August 16, 2002

Elvis has left the building
  Although he owned many homes, the most famous - and the one he loved best - is, of course, Graceland.
  By Tamsin Blanchard, The Observer


Compared to some of his Vegas caped rhinestone jumpsuits, the decor at Elvis's home, Graceland, is surprisingly restrained. Some of those suits are now on permanent display in the racquetball court, where Elvis played a few rounds on his last night. But the main attraction for the 650,000 visitors who make the pilgrimage each year is the house itself.
Once they've made the short bus ride from the mansion gates to the main entrance, with its steps up to a classical portico, the pilgrims are issued with an audio tape recorded by Priscilla Presley and Lisa Marie, welcoming them to the miniature palace Priscilla once shared with the King. Her dulcet tones guide the visitor around the living room/music room, Elvis's parents' bedroom, the dining room, kitchen, the den (aka the Jungle Room) and the annexe on the main level of the house. Downstairs in the basement are the TV and Pool Rooms. Of Graceland's 23 rooms, roughly half are out of bounds and only family members are allowed upstairs. Rumour has it that this is because Elvis still lives there.

At the time of his death in 1977, parts of Graceland, with its eight bedrooms and four bathrooms, were considerably more garishly Elvis than they are today. He bought the house in 1957, at the age of 22, for $102,500. Half the amount was paid in cash, the other half was a trade-in with his previous house at 1034 Audubon Drive.

Graceland was built in 1939 by a wealthy Memphis family who had owned the 500-acre farm since 1861. It was named after the original owner's daughter, Grace, and the name stuck. By the late 50s, the house was rather down-at-heel.

One of the first things Elvis did was to build himself a den in the basement, with a projector and an ice-cream bar. The tone was set. This was to be a family residence, a place for him to relax and play, as well as for his parents, Vernon and Gladys, to feel at home. He had always wanted to buy them a mansion, and this was his dream come true. With the help of his mother and an interior decorator, George Golden, Elvis worked his way through the house, planning colour schemes, curtains, furnishings and adding the Music Gates (a snip at just over $3,000) and the Wall of Love. Graceland was to be a work-in-progress throughout his life.

The main reception rooms are sedate and conservative. The stained glass dividing the music room and living room is decorated with peacocks - for Elvis, they represented eternal life.

The last time the house was redecorated was in 1974. In a fit of gaudiness we could only expect from the King, the house was fitted out like a bordello. This was the early 70s, after all, and if Elvis couldn't paint his house red, then who could? A local designer, Bill Eubanks, assisted with the work. So the walls, carpets, curtains and furnishings were all hot Corvette red. The TV room was given a makeover too - in canary yellow, with a mirrored ceiling and walls.

While the house was, on the whole, homely and unpretentious, it had its moments of rock-star madness. And just in case there wasn't enough going on in the TV room, Elvis had three televisions installed. He got the idea from President Johnson, who enjoyed watching three news broadcasts at once. Not content with watching one football game, Elvis could keep up with three at the same time. These days, the TVs show Elvis's favourite movies on a loop. On the audio tour, Priscilla doesn't comment on the room, which was decorated after the couple had divorced, and she had moved to California. Red and yellow aren't exactly the most restful colours, but it is pure, unadulterated, late-period Elvis.

The Jungle Room, to which he simply referred as the 'den', was Elvis's favourite. It is a real boys'-own refuge and reminded him of his favourite holiday destination, Hawaii. It's all very Polynesian 'Tiki' in style. Unbelievably, the ornately carved chairs and thrones were not made to order; Elvis hand-picked them from Donald's Furniture Store down the road. Originally, the room was an outdoor patio. It was incorporated into the house in the 60s, and had its very own water feature added in 1965, cascading down the stone walls. The mossy green shag-pile carpet covers the floor and ceiling, with wood panelling on the walls and, as befits a den, there is no daylight.

Graceland has been a success story for Elvis Presley Enterprises, which is chaired by the house's sole owner, Lisa Marie. When Elvis died, his estate was worth next to nothing. He was down to his last million dollars (Graceland alone cost half of that to run), and the fortune Lisa Marie was set to inherit on her 25th birthday had been frittered away into a mass of tax debts.

Whatever money Elvis was able to earn, he was also just as well-equipped to spend. Priscilla was left nothing, but became the estate's executor after Elvis's father died in 1979. Ever determined, Priscilla set about single-handedly turning the estate's (and her daughter's) declining fortunes around. She spent $500,000 refurbishing and restoring the house, ripping out the lurid red and replacing it with the more tasteful 50s combination of blue, gold and white, of which his mother would have approved.

The house was opened to the public in 1982 - complete with a sitting tenant, Elvis's aunt, Delta Biggs, whom he had invited to stay after her husband died. Overnight, it had 300,000 visitors passing through its gates that first year. By the end of the 90s, Lisa Marie's estate was worth $200 million. Aunt Delta, who was the last person to live in the house (if you believe that Elvis has actually left the building permanently and isn't simply hiding upstairs), died in 1993.

Although it is his most famous, Graceland was not Elvis's only home. The first house he bought for his family at Audubon Drive, a year before buying Graceland, is being restored to its 50s glory by its owners, who have written a book, Memphis Elvis-Style . As well as numerous homes around Hollywood and LA, and two in Palm Springs, he bought a 160-acre ranch in 1967, 10 miles away from Graceland, where he kept his horses and his collection of mobile homes. He called it the Circle G Ranch, and with a little help from property developer JD Stacy, it looks set to be the first serious rival to Graceland. Not only are there plans to build a replica of the mansion itself, there will also be holiday homes, luxury apartments and a museum of Elvis memorabilia. Visitors to the Elvis theme park won't have to leave the complex.

