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Today would have been Elvis "The King of Rock'n'roll " Presley's 80th birthday. It is generally believed by most that Elvis is no longer with us as in gone to that great jam session in the sky. However - love those howevers of life - there are those who believe he arranged for his disappearance and is out there somewhere, doing gigs. What if they're right? You just never know.
Elvis – The Real Story
CAST OF CHARACTERS
TAMMY40-something avid Elvis fan and wife of Len
LEN40-something husband of Tammy "THE" ELVIS, former big star/singer/performer
THE TIME
The present
THE PLACE
Jackson’s 7-11 GAS BAR AND DINER
Photos of Elvis cover a large portion of one wall; Elvis songs play non-stop. There is a table with two chairs on one side of the room, while the other side of the room has the usual gas station displays of motor oil, etc.
AT RISE:
TAMMY and LEN, two customers, are seated at a table looking around the room
LEN
(Scrutinizing the surroundings)
Um…who recommended this place?
TAMMY
(reading book)
The restaurant guide write-up says it’s fine dining with a difference
LEN
Fine dining if you’re a rat! Did you happen to notice that a cockroach just crawled out of our bread basket? Must be one that escaped the Chef’s special catch-of-the-day
TAMMY
Stop being so negative and take in the atmosphere
LEN
You mean the aromatic scent of “eau du trash” coming from the back? Phee-ew!
TAMMY
You’re so…so…provincial in your thinking, sweetheart. It's about this authentic ‘60’s décor that gives the place its special caché!
LEN
More like early condemned. Every square inch of wall space is covered with faded Elvis photos and the man’s been dead for how many years?
TAMMY
That's the beauty of this place! It’s like a shrine devoted to “The King.” It's all too…wonderful
LEN
Are you saying that this…this gas station and one-table-diner was the King of Rock and Roll’s eatery of choice? Not!
TAMMY
For your information they say he used to eat fried chicken here and sometimes he even entertained diners
LEN
Was that before or after he turned into the Goodyear blimp? If I had known we were coming here to eat, I’d have checked to make sure my insurance policy was paid up
TAMMY
You know how long I hadda wait to get reservations for this restaurant…
LEN
…obviously not long enough…
TAMMY
…seven months! If you think I’m going to give up the chance to dine here…
LEN
…and a fine dining establishment it is – if you’re into salmonella poisoning
TAMMY
Get a grip! The waiter is coming to try to act normal, if that’s possible
the waiter dressed in an Elvis jumpsuit struts over, swinging his hips in a
typical Elvis-like walk. He smoothes the sides of his hair with his hands, frequently
WAITER
(swinging his hips between every word)
Evening folks’. Need a menu? Uh-huh – oh yeah…
LEN
No. We prefer to use ESP to order. Of course we need a menu!
TAMMY
Don’t mind my husband – I don’t. Leave the menu here and we’ll choose
LEN
So tacky. All the dishes are Elvis songs. 'Be-bop-a-lu-la' chicken wings…' The 'Love Me Tender' T-bone looks questionable and it comes with fries that are probably a couple months old and a 'I Did It My Way' salad. Look at this: says here on the menu that all their steaks are aged to perfection. Yesterday's road-kill most likely
TAMMY
Have you considered that your cranial spark plugs have stopped kicking in? I can’t make up my mind – so many choices…
the waiter comes over to take the order
LEN
Are all those dishes served a la carte?
WAITER
(swinging hips)
No – on a plate. Uh-huh…
TAMMY
Just choose something already, will you?
WAITER
Want me to come back, folks? Uh-huh…
SFX:LIGHTS DIM
TAMMY
Ssshhh! Quiet! The shows is gonna begin
SOUND: GUITAR TWANG
LEN
I don’t see why we hav’ta be quiet. Cheez – I can hear the sound of someone pumping gas outside, not to mention the smell. Mind you, it's hard to tell the difference between the food and the gas
(The song from “2001: A Space Odyssey” is heard and the waiter now dressed
in a mechanic’s uniform on the other side of the room walks in front of the
counter holding a hand mic)
VOICE OVER
“For you entertainment and pllllea-sure, the King has entered the building!”
An over-weight bordering-on-obese man dressed in a white jump suit enters, stopping to pose while leaning on a cane. A wide belt hangs well below a sagging stomach; black aviator glasses cover his eyes and a badly-fitting black wig sits lob-sided towards the front of his head
(VOICE OVER)
“Direct from his engagement at the luxurious Pink Flamingo Laundromat and Bank Drive Thru in Tijuana, Mex-i-co, the management of Jackson’s 7/11 and Diner is proud to present, “the” King of Rock’n’Roll himself, the one – the only – El-vis!”
A bent over Elvis slowly makes his way to the other side of the room. He bends over to kiss Len, who pushes him way
ELVIS
“Whoops – sorry. Gotta get my eyes checked
He whips out a dirty handkerchief, spits on it and cleans his eyes and replaces it in a back pocket
ELVIS
(in weak squeaky voice)
Thank y’all very much! It’s the first time I been back this way goin’ on twenty years…or maybe it’s thirty…could be forty… Anyway… Good t'see y’all ain’t fergetten the King
whips out his handkerchief again and blows his nose
ELVIS
Guess I ain’t the same Elvis you remember a ways back, huh? But then who is?
Starts coughing and choking. Scantily dresses nurses rush over to pat him on
the back
ELVIS
See? I still got it but now I don’t know what to do with it! Thank y’all very much… Listen ladies – go see if you can find my extra set of dentures that I left in a steak yesterday.
He chokes again and a well-endowed female doctor wearing tight fitting clothing enters, with a stethoscope draped around her neck
DOCTOR
Now Mr. Elvis – honey – you know you gotta take it easy. Your ticker ain’t what it used to be
ELVIS
(laughing and staring at her breasts)
Yeah but ask me if I care. Thank you all very much. And now before the spaceship comes to take me away, I’m gonna sing you a personal favourite of mine…
ELVIS sings the first few lines of “My Way” completely off-key
LEN
(starting to get up)
Oh fer… We’re not gonna stay and listen to this… The man is obviously senile
Sound of tires squeaking to a stop and the slam of car doors
Two males wearing white outfits move on either side of Elvis and take his arms
MALE 1
C’mon pops. You got another gig at the Sunnyvale Nursing Home
ELVIS
ut…but…I ain’t finished my set, yet!
