late March 2007
- Elvis's army uniform to go on display
(iol.co.za / Sapa-AP, March 26, 2007)
The army uniform worn by Elvis Presley, which was found in the Mississippi Sound after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf region, will be on display when the Hard Rock Biloxi casino resort opens in July.
The uniform was among dozens of items strewn across the Mississippi coast after Katrina struck in August 2005.
BB King's original guitar "Lucille" will return along with the guitars of Johnny Cash and KISS, Joe Billhimer, the casino's chief executive officer, told The Sun Herald newspaper.
Some of the Rock 'n Roll artifacts will be in pristine condition, but others will be part of a Katrina memorial collage. Everything else will be new inside the casino resort, including a display in honour of James Brown.
"It's a big deal for us to get back open, but we do think it's also a big deal for people on the coast to see it back open," Billhimer told the newspaper. "It keeps revitalisation going. It shows that we and a lot of others believe in the revitalisation of the Coast."
The Hard Rock was destroyed by Katrina two days before the casino was scheduled to open.
- Legislature's Justin snub revives classic debate: If the music's too sexy, you're too old, young listeners suggest
By BONNA de la CRUZ
(fairviewobserver.com / Tennessean, March 26, 2007)
Some chalk it up to a generation gap. Or maybe closed-mindedness. As several Tennesseans noted, Elvis too was spurned by authority figures for being too sexual. And yet, Elvis was invited to speak before the General Assembly in 1961. Justin Timberlake hasn't received the same sort of welcome. Last week, the state Senate put the brakes on a resolution to honor Timberlake, suggesting his lyrics are, well, too suggestive. ...
- Photo galleries: Elvis Presley
(fairviewobserver.com, March 26, 2007)
[9 photographs from The Tennessean taken in 1961]
- Hearing to focus on Elvis memorabilia
By ROGER PETTERSON
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, March 26, 2007)
This is a good year for another vacation built around a music theme, as Memphis celebrates a half-century of soul. The Mississippi River city is also known for blues, rock 'n' roll and the home of Elvis Presley.
Click into Memphis Celebrates Soul - http://www.memphissoul50.com/ - to learn what's going on and why you want to be there. Click on "Music History" and the "Soul Timeline" to see how they're measuring 50 years of soul (beginning with the birth of Stax Records in 1957) and some of the milestones that came before it. ...
- Hearing to focus on Elvis memorabilia
(moldova.org / UPI, March 26, 2007)
A judge in Delaware is set to begin hearing a dispute involving several medical items that are considered Elvis memorabilia. The Philadelphia Daily News reported that the collection was once owned by Dr. George C. Nichopoulos who personally treated Elvis Presley for many years. Last year, Richard Long, a California executive, and Bobby Freeman, a music historian, jointly bought part of Nichopoulos's collection, including a black doctor's bag, prescription pill bottles and a glass nasal douche. But Long is now alleging that when he put up $1.2 million to make the deal happen, Freeman would not give him access to the collection for management and insurance purposes, the Daily News said. Freeman argues that Long failed to put up $3 million more that he had pledged to the project and secretly intends to sell the collection overseas. Nichopoulos, or Dr. Nick, now in his 80s, has spoken negatively of Freeman and his endeavors, the newspaper said.
- Queen of the kings
By Christine Sam
(Sydney Morning Herald, March 25, 2007)
She is the Elvis Presley impersonator who has critics in the US all shook up. Sydney singer Jacqueline Feilich is the only Australian competitor - and one of a handful of women - to make the second round of an official Elvis impersonator competition being held for the first time by Elvis Presley Enterprises.
The owners of the giant Elvis corporation usually snub impersonators. This is the first time they've embraced international Elvis performers. Feilich is among 72 competitors chosen for the Elvis competition - there are about 250,000 Elvis impersonators worldwide - and will travel to Tupelo, Mississippi, in June to strut her stuff.
"This is the first time they've paid any attention to tribute artists," Feilich said. "Now they're really going hard with this - promoting it left, right and centre - saying the winner will be named the ultimate Elvis tribute artist." The 36-year-old gemologist has been copying Elvis since she was three. After 10 years of building up a profile under her performance name She is the King, she works as a full-time Elvis impersonator. "I'm obsessed [with Elvis]," she said.
