K Run and Fun Walk, benefiting United Cerebral Palsy.
The first ever EPE Elvis Tribute Artist Showcase is on Friday, August 11 and the Elvis Week Concert featuring Terry Mike Jeffrey with The Imperials takes place on Saturday the 12th.
The annual Candlelight Vigil is Tuesday, August 15th. This is the largest Elvis Week event when thousands of fans walk up to Elvis' grave carrying a candle in quiet remembrance.
For additional information and access to Graceland, please contact us at jason@thebeckwithcompany.com
- Jackie Chan serenades Manila for charity
(Yahoo! News / Reuters August 4, 2006)
Hong Kong action movie hero Jackie Chan crooned a 1962 Elvis Presley song and promoted his worldwide charity work on Friday as he signed a franchise deal in Manila to sell his Java coffee brand. There was no mention of the actor's alleged drunken rant at a Taiwanese concert last month when, according to local newspapers, he demanded a duet with singer Jonathan Lee and traded insults with the audience. ...
- Maker Of Painkillers Gets The Royal Treatment From Wall Street
By Gloria Lau
(Yahoo! News August 4, 2006)
Elvis Presley was universally known as the King of Rock 'n' Roll, or, more simply, as The King. Many who grew up watching him swivel his hips are now old enough to suffer chronic pain in their own hips -- and everywhere else. These Elvis fans are probably familiar with a different King as well: Endo Pharmaceuticals, which is nicknamed the King of Pain by its Wall Street followers. ...
- Silly News: Elvis Teddy Killed
(antimusic.com August 4, 2006)
A £40,000 teddy which used to belong to Elvis Presley was among scores of toy bears destroyed when a dog meant to guard them went on the rampage. Dobermann Barney was looking after the rare Steiff bear, named Mabel, which had been loaned for an exhibition at Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, Somerset. The dog ripped the head off the bear and attacked scores of other teddies. Barney's owner could only suggest that the bear had a rogue scent on it - or that Barney had become jealous of it.
- Collectors' horror after Elvis's bear mauled in Night of the Living Ted
By Richard Alleyne
(Herald Tribune Europe / New York Times August 3, 2006)
PROTECTING a collection of teddy bears so valuable that insurers insisted on hiring highly trained guard dogs was never going to be a picnic. But nobody thought the bears, which include one owned by Elvis Presley, could be in danger from the enemy within. They do now. After the £500,000 ($1.2 million) attraction was closed for the night, a doberman pinscher called Barney went on the rampage, attacking the exhibits and ripping the head off Mabel, the £40,000 toy once owned by Elvis. The bear, made by the famous German manufacturer Steiff in 1909, was to have taken pride of place as the centrepiece of the Wookey Bear Collection at Wookey Hole Caves, near Wells, in Somerset. It was bought at auction in Memphis, Tennessee, by the aristocrat Sir Benjamin Slade, and had been loaned to the collection, which attracts 300,000 people a year. While most of the collection was kept in glass cases, the new arrival had been left on the work surface while it was being prepared to go on display. ...
- Guard dog leaves Elvis's teddy bear all shook up
By Alan Cowell
(iht.com August 3, 2006)
For these teddy bears, it was no picnic. On Tuesday night, at a tourist attraction named Wookey Hall Caves in western England, Barney, a doberman pinscher guard dog, briefly went berserk, running amok among a collection of teddy bears, including a 1909 German Steiff bear called Mabel reputed to have belonged, once upon a time, to Elvis Presley.
"It could have been the scent of Elvis" that triggered the attack, said Daniel Medley, a spokesman for the 70-acre site near Wells in Somerset. Or maybe Barney was nothing but a hound dog. But whatever it was, Barney chewed, tore, ripped and otherwise savaged around 100 teddy bears before his handler, Greg West, was able to restrain him.
- Elvis' teddy all shook up by jealous hound dog
By Hal Boedeker
(Yahoo! News August 3, 2006)
Elvis Presley's cherished teddy bear Mabel was reportedly all shook up after being mauled by an apparently jealous guard dog hired to protect her at a British museum. The rare toy, made in 1909 by German manufacturer Steiff and valued at 40,000 pounds (75,000 dollars, 59,000 euros), was to have formed the centrepiece of a valuable collection on display at Wookey Hole Caves, in Somerset, southwest England. But for some reason Barney, the Dobermann pinscher charged with protecting the precious cuddly toy and the other fluffy exhibits, took against them, going on the rampage in a frenzied after-hours attack. ...
- A popular TV series was only one part of Angela Lansbury's stellar career
By Hal Boedeker
(Orlando Sentinel August 1, 2006)
Frank Sinatra wanted Lucille Ball to play the devious mother in The Manchurian Candidate. Director John Frankenheimer pushed instead for Angela Lansbury, who stamped the role with her scary brilliance. The Manchurian Candidate is just one highlight Lansbury recalls tonight in Private Screenings on Turner Classic Movies. The charming interview, conducted by Robert Osborne, reminds viewers that Lansbury has enjoyed a colorful, wide-ranging career beyond her signature role, Jessica Fletcher, on TV's Murder, She Wrote.
... In an eight-year stint at MGM, she learned her craft and displayed her versatility. Yet she felt limited by studio boss Louis B. Mayer's choices for her. And she vetoed MGM's plan to change her last name. The British actress, who came to the United States in 1940, had an easy time with accents. Early on, she could play roles far more mature than her age. She was just three years older than Laurence Harvey, who portrayed her stressed son in The Manchurian Candidate; she demonstrates how she planted a controversial kiss on the actor. She was only a decade older than Elvis Presley, who was her son in Blue Hawaii. Presley was "an awfully nice young man," Lansbury says. ...
