A SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH MAURICE COLGAN FROM IRELAND.

Maurice Colgan contacted me about five years ago about an Elvis story, and we subsequently have become very good friends. Maurice has been involved with quite a few Elvis related projects which have previously appeared on "Elvis Presley From Poland" website. One in particular has been renewed and I have invited Maurice to answer some questions about it in the form of a special interview.

Since 1998 Maurice Colgan has been sending me stories, pictures, and news of his Elvis related projects. They are a remarkable example of what can be achieved by a lone Elvis fan working with determination and a little imagination. I have requested my good friend to put the stories into some form of chronological order so that newcomers to my web-pages will have a clearer understanding of the unfolding saga-we will continue in interview form.

Andrzej Lipczynski: Maurice will you please refresh our memories by starting at the beginning?

Maurice Colgan: I will do my best to answer all your points, but first may I thank you publicly for all the excellent work you do for Elvis fans everywhere, and especially the generous nature you have shown to us by featuring our little Elvis stories and pictures on a regular basis on your very professional web-site.

AL: I blush Maurice, but thank you for that.

MC: The major event was first hearing Elvis back in 1957 on a jukebox. He was singing "I'm Playing for Keeps" and that song launched me as a fresh Elvis fan on a journey which continues to this day. Collecting Elvis Presley records and newspaper and magazine cuttings about him became quite an expensive and time consuming hobby.

AL: Your first Elvis Presley record Maurice, was?

MC: "Hound Dog", a HMV 78 rpm version. In time we wore it out- my family loved "Don't Be Cruel"!

AL: Please continue ...

MC: September 1958 I met Maureen at a Dance Hall -because of Elvis! I was on my way to meet my friends when the sound of Elvis' unmistakable voice lured me into the dance instead. Maureen and I danced to Elvis', "Loving You", and we became inseparable. Maureen loved Elvis' music and looks too, she also had a scrapbook filled with photos of Elvis taken from quite a number of publications. The following year we were married, and in 1960 we were blessed with our son John. Everything was going fine for us-we had a little house and were planning ahead as couples do. But early 1961 Maureen was rushed to hospital very dangerously ill and I was almost out of my mind with worry. A father at 18 and facing a possible tragedy. Maureen was distraught-she really felt she was going to die!!! Having returned one night from a particularly sad visit to the hospital I sat down and wrote a touching letter to Mr Elvis Presley requesting a "Get Well" message for Maureen. I enclosed a small photograph of the three of us. The following day I sent it by Registered mail to 3764 Highway 51 South, Memphis, Tennessee. I realised then it was a million to one against me ever receiving a reply-but hope burns eternal in the human breast.


AL: You knew the full address?

MC: Yes Andrzej, would you believe it was in an early entertainment magazine article about Elvis! Well imagine if you can the huge surprise I got when a week or so later at the hospital, Maureen showed me her letter from .... ELVIS PRESLEY!!! It read, "Dear Mrs Colgan, Just a short note to say I hope you are feeling better. Don't worry everything will be all right. Sincerely Elvis Presley." We were both absolutely delighted. A hand-written letter from Elvis himself! But that was not all. I arrived home a couple of hours later to find a letter waiting.. Yes it was, unbelievable as it sounds, a letter from Elvis to me:-) "Dear Maurice, I sent your wife a get well message take care of her and yourself. May God bless you both. EP."

AL: Extraordinary! As you said, Maurice, almost unbelievable! Wonderful in fact. Did Maureen recover?

MC: Yes she did make a very good recovery and she gave birth to our daughter, Tracey a few months later. Our relatives and friends were really amazed to see the letters from Elvis and they all said it was a beautiful act. And so it was-quite typical of him when you learn of all the great and generous things he did for charities and individuals too. We of course sent letters of thanks, but never heard anymore from Elvis-he was busy in Hollywood.

AL: And then what happened...?

MC: Well we settled down to rearing our children and time passed as it does, we were busy with our work and I had returned to education at a Night School, the years rolled by and we matured along with our children-they excelled, we are happy to say in music. John and Tracey grew up with Elvis, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky, and of course, Andrzej, Chopin too, the famous Polish composer and fantastic pianist.

AL: Appreciated Maurice. getting back to the Elvis letters..................

MC: Well nothing happened:-) .... We carried on what we thought was just an ordinary working class life but a little more cultured than you might expect. The next big Elvis news was his very sad and tragic death. 

AL: Yes, we were all devastated here too. Even here in Poland Elvis was very well known.

MC: Andrzej, We will fast forward here to 1997! because after all it is the Elvis story which is of the most importance. Realising the year would be the very important 20th Anniversary of Elvis' death, we decided it would be a good and opportune time to publicise our little Elvis letters story. We contacted Ireland's national Radio service RTE1, and TV and radio celebrity, Pat Kenny, read them out on his morning radio show, on Elvis' birthday the 8th January 1997! Their first ever publicity.