MALE 1
Shaking his head and winking at Len and Tammy
You don’t wanna be late for your big entrance.
ELVIS
Where’s my peanut butter and banana sandwich. I caint sing without it
the two men start to lead Elvis off the stage but Elvis stops and addresses the
couple
ELVIS
Thank you all very much!
Elvis walks over, signs a piece of paper and hands it to Len and then exits with the men
LEN
(addressing waiter)
That was not “the” Elvis Presley now, was it? You got us here under false pretences. And that’s against the law, y’know!
WAITER
The guy is 80 years old. Whad’ya expect? He’s got two hip replacements, a bad knee and now all that shaking he does is the real thing, poor bastard. By the way, know that piece of paper he handed you?
LEN
I really couldn’t care less about the man’s autograph… In fact this is what I think of you AND your Elvis
LEN rips up the piece of paper into small pieces
WAITER
You shouldn’t have done that. Uh-uh…
LEN
Elvis my a-s-s!
WAITER
That piece of paper would’a given you a tank of gas with your meal. Oh well…uh-huh…
Len throws himself down on the floor picking up the pieces of paper trying to put them together
LEN
Don't just stand there, Tammy. A tank of gas is a tank of gas is…
VOICE OVER
“The King has left the building
LEN
(on his knees scooping up pieces of paper frantically)
Hang on a minute. I can put these pieces together… gimme some of that leftover barbeque sauce...
0 Comments on Elvis - the real story as of 1/9/2015 3:15:00 PM
Today, 8 January, would have been Elvis Presley’s 80th birthday. In remembrance of his fascinating life we’re sharing a slideshow from the beautiful images inElvis Presley: A Southern Life by Joel Williamson. How did this Southern boy make it from Nashville and Vegas, to Grafenwoehr and the White House?
Elvis with his parents, 1950. Joseph A. Tunzi/ JAT Publishing.
Elvis Presley with Scotty and Bill poster, Cape Girardeau, Mo., July 1955. Taken at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. Thomas Hawk, photographer. Available via Flikr.
Elvis on his way to fame at the Louisiana Hayride, 1956. LSU-Shreveport Archives and Special Collections.
An impromptu session with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 4, 1956. Originally published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar. Courtesy of the Memphis and Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library & Information Center.
Headline and 1956 photo from article on Elvis and Mae Axton, who wrote “Heartbreak Hotel,” just after the record sold 1 million copies, 1956. Published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Courtesy of the Memphis and Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library & Information Center.
Elvis Presley in Grafenwoehr, 1958. Courtesy of U.S. Army Garrison Grafenwoehr.
The façade of Graceland in the late 1950s or early 1960s.
Elvis during his ’68 Comeback Special on NBC. Available via Joseph A. Tunzi/ JAT
Elvis and Priscilla’s wedding at the Aladdin Hotel, Las Vegas, May 1, 1967. Available via Getty.
Priscilla and Elvis at a dinner. Memphis and Shelby County Room, Available via Memphis Public Library & Information Center.
Elvis after a performance in Las Vegas, January or February 1970. Available via Joseph A. Tunzi/ JAT Publishing.
Elvis rehearsing in Las Vegas for his 1970 documentary, “Elvis: That’s the Way It Is. Available via Joseph A. Tunzi/ JAT Publishing.
Elvis Presley meets President Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970. White House Chief Photographer Oliver F. Atkins. General Services Administration. National Archives and Records Service. Office of Presidential Libraries. Office of Presidential Papers. Collection RN-WHPO: White House Photo Office Collection (Nixon Administration), 01/20/1969–08/09/1974.
Marquee of the International Hotel, Las Vegas, 1971. Available via Joseph A. Tunzi/ JAT Publishing.
From just behind the gates at Graceland, a look at the mourners gathered on the day Elvis died, as the police try to hold back the crowds, August 16, 1977. Photographed by Saul Brown. Memphis and Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library & Information Center.
Featured image credit: Headline and 1956 photo from article on Elvis and Mae Axton, who wrote “Heartbreak Hotel,” just after the record sold 1 million copies, 1956. Published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. Courtesy of the Memphis and Shelby County Room, Memphis Public Library & Information Center.
Today, 8 January, is the 80th birthday of Elvis Presley. Born to Vernon Elvis Presley and Gladys Love Presley (née Smith) in 1935, the ‘King of Rock and Roll’ left an indelible mark on American popular culture. In celebration, we present a brief extract from Elvis Presley: A Southern Life by Joel Williamson.
One photograph of the small Presley family captures the essence of their lives then and thereafter. Elvis, about three years old, is posed with Gladys and Vernon. Elvis is standing, and his parents are sitting on either side of him.
The exact date of the picture is unknown. Decades later it showed up in the photograph collection of the Official Elvis Presley Fan Club in Leicester, England. Interviews with pediatricians, pediatric nurses, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and grandfathers have estimated Elvis’s age.
The blank, clean, slightly gray background is probably the concrete wall of the brand-new Lee County jail in Tupelo. Vernon is a prisoner, having been arrested on November 16, 1937, for forging a check. The county jail had recently been built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal project to employ the unemployed. Previously, county prisoners had been lodged in the run-down town jail. Only the white prisoners were moved to the new jail.
Courtesy of Joel Williamson
In the photograph, mother, child, and father are close, body to body as if huddled against a coming moment of separation. Gladys’s left arm reaches behind and across Elvis’s back to Vernon. Her open hand rests lightly on Vernon’s left shoulder, as if to hold him in gently, to affirm her presence with him. It is a hand that seeks to comfort, but its loose openness signals her powerlessness.
Vernon had been charged with forging a check on Orville Bean, the dairy farmer who was his landlord and employer. He had been arrested and arraigned during the fall term of criminal court. He pled not guilty, but he would not get a speedy trial. His plea came too late for him to be tried in the fall term of court. His case would have to wait for the spring term, which began six months later on Monday, May 23, 1938. Before the court convened that spring, the local papers were full of suggestions that the docket was overfull and that justice in Lee County must be meted out more rapidly than before.
Only days before Vernon’s case would have been tried, he changed his plea to guilty. Justice swiftly followed. On Wednesday, May 25, Judge Thomas H. Johnston sentenced Vernon to three years in the state penitentiary. He got no credit for the six months he had spent in the county jail. After sentencing came the anxious wait before the prison guards trucked him off to Parchman Farm.