Needless to say, Lisa Marie and Elvis Presley Enterprises have been fighting the development, insisting that anyone who uses the Elvis Presley name is violating their trademark. Nevertheless, planning permission has been granted and the first foundation stone will be laid on 16 August. But for the real fans, Graceland is where Elvis lived for 20 years, and Graceland is where he died; there's no place like home.

August 16, 2002

Elvis biographer on following the King's life

(CNN) -- We've heard a lot of kidding around this week about Elvis, but there is a very serious side to Elvis and his place in popular culture.

Peter Guralnick is the Elvis biographer whose two-volume work has been called "a triumph of biographical art" by the The New York Times.

Guralnick talked to CNN anchor Martin Savidge from Graceland about his books, "Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley" and "Last Train to Memphis."

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Wanted to ask you, as a serious biographer, what drew you to someone like Elvis Presley?

PETER GURALNICK, ELVIS BIOGRAPHER: I'll tell you the truth what drew me to Elvis was the blues, and when I was a kid at the age of 15, I just kind of fell into the blues -- you know, Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf -- and it was just around that same time that RCA put out two albums while Elvis was in the Army that had all of his Sun sides, and I had never heard this -- growing up in New England, I had never heard this on the radio, and I listened to these songs, and I said, Oh, my God. Elvis is a blues singer. He is a great blues singer. And that was really what led me to sort of reexplore, reassess, and then I discovered so many other sides of Elvis, but that was what first drew me to him.

SAVIDGE: When you wrote the first book, "Last Train to Memphis," did you envision at that time there was going to be a follow-up?

GURALNICK: No. When I started on the biography in 1988, it was with the idea of writing a neat, elegantly compact one-volume biography of Elvis. Then, after working on it for four years, in 1992 I called my editor and I said, you know, you better sit down. I think you are in for kind of a shock because I had a vision last night. I suddenly realized that this is a book -- a biography that should take place in two volumes, because it is as if, with the death of his mother, a curtain fell down on Elvis' life, and when that curtain rises, it is just a whole other story.

The women in Elvis' life

SAVIDGE: Well, many people look at Elvis' life as divided in two ways. You have the young Elvis, which is what your first book sort of chronicles there, and we can take a look at some of the photographs.

Elvis, at this young age, really is -- that is when he captured our attention and captured a lot of people's hearts. And one of the things he also captured was the attention of women, and I am wondering what is the influence of women in his life, and you mentioned his mother there.

GURALNICK: I think that Elvis felt more comfortable with women in many ways than he did with men. He felt able to deliver an emotional truth that he felt somewhat inhibited from sharing with [men]. We may still live in a macho age, but the era in which Elvis grew up, it was difficult to reveal emotion and vulnerability.

Elvis always felt totally comfortable with women from the time he was a teenager, in just showing his feelings, and you can see it. I mean, you can see in the women that he knew from the time he was 15, 16 years old, and all of them are unique. They are individual. Many of them are funny. They could be sassy. They are all very, very different, but they are all remarkable individuals, each in their own right. They are all people to whom Elvis confided aside of himself that he really wasn't going to share with the guys around him, however much else he did share with them.

Then came Priscilla

SAVIDGE: Priscilla Presley is obviously one woman we closely associate with Elvis. What did you learn about her and the love between the two of them?

GURALNICK: I think that was most remarkable about Priscilla is that when Elvis met her at the age of 14 or 15, she was a girl who knew her own mind. She was a very determined person. This was in Germany when Elvis was in the Army in the fall of 1959, late summer, and everybody who was present was aware that it was as if a spark of electricity had gone off.

There was no question in anybody's mind, up until that time, that Elvis would be going home to marry the girl he left behind. Certainly he had every expectation that he was going to go home and that they were going to get married, but that isn't what happened. I think from the moment that he met Priscilla, everyone who saw this meeting, everyone who was witness to it, or everyone who was around Elvis and Priscilla in Germany knew that whatever else happened, Elvis wasn't going back to his previous life.

Separating myth from fact

SAVIDGE: We often say Elvis, the man, the myth, and the legend. As a biographer, there must be so many people you run across who have a story, but it may not actually be factual. I'm wondering how you separate what is the legend into what is the life of Elvis Presley.

GURALNICK: All of us inflate our own roles in the past. If you ask me about what I did in the past I might be trying to be honest with you, but I might raise up to put myself in the center of the picture more than I actually deserve. Certainly almost everybody does that.

What you are always looking for in a sense is the story which is not focused on the person who is telling the story, but is focused on the subject of the story, and you are also looking to for corroborating evidence. You are looking for two different pictures, you are looking for where things cross. But most of all, I think you are looking for a kind of both an emotional and a factual truth.

I think that documentation can so often change your picture of the way things are. For example, with Elvis's father, Vernon, who is often pictured in the past as a kind of lazy ne'er-do-well, claimed he had a bad back. When I got into the archives here at Graceland, I discovered documentation which showed that he always worked, he always paid his bills. He was the most conscientious of people. This may not make him a hero, but it was a very, very different picture than the picture that people were painting of him.

Unanswered questions

SAVIDGE: Peter, let me ask you this. In all your research, was there a question perhaps you had about Elvis that you never really found the answer to, or anything that still maybe lingers in what you want to learn?

GURALNICK: There are so many. History is something which is constantly expanding. You have to recognize that the more you learn, the more you realize you actually don't know. It is something that is going to continually evolve, and that continually expands.

