late August 2007
- Alex Shoofey: 1916-2007. He helped shape hotel industry
By Ed Koch
(Las Vegas Sun, August 31, 2007)
The day after Elvis Presley opened at Las Vegas' Hotel International in 1969, the resort's president, Alex Shoofey, was in the showroom having a cup of coffee with Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker. Despite a hugely successful opening night, Shoofey was unhappy because the king of rock 'n' roll had been contracted to only two weeks a year at the new 1,500-room resort that today is the Las Vegas Hilton.
"Listen," Shoofey recalled telling Parker in his 2003 UNLV oral history interview. "I'd like to extend your contract ." Parker balked: "Alex, it's too early. Let's find out whether he (Presley) can make it or not." "I'll take that chance right now," Shoofey said. He then scribbled on the tablecloth a new pact that would result in more than 700 sell out performances from 1969 to 1976, resparking Presley's career and making him a Las Vegas icon.
Alexander James Shoofey, who rose from humble beginnings in a Brooklyn orphanage to become a Las Vegas gaming giant, successively running the Sahara, Flamingo and Las Vegas Hilton resorts in the 1960s and early '70s, died Wednesday. He was 91. Services for the Las Vegas resident of 60 years will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Palm Mortuary-Eastern , with visitation for one hour before the ceremony. Graveside services will follow the ceremony at that location. ...
- Elvis, Fred Flintstone and Ann-Margret
By JOHN LAW
(Niagara Falls Review, August 31, 2007)
At her low point in the early '70s, Ann-Margret decided the next tour would be her last. She was battling alcoholism and insecurities. She felt overworked. She had just made the intense drama "Carnal Knowledge," which earned her an Oscar nomination but left her depressed and drained. She was 29, and decided enough was enough.
"It was 1971, and in my own mind I was doing a three-week farewell tour," says the stage and screen legend on the line from L.A. "Then I came home for a couple weeks and said (to my husband), 'Honey, I don't think I want to be retired ... I don't like this.' "I have not looked back since."
There have been big TV specials and movies since then - even another Oscar nomination (1975's "Tommy") - but the stage has been Ann-Margret's calling card. Niagara Falls fans can see for themselves when she brings 45 years of showbiz savvy to the Niagara Fallsview Casino Thursday.
Born in Sweden, Ann-Margret Olsson made her mark in the early '60s with the classic musicals "State Fair" and "Bye Bye Birdie," which led to her memorable turn opposite Elvis Presley in "Viva Las Vegas." A year-long relationship between the two stars made them the Brad 'n Angelina of their day. Her ups and downs since could fill a book. In fact, it did - 1994's "Ann-Margret: My Story." ...
Q: It's the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. Has this been a tougher month than usual?
A-M: "It's always tough. We were friends for 14 years. (His death) was just such a waste ... so sad.
"He was a pioneer. What can I say ... I can't even talk about it."
- ELVIS EX IS A COOL PARTY MUM
(contactmusic.com, August 31, 2007)
ELVIS PRESLEY's ex-girlfriend LINDA THOMPSON is such a cool mum, her pin-up son loves to party with her.Hollywood rich kid-turned-reality TV star Brody Jenner admits his mother is the perfect party partner.He says, "My mom never embarrasses me. I take her out to the clubs sometimes, and we'll party and hang out. Nothing she does embarrasses me. If anything, I embarrass her."
- Hunka hunka house
(second item)
(presstelegram.com, August 26, 2007)
An Elvis Presley fan wants to give Graceland a run for the money by refurbishing the King's old desert home as a tourist attraction.
Reno Fontana and his wife, Laura, bought the Palm Springs home in November. ...
The Spanish-style white stucco home has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms, with a sunken tub and a pool. Elvis and Priscilla Presley bought the home in April 1970. The family, including daughter Lisa Marie, lived there part-time.
After his death, Presley's lawyer took control of the estate. It was not immediately known whether anyone lived in the house before the Fontanas bought it. The house is already a bit of a tourist draw. "I get asked probably six times a day to see the inside of the Elvis house," said Bill Davis, owner of Celebrity Tours in Palm Springs. "People want to see what's inside."
