My Elvis Presley Blog

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A new monument was revealed last weekend in Friedberg. The Elvis sculpture measures 5 meters in height and is 3.75 meters wide. The monument is placed in the middle of the roundabout near the entrance of the Capri Club in the Ray Barracks.

From now on, the first thing you’ll see if you enter the city, is a large Jailhouse Rock silhouette of Elvis. At this time, the monument serves also as a billboard for the expo in the Capri Club that ends on October 11. The monument itself will stay when the expo closes.

Translation of Script: More than Elvis – 60 years Americans in Hessen, Exhibit in Capri-Club (former Ray Barracks), August 13 to October 11, 2009

Source: www.elvisnews.com

Frankly I think it’s a bit ugly.  Maybe it’s the quality of the picture but Elvis looks like he should either have a horse under him or a toilet.  I do like the cut out appearance but what’s with the guitar? Looks out of place if you ask me.  Anyway any tribute to the King of Rock & Roll is a good one I suppose.  Art is not always pretty they say.

Elvis was found by Ginger Alden in his bathroom and rushed to the Baptist Memorial Hospital. There he was announced dead at 3:30 P.M.

The worldwide mourning that ensued has never been matched by another entertainer’s passing, not even Michael Jackson.  To this day, fans like me still grieve over our loss. 

Gone but never forgotten…

I Love You Elvis

This is probably the saddest time of the year for me ever since I fell in love with Elvis back in January of 2007.  Tomorrow marks the 32nd anniversary of his death and every year at this time, this anniversary weighs heavy on my heart.

I can’t help but wonder how the world would have been different had he not left us when he did.  Would we have had a lot more great music of his to listen to or was he at the end of his musical life anyway?  Would Lisa Marie have married Michael Jackson?  Would Elvis be a recluse at the age of 74?  Would Elvis have been more inclined to share with us some of the the mysteries that we contemplate about him and his life?  Would he be doing shows like Oprah, The View and Late Night?  Would he accept the internet technology and be a presence here? Besides her brief moment of fame while appearing on Dallas, would we have to put up with so much of Priscilla or would she have faded into obscurity where she belongs by now?  How may girlfriends would I have had to write blogs about in my Elvis’s Women Series or is it possible that Elvis and Priscilla may have reunited?

Pointless contemplations agreed.  He’s dead and gone and none of the above questions even matter.  But I wonder about them nevertheless.

It’s funny, while he was alive I never paid any attention to him.  Even for 30 years after he passed, I never gave him any thought.  But for one fateful moment back in 2007, he probably wouldn’t be on my mind constantly this week like he has been. I more then likely wouldn’t be breaking out into tears spontaneously when no one is looking.  Early this morning I dreamt about him.  That hasn’t happened in a long time but the dream this morning was extremely vivid.  He was with me, I felt and heard his heartbeat, I leaned into him and he was real. I was thrilled.  It’s a dream I will treasure.

Graceland is raking in millions of dollars this week while loyal fans spend money they probably don’t have to visit Elvis’s home and gravesite.  All sorts of events are planned and tons of souvenirs are sold.  I wonder that the organizers even give Elvis a second thought though or are the only motivated by this being their best time of the year for sales.

I know in my heart that the fans feel his loss deeply as I do and if I could, I too would be in Memphis this week spending money I don’t have and paying tribute to Elvis (and his mom whose passed away 51 years ago yesterday). Elvis believed that Gladys was 42 when she died.  We later found out this wasn’t true and that his mom had lied about her age but the point is Elvis believed she was 42.  He died 2 days after the anniversary of her death also at the age of 42.  Significant?

We know that Elvis never stopped missing his mother or mourning her loss.  We also know that Elvis changed drastically after Gladys passed. No longer worried about what she would say about his behavior, he let loose in ways he probably wouldn’t even had considered had his mom still been there to disapprove.  Or so we’re told.  I’m never really sure who to believe anymore although I tend to trust those with no axe to grind more then I do the so-called “insiders”.  Debauchery, wild orgies, drug abuse and the list goes on of the things Elvis indulged in after his mom died.  Was he on a self-directed path to his own death? 

These things and more I will explore when Gladys is featured in my Elvis’s Women Series. That one may be a series in itself considering what I know about all the layers of their relationship and the tons of layers I don’t know.

Elvis is one big beautiful onion that reveals new surprises and nuances with every layer you peel.  He is a study in contradictions.  The shy southern boy that never used first names for people who were older then him versus the raunchy egotistical emperor who demanded all near him to bow and pay homage whenever he was present.  Who was the real Elvis?  My study to answer this continues.

I love you and miss you, Elvis, and I know in my heart that you know that I love and miss you. Just like you know that millions of us miss you desperately every day.  Tomorrow we formally celebrate your life. on Monday and for the following 364 days until next year, I will continue to celebrate your life every day.  I hope and pray that you are at peace.

Elvis was planning to leave to begin a tour which would start in Portland. He woke at about 4.00 p.m. He watched television until 10.30 p.m. Then he left for his dentist appointment.

Gladys dies in the hospital and Elvis and his father Vernon are inconsolable.

It’s painfully obvious from this picture just how sick Gladys already was even back in March of 1958 when attending the draft with Elvis and Vernon.  Apparently obvious to everyone but those who loved her most.

Elvis was in the hospital most of the day and evening with his mother.

Buy at AllPosters.com

Released: November 15th, 1956

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Directed by: Robert D. Webb

Film was #8 in the top 10 grossing films of 1956

This movie was the acting debut for Elvis and the first Elvis film I ever watched.  I have always been sceptical of Elvis’s movies after reading and listening to so many fans criticize them for being nothing but fluff.  I had it in my mind that I was never going to bother then with any of his movies because I wanted to know the real Elvis, not the one forced to perform in fluff movies.