- Lame-duck lawmakers to attend event
By ALISON HAWKES
(Bucks County Courier Times August 1, 2006)
Five lame-duck lawmakers, including Bucks County's Tom Corrigan, D-140, will be leaving their public offices in four short months but have nevertheless registered to attend the nation's premier legislative conference in Nashville this month. The four-day National Conference of State Legislatures event from Aug. 15-18 costs a minimum of $425 to attend for those who preregistered, plus hotel and travel costs. It's not yet clear how much of the tab taxpayers will pick up for a total of 17 lawmakers and 15 staff to attend, because none have yet submitted for reimbursement. But the House alone has budgeted $527,000 to cover costs. ...
Rep. Kenneth Ruffing, an Allegheny County Democrat who lost his primary bid, said he's never been to the conference in his eight years in office but would be going this year and seeking state reimbursement. Why this year? "I want to go to Nashville," he said. "I am a big country music fan and I want to go to Graceland."
... This year's Nashville trip at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center includes with the registration a visit to the Country Music Hall of Fame and a private concert with country music star LeAnn Rimes with a Southern cuisine dinner. Lawmakers and their families may pay extra to go on suggested tours of Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, a tour of two antebellum Tennessee mansions, Dollywood amusement park, and the Jack Daniel's whiskey distillery. ...
- Shy farm girl marks 50 years at Extension office
By LORI LAW
(Central Ohio August 1, 2006)
Carolin Parks has been on the job at the Ohio State University Extension Office in Zanesville for 50 years.
In 1956 Dwight Eisenhower was president, gasoline was just 22 cents a gallon, and Elvis Presley ruled the music charts. ...
- SIRIUS Satellite Radio All Shook Up About Upcoming Elvis Week Commemoration
From Corey Deitz
(radio.about.com August 1, 2006)
SIRIUS Satellite Radio's all-Elvis Presley music channel, Elvis Radio, (channel 13) will provide national coverage of the annual Elvis Week celebration in Memphis, Tennessee from August 8 through August 16. ...
- Elvis Week is Alive in Chicagoland
From Christine Lock Garcia Inc.
(Yahoo!
Finance / PRNewswireAugust 1, 2006)
Elvis Presley Festivities August 11, 12, 16 and 17th Annual 'Elvis Spectacular' Set to Rock Chicago's Park West!
This year marks the 29th anniversary of the day Elvis Presley left the building for the last time. The memory of "The King" stays alive through annual events at Graceland, in Chicago, and throughout the world. The 3rd week of every August, since 1977, has come to be known around the world as Elvis Week. Since 1977, Chicagoland has been celebrating Elvis Presley Week with a wide variety of events. This year's schedule is bigger and better than ever! Elvis Week includes:
-- "White Sox Elvis Night" on Friday, August 11th, Southsiders celebrate
Elvis!
-- Fleet Feet Sport's "Elvis Is Alive" 5K and Concert Saturday, August
12th, the Elvis concert at 6:30pm features "Chicago's favorite Elvis,"
Mark Hussman, with Alice Peacock and other celebrity guests. To
register for the 5k visit http://www.fleetfeetchicago.com
-- 29th Anniversary Date - Wednesday, August 16th, 2006:
The Annual "Elvis Spectacular" ROCKS Chicago at the Park West!
322 W. Armitage. Mark Husssman's wildly popular, critically acclaimed,
Elvis Tribute Concert begins at 8 p.m., Tickets Only $15.00! More at
http://www.markelvis.com
-- Hussman's weekly Thursday night "Elvisland" show at the Canoe Club in
Orland Park goes into high gear with its special Elvis Week addition.
Thursday, August 17, at 8pm visit: http://www.canoeclubrestaurant.com
Chicago's Annual Elvis Spectacular Concert is better than ever! Sensational musical acts have been added to the Elvis Spectacular, which moved to the Park West this year. The Elvis Spectacular features Mark Hussman with the acclaimed Anthony Smith's Guitar Street Orchestra! Ann-Margrock Dancers return with Buzz Kilman, Patty Elvis, and The Barefoot Hawiians! This year's Elvis Spectacular Concert is family friendly! "E" fans under 18 are welcome with a parent or guardian. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster or the Park West box office! This popular show has been known to sell out -- purchase your tickets today! Mark Hussman was selected as "#1 Elvis" by America Online. He has performed onstage with U2, Olivia Newton-John, Shania Twain and Wynonna and Naomi Judd. He has been featured on CNN, and in Rolling Stone Magazine. Mark Elvis is endorsed by Elvis fans across the globe, including music legends like U2 and Cher! Hussman has produced and headlined the Elvis Spectacular since 1997.
- Elvis musical hitting the road
By Robert Osborne
(Yahoo! News / Hollywood ReporterAugust 1, 2006)
"All Shook Up," the rock 'n' roll musical of Elvis Presley songs that played for 213 performances (and 33 previews) last year at the Palace, will begin its first national tour September 12. The 30-city jaunt will make its first stop at Milwaukee's Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, with subsequent dates including Indianapolis (site of Elvis' last show in 1977), Boston, Houston, Seattle, San Diego and Memphis (of course!). ...
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