There are little questions. I think that if there were one thing I could do, it would be to sit down and talk with Elvis about the music, because I think that was the core of his life, it was the central passion of his life. And if I could ask him one question, I would ask him: "All right, now you said in this interview in 1956 in Charlotte, North Carolina, 'I used to hear old Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup,' the blues singer who wrote Elvis's first record, 'I used to hear old Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup bang his box when I was a boy in Tupelo.' Now did you really see him? Where did you see him in Tupelo? Or did you just listen to his records?" It is these details, it is the kind of how the weather was, it is the specifics that really paint a portrait, that you are always looking for.

SAVIDGE: It is the perspective on a person's life. Peter Guralnick, thank you very much for joining us. Author of "Careless Love: the Unmaking of Elvis Presley," and "Last Train to Memphis." Thanks again.

August 16, 2002

Ex-Wife, Daughter Attend Elvis Vigil
   Elvis' Daughter and Her Mother Watched Vigil From Graceland Mansion
   (The Associated Press)


MEMPHIS, Tenn. Aug. 16 — Elvis Presley's newlywed daughter, her movie star husband and her mother secretly visited Graceland in the wee hours Friday morning and watched from the mansion windows as fans carried candles to Elvis' grave in an all-night vigil on the 25th anniversary of his death.

A Graceland representative, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Lisa Marie Presley, husband Nicolas Cage and mother Priscilla Presley arrived after midnight to witness the largest gathering of fans since Presley died at the mansion on Aug. 16, 1977 an estimated 35,000. They were unseen by the crowd as they entered and left.

They then made a brief stop at Elvis Presley's Memphis, a restaurant and night club on Beale Street, where they watched revelers from the privacy of a VIP area.

The family also prepared for an appearance at the 25th Anniversary Concert at the Pyramid Arena Friday night. About 14,000 tickets were sold months ago. An additional 500 tickets that were made available Thursday were snapped up within five minutes, the Graceland representative said.

Fans who began gathering at Graceland early Thursday morning for the vigil, continued their parade to the grave until about 9:30 a.m. Friday. They carried candles and left poems and trinkets in the Meditation Garden where Elvis is buried.

Their spirits were undampened by a wild storm. The rain, thunder and lightning delayed the start of the vigil for an hour.

Rain continued off and on through the night and many fans rushed to souvenir shops to purchase Elvis umbrellas and plastic ponchos, then returned to their places in line for the candlelight procession.

"I spend all day at Graceland and then I stand and stand and stand," said Renate Bressner, a fan who came from Munich, Germany.

"My back hurt," added the 56-year-old Bressner, an Elvis fan for more than 40 years. But she said was not giving up until she reached the grave site, which she finally did after 2 a.m.

Bressner said her family, including her 35-year-old daughter who was raised on Elvis music, discouraged her from making the trip to Memphis by herself but she was adamant: "It is something I have to do."

Melanie Figueroa of the Austin, Texas, fan club, which led the procession, said the inclement weather didn't bother her.

"We've been doling this for years," she said. "I was going to stay whether it was rain or sleet or snow."

Sandy Bates of Baltimore said she's been attending for years but found this one the most inspiring.

"He's been gone 25 years but he's still making all these people happy," she said. "You have to admire someone who can bring about all this loyalty in this day and age."

August 16, 2002 (Source : Donna Presley)

Press Release
CIRCLE G RESORT: HOME OF THE ELVIS PRESLEY RANCH CELEBRATES CEREMONIAL
GROUNDBREAKING EVENT.





Donna Presley, Elvis' first cousin and The Legendary Jordanaires, his long time backup vocal group headlining festivities.

August 15, 2002 - Memphis TN - CGR LLC, developers of the $600 millions, 808-acre family resort destination marked the beginning of the development with a kick-off celebration on the ranch once owned by Elvis Presley.

Donna Presley served as host to over 300 VIP's and the legendary Jordanaires honored guests with a performance to celebrate Elvis' legacy on the 25th anniversary of his death. VIP's in attendance included nearby hotel and casino presidents and local and state officials. Developers were onhand to unveil resort project details and renderings for fans and international media for a standing room only audience.

Donna Presley, Elvis' first cousin and Vice President of Resort Relations is also the official ranch spokesperson. During the presentation Ms. Presley said, "The Circle G Resort, Home of the Elvis Presley Ranch holds many fond memories for me as it was my home at the same time that Elvis and Priscilla lived there. This project will be a breath of fresh air for Elvis fans and a highly sought after tourist destination for all ages." The resort promises to offer many ammenities including two world-class golf courses, five star hotel accomodations and an elaborate retail, restaurant and entertainment complex. And in classic Presley style the resort would not be complete without a state of the art concert theater.

This also marks the official launch of the Circle G Resort: Home of the Elvis Presley Ranch website. The initial site will feature conceptual resort plans and will be updates frequently with new developments.

For more information please contact Ginger Morris, Titan Communications at 404-731-3597

Donna Presley
Donna Presley Early Productions, LTD
http://www.donnapresleyearly.com

Donna Presley Page

Donna along with JD Stacy with Media on Circle G Ranch former Elvis Presley Ranch

(updated - August 18, 2002)

from left : "The Circle G Resort" - Plan Project
and former "Elvis Presley Ranch"

Groundbreaking at Elvis ranch offers entertainment, few details
   'Absolutely, it's going to happen'
   By William C. Bayne, The Commercial Appeal - August 16, 2002

The ceremonial groundbreak ing for the Circle G Ranch Resort on Thursday offered hope, entertainment and a meal in an air-conditioned tent.

But it offered no more details about the proposed golf and entertainment resort.

