Miscellaneous

Elvis and the Artoo mailbox [The Film Frontier blog]

/ TY

Starting today, if you live in the US, you will be able to deposit your mail in officially sanctioned Artoo Detoo mailboxes around the country.

No, this is not an early April Fool’s joke.

In an unprecedented marketing scheme, Lucasfilm has teamed up with the US Postal Service to promote a new web site. Official US Postal Service mailboxes in many areas have been transformed to look like the popular astromech droid.

The mailboxes promote http://www.uspsjedimaster.com, which promises a major announcement on March 28 about a collaborative project between the postal service and Lucasfilm.

I don’t think I’m going very far out on a limb here by predicting the announcement will include a Star Wars stamp or set of stamps. After all, entertainment stamps tend to be huge profit-makers for the postal service since they often are saved by collectors rather than actually used.

A 1993 stamp featuring Elvis Presley remains the most popular US stamp of all time. Other popular entertainment stamps include last year’s DC Comics Superheroes set and various Walt Disney stamps.

As long as I’m making predictions, I also foresee some sort of general public outcry over the Artoo mailboxes. Perhaps a Congressional investigation into whether or not taxpayer money went into the marketing gimmick and how the President is likely to blame.

I know, I know, I’m nearly as great as Carnac the Magnificent.

Primary Information Sources
StarWars.com: R2-D2 mailboxes coming to your galaxy
WashingtonPost.com: Elvis remains the King of postage stamps

Elvis’ uncle dies [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 22 when I wrote this article back in 1997 for The Elvis Beat #16, which turned out to be the final issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Vester Presley, Elvis’ uncle, died on January 17. He was 78 and lived in Memphis.

Vester was the brother of Elvis’ father, Vernon. He became Elvis’ double uncle when he married Clettes Smith, the younger sister of Elvis’ mother Gladys. His wife passed away in 1994.

For over 20 years, Vester served as Graceland’s head gate guard, often posing with Elvis’ fans for photographs.

“Colonel” Parker dies at age 87 [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 22 when I wrote this article back in 1997 for The Elvis Beat #16, which turned out to be the final issue of my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

“Colonel” Tom Parker, Elvis’ manager for over 20 years, died on January 21. He was 87 and lived in Las Vegas with his wife, Loanne.

Although not yet his manager, Parker began guiding Elvis’ career in mid-1955 while the singer was still on Memphis’ Sun Records label and slowly rising in popularity. He helped secure a contract for Elvis with RCA Records later that year.

Parker officially became Elvis’ manager in early 1956 for a 25 percent fee. Elvis would remain Parker’s sole client until Elvis’ death in 1977.

Parker’s innovative management style helped to transform Elvis from a relative unknown at the beginning of 1956 to an international celebrity with six number one hits, several million-sellers, and a starring role in a successful movie by the end of that same year.

Parker was often blamed for allowing Elvis’ movies to deteriorate into Grade C formula films in the 1960s. Parker once admitted that he didn’t even bother to read the scripts. “Anybody who’ll pay my boy a million dollars can make any kind of picture he wants,” Parker said. Despite the low quality of many of them, nearly all 33 of Elvis’ movies were box office successes.

In 1967, Parker renegotiated his contract with Elvis, increasing his own share to 50 percent with the argument that Elvis was his only client. [. . . .]

Parker negotiated lucrative deals for Elvis to appear in Las Vegas for extended engagements beginning in 1969. In the 1970s, Parker staged multi-city concert tours across the US for Elvis, who played 150 shows a year.

Parker orchestrated the 1973 Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii television special, which used satellite technology and drew millions of viewers.

Parker was born Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk in Holland on June 26, 1909. He immigrated to the US illegally in 1929, claiming West Virginia as his birthplace. He served in the US Army with the 64th Coast Artillery from 1929 to 1932. He married his first wife, Marie Ross, in 1932. A state governor made him an honorary Colonel in 1953.

In the 1950s, Parker became the promoter of singer Gene Austin and manager of country singers Eddy Arnold, from 1942 to 1951, and Hank Snow, from 1954 to 1956, before becoming Elvis’ manager.

In recent years, he was associated with country singer George Strait, negotiating for him to star in the movie Pure Country.

Joe Esposito, one of Elvis’ friends, said, “The bottom line is that Elvis would never have been so popular as he was without the Colonel’s brilliant management. Nor would the Colonel have had so much success with anyone else.”

Lisa Marie files for divorce from Michael Jackson [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 21 when I wrote this article back in 1996 for The Elvis Beat #14, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Citing irreconcilable differences, Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson filed for divorce from Michael Jackson on January 18 in a Los Angeles court. Her petition also asks for the restoration of her maiden name, Presley.