On Saturday, May 28, Circuit Court Clerk Joe J. Kilgo wrote out the papers committing Vernon and eleven other convicts to Parchman. The twelve men waited in the county jail for the dreaded arrival of “Long Chain Charley,” a sergeant on the guard force at Parchman who circulated through the state collecting convicts for transport to prison. He always brought a long chain to which he shackled his prisoners to prevent their escape.
Six months in the county jail waiting for a trial had been bad enough, but there was always at least some hope for relief. Orville Bean might decide not to press charges against Vernon. Relatives and friends might somehow intervene. If it came to a trial, a good lawyer might rise to defend him and the jury might find him innocent. Having changed his plea to guilty, Vernon faced the certainty of serving at hard labor in a notoriously tough prison for three long years, years in which he could not come home every night to his wife and child in their little two-room wooden house in East Tupelo nor earn money to support them.
Sensing the pathos in the photograph does not require knowledge of its history. The bodies of the man and woman are tense with anxiety and dread. The child is anxious and confused. Vernon has put his hat on his head as if making ready to leave. He faces the camera, but his eyes cut to his left as if watching fearfully for someone or something to appear that he already hears. Gladys also stares to the left, her body stiff.
The little boy’s gaze is less focused, as if he were told to look at the camera but senses something he needs to see off to the left too. He wears bib overalls over a dark, long-sleeved shirt, charmingly trimmed with white cuffs and a white collar. Gladys is a talented seamstress. She wears a flower-print dress. Her dress, like Elvis’s shirt, is attractively set off by a collar of a different color. Elvis, like his father, wears a hat. His hat seems almost man-sized, cocked at a rakish angle on his round little head. His full cherubic lips are twisted down to the right as if he realizes that he should say something and set his jaw in some certain way to assert an attitude, but he doesn’t know what to say or how.
This is the earliest photograph of Elvis. The photographer was most likely a friend or a relative who had driven Gladys and Elvis a couple of miles over from their home in East Tupelo. It was a defining moment in the lives of Elvis, Gladys, and Vernon Presley, individually and collectively. The very fact of the visit, the camera, and the one photograph that has been preserved indicates that they understood that they were at a critical juncture in their lives. The petty and foolish crime that Vernon committed in the fall of 1937, when he was twenty-one, Gladys twenty-five, and Elvis less than three, deeply marked their lives.
In celebration of the recently published biography, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life by Joel Williamson, I thought I would share some memories of Christmas past. In the 1970s we listened to Elvis on vinyl. Every December when it was time to decorate the tree you could hear the deep dulcet warbling of Elvis coming from the hi-fi. Some of my favorite Elvis renditions of Christmas songs follow.
Original photo by Ollie Atkins. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
With the tree up and ready to be decorated we’d pop on the Elvis to kick off the Christmas season with “The First Noel”.
In the kitchen we’d often hear my mother sing along to “Winter Wonderland” as she made stained-glass window cookies to hang on the tree.
Photo by Christian Purdy. Used with permission.
One of my dad’s favorites was “Silver Bells”. He’d sing along so that it sounded like Elvis was his backup singer.
My best friend Tracy had an artificial, all-white tree bedecked in tinsel and lit solely with blue lights. In the evenings we’d just sit in her living room watching the tree as she and Elvis sang “Blue Christmas”.
Now that I am older, I still like to listen to Elvis when I decorate for Christmas. Then when I have everything just the way I want I like to get a crackling fire going, turn down the lights, plug in the tree, toss back a few slugs of egg nog, settle into a comfy couch with someone special, and listen to Elvis’s “Merry Christmas Baby”.
Here’s hoping your stocking is stuffed with Elvis this season. I find he makes the holiday merry.
Headline image credit: Elvis! Photo by Kevin Dooley. CC BY 2.0 via Flickr.
It's Elvis Week in Memphis, the annual gathering of Elvis fans from around the word who come to Graceland to pay respects to the King, who died on August 16, 1977.
In 2008, Overlook published the most definitive and all-encompassing book on Elvis Presley, The Elvis Encyclopedia, by Adam Victor. This critically-acclaimed and truly monumental document is an essential part of every Elvis fan's library.
But there's more! Coming in November is a brand new volume, Elvis in Vegas, which concentrates on the many years Elvis spent in Las Vegas. The author, Paul Lichter, is one of the world's leading authorities on the subject of Elvis Presley. Featuring more than 300 full-color and black-and-white photographs – many of which have never been seen – Elvis in Vegas is the only book to focus exclusively on the Vegas years, which ran from the late 1960s (he married Priscilla in 1967 at the Aladdin) to his death in 1977. Over the years, Elvis performed over 800 sold-out shows in Vegas, mostly at the International, which later became the Hilton. This was the era of Elvis in jump suits, 25 piece bands, state of the art sound and stage design, and of course the mighty spectacle of the King performing on stage. Lavishly illustrated and beautifully produced, Elvis in Vegas also includes a comprehensive overview of Elvis’s life in Vegas – concerts, set lists, news clippings, interviews, and details about his legendary month-long hotel engagements.
Elvis in Vegas will be published on October 27, 2011, and available in fine bookstores and through online booksellers.
0 Comments on It's Viva Las Vegas for ELVIS WEEK 2011 as of 1/1/1900
There comes a time when virtual commiseration, applause, counsel and butt-kicking isn’t enough. And so my online critique group, the YAckers, meets in person about once a year.
We live in all parts of the country, and so we vary the meeting place. We try to go where the weather suits the clothes we wish we were wearing, with things to do and see when we can no longer squint at the screen and printed page. Ever since certain noisy people got scolded by hotel security in Wilkes-Barre, PA, we try to rent a house or B&B so we have a place to ourselves. We’ve been to Park City Utah, rural Pennsylvania, and San Antonio. And this year we chose Memphis, TN, where we rented the Lake House, a large house on a small lake in Cordova, TN.
At first, I was cool to the idea of Memphis. After a long winter and cold, rainy, snowy spring, I was ready for beach time. As far as I know, Memphis doesn’t have a beach. But as I read about the city, I was intrigued. There’s a lot of history there, much of it important to me. And music—the kind of throbbing rhythm and blues that gets your body moving in unanticipated ways. Finally, Memphis is warm and blooming in April, a cruel month where I come from.