The developers, Circle G Ranch LLC, haven't chosen a golf course architect for the resort's two planned courses, nor have they chosen an architect to design a master plan, said spokesman Ginger Morris.

"We want everything to be perfect," she said. "Things like this just take time."

One detail did come out: The cost of the project on 808 acres near Goodman and Miss. 301 is now $600 million instead of the $500 million stated previously, said Jackie Rosen, another spokesman for the developers.

There was no indication Thursday when the group might file a final site plan or seek building permits.

But the Circle G Ranch partnership's president, Paul D'Ag nese, was enthusiastic nonetheless.

"This is the most exciting project I've ever been associated with," he said.

A crowd of more than 200 people gathered in a tent on the property that was owned by Elvis 1967-70 for a ceremony that included a performance by the Jordanaires, a gospel group that sang with the King.

"We certainly hope this is successful, because we don't want to be associated with failure," said Ray Walker, a member of the famed quartet.

Donna Presley, one of Elvis's cousins, served as mistress of ceremonies. She lived at the ranch 1967-70 before moving to the grounds of Graceland in Memphis.

"When he felt like he wanted to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, he'd come here," she said. "Here it was peaceful, a serene time for family and friends."

Almost all of the ranch property will be annexed by Horn Lake at midnight Sunday, and the city's mayor, Mike Thomas, provided another enthusiastic endorsement of the project.

"Horn Lake is ready to show the world what Southern hospitality is all about," he said.

Thomas invited everyone to return for the formal ribbon-cutting when the resort opens, possibly in a little more than two years, he said.

Developers have met with city officials, Rosen said, but she didn't know when plans would be submitted.

DeSoto County Supervisor Gerald Clifton said he has wondered for 25 years when someone would develop the property, calling it a "hidden jewel."

"It'll be the greatest thing that ever hit the state of Mississippi," he said.

Also present was Ray Childress, vice president of W. G. Yates & Sons Construction Co., the firm hired to manage construction, who said he's often asked if the development is really going to happen.

He had a quick answer.

"These guys have a vision," he said. "Absolutely, it's going to happen."

August 16, 2002

Photographer sensed star quality as soon as he met young singer
   By Michael Lollar, The Commercial Appeal - August 16, 2002

"When he first stepped in front of the camera, I told him, 'You sure would make a wonderful actor,' " says photographer William Speer of his most famous subject.

Elvis Presley was 19 when he showed up at Speer's studio. He had been sent to Speer by his first manager, Bob Neal, to have publicity photos shot to help promote his fledgling singing career.

Speer, now 85, grew up as a fan of black-and-white movie glamor shots in the glass cases in theater lobbies when he was a child. He used what he calls "Rembrandt lighting" with an overhead spotlight casting shadows downward. Before the photos were even developed, Speer and his wife, Vacil, knew there was something special going on:

"It felt like an electrical charge in the room. You can tell the famous ones or the ones who are going to be famous. They stand out in a room without you even knowing who they are," says Vacil Speer.

Speer remembers thinking Elvis "looked like Burt Lancaster. He could have played his brother in the movies." When the photographs were developed, no one was disappointed. "He came off that dead film like dynamite. Either you've got it or you haven't," says the photographer.

The photographs were among the most memorable ever shot of Elvis, partly because Vacil Speer was bold enough to ask Elvis to try "something different" - a few shots with his shirt off. "He didn't look real happy about it," but he obliged, says Vacil Speer. Elvis seldom used the shirtless poses for publicity purposes. When he saw them, the Speers say he laughed and said, "These have got to go." But they have become collectors' items. In a 1987 column in the New York Daily News, columnist Liz Smith called one of the brooding shirtless poses "the most beautiful photo ever taken of Elvis." The photos also were turned into a 1993 calendar with Elvis the cover boy for 11 months and a separate Speer photo of Elvis's parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, as the 12th month.

Vacil Speer says she missed her chance during the session to make it even more memorable. "Somebody said, 'Why didn't you take his pants off while you were at it?' I could have been worth a fortune by now."

Even so, William Speer now is negotiating with a New York collector who has offered an undisclosed sum in what Speer calls "the high six-figure range" for his original negatives. Two of the photos have appeared in Time magazine through the years.

Speer friend Bill Carrier, another well-known Memphis photographer, helped turn the photo shoot into the 1993 calendar, which was scheduled for sale on the QVC television shopping network. Carrier had printed thousands of the calendars when the deal fell through and is now looking at ways to market the calendar again - possibly in the next year with the same configuration of days as 1993.

Carrier says the photograph of Vernon and Gladys Presley is intriguing in itself. "It's one of the few pictures where Gladys is smiling."

That is a rarity for a Speer photo. His Elvis series also includes a smiling Elvis, although, he says, "I don't usually take smiling jackass pictures. If you're looking at a person with a smile, all you see is the smile. The smile kills the whole thing. The picture is in the eyes."

Elvis sent his parents to Speer for their portrait and returned once with a girlfriend to have her portrait shot. It was then that Speer thinks he may have offended Elvis, who never returned. While he was concentrating on photographing the girlfriend, Elvis was in the next room and began singing.

"I said, 'Stop the racket. I'm trying to take a picture.' "

August 16, 2002

Still the King, and Memphis's No. 1 son
   The Commercial Appeal - August 16, 2002

ELVIS PRESLEY has been famous in death even longer than he was famous in life. Memphians will find that calculation at the same time a bit startling and entirely understandable.

A quarter-century after his death, Presley continues to be a powerful force - economic, cultural and social - around the world and especially in his hometown. "Elvis Presley's Memphis" is much more than the name of a Beale Street restaurant.

