late September 2007
- The Elvis Prophecy
By Elaine Bowers
(Greenock Telegraph, September 28, 2007)
PICTURE the scene. Bonnie Prince Charlie arrives in Scotland to take on the might of the British Army and claim his father's crown.
Meanwhile, Elvis's ancestor, Andrew Presley, is given a mission. He has to kill the Prince, or Andrew's brother will hang.
Can he bring himself to do it? And, if so, what does The Prophecy mean?
The answers to both questions can be found within the pages of an exciting new novel penned by Inverclyde author Allan Morrison.
After spending countless hours researching and confirming the fact that Andrew Presley sailed from Greenock to start a new life in America in 1745, Allan decided to turn him into a hero for his new book - The Presley Prophecy - that is now being sold worldwide.
Allan, 64, who has written 12 books, said: "I read an article that said Elvis's ancestor came from Paisley and I am always looking for ideas for a book and thought it would make a good story.
"I was in Sarasota in America in 2000 and went to the Church of the Latter Day Saints because they keep a record of everybody and their granny."
He admits he was doubtful about finding a Scottish link but when he discovered Andrew Presley was from Scotland, and the first Presley to cross the Atlantic in 1745, he thought he had 'hit gold'.
Allan said: "I came back to Scotland and went through all the records in Edinburgh." Before long, he had uncovered details of two Andrew Presleys in Aberdeenshire in the early 1700s - one who was married in Lonmay in 1713 and another who wed at Cruden in 1725.
It has not been possible to prove which was the father of the Andrew Presley who made his way to America in 1745 as, at the time, it was common for all first-born sons to be named after their fathers.
However, it is known that the Andrew Presley who went to the USA continued to work as a blacksmith on reaching Anderson County in North Carolina.
The same year he left Scotland, Bonnie Prince Charlie - the leader of the Jacobite Movement - landed from France. He wanted to raise an army to challenge King George to regain the throne of Britain for his father, James, who was in exile in Italy.
Allan, who is from Greenock but now lives in Gourock, said: "I have taken Andrew Presley and made him my hero." He describes his book as a 'faction novel' saying it is based on 60 per cent fact. He also includes a genealogy section of the book which is 100 per cent accurate.
Referring to the fictional aspect, Allan said: "In 1745, Andrew Presley escapes from Scotland to America. While he and his beloved - I put a female in it - are waiting on a boat to go to America they hide at the bottom of a well where there is a rock."
He revealed that inspiration for the well comes from the well in Wellpark, Greenock, and Andrew Presley was hiding (in his fictitious form) from the Hanoverians. What happens next can't be revealed as it would spoil the story that took Allan five years to write.
The book took so long because Allan was working simultaneously on other projects. However, the publication has been timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Elvis's death.
Allan, who likes to listen to Elvis's gospel music while driving, said: "I have always liked Elvis - I am a moderate fan. I like rock 'n' roll - Elvis, Queen, The Beatles, Billy Joel all that kind of stuff. Elvis has the X factor. No one else has equalled his popularity."
When Allan is not writing, he spends his spare time handling PR and fund-raising for Greenock Medical Aid Society on a voluntary basis.
He is also a member of Greenock Rotary, the George Square Baptist Church, an armchair Morton supporter, and has bagged 93 Munros.
Allan worked at IBM for 31 years and retired from his role as personnel manager 10 years ago, which is when he started writing. He has now had 12 books published, 11 by NWP.
Elvis starred in 33 films and sold more than a billion records - more than any other artist. He recorded more than 600 songs but did not write any. Today there are 200,000 tribute acts performing under his name around the world.
Allan is married to Lorna and dad to Craig, 34, and Lynne, 37. He also has four grandchildren.
He said: "No one in the world can go through a week without coming across Elvis's name in the media.
"There are more than 600 fan clubs in the world. A lot of fans are under 30 - and he has been dead for 30 years - so the guy had something.
"When you go to Aberdeenshire, there is nothing for Elvis fans. It is little homesteads and farms.
"If Grampian and the Scottish Tourist Board could get their act together they could have something that commemorates Presley coming from Scotland.
"If he had come from Ireland there would be statues all over the place, but in Scotland there is nothing.
"They should zero in on that because tourism is Scotland's biggest industry. No one has picked up on the Sottish link. I am amazed someone hasn't done something."
The Presley Prophecy, which costs £6.50, can be ordered online from publishers lulu at www.lulu.com or through Amazon.
- A lifelong love affair with Elvis
By Mary Hancock Hinds
(Press-Telegram, September 17, 2007, found September 29)
The American meteor known as Elvis Presley blasted off 50 years ago through a phenomenon of writhing, screaming teenage girls who are now gray-haired grandmothers with gravitas and arthritis that curtail that behavior. But as these women have slowed down, Elvis has kept on going - and burns more brightly than ever.
Why?
Just two weeks ago, a veritable United Nations of 50,000 people (only a few of whom were grandmothers) stood in a steaming 100-degree Memphis street - while thousands more watched on computer screens and TVs around the world - to honor Elvis on the 30th anniversary of his death. Forget the tragic circumstances of Elvis' self-induced passing; these people had come from France, Japan, Brazil, Australia, South Africa and many more places to honor a man who was still in their hearts.