More importantly, I was just beginning to realize that one of the characters in my current work in progress is FROM Memphis. Who knew?
It was a quick visit—a long weekend, really, and we had four novels to review. We knew we had to prioritize, to focus on good music, good food, and the celebration of a fallen hero.
We visited Graceland, because the Elvis Presley story is fascinating and that man could sing. We ate at the Rendezvous and Gus’s Fried Chicken. We had dinner stage-side at B.B. King’s Blues Club. Afterward, we walked down Beale Street, past narrow alleys spilling music into the street, past signs that said, “drinks to go.” I collected sights, sounds, and memories.
And, of course, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum.
The Civil Rights Museum is located at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated in the bloody year of 1968. King had come to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers. The motel rooms have been restored to that period. A wreath marks the spot on the balcony of the motel where he fell, and you can see where somebody replaced the bloodstained concrete.
Displays follow the history of the movement to the present day—including the bus boycotts, the Freedom R
Peter Guralnick‘s 1994 biography, Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, will be adapted into a biopic. ScreenwriterJohn Fusco will write the script.
According to Deadline, this project has been in the works for over a decade. Here’s more from the article: “Steve Bing is producing the film now for Fox 2000. The book covers the formative years of Presley up to his enlistment in the Army.”
In addition to biographies, Guralnick has published short story collections, novels, and music criticism. The Last Train to Memphis (1994) is the first book in a two-volume biography set; it was followed byCareless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (1999).
My oldest sister recently told me about a good book she’d read, Me & Emma, by Elizabeth Flock. I read it and liked it, too, but a few scenes puzzled me. The back of the book listed an e-mail address for the author, so I sent her my questions. She responded promptly with a letter of explanation. This, from a New York Times bestselling author.
“That was really nice,” my sister said. “I’m surprised she’d take the time to do that.”
I appreciated the time Elizabeth Flock took to respond but wasn’t overly surprised. Authors are more accessible than they’ve ever been. Even the most famous allow for direct reader contact through their Web sites or social networks.
I sometimes wonder if all of this accessibility builds an artist’s fame or limits it. I think about Elvis Presley and how carefully Colonel Tom Parker controlled his public image and access. So few people saw into Elvis’s day-to-day life. Would so many fans have been clamoring at the gates of Graceland had they been able to e-mail Elvis or chat with him on Facebook?
I have to believe the old saying “Familiarity breeds contempt” bears some truth. Inaccessibility can add to the allure and mystique of a person. It’s easy to be awed by people whose foibles you never see. And you’re less likely to see those foibles the less direct contact you have with them.
I may be in the minority, but I still haven’t signed up to receive tweets from Ashton Kutcher or President Obama. I’d really like to keep it a mystery what they ate for dinner.
But, as an author, I would like to know the effect increased accessibility has on fame. What do you think?
0 Comments on Breeding Contempt with Elvis as of 1/1/1900
A well I bless my soul, What's wrong with me? I'm itchin' like a man in a fuzzy tree My friends say I'm actin' wild as a bug I'm in love -- I'm all shook up!
Sweet Jesus, can you feel it?
Elvis is in the building!
For someone who turns 75 today, he looks smokin' hot.
I'm grateful I grew up with his music, very happy my first exposure to him was during the early part of his career -- before Hollywood turned him into a mass market brand, before Las Vegas, before all the tacky velvet paintings and cheesy Elvis imitators, before he became a caricature of himself. I like Elvis best raw, unschooled, doing what came natural. What a thrill to witness the makings of a King.
This is not to say I stopped loving him when he started making all those predictably sappy movies. On the contrary. My cousins and I spent countless hours in the Wahiawa Theatre, watching "Kissin' Cousins," "Viva Las Vegas," and "Blue Hawai'i" over and over. Then we went home and acted out the stories.
See, we claimed Elvis as uniquely ours, because he loved Hawai'i so much. Besides "Blue Hawai'i," he also filmed "Paradise, Hawaiian Style," and "Girls, Girls, Girls" there. And of course there was the famous 1973 Aloha from Hawai'i TV Special, the first global live concert satellite broadcast, reaching 1.5 billion viewers, and raising $85,000 for the Kui Lee Cancer Fund.
Because of "Blue Hawai'i," I experienced my first official teeny bopper-heart-stopping moment. Safe to say nothing much happened out our way in central O'ahu, where I grew up. But one day, I was riding in a car along Kamehameha Highway, pineapple fields on either side, when we spotted a baby blue convertible in the distance. Remember the scene ("Moonlight Swim") where Elvis's character, Chad, takes Miss Prentice and her four teenage students on a guided tour around the island? Yes! They whizzed right by us! Red dirt never looked so good, and it easily became my favorite part of the film.
NOTE TO MYSELF: WHY IN THE WORLD DID ABC CAVE IN BASED ON THE OPINION OF 1500COMPLAINING VIEWERS AND INSTITUTE CENSORSHIP POLICY
Seems that ABC decided to cancel controversial (to some) rocker, Adam Lambert, appearance on Good Morning America, on November 25th. Lambert, who is openly gay, performed on the American Musical Awards show and made what some perceive as obscene gestures while promoting his single release. Given the open-ness and language used in lyrics by rap singers with absolutely no intervention on the part TV networks, this move by ABC is unwarranted and IMHO, dummmmb. The AMA show in itself is very open and nobody blinks an eye when any of the performers push the limits - and they do that. In cancelling Lambert, CBS immediately grabbed him.
Silly, silly ABC!
BTW - ABC received 1500 complaint phone calls from viewers who found Lambert's actions distasteful. Perhaps the viewers should have just clicked to another network. The late Elvis Presley, who was featured waist-up during his early performances on TV, must be laughing it up, somewhere, however those were in the staid and proper 1950's/'60's. Times have changed and ABC should know better.
BTW - in cancelling Lambert, CBS immediately grabbed him guaranteeing the network a large viewing audience. Silly, silly ABC!