This anniversary week has brought tens of thousands of visitors to Memphis on Presley pilgrimages, from the candelight vigil at Graceland to the memorial concert at The Pyramid. This week also is keeping a lot of scholars and self-appointed cultural observers busy spinning explanations of Presley's popularity.

Some of this analysis is intriguing; much of it is fatuous and even condescending to Elvis devotees. No matter.

There are more Elvis books, more CDs and videos, more merchandise and memorabilia, more "tribute artists" (don't call them impersonators) every year. Fortune magazine estimates Presley's estate earned $37 million in the past year alone.

A new anthology of Presley's No. 1 hits to be released next month, along with a restoration of his earliest live recordings with new accompaniment, will introduce a new generation to his music. A remix of his song A Little Less Conversation tops the charts in Europe. The soundtrack of the new Disney film Lilo & Stitch features Elvis tracks.

Presley's unique ability to draw upon various, mostly Southern, genres - rhythm and blues, gospel, country - to create an explosive new form of rock and roll is as impressive today as it was when he revolutionized popular music and culture in the mid-1950s.

He did not invent rock and roll, but he became its most successful and celebrated practitioner. Some of his appeal was frankly erotic, but if that were all he had to offer, his music and his broader cultural significance surely would not have endured.

If Presley put Memphis on the map, and has helped keep it there, it seems equally true that the city shaped his music in a way no other environment could have. Not only Beale Street and Sun Studio, but also the city's churches and the gospel concerts he loved to attend, contributed to the development of his talent. Without these influences, both sacred and profane, his work would not have been the same.

The desire of so many people to connect with Presley, in death as in life, for whatever reason, remains strong. Graceland continues to attract more visitors each year than any American residence other than the White House. And the persistent reports of Elvis sightings, from Kalamazoo to England, suggest an unwillingness to let go of Presley, who would have been 67 this year.

Part of Presley's lasting appeal may be a sense of unfulfilled potential because of his premature death. He displayed flashes of genuine acting talent, for example, but he remained stuck in a series of by-the-numbers movie musical comedies.

Part of it surely was his ability, at the time the nation's, and especially the South's, civil rights revolution was burgeoning, to cross a racial dividing line that had separated black and white culture.

Part of it may be his manifestation of a peculiarly American archetype: the poor boy who makes good. And if his sudden wealth and immense fame ultimately became a curse, transforming him into the bloated, drug-abusing, karate-kicking, peanut-butter-and-banana-chomping, rhinestone-jumpsuit-wearing staple of hack biographers and cheap-joke comedians, then that seems a peculiarly American form of mythology, too.

That trajectory, from ascending Memphis Elvis to declining Vegas Elvis, is not what so many people are observing this week. Rather, what remains worth celebrating, 25 years after his death, is his music: Don't Be Cruel, Jailhouse Rock, Burning Love and dozens of other classics.

Elvis Presley is still Taking Care of Business. He's still the King of Rock and Roll. And it's good - and wholly proper - that his kingdom remains based in Memphis.

August 16, 2002

Sense of loss same at biggest vigil of all
  
   Burning Love: Remembering Elvis
   By Christopher Blank, The Commercial Appeal - August 16, 2002


Not even a torrential Memphis downpour could stop approximately 30,000 fans from paying their respects at the grave of Elvis Aron Presley Thursday night.

They came from countries far and wide, piling flowers, stuffed teddy bears, heartfelt poems and trinket tributes around the bronze plaque beneath which lies the man who changed the way the world hears music.

The King of Rock and Roll passed away 25 years ago today.

The sun will have long risen behind the rolling Graceland estate today before the record crowds have left. Thursday was a night of memories and prayers. The Candlelight Vigil here on Elvis Presley Boulevard has been the essential pilgrimage for true fans since the first few gathered outside the gates back in 1978.

For the most fervent keepers of Elvis's flame, this year is the same as any other. The 25th anniversary is neither more nor less meaningful than the second or seventh or 10th were. The latter, incidentally, was when Bill Rowe from Dayton, Ohio, made his first appearance at the head of the line.

"The only difference is a bigger crowd," Rowe said. "Everything is like yesterday for me. The first time I saw Elvis on television. The first time I saw him live. The day he died."

Yes, there were more people paying tribute to Elvis. But an even bigger audience was watching the Elvis fans.

Media from around the world focused their lenses and occasional barbs at the cult of the King. With Elvis particularly prominent in pop culture at the moment - a remixed hit single A Little Less Conversation is currently on the charts, a Disney film Lilo & Stitch is introducing new generations to Elvis and a much-anticipated greatest hits album is due for September release - the rain-soaked grounds of Graceland held the world's attention Thursday night.

Cameras scouting the crowds naturally zoomed in on folks who showed up in costume. The world can’t resist sideburns and a jumpsuit, as Joe Creazzo from Easton, Pa., learned in the late afternoon.

"I hadn't planned to wear the suit. I had it in the car. But my nephew told me to get it out." Creazzo, his hand shaking slightly, held up a card with the scribbled words "300 million."

"That's how many people will see me on television tonight," he said.

Elvis, it seems, has fame to spare.

As fans young and old clamored to have photos taken with Creazzo, his excitement grew. "All these years have been building up," he said. "This is the moment."

At the last major anniversary five years ago, attendance at the vigil was estimated at 20,000 to 25,000, according to Graceland spokesman David Beckwith. With an estimated 30,000 on hand by about 10 p.m., officials were expecting even more people to show up after midnight.

As tradition holds, the grave's "eternal flame" is transferred to a torch which members of the crowd used to light their candles as they filed through the gates of Graceland.