Fontana says he'll provide a look to anyone who knocks on the door. Right now, there's not much to see in the unfurnished home. But Fontana, a lifelong Elvis fan, plans to decorate it in elaborate Elvis style and build a chapel, banquet hall and recording studio to attract weddings and recording business. "We may have our names on the deed, but we are the caretakers," he said. "This house belongs to Elvis fans around the world."
- Elvis still draws in big money: The King is 30 years dead, but fans still spend big in remembrance
By Emily Wagster Pettus
(alaskajournal.com / Associated Press, August 26, 2007)
Even from beyond the grave, Elvis Presley still generates big bucks. That was even truer on the anniversary of his death.
Fans from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America - and even from exotic locales like Kansas - spent their hard-earned money for T-shirts, coffee mugs, salt and pepper shakers, refrigerator magnets and other trinkets during the events commemorating his death 30 years ago.
Many made the 110-mile trek from Memphis, Tenn., where the King of Rock 'n' Roll enjoyed his fame and gaudy fortune in Graceland, to Tupelo, the northeast Mississippi city where Elvis came into the world on Jan. 8, 1935, in a tiny shotgun shack built by his father. They also filled hotel rooms as far away as northwest Mississippi's casino row in Tunica and spent money on meals, rental cars and gasoline, giving a significant, although difficult to quantify, boost to the area's economy.
Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation in Tupelo, estimated that fans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars there and at area hotels and stores this week, which is the busiest of the year for Elvis tourism.
The more lucrative earnings were in Memphis. Last year, Graceland took in $27 million in revenue, and the overall Elvis business brings in more than $40 million a year for CKX Inc., the New York-based company that controls most Elvis enterprises. ...
In Memphis on Aug. 15, thousands of Presley fans braved 105-degree heat as they wound down Graceland's driveway in a graveside procession in advance of the 30th anniversary of the singer's death Aug. 16.
The heat led to the death of a fan from New Jersey, a 67-year-old woman. The Memphis Fire Department said it also treated at least six people overcome by heat, including an 8-year-old boy who was hospitalized. ...
Janis Hurt waits in line with her Elvis souvenirs outside the walls of Graceland for the candlelight vigil marking the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 15. Presley died Aug. 16, 1977.
AP Photo/Mark Humphrey
- Nostalgia-filled summer continues
By Kevin McDonough
(Morning Call, August 26, 2007)
Will our summer of nostalgia ever end? The hot months of 2007 have been shot through with observances of the 40th anniversary of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' and the summer of love as well as the 30th year since the 1977 summer of punk and the death of Elvis Presley. Didn't anything memorable occur in the summer of 1987? Perhaps historians in 2017 will walk like an Egyptian back to that time and uncover something interesting.
But the summer's most dominant nostalgic theme has to be the marking (and marketing) of the 10th year since the death of Princess Diana, an event that now inspires its own conspiracy theories. According to the network, ''The Murder of Princess Diana'' (Lifetime at 9; repeated Sunday at 6) is a fictionalized account of a book based on the notion that Diana was silenced by government big shots. ...
- A fan's obsession with Elvis runs unbridled at Graceland Too
By Mark Hinson
(Tallahassee Democrat, August 25, 2007)
It's nearly noon on a broiling day in North Mississippi. I'm trying hard to wake Paul McLeod by knocking on the door and ringing the large bell on his front porch.
My three traveling companions and I have stopped in the tiny town of Holly Springs on our way to Graceland, which is just up the road in Memphis. Today is the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death. Little do we know, we're about to encounter the world's most rabid Elvis fan.
McLeod runs the spectacularly curious tourist attraction Graceland Too, which is his 158-year-old antebellum home that he has converted into a surreal shrine to all things Elvis. It's open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All you have to do is knock. Loud.
After one failed attempt to stir McLeod, we return for more banging and clanging. A sleepy, rumpled McLeod, 65, finally comes to the door. He's not wearing a shirt, and he has forgotten his dentures. "Y'all give me five minutes," he says groggily and disappears into the dark house.