AL: What a good date for an Elvis story!

MC: Exactly:-) ..... Newspaper coverage followed broad-sheets and tabloids loved the story. August 1997 we WON a trip to Memphis because of the letters!

AL: That was nothing short of amazing.

MC: The story just gets better! A radio Documentary of our four day trip to visit Graceland for the 20th Anniversary was broadcast on RTE1 radio the following year. To save a little time this part of the story appears on web-pages in more detail. Links to them will be available.

AL: Yes, I too have links to more of your stories Maurice.

MC: And they are valued. The next news of interest I suppose is the hand-written and typed letters and signed photos from Former movie stars once associated with Elvis eg.. the lovely Dolores Hart, now a nun in Bethlehem Connecticut, Julie Parrish, Mary Tyler Moore, Marlyn Mason, Kay Wheeler, and e-mail from Brenda Lee Frankie Laine, and sadly Deborah Walley ... she died soon after contacting us. Letters too from The Mayor of Tupelo and Shreveport. Many of the movie stars letters made it into the Irish newspapers!

AL: You have been fortunate with the media. They are often difficult to approach?

MC: Correct Andrzej, if it was not for the fresh Elvis stories we supply they would not be so available, sometimes stories we submit to them do not appear! But perseverance can pay-we have a lot of newspapers here in Ireland many of the English newspapers and magazines have Irish editions. You should see our collection of cuttings-many we have framed and we keep them in picture frames to impress the TV and Radio reporters ... :-)

AL: Your own private museum Maurice!

MC: Yes, and it is still growing thanks to the world wide web which continues to bring us into contact with people from all over the world even a close relative of Elvis!


AL: This is news of importance! Can you fill us in on the details?


MC: This is one of the unbelievable parts of our story and it came as a complete surprise to us. Donna Presley Early a first cousin to Elvis left a long message for me on an Elvis web-site-it was an offer of her book, "Elvis-Precious Memories". The gesture was because of how I had championed Elvis in a letter to our national, "Evening Herald" newspaper here in Ireland. Replying to Donna's message I wrote that it would be a pleasure to receive such a gift from Elvis cousin. Within a couple of days the book arrived from America by FedEx! It was signed and with it came signed photographs of Donna and a little "Scrap Book" containing the most engaging photos of the Presley family-we were delighted! In fact so thrilled were we to hear from a Presley, we immediately contacted Nick Bramhill our reporter friend at the Irish office of the British "News of the World", Sunday newspaper. The story of Donna and the famous Presley generosity appeared in the following edition of the newspaper - a full page in colour! Donna's book was displayed, and our collection of Elvis' vinyl albums-some of them originals from the 50s ... :-)

AL: WOW! That is really interesting.

MC: In that case wait till you hear the next part which is even more extraordinary and we still feel it is just a dream and not real. Andrzej, we have read the great literature of the world and know what makes a good story, but we never thought we would actually live one! September 1999 we were in Tupelo Mississippi with Dr Vernon Chadwick founder of the famous "International Conference on Elvis Presley", Vernon had driven us from Oxford where we had been the guest of Colby Kullman a mutual friend. He and Vernon taught at the University of Mississippi. It was while we were touring Tupelo I noticed there was no monument to Elvis yet in Memphis there was two beautiful bronze statues. Once back in Ireland I wasted no time and wrote a letter to the Mayor of Tupelo, Larry K Otis, suggesting a statue of Elvis as a young boy. It would , I wrote, attract Elvis fans from Memphis and improve tourism to Tupelo. A year passed before I received an enigmatic e-mail in 2000 from the Mayor. Hinting at some development to be unveiled later in Tupelo. I was intrigued, could it be possible......... Nothing happened till the following year! ........ Then another e-mail from the Mayor of Tupelo arrived and this time there was an attachment containing photographs of the unveiling of the wonderful and beautiful statue of "Elvis at 13"!!! We were stunned! Surely it could not be that an Irish Elvis fan, many thousands of miles from Tupelo could have such a remarkable success? The statue was unveiled on the 8th January, Elvis' birthday, and the ceremony was covered by staff reporter Scott Morris of the "Daily Journal" newspaper. I rang Scott and he wrote of my little role in the Northeast Mississippi newspaper on the 18th January 2002! We also contacted the artistic sculptor Michiel Van der Sommen and thanked him for his lovely depiction of Elvis. (Michiel and I are in regular contact now, and he may be coming to Ireland to see us in the early summer. That visit, I am sure, will make it into our newspapers! )

AL: We are dumbfounded! What a story. Maurice you are to be congradulated.