Members of the Elvis Country Fan Club from Texas - the group that initiated the first official vigil in 1979 - greeted the masses at the gates. Fan clubs from around the world led the solemn procession.

For many people, the annual trip to Memphis is more than just a vacation. It's a way to remember the man who, whether through his film or music career, changed their lives.

And when folks like Katherine Mannerino aren't on the road to Graceland, they’re paying respects in other ways. For the 52-year-old Chicago resident, her tribute meant careful thought. She considered two years, researched at the most reputable establishments and finally, two years ago, had Elvis's face tattooed on her left shoulder blade.

"This isn't a fascination," she said. "This is a love. A love forever."

August 16, 2002

Elvis Fans Brave Tennessee Rain to Pay Tribute
   By Andrew Stern  - Fri Aug 16,10:24 AM ET

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Reuters) - Elvis Presley's fans, around 35,000 of them, braved intermittent rain to file past the rock icon's grave to pay tribute on the 25th anniversary of his death on Friday.

Cradling candles against the breeze, mouthing prayers and wiping away tears along with raindrops, young and old took the solemn walk past Presley's grave through the night.

"Elvis was the greatest and he has the greatest fans in the world, and he always will," Todd Morgan, the director of media and creative development for Elvis Presley Enterprises said at the start of the candlelight vigil on Thursday night.

Organizers said it was the largest turnout ever for the vigil that has become an annual event at Presley's Graceland mansion.

The silent pilgrims had heaped a 5-foot high mound of flowers, teddy bears and mementos on the grave, some sobbing as they remembered the "King of Rock 'n' Roll."

"I grew up on Elvis. Those songs just exploded off my little record player. I could feel him coming through," said Bill Rowe of Dayton, Ohio, who secured the first place in line as he does nearly every year.

"My friend said Elvis wasn't going to let it rain. I guess he's crying for us," said Betty Skinner, who recalled fond memories of Elvis in concert.

She and millions of others were devastated when Presley was found in his bedroom dead from a drug-induced heart attack at age 42 on the afternoon of Aug. 16, 1977.

"We've been fans since -- well, since he sang his first song," Skinner's friend Janice Morgan said. "The charisma, the looks, the voice, we loved everything about him."

Each bearing a candle many struggled to keep lit in the drizzle, fans filed up the curved driveway and past Presley's inscribed bronze tablet alongside those of his parents and paternal grandmother.

Some wept openly, others stopped to say a quiet prayer, blew kisses, or posed solemnly for a quick photograph.

"Long live Elvis, baby," one shouted outside the wrought-iron, music-noted gates to Graceland.

"If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane ...," read one of dozens of floral tributes, this one from Kentucky, displayed along the walkway leading to the grave site.

"Elvis that's the way it is," read a note from the Chicago fan club, which created a collage of Elvis photos shaped into the "25" and fringed by blue-tinted carnations.

The four-lane Elvis Presley Boulevard that runs in front of Presley's white-columned Graceland mansion remained closed to traffic to accommodate the crowd following a week of dinners, dances, concerts and seminars attended by an estimated 75,000 people.

"It's almost too heartbreaking for me. I start crying as soon as I turn onto Elvis Presley Boulevard. The man meant everything to me," said Barbara Barges of Houston, who was making her third pilgrimage. "It kills me when I come here that he is not here."

Some in the crowd were not even born before Elvis died, though the majority were graying fans who grew up when he catapulted to stardom in the mid-1950s.

Presley's posthumous multimillion-dollar empire received another boost in the past year with a popular European remix of his song "A Little Less Conversation" and his oft-played rendition of "America the Beautiful."

August 16, 2002

Fans Remember Elvis With Vigil
   By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent
   Fri Aug 16, 8:34 AM ET


MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - To the strains of Elvis Presley's "Memories," thousands of fans walked through rain to his gravesite at Graceland for a candlelight vigil marking the 25th anniversary of his death on Friday.

More than 7,000 people began the vigil at the singer's estate more than an hour late because of a thunderstorm that swept into Memphis just as fans were congregating outside the gates. Friday morning, tens of thousands of people had filed past his grave, and more were waiting.

A minister led the crowd in the Lord's Prayer before the vigil.

"We see it more as a celebration of Elvis' life than a time for grief," said Jane Anderson, the 68-year-old president of an Elvis fan club in Shreveport, La.

Anderson was at Graceland when the vigil tradition began the year after Elvis' death and remembers it happening spontaneously.

"We didn't know it was going to happen but someone just started lighting candles and that was the beginning," she said. "And we're still here. We feel that Elvis is in the trees and behind the fence."

Graceland manager Todd Morgan said the ceremony would have a worldwide audience on the Internet with a live "vigilcast."

"Elvis had the greatest fans in the world and always will," he said.

Undaunted by the inclement weather, thousands of fans amassed in front of the gates lit their candles — including some battery operated to avoid being extinguished — and began their pilgrimage up the driveway to the gravesite.

Priscilla Parker of Pittsburgh has made it to 22 of the vigils.

"We are celebrating Elvis and his life and we're here as a big family," said Parker, who runs another fan club. "This is really the Elvis family reunion."

Those arriving for the vigil found themselves in a city under Presley's spell.

"Welcome Elvis Fans," say banners posted everywhere from the airport — where Elvis music greets travelers — to supermarkets to a liquor store with a sign declaring, "Welcome to Memphis, Elvis' home away from Las Vegas."

Wreaths at Graceland have arrived from fans as far away as Brazil and Japan. A British group has their own bus riding around town.

