October
- Elvis comes early
(Canberra Times, October 18 2009, p. 9)
Elvis the helicopter - one of Victoria's key bushfire weapons - will start duty a month earlier this year to help fire authorities be better prepared for the bushfire season. The helicopter will be on the job from the third week of November. An additional [AUD] $21 million is being spent over the next four years to improve fire protection on public land around Melbourne's urban fringes.
- Elvis Presley's hair sells for $20k
(au.news.yahoo.com / Yahoo!7 News / AFP, October 18 2009)
An auction of Elvis Presley memorabilia got bidders all shook up on Sunday, with a clump of the late King of Rock and Roll's hair selling for $US18,300 ($20,000) and one of his shirts going for $US62,000. More than 150 items that had belonged to the former president of the Elvis Presley fan club went on the block at Chicago's Leslie Hindman auctioneers. The priciest items included a red suede shirt worn by Presley that sold for $US34,000 and a monogrammed cream-coloured shirt that sold for $US62,000.Two concert-worn scarves sold for a combined $US2,318. A set of concert-used handkerchiefs went for $US732. Presley's personal collection of 45rpm seven-inch singles sold for $US3,904. Wedding and bridal shower photos of Presley and wife Priscilla sold for nearly $US6,000. The auction house did not provide details about the buyers.
- Elvis Presley's hair to be auctioned
(Daily Telegraph, October 14 2009)
A clump of Elvis Presley's hair is expected to fetch 12000 - around £7500 - at an auction in America. ...
- Elvis Presley's honeymoon ranch is up for sale for 4.1 million pounds
(tvnz.co.nz, October 14 2009)
The late music legend bought the luxury estate - a 155-acre property near Memphis, Tennessee - in 1968 to share with his new wife Priscilla. Known by fans as the Elvis Ranch, the rock 'n' roll star owned the Circle G estate in Lake Horn from 1966 to 1971.
Estate agent Rodger Motz expects the ranch to be snapped up by a fan and has already had one interested buyer contact him from Denmark. He said: "I knew before I listed the property that there were a lot of Elvis fans out there. But I have to admit, I was surprised to get a call from that far away." The estate includes two barns and the lakeside cottage where Elvis spent his honeymoon with Priscilla.
But the extensive ranch has been "zoned for development" and could be transformed into a new estate of homes and businesses.
The famous honeymoon cottage will have to be preserved as part of the deal.
Previous attempts at turning it into a tourist resort had been turned down.
- Presley daughter picks UK songwriter for career relaunch
(yorkshirepost.co.uk, October 9 2009)
MERCURY prize-nominated musician Richard Hawley has been enlisted by Elvis Presley's daughter to help relaunch her pop careerLisa Marie Presley appeared onstage with Hawley as a surprise guest during his concert on Thursday night to announce their songwriting partnership.
Former Pulp and Longpigs guitarist Hawley recently rejuvenated the career of Amarillo singer Tony Christie and is currently working with Dame Shirley Bassey on her comeback album. He has also written for Robbie Williams and Nancy Sinatra.
Presley, who appeared at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London, said she chose to collaborate with rockabilly crooner Hawley after she became a fan of his music. The two have already written a couple of songs together one of which, Weary, they performed together last night.
Speaking after the concert, Presley said: "I wrote the lyrics, Richard wrote the music. I am the first person he has written a song for in that way." She added that the collaboration had so far been top secret, and that her decision to go on stage was spur of the moment. Presley said: "I only knew I was coming on stage four hours ago. I was working with Richard today and we decided that I should go on, so I didn't have long to think about it."
But the singer, once married to Michael Jackson, said she was happier going on stage in the UK than in America. She said: "I hadn't been on stage for a long time but I felt better about doing here. People are more music-focused here than they are in America. There when you go on stage you feel like they're going to rip you to shreds, here everyone is very welcoming."
Presley has recorded two previous albums, To Whom It May Concern and Now What. But she said there is no game plan for her comeback at present, she said, other than to write more songs with Hawley, whom she described as a "lovely man" and a "good friend". Although Hawley is a known Elvis fan and has covered his songs at gigs she said her father had not yet been discussed.
- While many have endured plastic surgery in order to look like Elvis, no one has ever been able to match his hair
By Dylan Jones
(independent.co.uk, October 9 2009)
Teenage is all about hair. Although Elvis Presley's haircut is considered to be one of the most influential pop icons of the 20th century, it was actually copied from Tony Curtis. Presley wore Royal Crown hair products during high school to make his blondish locks appear darker, but it wasn't until he saw Curtis in the 1949 film City Across the River that the singer adopted the greased duck-tail. Dyed blue-black, covered in grease, with truck-driver sideburns trailing his cheeks, Elvis finally had his five inches of buttered yak wool.