Feilich sent a digital audition to Elvis Presley Enterprises late last year. She waited three months to hear if she was successful, such was the demand for auditions.
Obssessed ... Elvis impersonator Jacqueline Feilich will be the only Aussie in the competition.
Photo: Anthony Johnson
- Judge to hear dispute over macabre collection of Elvis memorabilia
By JOHN SHIFFMAN
(thestate.com / Philadelphia Inquirer, March 25, 2007)
Who owns the black bag that Dr. Nick used when he treated Elvis? Or the bottles of prescription pills dated the day before Presley died? Or the glass nasal douche used to irrigate the King's nostrils
Monday, a Wilmington, Del., judge will begin hearing a dispute over a multimillion-dollar collection of Elvis memorabilia once owned by one of rock-and-roll's most infamous physicians, George C. Nichopoulos. ³It's a big, damned mess, man, just the craziest thing you've ever seen,² says Bobby Freeman, a lounge-singer/music-historian and a defendant in the case. ³What's going on in that court in Delaware is absolutely disgusting.² The ³Dr. Nick² collection -0 temporarily padlocked inside a Nevada airport hangar - includes a stuffed dog, a desk carved by Elvis' Uncle Vester, a .38 Smith & Wesson, the laryngeal scope used to examine the King's throat, and the official red strobe light issued to Dr. Nick in case he needed to race to Graceland for an emergency.
"It's amazing,' Freeman says. "It's about the roots of rock and roll. It's about America, man." A lawyer for the millionaire Californian suing Freeman does not disagree. "There are items of genuine interest to Elvis fans, such as a copy of the book ŒThe Prophet' with Elvis' hand-written annotations," says lawyer David L. Finger of Wilmington. He represents Richard Long, a Napa, Calif., executive who last year joined Freeman to buy Dr. Nick's collection.
Freeman and Long are not talking anymore. Long alleges in his lawsuit that he put up $1.2 million to make the deal happen but that Freeman will not give him access to the collection for management and insurance purposes. Freeman says Long failed to put up $3 million more he had pledged to the project, fumbled a big chance to do a show at the Stardust, and secretly intends to sell the collection overseas.
The issue for the Delaware Chancery Court, among the nation's most respected business courts, is whether the rift between Freeman and Long is now so severe that their Delaware limited liability company should be dissolved. If that happens, the next step would be to determine who gets to keep the collection.
... Now in his 80s, Dr. Nick works as a benefits adviser for FedEx in Memphis. He lost his medical license in 1995 for bad conduct, including writing too many prescriptions for Jerry Lee Lewis. But Freeman and others say Dr. Nick gets a bad rap. "Elvis would have been dead years before if it hadn't been for Dr. Nick feeding him placebos," says James F. Neal, the famed Nashville lawyer who successfully defended him in 1981 against criminal charges that he negligently prescribed drugs to Presley. ...
- Close Up: Rhinestone cowboy
(tvnz.co.nz, March 23, 2007)
American country superstar Glen Campbell is now 70 years old but as Close Up found out he has still got the voice that made him famous, and that good old fashioned country charm. Not a lot of people know Campbell was a Beach Boy and that he recorded with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra. "I had met him [Elvis] in '59 when he was opening for Fair and Young, but Elvis is one of those guys you just don't forget," he says. Campbell has been to New Zealand many times and his last visit was 10 years ago. Now he is back to perform in Rotorua and Wellington. "I love New Zealand and obviously they can spot talent," he jokes.
- TV Land Builds Ultimate Baby Boomer Entertainment Brand
(Yahoo! Finance / PRNewswire, March 23, 2007)
Network Unveils Upcoming Slate of Original Programming, Newly Acquired Shows, Enhanced Movie Block, Multiplatform Content and New Pro-Social Endeavor Designed to Cater to America's 78 Million Baby Boomers
TV Land, a division of Viacom's MTV Networks, today announced an ambitious slate of on- and off-air efforts designed to further cater to America's 78 million Baby Boomers. The announcement was made by TV Land President, Larry W. Jones during his remarks before roughly 900 media industry executives in attendance at the network's annual advertisers' presentation in New York. In his remarks, Jones underscored TV Land's commitment to super serve Boomers with upcoming originals, newly acquired programming, an expanded roster of popular movies on the network's schedule and Cause Change, TV Land's new pro-social effort that seeks to harness Boomers' desire to give back to society through philanthropy, volunteerism and citizenship.