0 Comments on Censorship in the 21st century - and for a rock star no less! as of 1/1/1900
It's Elvis Week in Memphis, and as thousands of fan gather to celebrate the King this week, we have just one bit of advice: All you need to know is in The Elvis Encyclopedia. Published last year by Overlook, Adam Victor's monumental testament to Elvis is an indispensable reference guide. The Elvis Encyclopedia is also a visual compendium of Elvis’s life, offering hundreds of photographs, ranging from never-before-seen unposed moments to the extraordinary iconic images the world has come to love. With this definitive one-stop resource, fans and scholars have easy access to all of the information on Elvis’s life and times, testing what is real against legend. The facts are represented in full—a childhood mired in poverty, his unstoppable rise to the top with over 150 gold, platinum, or multi-platinum albums, 31 feature films, and 14 Grammy awards, his marriage to Priscilla, his early death. Entries cover every significant aspect of Elvis and his world from family members, lovers, benefactors, mentors, agents, directors, co-stars, and coaches.Complete with cross-referencing and a comprehensive bibliography, The Elvis Encyclopedia surpasses everything that has come before it.
0 Comments on Celebrate Elvis Week 2009 with Adam Victor's THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA as of 8/10/2009 12:13:00 PM
Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he reflects on nostalgia for the 80’s. See his previous OUPblogs here.
Journalists are not usually in the habit of looking back. They are charged to deliver “breaking news” to us. Novelty is the coinage of the newsroom, not history. Yet this week, the media’s preponderant coverage of the life and death of Michael Jackson has been stridently nostalgic. It reveals a culture needing and ready to sing an ode to the 1980s.
We cannot turn back time, but we can mark its passing. Up till last week, popular culture hadn’t had the chance to address the passing of an 80s superstar and with that, the 1980s. We were given occasion to mourn and contemplate the passing of the 1950s with Elvis Presley’s untimely death, and the passing of the 1960s with John Lennon’s death. So we have sung an ode to the post-war consensus, as we have sung an ode to the cultural revolution.
But enough of the 80s has remained with us - MTV, Nintendo, Reaganomics - not defunct but writhing for relevance, that we have not dared sing its eulogy. Michael Jackson’s and Farrah Fawcett’s death has served us a dramatic notice that it may be time.
After all, it is unlikely that we will see another Michael Jackson. In our era where songs are downloaded one at a time, no one is likely to sell a 100 million records (of “Thriller” or any other album) again. The 80s are over, but it has taken us three decades to find a moment to collectively mark and mourn its passage.
Tragic deaths are compelling not only for human interest reasons, but for the decisive statement about our mortality they make. For if even iconic characters who once defined their age can be so suddenly ejected from the remorseless flow of history, then there is surely no stopping the march of time.
It is no surprise that Michael Jackson is more beloved posthumously than he was all of this decade. Elvis Presley too, had become more and more of a has-been as the 60s progressed. Time is never forgiving - our only feeble antidote is nostalgia. So wrote Joseph Conrad, “Only a moment; a moment of strength, of romance, of glamor–of youth! … A flick of sunshine upon a strange shore, the time to remember, the time for a sigh, and–good-bye!–Night–Good-bye…!”
If the 1980s and whatever the decade repesented are indeed over, then businessmen, journalists, and especially politicians - take note! Nostalgia can only occur when the past has been rendered past.
0 Comments on Michael Jackson, Nostalgia, and the 1980s as of 6/30/2009 6:14:00 PM
Hillel Italie of the Associated Press writes insightfully about two Kings - Elvis Presley, King of Rock and Roll, and Michael Jackson, King of Pop, who died tragically yesterday in Los Angeles:
"Michael Jackson didn’t want to be just a superstar. Like the Beatles, he wanted to be the biggest, the king. He wanted to topple the reigning man with the crown, Elvis. In life and in death, there was Elvis. “It’s just so weird. He even married Elvis’ daughter,” said author-music critic Greil Marcus, who wrote at length about Presley in his acclaimed cultural history, Mystery Train. Elvis Presley overdosed — in his bathroom — on prescription drugs in 1977 at 42, his bloated, glazed middle age a cautionary tale to rock stars and other celebrities. Jackson died Thursday at 50, rushed from his Los Angeles home and pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center. The death shocked more than surprised. While endless fame seemed to inflate Elvis like helium, Jackson’s fame seemed to scrub the flesh and wear into his bones until you could almost see him shiver. Like Elvis, Jackson was once beautiful, outrageous, a revolutionary without politics who shook down the walls between black and white. He had the hits, the style, the ego, the talent. He was the King of Pop and he needed only to fill in the life: He married Elvis’ daughter. He bought the rights to some of Elvis’ songs. Elvis owned Graceland, its name a symbol for a deliverance the singer prayed for until the end of his life. Jackson had Neverland, a fantasy for a child-man for whom money meant the chance to live in a world of his own. He did, and did not, want to be like Elvis."
Read more about Elvis, Michael, and Lisa Marie in Adam Victor in The Elvis Encyclopedia.
1 Comments on Elvis and Michael: Two Kings Who Died Too Young, last added: 6/26/2009
Note to Elvis fans: The 2009 Tupelo Elvis Festival will take place on June 5-7, 2009 in Elvis' birthplace of Tupelo, Mississippi. Three days of fun events, including an Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest preliminary, live concerts, a parade and more! If you're planning to attend, you'll first want to check out Adam Victor's monumental celebration of all-things-Elvis, The Elvis Encyclopedia. The Elvis Birthplace and Museum opened in 1971 and is the most visited attraction in Mississippi with over 100,000 visitors every year. Another Tupelo Elvis site worth seeing, according to Victor, is the Tupelo Hardware Store (at the time Booth's Hardware), where Elvis bought his first guitar.
0 Comments on THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA: Required Reading for the 2009 Tupelo Elvis Festival as of 4/28/2009 12:51:00 PM
Adam Victor, author of The Elvis Encyclopedia, talks about the making of the most comprehensive work ever assembled on the life and times of Elvis Presley:
Q: What inspired you to tackle such a labor intensive research project on both of these figures, and what made the Elvis Encyclopedia in particular an even more Olympian task than the Marilyn project?
A: In 1996 I was approached to do the Marilyn Encyclopediaby Peter Mayer of Overlook, and was happy to say yes. If I had known how much work the project involved, I might not have taken on that book, but once I plunged into her exceptional life, I vowed to keep going until I produced an encyclopedia worthy of its subject. After Marilyn, I promised my wife that I would not do another icon encyclopedia. Initially, I declined my publisher’s suggestion to take on Elvis. In the end, I acquiesced because I figured that I already had a method, that my personal approach to putting together this kind of reference work had an appreciate audience, and that I knew how much work would be involved. Once again, to borrow a phrase, I mis-underestimated.