... Inside, he keeps more than five televisions on and recorders running at all times just in case a sitcom or talk show happens to mention Elvis. Then he catalogs it all. What else would you expect from a man who named his only son Elvis Aaron Presley McLeod?
Every square inch of ceiling and wall in each heavily draped room is slathered with Elvis photos, posters, memorabilia, album covers, bric-a-brac, folk-art altars and more. Always more. It's overwhelming. Some artifacts are genuinely valuable (Elvis' grade-school report card) while many are kitschy souvenirs (a stuffed tiger because Elvis' karate name was Tiger). All hold a story. ...
- Everything changes except death, taxes and Elvis' kitchen
By Mark Rutledge
( Daily Reflector, August 25, 2007)
I was 16 and bagging groceries at Food City when Elvis died. "Did you hear?" asked a cashier named Beverly, her heavy makeup wrecked from crying. The tears came back for every customer who got the breaking news at Beverly's checkout. "Elvis is dead."
"No! You're kidding!" "Honey, I wish I was. He passed away this afternoon." "How?" "They don't know yet. A heart attack maybe." "I can't believe it." "I didn't want to either, sweetie, but they came on the radio with it when I was on my break. It's the saddest day of my life."
Everyone who was aware of Elvis Presley in 1977 can recall various details about the day he died. Some of us, however, never imagined that the kitchen where the King of Rock 'n' Roll had his last midnight snack would look exactly the same 30 years later.
All of Graceland has been frozen in time since Elvis died. I knew that. Still, it somehow slipped past me that the kitchen looks, to this day, like a picture right out of a 1970s issue of Better Homes and Gardens. Of all the rooms inside Graceland, I'd never seen the kitchen until last week, when I took the virtual tour with Larry King and Priscilla Presley during CNN's "Larry King Live." "You know, this is the heart," Priscilla said. "This was the room that had all the heart in it." Of course it was. Finally it all makes sense.
Nearly 600,000 people visit Graceland each year. Do you think it's the furry beds, the long white sofas and the carpeted walls that keep them coming? No. It's the eerily familiar kitchen that makes ordinary people feel they actually have something in common with the King.
What struck me right away about Elvis' kitchen is how much it looks like my own kitchen. Except for the gold-toned refrigerator, green sink and casino carpet, it's practically the same room. Same molding on the cabinet doors, same Formica countertops, same built-in stove. I have an Elvis kitchen!
Before I realized I had an Elvis kitchen, I was considering extensive remodeling. Now I'm thinking that might not look as good in the ad when I'm ready to sell. "Three bedrooms, two baths, screened back porch, detached garage, Elvis kitchen." It kind of flows.
If Elvis had lived, it's safe to assume Graceland's kitchen would now have a lot of imported tile, stainless steel and stone countertops. But Elvis didn't live, and his kitchen never will be remodeled again. The "heart of Graceland" will live forever. Even if a meteorite falls from the heavens and blows Graceland off the face of Memphis, our love for Elvis ensures that an exact replica will be constructed - right down to the orange-cushioned stool and the green coffee percolator.
For those of us who still eat our Pop-Tarts off the King's Formica, that has to be good for property values.
- How Elvis Fought Racism, Ethnic Discrimination
By Michael Saba
(arab news, August 24, 2007)
Not too many years ago, I was part of a delegation that went from Saudi Arabia to visit Albania. Albania had just overthrown its previous leader and cast off the shackles of communism. I was representing the Arab News and accompanied a group of Saudi businessmen and others committed to assisting Albania in its quest to become a modern successful country.
As we descended from the chartered Saudi Arabian Airlines flight, we were met by a group of young Albanian students fluent in English. They were to be our guides for our stay in Albania. I looked at the nametag of my guide and to my surprise I saw the name "Elvis Mohammed" attached to the young gentlemanšs lapel.
I asked him how he happened to have that name which seemed very unusual to me. He said that his father was an Elvis Presley fan from the 1950s onward and, although Elvis music was prohibited in Albania during those times, his father listened to short wave radio, picked up the sounds of Elvis and became a fan. He said he decided to name his son Elvis because of his love for the music of Elvis Presley and the fact that Elvis represented freedom to him. So the juxtaposition of those two names is now history, at least in Albania.