... Several original shows, pilots and specials will grace the TV Land line-up in the coming weeks and months. Those projects include: ...
* TV Land Myths & Legends: Elvis Presley - Based on the popularity of
season one of TV Land Myths & Legends, this half-hour special coincides
with TV Land's month-long salute to Elvis Presley (see acquired
programming below). Thirty years after his death, TV Land takes an in-
depth look at some of the most popularly held notions about the "King of
Rock and Roll" and dissects them to separate fact from fiction.
Airdate: August 16, 2007. ...
Acquired Programming
Furthering its commitment to expanding the network's roster of hit acquired programming, TV Land will showcase a month-long salute to Elvis Presley and add the popular series' Scrubs and Just Shoot Me to the TV Land schedule. Roll-out is as follows:
* Elvis Month - TV Land remembers the "King of Rock and Roll" by
showcasing Elvis concerts, TV appearances, movies and biographies
beginning on Friday, August 3, 2007 and airing throughout the entire
month of August. Among the music-based programming, TV Land will present
Elvis: '68 Comeback Special, Aloha from Hawaii, Elvis: The Great
Performances and Ed Sullivan's Rock and Roll Classics: Elvis Presley.
The network will also feature documentaries including Elvis By the
Presleys, Elvis on Tour and Elvis: His Best Friend Remembers. Several
movies will complement the schedule including Love Me Tender; Easy Come,
Easy Go; Fun in Acapulco and several others. ...
- Sixty things for Sir Elton's 60th
(BBC News, March 23, 2007)
Sir Elton John turns 60 on Sunday, 25 March, and to celebrate his milestone birthday here are 60 facts about the pop superstar: ...
43. The singer wasn't impressed with Elvis Presley. "When I met him in Washington he was half dead already. There were no signs of life there and it was kind of sad."
- EU regulators pause Sony-BMG probe
(Yahoo! News, March 23, 2007)
EU regulators suspended an antitrust investigation into Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG's 2004 deal to merge their music units after the companies failed to turn over necessary data, the European Commission said Friday. It said it had temporarily "stopped the clock" on its new inquiry until the companies submit the "complete and accurate information" the Commission had asked for. This will likely push back the July 2 deadline regulators had set for a decision. ... Regulators are re-examining the deal that formed the world's second-largest record label after an EU court overturned the earlier clearance, saying the companies had not done enough to prove that there was no monopoly in the record industry.
The Sony-BMG merger brought Sony artists like Aerosmith, George Michael and Barbra Streisand and BMG's Avril Lavigne and Elvis Presley under one roof, and shrank the number of major music companies from five to four. ...
- Nepal singer readies for peak performance
By Sudeshna Sarkar
(BBC News, March 23, 2007)
He's no Elvis Presley or Michael Jackson. But that doesn't deter debutant Nepali singer Tashi Lakpa Sherpa from trying to create a world record with his new music album. The 20-year-old guitar strummer from Nepal's mountaineering Sherpa community is readying to hit a real high note this summer when he launches "Sherpini Kanchhi" - his new album of eight romantic ballads - atop Mt Everest, the highest peak in the world. ...
- Elvis lookalike 'bit woman's arm'
(BBC News, March 23, 2007)
An Elvis lookalike got drunk and attacked four people at a convention for Presley fans, a court has heard. Justin Phillips, 34, attacked a doorman and three Elvis fans when he was refused entry at the event in Porthcawl, south Wales, last September. Phillips, of Nantyffyllon near Bridgend, bit a woman's arm and "gouged at" two men's eyes after drinking heavily, Cardiff Crown Court was told. He received 150 hours community service and an eight-month suspended sentence.
The court heard Phillips had been drinking at the seaside resort's Brentwood Hotel, decked out for the occasion as the Heartbreak Hotel. He left the convention - the UK's biggest annual tribute to the King - believing the festivities were over, but heard the Presley tribute band struck up again. He tried to get back in, but was refused entry. The court was told a doorman and three Elvis fans stopped him because he was "too drunk". ...
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