Q: Elvis is altogether a larger, more present figure than Marilyn – the only other comparable twentieth-century icon. The reason?
A: Well, in terms of compiling the Elvis Encyclopedia, apart from the general fact that music is a more pervasive presence in people’s everyday lives than movies, Elvis sang a thousand songs, gave thousands of concerts, starred in more movies than Marilyn, and has had an official body (the Elvis Presley Estate) looking after and developing his image and generally taking care of business for the last thirty years. If writing the Marilyn Encyclopedia was an Olympian task, the Elvis Encyclopedia was a Sisyphean one: a great many rocks needed to be rolled up the hill.
Q: While reviewers commented on your “insanely detailed” work and your lack of humor about Elvis, they all consistently admired the illustrations and photographs, the cross-referencing and your balanced reporting. What do you feel are the strengths of your encyclopedia?
A: I actually took the “lack of humor” comment as a compliment. I wrote an encyclopedia, not a joke book! In my final draft of the book, I actually weeded out the more flippant comments. I’m gratified that reviewers found the book to be even-handed. Enough people have expressed their opinions on every possible facet of Elvis’s life and work; there was little need for me to add my two cents’ worth. This, I believe – along with its exhaustiveness… I prefer exhaustive or comprehensive to “insanely detailed” – is the strength of this book. Plus, it’s got heft. How many books out there weigh 6 pounds?
Q: What can even moderate fans or even a new generation that knows nothing about Elvis garner from an encyclopedia versus, say, the Life Magazine biography?
A: Once again, my hope – we’re dealing with authorial intention here, which does not always coincide with readers’ impressions – is that the Elvis Encyclopedia offers a kaleidoscopic view of the man, his life and his work. I made great efforts to include a balanced and varied selection of comments on Elvis’s life. Neophytes, and younger people still discovering the topography of modern music, may also appreciate entries on the background to Elvis’s life and times, broad-stroke entries on things as varied as “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Gospel”, “Memphis”, “Youth culture” etc., all of which have a bearing on or help to illuminate the subject of the book. There’s a lot of words in a 600 page encyclopedia, but in the end Elvis was about music—he was also about many other things, but really it was his unique voice, his compendium of music styles and trademark songs like “Hound Dog” that keep someone like myself returning to him as an artist, even as I must push aside the public kitschy archetypes of him to get to that original musician.
Q: What are your favorite Elvis songs and why? When did you first remember listening to Elvis? Do you still listen to Elvis? Indeed, did you ever listen to Elvis while working on the encyclopedia? Do you think Elvis will remain relevant for this next generation?
A: Yup, a nail-on-the-head statement if ever I’ve heard one. Elvis is, first and last, about music. A unique voice, a unique talent, a unique ability to touch people with his singing... I listened to Elvis constantly while I worked on the encyclopedia, and I continue to listen to him today. One of the greatest pleasures of doing this book was the opportunity to listen to songs I knew I loved, and to discover hundreds of Elvis tracks I had never heard. Then, when I’d gone through pretty much his whole vocal oeuvre, I started in on the outtakes, the alternates, the jam sessions – the things that fans treasure. I wish I had a favorite Elvis song or two in answer to this question, because it’s the one question I am always asked. I have Elvis periods that I listen to more frequently: his early years, of course; a great favourite of mine is the jam session at Sun Studio from December 1956, when he sang for hours with Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and (though there is some controversy about this) Johnny Cash; I love the incredible urgency and power of Elvis in 1968 and 1969 – I find myself returning again and again to the material he recorded and rehearsed for his NBC TV Comeback Special, and the work he did at American Studio with Chips Moman for the albums he recorded immediately after that. The thing about Elvis is that because he effortlessly delivered such emotion and intensity in practically every song he performed or recorded, there are gems to be found even on his more forgettable albums. Unfortunately, I was too young ever to see him perform live; just watching DVDs of his performances shows what an incredible hold he had on an audience."
1 Comments on Adam Victor on THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA, last added: 2/10/2009
Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Joe Ely, and the Cotton Club by Johnny Hughes, January 2009
Elvis Presley was leaning against his pink, 1954 Cadillac in front of Lubbock's historic Cotton Club. The small crowd were mesmerized by his great looks, cockiness, and charisma. He put on quite a show, doing nearly all the talking. Elvis bragged about his sexual conquests, using language you didn't hear around women. He said he'd been a truck driver six months earlier. Now he could have a new woman in each town. He told a story about being caught having sex in his back seat. An angry husband grabbed his wife by the ankles and pulled her out from under Elvis. I doubted that. Earlier, at the Fair Park Coliseum, Elvis had signed girl's breasts, arms, foreheads, bras, and panties. No one had ever seen anything like it. We had met Elvis' first manager, Bob Neal, bass player, Bill Black, and guitarist Scotty Moore. They wanted us to bring some beer out to the Cotton Club. So we did. My meeting with Bob Neal in 1955 was to have great meaning in my future. I was 15.
The old scandal rag, Confidential, had a story about Elvis at the Cotton Club and the Fair Park Coliseum. It had a picture of the Cotton Club and told of Elvis' unique approach to autographing female body parts. It said he had taken two girls to Mackenzie Park for a tryst in his Cadillac.
Elvis did several shows in Lubbock during his first year on the road, in 1955. When he first came here, he made $75. His appearance in 1956 paid $4000. When he arrived in Lubbock, Bob Neal was his manager. By the end of the year, Colonel Tom Parker had taken over. Elvis played the Fair Park Coliseum for its opening on Jan. 6th, with a package show. When he played the Fair Park again, Feb. 13th, it was memorable. Colonel Tom Parker and Bob Neal were there. Buddy Holly and Bob Montgomery were on the bill. Waylon Jennings was there. Elvis was 19. Buddy was 18.
