20 Years Later - Elvis Presley’s Fans

Mourning Becomes Eclectic
They spill into Memphis from around the world, some for the first time, many more for return visits to the shrine of their rock and roll god, Elvis Presley. They show a devotion and knowledge of Elvis theology that is the envy of conventional churches. They speak with a passion unknown and […]

Are you hungry tonight? Let’s take a King-sized tour

There are no plaques on the wall saying “Elvis Ate Here.” But the ghost of Elvis Presley seems to linger in restaurants all over town.
The King was known to pick up a cheeseburger or two in his day. The stories are sometimes embellished with a sprinkling of myth and exaggeration, but there are enough eyewitnesses […]

Mystery encircles Elvis and nourishes his legacy

Elvis Presley’s rise to stardom turned Memphis into everything from a tourist destination to what some believe is the home of the generation gap and, to some, the mecca of a quasi-religious movement.
It’s part of a complex legacy for a city that has been known for cotton, for the blues, for the rhythm and blues […]

Elvisiana fans passion for trade

Like many fans of the young Elvis, Fred Whobrey collected 45-rpm records, got a record player with Elvis’s signature on the case for his birthday and bought an Elvis toy guitar from Sears.
Those 1950s memorabilia are the most valuable and collectible today.
“Every time Elvis had a concert, Col. Parker would create some merchandise to sell,” […]

Notice to offended fans: Elvis has left the gallery

Portrayals of Elvis in his underwear, Elvis in the arms of the Madonna (the FIRST one, of course) and Elvis “eaten by ants” offended some of the entertainer’s fans and won’t be on public view this week.
A dozen photographs and pastel drawings of the late entertainer scheduled for display during the “Elvis 20/20: Past and […]

Friendship lasts beyond a lifetime

Elvis pal produces his final tributes
Jerry Schilling first left the auspices of employer and friend Elvis Presley in the late 1960s. Safe to say, he has never really left.
A former Memphian and, more to the point, member of Presley’s Memphis Mafia, Schilling - now a Los Angeles producer - has been involved in so […]

An American Trilogy: A love of Elvis binds three friends for life

Hazel Brock still packs the same tired luggage, its seams frayed and zipper stuck after years of chasing a rock star dead two decades but never really gone.
Never gone. Not as long as Hazel and her only daughter Rodonna are able, Lord willing, to make the trip from their northeast Alabama home to this suburb […]

Elvis’s empty crypt an $800,000 steal?

Elvis left this building 20 years ago, but you can own it if you have $800,000 to spare.
The “family room” of The Abbey Mausoleum where Elvis Presley first was entombed was put on the market last week.
The mausoleum chamber at Forest Hill Cemetery Midtown, 1661 Elvis Presley Blvd., also briefly contained the remains of Elvis’s […]

Enough Elvis to make your head spin

Even international political summits don’t generate as much activity as Elvis Week will on the 20th anniversary of Presley’s death.
You could attend the several conferences in town and run out of time for anything else. Elvis 20/20: Past and Future, a six-day convergence of high and low thinking on the King at the Memphis College […]

The King’s ’90s movie connection

Elvis pervades today’s popular films
Elvis made 33 movies during his lifetime, from Love Me Tender (1956) to Elvis on Tour (1972).
But death hasn’t stopped the King from making his presence known in the nation’s movie theaters.
If anything, the Grim Reaper has boosted Elvis’s movie career as well as his record sales. Presley, in fact, […]

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  • New Elvis Record

    The latest Elvis record is not the kind you download. If you were in Memphis, you knew you weren’t on Lonely Street at all those sold-out events. But Graceland spokesman Kevin Kern says the official attendance figure for the week was 75,000. Even in the sweltering heat, 55,000 took part in the candlelight vigil. “The […]

  • Welcome to tapeland

    Headsets guide visitors through the King’s domain
    As thousands of Elvis Presley fans flocked to Graceland this week during the 20th anniversary of his death, the switch from personal tours of the house to recorded commentary is inspiring both praise and concern that the famous attraction has lost some charm.
    After more than a decade of […]

  • First Apartment

    Elvis and his parents left Tupelo, Miss., in November 1948, and applied to move into Lauderdale Courts public housing project. They got Apt. 328 on Winchester in September 1949. Their rent was $35 a month.

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