To middle-class white America, Presley was the devil incarnate, a Southern white boy who danced and sang like a black. He was threatening because he was so flagrantly dirty, owning, among other things, the world's sexiest haircut. That hair was Presley's trademark, his strength and an accessory that only added to his animal sexuality. In Elvis World, Jane and Michael Stern's 1987 homage to the King, they describe his crowning glory: "Like the man to whose scalp it is attached, the hair breaks loose onstage. Appearing first as a unitary loaf of high-rise melted vinyl etched with grooves along the side, it detonates at the strike of the first chord." While many continue to endure plastic surgery in order to look like Elvis, no one has even been able to reproduce his thatch.
Famously, when he appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show on 6 January 1957, Elvis was shot only from the waist up, because his erotic dancing had caused uproar all across the US. In reality it made hardly any difference, because libidinous teenage girls could still see Presley's hair.
Elvis kept his mousey locks dyed black all through his career, originally to carve himself an image, then because he thought it photographed better on film (it did), and finally because he started to go grey. When he died the hair underneath his blue-black dye was almost completely white.
As for Tony Curtis, well, he came to detest the attention paid to his looks. "I thought my very gift was something so mystical and magical that by cutting
my hair I would be gone. I could understand what Samson felt. I was afraid
if they cut my hair they would cut my talent."
- Elvis Presley's hair to be auctioned
(Malaysia News.Net, October 9 2009)
American Rock 'n' Roll star Elvis Presley's hair will be auctioned later this month.
The hair is being sold as part of a collection of Presley memorabilia that includes signed records, photos and clothing. All of them will go under the hammer Oct 18 in Chicago, Illinois, reported femalefirst.co.uk.
- Presley's grandson has no plans to release album: Lisa Marie Presley has blasted rumours her teenage son is set to follow in Elvis' footsteps by recording an album
(uk.news.yahoo.com, October 8 2009)
The King's 17-year-old grandson Ben was reported to have signed a £3.3 million record deal with Universal Music to release up to five discs, and was quoted as saying he doesn't want his tracks to be compared to his legendary grandfather.
But a spokesperson for Lisa Marie tells GossipCop.com there is no truth to the reports, insisting the record deal is "completely made up" and that Ben won't be heading into the studio because he is "a student right now".
- Elvis Presley's hair up for grabs
(newkerala.com, October 8 2009)
A clump of Elvis Presley's hair will soon be auctioned and is expected to fetch up to 12,000 dollars. A friend of The King of Rock ''n'' Roll had preserved the locks since 1958 after Presley enlisted in the U.S. Army, Contactmusic reports.
Apart from the hair, a collection of Elvis memorabilia that will be put up for sale includes signed records, photos and clothing. The auction will take place on 18 October in Chicago, Illinois.
- ELVIS PRESLEY'S GRANDSON SIGNS DEAL
Elvis Presley's teenage grandson Benjamin - the son of the rock 'n' roll legend's daughter Lisa Marie Presley - has landed a record deal worth $5 million
(contactmusic.com, October 7 2009)
Elvis Presley's teenage grandson has landed a record deal worth $5 million. Benjamin Presley has landed a five-album contract with Universal, and has already started work on his first LP, which he hopes to release next year.
However, Benjamin - the 16-year-old son of Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley - won't be copying his grandfather's defining rock 'n' roll sound. He said: "The music will be nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all."
His spokesperson added: "He's a typical teenager. He doesn't get up until noon then grunts at you." Benjamin - who bears a remarkable resemblance to Elvis, who died 15 years before he was born - was born in 1992 to Lisa Marie and musician Danny Keough.
Although his parents legally separated in 1994, they have remained on good terms and Danny still lives in a guest house connected to Lisa Marie's estate. He also home schooled Benjamin and the couple's other child, 20-year-old daughter Danielle Riley, now a model.
Just 20 days after Lisa Marie and Danny divorced she went on to marry 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson. The marriage lasted until 1996, and she has since been married twice more, to actor Nicolas Cage and current husband Michael Lockwood, a guitarist and music producer.
- Elvis Presley's grandson signs deal
From: BANG Media International
(/uk.news.yahoo.com, October 7 2009)
Elvis Presley's teenage grandson has landed a record deal worth $5 million.
Benjamin Presley has landed a five-album contract with Universal, and has already started work on his first LP, which he hopes to release next year.
However, Benjamin - the 16-year-old son of Elvis' daughter Lisa Marie Presley - won't be copying his grandfather's defining rock 'n' roll sound. He said: "The music will be nothing like Elvis, nothing like him at all." His spokesperson added: "He's a typical teenager. He doesn't get up until noon then grunts at you."
Benjamin - who bears a remarkable resemblance to Elvis, who died 15 years before he was born - was born in 1992 to Lisa Marie and musician Danny Keough. Although his parents legally separated in 1994, they have remained on good terms and Danny still lives in a guest house connected to Lisa Marie's estate. He also home schooled Benjamin and the couple's other child, 20-year-old daughter Danielle Riley, now a model.
Just 20 days after Lisa Marie and Danny divorced she went on to marry 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson. The marriage lasted until 1996, and she has since been married twice more, to actor Nicolas Cage and current husband Michael Lockwood, a guitarist and music producer.
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