Elvis' early shows in Lubbock were: Jan 6th 1955, Fair Park Coliseum. Feb 13th. Fair Park, Cotton Club April 29 Cotton Club June 3: Johnson Connelly Pontiac with Buddy Holly, Fair Park October 11: Fair Park October 15: Cotton Club, April 10, 1956: Fair Park. Elvis probably played the Cotton Club on all of his Lubbock dates. He also spent time with Buddy Holly on all his Lubbock visits.
Buddy Holly was the boffo popular teenager of all time around Lubbock. The town loved him! He had his own radio show on Pappy Dave Stone's KDAV, first with Jack Neal, later with Bob Montgomery in his early teens. KDAV was the first all-country station in America. Buddy fronted Bill Haley, Marty Robbins, and groups that traveled through. Stone was an early mentor. Buddy first met Waylon Jennings at KDAV. Disk jockeys there included Waylon, Roger Miller, Bill Mack, later America's most famous country DJ, and country comedian Don Bowman. Bowman and Miller became the best known writers of funny country songs.
All these singer-songwriters recorded there, did live remotes with jingles, and wrote songs. Elvis went to KDAV to sing live and record the Clover's "Fool, Fool Fool" and Big Joe Turner's "Shake Rattle and Roll" on acetates. This radio station in now KRFE, 580 a.m., located at 66th and MLK, owned by Wade Wilkes. They welcome visitors. It has to be the only place that Elvis, Buddy, Waylon, and Bill Mack all recorded. Johnny Cash sang live there. Waylon and Buddy became great friends through radio. Ben Hall, another KDAV disc jockey and songwriter, filmed in color at the Fair Park Coliseum. This video shows Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Elvis, Buddy and his friends.
Wade's dad, Big Ed Wilkes, owner of KDAV, managed country comedian, Jerry Clower, on MCA Records. He sent Joe Ely's demo tape to MCA. Bob Livingston also sent one of the tapes I gave him to MCA. This led to a contract. Pappy Dave Stone, the first owner of KDAV, helped Buddy get his record contract with Decca/MCA.
Another disc jockey at KDAV was Arlie Duff. He wrote the country classic, "Y'all Come." It has been recorded by nineteen well-known artists, including Bing Crosby. When Waylon Jennings and Don Bowman were hired by the Corbin brothers, Slim, Sky, and Larry, of KLLL, Buddy started to hang around there. They all did jingles, sang live, wrote songs, and recorded. Niki Sullivan, one of the original Crickets, was also a singing DJ at KLLL. Sky Corbin has an excellent book about this radio era and the intense competition between KLLL and KDAV. All the DJs had mottos. Sky Corbin's was "lover, fighter, wild horse rider, and a purty fair windmill man."
Don Bowman's motto was "come a foggin' cowboy." He'd make fun of the sponsors and get fired. We played poker together. He'd take breaks in the poker game to sing funny songs. I played poker with Buddy Holly before and after he got famous. He was incredibly polite and never had the big head. The nation only knew Buddy Holly for less than two years. He was the most famous guy around Lubbock from the age of fourteen.
Niki Sullivan, an original Cricket, and I had a singing duo as children. We cut little acetates in 1948. We also appeared several times on Bob Nash's kid talent show on KFYO. This was at the Tech Theatre. Buddy Holly and Charlene Hancock, Tommy's wife, also appeared on this show. Larry Holley, Buddy's brother, financed his early career, buying him a guitar and whatever else he needed. Buddy recorded twenty acetates at KDAV from 1953 until 1957. He also did a lot of recording at KLLL. Larry Holley said Niki was the most talented Cricket except Buddy. All of Buddy's band mates and all of Joe Ely's band mates were musicians as children.
Buddy and Elvis met at the Cotton Club. Buddy taught Elvis the lyrics to the Drifter's "Money Honey". After that, Buddy met Elvis on each of his Lubbock visits. I think Elvis went to the Cotton Club on every Lubbock appearance. When Elvis played a show at the Johnson Connelly Pontiac showroom, Mac Davis was there. I was too.
The last time Elvis played the Fair Park Coliseum on April 10,1956, he was as famous as it gets. Buddy Holly, Sonny Curtis, Jerry Allison, and Don Guess were a front act. They did two shows and played for over 10,000 people. Those wonderful I.G. Holmes photos, taken at several locations, usually show Buddy and his pals with Elvis. Lubbock had a population of 80,000 at the time. Elvis was still signing everything put in front of him. Not many people could have signing women as a hobby. . Many of the acetates recorded at KLLL and KDAV by Buddy and others were later released, many as bootlegs. When Buddy Holly recorded four songs at KDAV, the demo got him his first record contract. It wasn't just Lubbock radio that so supportive of Buddy Holly. The City of Lubbock hired him to play at teenage dances. He appeared at Lubbock High School assemblies and many other places in town.
Everyone in Lubbock cheered Buddy Holly on with his career. The newspaper reports were always positive. At one teenage gig, maybe at the Glassarama, there was only a small crowd. Some of us were doing the "dirty bop." The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal had photos the next day showing people with their eyes covered with a black strip. Sonny Curtis mentions that in his song, "The Real Buddy Holly Story." When Buddy Holly and the Crickets were on the Ed Sullivan show, the newspaper featured that. The whole town watched.
Buddy was fighting with his manager Norman Petty over money before he died. They were totally estranged. Larry Holley told me that Norman said to Buddy, "I'll see you dead before you get a penny." A few weeks later, Buddy was dead. When Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, it was headline news in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Over 1000 people attended the funeral on February 7, 1959. Buddy was only twenty-two years old. His widow, Maria Elena Holly, was too upset to attend. The pall bearers were all songwriters and musicians that had played with Buddy: Niki Sullivan, Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Sonny Curtis, Bob Montgomery, and Phil Everly. Elvis was in the Army. He had Colonel Tom send a large wreath of yellow roses. In 1976, I was managing the Joe Ely Band. They had recorded an as-yet -to-be-released album for MCA Records. I was in Nashville to meet with the MCA execs. They wanted Joe to get a booking contract and mentioned some unheard of two-man shops. Bob Neal, Elvis' first manager, had great success in talent managing and booking. He sold his agency to the William Morris Agency, the biggest booking agency in the world, and stayed on as president of the Nashville branch.