MC: Thanksamillion, as we say in Ireland, Andrzej. But a word of caution here, otherwise my head will grow beyond measure:-)  ...... Nothing transpired from any GREAT effort of mine, it has all come about simply because I wrote a letter, e-mailed or telephoned the right person at the right time. Elvis was blessed with extraordinary gifts, and I modestly, just have the luck of the Irish ... :-) Plus, because of our Elvis story, comparatively easy access to the media. But not always- some of our stories just do not appear :-(

AL: But you do not give in?

MC: Certainly not. Elvis Presley as a subject is without comparison and it is important new generations hear more of the truth about his amazing voice and unparalleled career. 

AL: Maurice you first started your, "Elvis Presley International Airport, Memphis", Campaign back in 2001. Would you please inform the visitors to my Elvis web-pages why you thought this was a good idea and what was the outcome - did you really expect the Memphis authorities to act on your idea considering you are living many thousands of miles from the city?

MC: Good question Andrzej. The Elvis Airport project was not a totally original idea of mine, I first thought of it after hearing Liverpool Airport in the U.K. was to be named in honour of the late John Lennon. I did a search on the web for an Elvis Airport and found no mention of one ... :-) So I immediately composed a polite message suggesting an Elvis Airport, and e-mailed the politicians in Tennessee. No replies were forthcoming therefore I sent out the message to the media, TV, Radio, and Newspapers etc. The first reply, would you believe, was from the "Memphis Business Journal"! Scott Shepard a staff reporter contacted me by e-mail. Not one to miss an opportunity I called him by telephone, resulting in a piece about the Elvis Airport in the journal within a couple of days. Sheer magic! Memphis radio took up the "controversial" story as did Memphis TV a little later-they even ran a Poll on the question of an Elvis Airport. Memphis according to Scott Shepard, "Was humming!" Spurred on by success I then raised the subject here in Ireland and spoke of it on our National radio RTE1 which lead to newspapers such as "the Irish News" and "The News of the World" sending out photographers to our home. We appeared in full colour with a photo of Memphis Airport in the latter paper. Elvis Fans in Memphis even started a written petition and news of the Elvis Airport Campaign appeared on many web-sites and message boards. Graceland gave their tacit approval for the Elvis Airport when contacted by WCM TV5 of Memphis, and Jack Soden CEO at Graceland said, they (EPE) would waive their usual fee for the use of Elvis' name! Sadly Andrzej, support for the campaign dwindled away due to lack of interest from Elvis fans in particular. That is the bad news. But the good news is, after recently restarting the Elvis Airport Campaign again on message boards there is now growing interest in the project. Due mainly to the great Elvis revival because of the very successful 25th Anniversary, and the new CD releases.

AL: Thank you Maurice that was quite an answer, I am sure it is often frustrating when your hard work sometimes leads to nothing. But you do not give up?

MC: Andrzej, It is my nature to pursue achievable goals-relentlessly ... :-) And astonishingly a "News of the World" reporter has just called me about a little "Marilyn Monroe and Elvis " story and we spoke of the renewed Elvis Airport Campaign so it just might be in Sundays edition -uncanny or what? 

AL: Wonderful news Maurice. Do you get excited, in anticipation, when your telephone rings?

MC: You will just have to imagine the width of my smile at that question Andrzej. Yes it is always a thrill to hear a voice say "Hello this is .......... from ?TV, ? Radio, ? newspaper etc. Because of the amount of media coverage we are very well known here in Ireland, where Elvis is very popular indeed.

AL: Does all this fame go to your head?

MC: Vicarious fame is very nice but we do have another life besides our admiration for Elvis, we have many more interests. We can look objectively and see it might appear to some as if we are hogging the Limelight but that is not the case at all. First and foremost my aim is to publicise Elvis Presley and in the most respectful way possible.

AL: Thank you Maurice my friend I think you have covered all the ground. So in closing may I ask how can Elvis fans help the Elvis Airport make the News and hopefully come to fruition ?

MC: First by contacting their national and local media, then the politicians, message boards, fan clubs and all their friends - world-wide. Elvis Presley fans are the best fans in the world and we now have the power thanks to PCs to influence the establishment. Now I must stop before this interview turns into a book......hmmmmnnnnn now there's an idea-anyone know a good publisher .... :-) mauricepcolgan@eircom.net

AL: That was quite an interview and I am proud to be part of the wonderful Elvis related projects taking place all around the world. There are quite a few links to stories about Elvis Presley and Maureen and Maurice Colgan. I recommend readers take a look at the very interesting Tupelo photos on my website. Also the amazing newspaper stories on this link http://community.webshots.com/album/42886863PmMEez
Thank you for your time, Andrzej Lipczynski. February 2003.