Among those gathered at the ornate wrought-iron gates of Graceland were Randy and Kelly Bart, a husband and wife whose romance began here 12 years ago. He was from Ontario, Canada; she was from Bartlett, Ill., and they hit it off immediately.

"We had so much in common to talk about," said Kelly, a 31-year-old systems analyst. "We both loved Elvis and his music."

Randy, a 36-year-old school custodian, told her the amazing coincidence that he was born on Jan. 8, Elvis' birthday. He also has a modified Elvis hairdo — pompadour and sideburns. Both were barely out of grammar school when Elvis died, but their dedication to the King continued as adults.

"I saw him on TV in `Jailhouse Rock' and it just hit me," said Randy. "How could you not be drawn to Elvis?"

Both came here regularly but never expected to find love. They kept in touch for a year and in 1991, Randy remembers, "We got engaged at Graceland in the meditation garden and a year later we were married." They celebrated their 10th anniversary on Aug. 10.

The Illinois couple were among a handful of fan club VIPs invited by RCA Records on Thursday to preview the newly mixed album of Elvis' 30 No. 1 hits, which will be released in September.

The fan club presidents did not have to stand in line all day for the vigil. They are always the first to enter the grounds of Graceland.

But others, including 38-year-old Dana Heffley of Shepherdsville, Ky., began lining up at 6 a.m. for the event that didn't begin until well into the night.

"I've been a fan since I was 14," said Heffley, who recently got an Elvis tattoo on her arm emblazoned with the words, "Forever the King."

August 15, 2002

   Wise men still have lots to say about him
   By Bill Ellis, The Commercial Appeal - August 15, 2002

John Bakke remembers all too well the first Elvis Presley seminar he organized. It was 1979, and the dust had yet to settle on Presley's sensational death just two years prior. No one seemed willing to take either the musician or Bakke seriously.

"I was interviewed by some skeptical reporters," says Bakke, now professor emeritus at the University of Memphis. "I said Elvis may be an object of serious historical study, and The Associated Press picked that up right under 'Man Bites Dog' stories."

How things have changed in two decades. For this year's conference - titled "Is Elvis History? 2002 and Beyond" and scheduled 9 a.m.-4 p.m. today at U of M's Fogelman Executive Center - Bakke says he has been interviewed by a swarm of international media from The New York Times and The Washington Post to Polish, Australian and German television reporters.

"And nobody is presuming that there isn't going to be something important said," says Bakke, who seems a little surprised himself. "It's an indication of an awareness that Elvis is not just passing through."

Underwritten in part by a grant from the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation, the sold-out seminar - which benefits U of M's Elvis Presley Endowed Scholarship Fund - gleans all sides of the melodious debate, examining Presley's place within the context of music and social history as well as asking whether that legacy has run its course.

Among the esteemed speakers Bakke has lined up: Peter Guralnick, whose detailed portraits Last Train to Memphis and Careless Love have made him Presley's foremost biographer; hailed writer Greil Marcus, whose books include Mystery Train, Dead Elvis and Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives; Michael Bertrand, the author of Race, Rock, and Elvis; and Allison Graham, who wrote Framing the South: Hollywood, Television, and Race During the Civil Rights Struggle.

Sun Records founder/producer Sam Phillips and Presley pal Jerry Schilling, head of the Memphis and Shelby County Music Commission, will talk about the real Elvis.

Others scheduled to speak include veteran record executive Eddie Ray; U of M history professor Dr. Charles Crawford; former Shelby County sheriff and mayor Bill Morris; local columnist Jackson Baker, and WKNO-TV Channel 10 personality 'Mr. Chuck' Scruggs.

After holding back-to-back seminars, first in 1997 for the 20th anniversary of Elvis's death, then in 1998, Bakke feels less concerned with staging an annual event than with giving the seminar enough time out so something new can be brought to the table.

Among those with a fresh perspective this go-round is University of Mississippi visiting professor Michael Bertrand, who will address Elvis in relation to the civil rights era.

"You have Emmett Till being lynched for crossing a line for violating etiquette, you have at the same time Clyde McPhatter or the Dominos or the Ravens coming into the South," says Bertrand. "Young white kids are flocking to these concerts, falling in love with these artists. They're basically violating the same type of etiquette. And then in Memphis you have this young man recording at Sun Records. He's doing the same thing. He's crossing these same boundaries of class and race, and yet he becomes an extremely popular figure. It's very interesting for me, that you would have two men, Emmett Till and Elvis Presley, occupying the same space at the same time."

With such critical focus being applied to a rock singer, one would think a seminar titled "Is Elvis History?" answers itself.

Yet the shifting sands of social opinion are just as important to Bakke as are the certainties of Presley's musical past. And the crux of this seminar is to examine how Elvis as a social phenomenon will be seen in coming years: revolutionary or reactionary.

"Elvis is getting a lot of credit for the impact he's had on music itself," says Bakke. "Culturally, I think he's seen more as a regressive force, as someone who exploited black music rather than brought it into the mainstream. When he was first popular, people like (Black Panther) Eldridge Cleaver and Abbie Hoffman were proclaiming him as being a real force of liberation. I think that's changed a little bit to where he's (now) seen as, at best, more of a transitional figure and, at worst, a kind of low-class, low-brow imitation."

No doubt there will be those ready to defend and denounce such a statement at the seminar.

And that makes Elvis just as controversial, i.e., relevant, as ever.

August 15, 2002

THE KING ON TV


TV will remember Elvis Presley tomorrow and Saturday, with movies and special programming.