The divorce is expected to be finalized in June, attorneys said. Representatives for both sides have indicated that the split will be amicable.

In a television interview last year in which the couple appeared together, Jackson spoke about prenuptial agreements. “We’ve worked out things, and we’ve signed certain things, but, of course, that’s very confidential,” he said.

The marriage seemed to be haunted by controversy from the start when they were secretly wed on May 26, 1994, in the Dominican Republic. The media soon had word of the event, although it was not announced formally until August of that year.

Some even speculated that the entire marriage was only a shrewd publicity ploy, which Lisa Marie and Jackson both continue to deny. “I’m not going to marry somebody for any reason other than the fact that I fall in love with them,” Lisa Marie said last year.

This was the second marriage for Lisa Marie, 28. She has two children from her previous marriage to musician Danny Keough. Jackson, 37, had never been married before.

Elvis’ ALOHA cape comes full circle [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #13, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

Millions are watching live via satellite. It is the closing moment of the final song. Elvis reaches up to his collar, grabs the top of his beautiful American Eagle cape and hurls it into the audience. It is the climax of one of the highest points of his career.

It is January 14, 1973, and the event, of course, is Elvis: Aloha From Hawaii. [. . . .] Elvis gives a final salute to the crowd and leaves the stage. In the audience, the pandemonium is far from over.

Sportswriter Bruce Spinks is clutching most of the jeweled cape, while a fan behind him has a tight grip on a smaller portion of it. A security guard hurries over to settle the dispute, and Spinks ends up with the treasure.

Elvis fan Andrew Kern, 20, is one of those who watches the event on television. Like every fan, he also wants the cape. Eventually, he will buy it from Spinks for over three thousand dollars.

Kern was only ten when he met Elvis during location shooting of Viva Las Vegas, a decade before the Aloha From Hawaii cancer benefit concert. Kern would be a fan for the rest of his life, seeing Elvis in concert dozens of times while amassing an enormous collection.

The American Eagle cape became the most cherished part of that spectacular collection, which included original Sun records and items once owned by Elvis. Kern even turned down an offer of $50,000 for the cape alone.

Sadly, Kern died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 42. Shortly before his death, he asked that the cape be given to Graceland.

The American Eagle cape is now on exhibit alongside the Aloha From Hawaii jumpsuit in the Trophy Room at Graceland for fans from all over the world to enjoy.

It was generosity that caused Elvis to throw his cape into the ecstatic audience that night 22 years ago, and it was generosity that brought it back home. It’s one of the things Elvis taught us all.

Elvis takes his place at new Rock Hall [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #12, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

On Labor Day Weekend, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum will finally be opening. Although there have been annual inductions into the “hall” as a concept since 1986, the physical building itself has been plagued by delays.

Elvis will be prominent in many of the exhibits, and an entire section of the museum will be devoted to his 1968 ELVIS television special.

To complement clips from the show, which has become known as ELVIS: ’68 Comeback Special, some key items will be on display. An article in Graceland Express said, “Graceland presented to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame the black leather suit Elvis wore in the special, along with his gold album award for the soundtrack, his personal scrapbook and script from the production, and his 1960 Gibson J-200 guitar which was one of several he played in the show.” The items are considered “on loan” to the museum.

Rock fashions will be featured in another section of the museum, for which Graceland loaned a jumpsuit worn in his 1970 documentary Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.

The items “are the most valuable that have ever left Graceland’s archive for any extended length of time. . . . The sacrifice was deemed worthwhile to ensure that Elvis is represented in the best possible way in the museum,” stated Graceland Express.

In 1992, the museum acquired Elvis’ karate jacket, a blue suede coat, and a sign from the Crown Electric Company, where Elvis worked in the early 1950s. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum is expected to draw 800,000 visitors each year.

“Elvis On Beale” restored to glory [The Elvis Beat newsletter]

/ TY

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #12, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

The restoration of the statue formerly known as “Elvis On Beale” has been completed. Although the awesome Memphis statue, created by Eric Parks, once had an outside home on Beale Street, it will now be displayed inside a new Tennessee welcome center, scheduled to be opened in Memphis by early next year.

The 10-foot-tall bronze statue was originally unveiled in 1979 but fell prey to erosion and other deterioration.

A new, weather-proof statue of Elvis is being designed to fill the vacancy on Beale Street. There will also be a better plan for the care of the statue and the surrounding Elvis Presley Plaza.