This grandmother was in that crowd, standing right next to my college roommate - also a grandmother. We were making our 15th annual pilgrimage to what is known worldwide as Elvis Week.
It is a period of 10 or so days, jam-packed with activities that honor and remember him. Sometimes called "Death Week," it culminates in a simple, short candlelight ceremony in front of Elvis' home, Graceland.
During it, we recite the Lord's Prayer and wave our candles high as his hit "If I Can Dream" is played. Then, somberly, we walk up Graceland's driveway to Elvis' gravesite behind the mansion.
Why?
Granted, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., which manages most things Elvis, has gone a long way towards making him more visible and ubiquitous today - inserting him into everything from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition and NASCAR to Reese's candy bars and the Budweiser Clydesdales. And the unending flow of repackaged, re-released Elvis songs doesn't hurt either.
But this media/commercial overload does not fully explain the roaring, surging popularity enjoyed by a man who has been dead for 30 years.
So why has Elvis risen to this status of national mascot, international fascination, eternal "cool guy" who still brings more than 600,000 visitors a year to his house?
My Elvis Affair began on the evening of September 9, 1956. After a day at Alamitos Bay, I sprawled in front of our TV to watch "The Ed Sullivan Show." Elvis was headlining that night. I had never seen Elvis before ... and I had never seen anything like Elvis before. The heat that I felt while I watched him gyrate and croon was definitely not from my sunburn. I was hooked by the man and his music. And have remained so ever since, now holding Elvis as a link to a simpler, happier time in my life.
But what about other Elvis fans who weren't young girls at mid-century? The former Prime Minister of Japan, for instance, who was treated to a special tour of Graceland by our president.
Or computer guru Carsten Kaaz, whose youthful exposure to Elvis inspired him to escape over the Berlin Wall. Or the tiny trick-or-treaters who traipse across America in glittering Elvis-style jumpsuits each Halloween.
One guess is that Elvis has become a universal symbol upon which we can tack our dreams. Our rags-to-riches hopes seem somehow more attainable as we look at his life story. Our Elvis t-shirts lend us some of his "cool." His fabled give-aways of Cadillacs and cash touch our Santa Claus fantasies of giving and receiving. And he was good to his momma.
But more important, Elvis makes us smile. He is fun, and this brings us together. Like the weather, everyone can talk about him. Like Jesus and Coca-Cola, everyone knows who he is. And, like religion and politics, everyone has an opinion about him.
There is much to be angry about it today's world. There is much separating us - perhaps permanently. And there are many who profit from our ire and estrangement, so they keep fanning it. But mention Elvis, and people smile. They may be giggling at the silliness of an overweight Elvis Impersonator, but they are smiling.
And, for a moment, the walls between us come down.
- Lab report: 'Polydrugs' caused death of burglar
By Ron Bartlett
(www.palatkadailynews.com, September 27, 2007)
The cause of death of 29-year-old Misty Carner has been determined to be "polydrug abuse," indicating that a combination of cocaine, methadone and two types of antidepressants killed her. In addition, she was found to be three months pregnant.
Carner's body was found July 16 by the residents of an Interlachen home who discovered the woman in their bedroom, dead after an apparent burglary attempt. The toxicology report released Wednesday was conducted by Dr. Terrence Steiner, the 23rd District Medical Examiner in St. Augustine. Maj. Keith Riddick, chief of detectives and a spokesman for the sheriff's office said he has never seen a situation in which a burglar dies during the commission of the crime in 27 years of law enforcement.
... Polydrug abuse occurs when someone takes two or more different kinds of drugs that have different reactions and often includes alcohol use. The combination of stimulants (uppers) and depressants (downers) can overwhelm the heart, causing heart failure. It was reported as the cause of death of Anna Nicole Smith, River Phoenix and Elvis Presley.
Riddick said the fact Carner was pregnant and so heavily into drugs is particularly heartbreaking. ...
- Another shade of bluesman
By Lee Hildebrand
(San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2007)
Back in the early 1960s, when John Hammond Jr. began his performing career, the idea of a white guy singing blues seemed strange to a lot of people. Sure, Jack Teagarden and others had long been singing blues in a jazz context. And Elvis Presley had souped up some Big Boy Crudup and Little Junior Parker blues songs and was credited, by some, with creating rock 'n' roll. Yet it was practically unheard of for a Caucasian to sing and play Mississippi Delta country blues. ...
- Elvis singer becomes Elvis painter
By M. SCOTT MORRIS
(Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal,, September 27, 2007)
The "voice" of Elvis Presley spent five months rendering the image of Tupelo's favorite son. "This painting, to me, says everything that needs to be said about Elvis," Ronnie McDowell said of his work, "Remembering the King."
Wednesday, he donated a framed print to the Elvis Presley Birthplace and Museum. The art depicts a 10-year-old boy holding a guitar and looking into a mirror in a room modeled after the Birthplace.
The reflection is considerably older with familiar black hair, purple shirt and a suggestive look in his eyes. "The look says, Are you really sure we want to get into this and die at 42?'" said McDowell, a Hendersonville, Tenn., resident.