Turner Classic Movies airs a 24-hour movie marathon starting tomorrow morning:

"Spinout" (10 a.m.); "Clambake" (noon); "Frankie and Johnny" (2 p.m.); "Girl Happy" (4 p.m.);
"Tickle Me" (6 p.m.); "Elvis: That's the Way It Is 2001" (8 p.m.); "Jailhouse Rock" (10 p.m.);
"Speedway" (midnight); "Live a Little, Love a Little" (2 a.m.); "Double Trouble" (4 a.m.);
"Kid Galahad" (6 a.m.); "It Happened at the World's Fair" (8 a.m.).

American Movie Classics airs its movie salute on Saturday, "Elvis '56" (10:30 a.m.); "Love Me Tender" (11:30 a.m.); "Change of Habit" (1:15 p.m.); "Easy Come, Easy Go" (3:15 p.m.); "Elvis in Hollywood" (4:45 p.m.) On Saturday night at 8:30, NBC airs a special, remastered version of the 1957 Presley film, "Loving You."

Meanwhile, VH1 marks the 25th anniversary of Elvis' death with special programming tomorrow and music videos (2:30 p.m.); "Elvis: '68 Comeback Special" (3:30 p.m.); "Viva Las Vegas" (5 p.m.); "Elvis and Me" (7 p.m.).

August 15, 2002

Gospel music and Elvis: Inspiration and consolation
   By Helyn Trickey, CNN - August 14, 2002


MEMPHIS, Tennessee (CNN) - He went from a humble birth in a shotgun shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, to rhinestone-studded super stardom, but during his roller coaster-like ascension and eventual fall, Elvis Presley never stopped humming gospel songs.

"He loved to sing spirituals because they told a story," said Ray Walker, a singer with The Jordanaires, the legendary spiritual quartet that sang with Elvis for many years.

"It was his roots. He was a deeply spiritual man, more spiritual than anyone around him," Walker said in an interview in a restaurant in Memphis.

Indeed, before Elvis ever swiveled a hip or sneered a smile, he was listening to gospel music in the First Assembly of God Church on McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

"My mother and dad both loved to sing," Elvis said in a taped interview now available on the audio tour of Graceland.

"They tell me that when I was about 3 or 4 years old I got away from them in church and walked up in front of the choir and started beating time," he said.

The Blackwood Brothers gospel quartet shared the same church with Presley, and the group's soothing harmonies and rousing lyrics transfixed the young boy.

"By age 17 or 18, Elvis was sneaking around some of the blues and country clubs on Beale Street, but his dream was to be in a gospel quartet," said Jason Freeman, 29, a tour guide at the Legendary Sun Studio in Memphis where Presley first recorded.

According to RCA's Elvis music expert, Ernest Mikael Jorgensen, the young singer was discouraged from pursuing gospel music professionally when he was told he was not particularly good at harmony. Instead, Elvis took the sounds he'd learned from the diverse Memphis music scene and turned to rock'n'roll.

In 1956 Elvis belted out "Heartbreak Hotel," a song that would linger eight weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Billboard's pop singles chart. But the vocals behind the King's bluesy performance were the harmonious sound of The Jordanaires.

'He had a career that had just taken him captive'

Throughout his career, Elvis crooned ballads like "Love Me Tender" and growled his way through thumping rock like "Hound Dog," but he always took the gospel sound with him. In fact, many of his rock'n'roll hits resemble gospel and spiritual songs in terms of their musical construction and cadence.

Often, the King turned to gospel music after the lights were lowered and the fans had dispersed.

"After the shows he would routinely sing with the gospel quartets that were used as his backgrounders," said Gospel Music Association President Frank Breeden.

"It was the gospel music that he turned to for inspiration and consolation. He was a person who appeared to be in conflict; he was not doing what he loved for a living ... he had a career that had just taken him captive," said Breeden.

In 1966 Elvis began recording his first gospel album, "How Great Thou Art." For this very personal album the King assembled steel guitars, saxophones and a host of background choral singers.

Despite his grand ideas about musical arrangement, Walker recalls Elvis had only one or two gospel songs in mind when he came to the recording session.

Walker suggested Elvis should record the great gospel song, "How Great Thou Art", but the King balked at the idea saying he didn't know the song. Soon Elvis changed his mind and quickly learned the lyrics.

"He (Elvis) played the song for three hours and then made the song in one recording," Walker said.

Music reflected 'ups and downs'

The record "How Great Thou Art" won Elvis his first Grammy Award, and many fans who hadn't heard gospel music before were baptized by the sound.

"That recording was ahead of its time," said Jorgensen. "It was a musical adventure that Elvis went into to really try to add something to gospel music. He changed its instrumentation, and for the first time he got a Grammy Award. He was very proud of that," he said.

The King would earn two more Grammy Awards in his lifetime, both of them for his gospel efforts.

But Elvis began stumbling professionally in the early 1970s. He gained weight and became addicted to prescription drugs.

"You could trace the ups and downs in Elvis' life with his recordings," said Walker, and by 1977 the backup singer who knew Elvis so well heard trouble in the King's voice.

Walker was at home watching Elvis sing "How Great Thou Art" in his 1977 television special when the emotional star hit an unusual high note on the word "God."

"He never went up on that note, and it came over me like a chill. I just put my hands down between my knees and rocked. I knew he was in a lot of trouble," said Walker.

Last year Elvis was inducted posthumously into the Gospel Music Association's Hall of Fame and his gospel music remains a much-loved part of his musical legacy. Many of his friends and fans say his sincerity is what sets him apart from other stars.

"He wasn't faking it, and people can tell that," said Sun Studio's Freeman. "He was very spiritual, and that attracted a lot of people to him."

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