I called the William Morris Agency and explained to the secretary that I did indeed know Bob Neal, as we had met at the Cotton Club in Lubbock, Texas when he was Elvis' manager. He came right on the phone. I told him the Joe Ely Band played mostly the Cotton Club. He said that after loading up to leave there one night, a cowboy called Elvis over to his car and knocked him down. Elvis was in a rage. He made them drive all over Lubbock checking every open place, as they looked for the guy. Bob Neal invited me to come right over.
Bob Neal played that, now classic, demo tape from Caldwell Studios and offered a booking contract. We agreed on a big music city strategy: Los Angeles, New York, Nashville, London, and Austin. Bob drove me back to MCA and they could not believe our good fortune. The man had been instrumental in the careers of Elvis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Johnny Rodriguez, and many others. The William Morris Agency sent the Joe Ely Band coast to coast and to Europe, first to front Merle Haggard, then on a second trip to front the Clash. The original Joe Ely Band were Lloyd Maines, Natalie's father, steel guitar, Jesse Taylor, electric guitar, Steve Keeton, drums, and Gregg Wright, bass. Ponty Bone, on accordion, joined a little later. The band did the shows and the recording. The recorded tunes were originals from Joe Ely, Butch Hancock, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore.
However, some of the William Morris bookings led to zig zag travel over long distances to so-called listening clubs. When I complained to Bob Neal, he'd recall the 300 dates Elvis played back in 1955. Four guys in Elvis' pink Cadillac. When Buddy made some money, he bought a pink Cadillac. Joe Ely bought a pristine, 1957 pink Cadillac that was much nicer than either of their pink Cadillacs.
When I'd hear from Bob Neal, it was very good news, especially the fantastic, uniformly-rave, album and performance reviews from newspapers and magazines everywhere. Time Magazine devoted a full page to Joe Ely. The earliest big rock critic to praise Joe Ely was Joe Nick Patoski, author of the definitive and critically-acclaimed Willie Nelson: An Epic Life. After one year, MCA was in turmoil. Big stars were leaving or filing lawsuits. We were told they might not re-new the option to make a second record. MCA regularly fired everyone we liked. Bob Neal thought the band should go to Los Angeles for a one-nighter.
He booked the Joe Ely Band into the best known club on the West Coast, the Palomino, owned by his dear pal, Tommy Thomas. We alerted other record companies. They drove back and forth to L.A. in a Dodge Van to play only one night. Robert Hilburn, the top rock critic for the Los Angeles Times, came with his date, Linda Ronstadt.
The Joe Ely Band loved to play music. They started on time, took short breaks, and played until someone made them stop. Robert Hilburn wrote that Ely could be, "the most important male singer to emerge in country music since the mid-60s crop of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard, and Willie Nelson." The long review with pictures took up the whole fine arts section of the biggest newspaper in the country. Hilburn praised each of the band individually. He was blown away when they just kept playing when the lights came on at closing time. After that, several major record companies were interested.
The last time I saw Bob Neal was at the Old Waldorf in San Francisco on February 22, 1979. Little Pete, a black drarf who was always around Stubb's Bar-B-Q, was traveling with the band. To open the show, Little Pete came out and announced, "Lubbock, Texas produces the Joe Ely Band!" Then he jumped off the elevated stage and Bo Billingsley, the giant roady, caught him. Bob Neal, the old showman that had seen it all, just loved that.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This comment originally appears on www.virtualubbock.com Anyone may make copies of this one article or post it on any web site. Thanks to Chris Oglesby and Larry Holley.
Adam Victor's magnificent tribute to one of the true icons of the twentieth-century, The Elvis Encyclopedia, is included in the San Francisco Chronicle'slist of best Holiday Books for 2008: "For the serious Elvis Presley fan, this comprehensive collection of all things Elvis covers the King's childhood, music and film careers, life, loves and legacy. With its abundant photos and memorabilia, one could pore over its pages for days on end. It is written by the author of The Marilyn Encyclopedia, a writer who became an Elvis fan though this six-year research project." And BookPage notes The Elvis Encyclopedia is a valuable one-stop source of all things informational about the King. The A-Z reference covers seemingly every person, place, and thing that touched Elvis's eventful life, and it's nothing if not exhausting. . . Victor has certainly cast his net widely in search of rarely seen pictures, and on that nostalgic note alone, his is a regal book - fit for a king."
0 Comments on THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA is "Fit for a King" as of 11/24/2008 9:47:00 AM
Adam Victor's magnificent study of the life and legacy of Elvis Presley, The Elvis Encyclopedia, is getting rave reviews all over the world. This just in from The Times (UK):
"Adam Victor has followed his compendium of all known facts about Marilyn Monroe with this remarkably handsome volume on another modern icon - the greatest rock artiste of our time, and (arguably) the most influential singer of any time. If you want to know about Elvis and guns and telephones, how many paternity suits were filed against him, what books he read and even what breed of dog he gave his last-but-one girlfriend, this book is for you. As a visual compendium of Elvis and his times the work is outstanding, and students of rock'n'roll history have a valuable resource of quotes, pictures and facts - for every detail of every single record is here, as well as the names of musicians he worked with, those singers he influenced and the credits for all his movies, down to “Colonel Tom Parker - technical adviser”. (The old rogue looked after himself more than he looked after the genius he managed.) Victor notes that his encyclopedia is “longer than the Old Testament”; certainly to fundamentalist Elvis nerds it will be as valuable as the Bible."
0 Comments on A Hunk of Burning Love for Adam Victor's THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA as of 10/20/2008 10:28:00 AM
★ The Elvis Encyclopedia has received a starred review in Publishers Weekly: "This obsessively detailed and completely entertaining chronicle by Adam Victor (The Marilyn Encyclopedia) of every possible aspect of Elvis Presley’s life is mesmerizing and deserves a wide audience. Elvis fans will delight in the many famous and rare photos illustrating entries on the King’s every song, album and movie as well as his complete last will and testament. But nonfans will marvel at such meticulously researched entries as “Religion” (a vision of “Stalin and Jesus in a high bank of cloud” made Elvis consider “joining a monastery”), as well as a comprehensive state-by-state list of “Hotels Where Elvis Stayed.”
0 Comments on THE ELVIS ENCYCLOPEDIA Receives Starred Review in Publishers Weekly as of 10/6/2008 1:08:00 PM
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What a nice boy! :)
awwww
That's so wonderful. Who is this kid? He could only be yours. :)
Sweet. Did you play that song for him when he was a baby?