The painting was McDowell's way of marking the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. The country singer got his first taste of fame with "The King is Gone," which he wrote in 1977 after learning the music had died. The song helped jumpstart a career that's included hits like "Older Women" and "You're Gonna Ruin My Bad Reputation."
The connection with Elvis persists. When a television or movie company needs an Elvis song, Ronnie McDowell gets the call. It can cost "a blue fortune" to buy rights to original recordings, McDowell said.
"I've done 12 movies, 29 commercials and one Twilight Zone,'" McDowell said. "How cool can that be? I'm still getting royalty checks for Twilight Zone.'"
McDowell's never had an art lesson, but he's painted throughout his life. He began "Remembering the King" in April and finished in August. "This painting is exactly what I saw in my brain," McDowell said. "I just wanted to do something special, something to honor Elvis."
- Memories of King as Elvis plaque unveiled at Prestwick terminal launch
By ALAN MACDERMID
(The Herald, September 27, 2007)
The shops are new, the bar is new, and so are many of the routes. But it was the memories that took wing yesterday when Prestwick Airport unveiled its latest face-lift. The occasion was marked by the unveiling of a plaque in honour of - who else - Elvis Presley, set Sunset Boulevard-fashion in the concourse floor. Airport publicists had cranked up the nostalgia by bringing in Elvis impersonator Gordon Hendricks, but if anyone there could tell him from the real thing it was Ian Ghee.
In 1960 Mr Ghee, now 74, was an Air Ministry photographer seconded to the US Air Force, his beat ranging from accident reports, PR work, and keeping the GIs' local papers back home supplied with pictures of their boys over here. His boss asked him to come back into work that night because "someone special" was coming in, but to keep it under his hat.
Only when he was heading for home did the major let him into the secret. The incoming VIP was Sgt Elvis Presley, on a refuelling stopover on his way from Germany to the US at the end of his two years' national service.
Mr Ghee got busy taking pictures and his brother Robert, whom he had smuggled in, got busy introducing himself to the King, helping him out when he went into the sergeant's mess to phone his girlfriend Priscilla back in Frankfurt.
"Where am I, again?"
"You're in Prestwick, Scotland." Mr Ghee did not do too badly either. His negatives were later auctioned by Christie's for £7500, a fair sum for those days given that the pictures' significance was fully appreciated.
Since his retirement he has followed fellow-snappers Henri Cartier-Bresson and Cecil Beaton by turning to the canvas, photographing landscapes in the summer and painting them in winter. The unveiling of the plaque was performed by transport minister Stewart Stevenson, who has his own memories of the place. A qualified pilot, he has gone one better than Elvis by flying himself in and out of Prestwick on a number of occasions.
However, he recalled: "The first time I came here was 20 years ago, when I flew in a Tupolev 104 on an Aeroflot charter to Moscow, an experience I am not signing up to repeat any time soon.
"But at the time the facilities at Prestwick were a great comfort before I went and, on my return, something of a relief."
As part of the revamp, the airport has introduced a number of new retail brands and a bar, while the departures lounge has a new tax and duty free store.
- Bono: Between rock and a hard place
(Philadelphia Daily News, September 26, 2007)
THERE WEREN'T any high-tech documentary film cameras rolling last year when a small delegation of westerners rolled into the Rwandan village of Mayange, a new settlement that has risen from the grief and ashes of that nation's brutal genocide of the 1990s. None of the locals rushed up to bother the curious, diminutive 40-something white man in sunglasses who led the group.
It's not the kind of place where you'd normally expect to see the world's brightest rock star, Bono - a village where no one has ever heard of him. But the front man for U2 spent an entire day in Mayange – an outpost for a United Nations project called Millennium Villages that seeks to implement state-of-the-art development tactics on a small, local scale. He navigated his way through a successful field of 12-foot-high corn and stopped to chat with a woman who now washes and sells coffee beans to Starbucks. And Bono left the poverty-wracked village with new info to pass on to his newfound friends who set policy in Washington and in Europe.
... Tomorrow night, Bono and his just-five-year-old African anti-poverty campaign called DATA - Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa - will join some lofty company here in Philadelphia when the Irish singer receives the Liberty Medal in a star-studded ceremony at the National Constitution Center. Bono and DATA will join a who's who in global activism that includes Nelson Mandela, Thurgood Marshall, Vaclav Havel, Jimmy Carter, and the current chairman of the center, former President George H.W. Bush.
It's a turn of events that would have been hard to fathom back in 1989, when the first Liberty Medal was awarded to Polish union activist-turned-president Lech Walesa. In the late 1980s, Bono and the other three members of U2 were visiting Elvis Presley's Graceland and recording in his Sun Studios - seemingly more concerned with becoming the world's greatest rock band than with saving the world.
But as Bono - already the unlikely figure of a rock star with a kind of evangelical Christian streak - began paying closer attention to social causes on the wake of 1985's legendary Live Aid concert here in Philadelphia and in London, he took every notion of celebrity activism and turned it on its head. Most incredibly, he's made his biggest mark on that seemingly most unsexy of issues: African debt relief. ...
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