This past week was the annual "Elvis Week" in Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis celebrates Elvis every year on the anniversary of his death. This year marks the 30th anniversary of his death at Graceland, his Memphis home, and is a particularly large celebration. Under the heat of an unusually warm August, at least one person died of heat exhaustion while attending the Elvis festivities. Tens of thousands of Elvis fans from all over the world flock to Memphis every year to pay homage to Elvis.
When we moved to Memphis over a decade ago, we happened to arrive in Memphis in mid-August. While our house was being finished, my family and I decided to come a week early and stay in a local hotel. When we arrived, we contacted almost every hotel in the Memphis area and were told that there were no hotel rooms to be had within a 100-mile radius of Memphis. It was Elvis Week! We had to sleep on the floor of our furniture-less house for that whole week.
What is this "Elvis phenomenon"? How is it that a man dead for 30 years can still attract the attention of millions of people worldwide?
According to the American Demographics magazine, 84 percent of the American people say that their lives have been touched by Elvis Presley in some way, 70 percent have watched a movie starring Presley, 44 percent have danced to one of his songs, 31 percent have bought an Elvis record, CD or video, 10 percent have visited Graceland, 9 percent have bought Elvis memorabilia, 9 percent have read a book about Presley, and 5 percent have seen the singer in concert. There is no question that Elvis is one of the most phenomenal cultural icons that the world has ever seen. However, there was another side of Elvis that doesn't make the news very often.
Living in Memphis for the past few years, I have had a chance to meet many people who knew Elvis personally and they have recounted numerous tales about Elvis in his hometown. One of the most touching came from an Arab-American friend of mine, Farid, who was born and raised in Memphis. His father was an immigrant from the Arab world and started a retail business in Memphis. My friend told me that Elvis, as a young high school student, worked for a short time as a part-time truck driver for his father. My friend was a couple of years younger than Elvis and went to the same high school.
Farid told me that one day at his high school, some of the school bullies started teasing him, calling him names like "you dirty Arab" and threatened to hit him. He said Elvis came along and said, "Hey, you leave him alone. I know him and his family and they are very nice people. Those 'Arabs' treat me well and you better treat him well also." The bullies moved off and Elvis told Farid that if anybody ever tried that again, he should let Elvis know.
Ask anybody in Memphis who knew Elvis and they will tell you that he was a nice polite young man who had great respect for his parents and friends. He also fought quietly against racial and ethnic discrimination. He was very patriotic and extremely generous with his money, particularly for humanitarian causes that related to Memphis. For example, Elvis was regular contributor to the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, ALSAC, the fund-raising arm for St. Jude Childrenšs Research Hospital in Memphis. This hospital is the premier children's cancer hospital in the world and was founded by Americans of Arab descent in honor of their Arab-American heritage. All children treated at St. Jude are treated at no cost to the parent or child. Farid's father was one of the founders of ALSAC and the hospital.
Elvis will always be remembered for his music and his role as an entertainer. But to Elvis Mohammed in Albania and Farid and his family in Memphis, he will be remembered in other ways. He will be remembered as a symbol of freedom and as a kind considerate person who would not tolerate ethnic discrimination. He will also be remembered as someone who supported humanitarian causes that honored Arab-American heritage. Elvis was clearly a true humanitarian.
- Heller stirs a musical gumbo
By SHAUN BRADY
(philly.com, August 24, 2007)
ANYONE walking through the doors of Memphis, Tenn.'s, legendary Sun Studio can't help but feel immersed in history. This tiny room was, after all, instrumental in the development of American music, introducing the world to the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin' Wolf. But when guitarist Skip Heller stepped through Sun's doors last fall to record "Along the Anchorline," his personal history was weighing on his mind as much as the folklore of the room. ...
- Local News
(Herald Democrat, August 23, 2007)
Photo courtesy of Jerry Hightower
Jerry Hightower, of Georgetown and formerly of Denison, shot this picture of Elvis Presley that was used on the Elvis Tucson '76" CD.
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