After reading several books and learning of Elvis’s deeply rooted desire to act, I changed my mind about watching his movies. I began ordering them from Amazon in the order that they were released.  However it wasn’t until quite recently that I actually started watching them.  They sat unopened in my library due to a real need to not watch Elvis flop as an actor.

I couldn’t have been more misinformed.  When I finally sat down one day to watch this, the first of Elvis’s films, I was mesmerized from the opening scene through to the last tear-jerking scene. He’s just so damned good looking that you really can’t take your eyes off him whether he could act or not and low and behold…he can act too!

The story summary goes something like this:   Elvis plays Clint Reno, the youngest of the Reno brothers who stays home while his brothers went to fight in the American Civil War for the Confederate Army. The family is tragically informed that Clint’s oldest brother, Vance, (Richard Egan) has been killed on the battlefield. However Vance didn’t really die and comes back from the war to find that his old girlfriend, Cathy, (Debra Paget) has married Clint. Sure, Vance puts on the act that he accepts this union saying “We always wanted Cathy in the family”. Nonetheless, the family must struggle with this issue daily. While wearing the uniform and still a Confederate soldier, Vance is a party to a train robbery where he steals a significant amount of federal government money. His cohorts in the robber become enraged when Vance decides he is going to return the money and a gunfight ensues. Tragically, it is Clint who is killed in the gunfight at the conclusion of the movie.

We will visit with Debra Paget in another of my Elvis series, The Women in Elvis’s Life, as it is reported that Elvis fell head over heels in love with her while filming this movie together.  The only real constant woman in Elvis’s life at this time was Gladys and she became so upset at the end of this movie about Elvis’s character dying that Elvis told Parker he didn’t want to do anymore movies where he dies so as not to upset his mom again.

Through the years, Parker insisted that Elvis would always sing during his movies. It was something that Elvis hated because it truly caused him never to be taken as a serious actor. Parker’s only motivation was the money that a soundtrack album could bring him but Elvis was motivated only by his need to be taken as a serious actor.  Over the years many well placed critics and movie experts have lamented the fact that Elvis was never allowed to just act because he truly was extremely talented and would have been a great film star if not for the fluff movies that Parker locked him into.

Elvis could indeed act and I enjoyed this movie a lot. There were only 3 songs included in this film, “Love Me Tender” which to this day is probably one of Elvis’s most famous songs. “We’re Gonna Move”, a song that I happen to love and which was done in a believable setting with Elvis (Clint) singing for the family on the porch after dinner.  The other song was “Let Me” which Elvis (Clint) played while on stage at the local fairgrounds, yet another fairly believable setting although throughout the movie there’s no real reference to Clint as a musician. It seems to be just understood.  And I reference to “believable setting” because as you’ll see as we progress through his movies, Elvis was forced to break into song at some of the most ridiculous and absurd times when no real man would be caught dead doing so, for instance on the beach, in a speeding car, surfing, etc. Elvis was embarrassed by these movies and I think it was the beginning of his personal decline to be forced to continue doing them. At some point he knew that he wasn’t ever going to be taken as a serious actor.

Love Me Tender is a really good movie.  Not only is the depiction of life directly around the time of the Civil War quite interesting to observe and true to reality so I’m told, but Elvis is really good in this movie as are his co-stars, Richard Egan and Debra Paget.  Not all Elvis movies were tripe and Love Me Tender proves this to be true.

Elvis performed at the Municipal Auditorium, New Orleans, Louisiana at 4.00 and 8.15 p.m.

Location filming in Florida for Follow That Dream ended.

Release April 11, 1962

When the Kwimper family car runs out of gas on a new Florida highway and an officious state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little homesteading. He and his son Toby and their "adopted" children – Holly, Ariadne and the twins – start their own little community along a strip of the roadside. The fishing is good and the living is easy until the mob sets up a gambling operation and the state supervisor sics a sexy social worker on the Kwimpers in an effort to take away Ariadne and the twins.

Written by A.L.Beneteau {albl@inforamp.net}

Collection Celebrates Elvis’s® 75th Birthday!

If you know anything about Elvis, you know that prior to his mother’s death, he flew rarely and usually took the train.  Gladys over worried about Elvis’s safety and always became very fearful whenever he was about to fly so he promised her that whenever he could, he would use the train rather then fly.  Odd but today we know that trains can be just as deadly if not more so but Gladys felt better knowing her boy’s feet never left the ground. Furthermore, the pirate known as Tom Parker was able to travel ahead and promote the pants off Elvis while he was travelling by train from California after filming a movie back home to Memphis. Stories abound about train stops packed to the rafters with fans waiting for a glimpse of their hero, The King of Rock & Roll.

Elvis would have been 75 this coming January had he lived and celebrations will be happening all over the world. It thrills me to no end that we still celebrate events in Elvis’s life despite the fact that he is no longer physically with us. It proves that in fact, Elvis never really left the building. He resides in our hearts. As best I can, I will include all celebration events here.

Collectibles.com is issuing this stunningly beautiful commemorative electric train in honour of Elvis’s 75th birthday event.  The first-ever Elvis® electric train collection officially authorized by the Estate of Elvis Presley, featuring the commemorative 75th Birthday Train Car and available only from Hawthorne Village. This collection features a classic diesel locomotive with a working headlight and illuminated passenger cars, each decorated with dynamic, full-color portraits of Elvis’s® most electrifying performances and even a golden replica of his signature! Plus, the 75th Birthday Car features images of Elvis from childhood through his lifetime as a legend, and the official 75th anniversary logo. This heirloom-quality train set is precisely scaled and designed to run on HO gauge track. Available exclusively from Hawthorne Village, this train set is a must-have Elvis tribute for all fans! But hurry! Strong demand is expected – order now!

I know I want one bad!