It was fun to write recently about the 1992 voting for the favorite Elvis stamp picture.  There are probably many younger ElvisBlog readers who didn't have the chance to participate, and maybe there are some older ones who never made it down to the local post office to vote.  Well, here's a chance for everyone to decide which Elvis image they prefer in a dozen different categories.

There is no ballot to mark, and votes won't be tabulated, but you still can have some fun making your picks.

Elvis Silhouettes:  This choice follows the pattern of the stamp voting, because there is a young Elvis in white-on-black and there is a 70s Elvis in traditional black silhouette.  (Ed. note: A number of easily recognizable Elvis silhouettes have shown up in fabric designs, bonus Elvis CDs on TV Guide covers, and Elvis Week advertising.  Some day we need to do a story on them.)

Elvis Caricatures:  We continue with the young Elvis vs. Older Elvis theme.  If the smitten fan had been in the younger picture, I doubt that there would be much of a contest here.  However, Elvis’ attraction to the ladies adds extra appeal to the not-so-complimentary depiction of jump suit Elvis.

Triple Elvis:  It's certainly hard for me to pick a favorite here.  I have always thought Elvis looked sooo baaad in that black leather suit, and the first choice has three different poses of him in it.  There’s also one black leather picture in the other composite, and I really love the progression from 50s to 60s to 70s.  Tough choice.

Jukebox Elvis:  Both of these pictures contain familiar shots of younger Elvis.  I’d like to call my vote a tie, but that’s pretty lame.  OK, I’ll pick the Elvis from the Milton Berle Show.  Do you know which that is and where the other one came from?

Star Trek Elvis:  You have seen Spock Elvis before in Fun With Elvis In Photoshop – 2, posted last April.  Since then, I discovered Kirk Elvis while surfing deep in the net.  Check out the belly roll on Kirk.  Your choice here will probably depend more on your preference for Star Trek characters than the Elvis faces morphed onto the bodies.

Silver Lamé Suit / Green Lamé Suit:  Well, you’ve seen pictures of the gold lamé suit a million times, but here are two variations (although neither silver nor green is a cool as gold).

Really Old Elvis:  These two photoshop workovers are pretty interesting.  Lets face it, everybody gets old and loses their looks.  How do you like the one that makes Elvis look like some sort of mad scientist?  The other has a hint of Arnold Palmer, doesn’t it?

Foreign Elvis Stamps:  Dozens of countries have issued Elvis stamps, or more accurately stamp sets showing six or eight different Elvis images.  Here are sets form Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.  Although I couldn't locate either one on a world map, their stamps are just more proof of the adage presented here frequently – Elvis is everywhere.

Cartoon Elvis:  Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson as Elvis.  It’s so hard to choose.  (Ed. note: The Flintstone Elvis picture is a photo of a T-shirt I own.  If The Simpson picture ever shows up on a T-shirt, I’m buying it.)

The Elvis Lip Snarl:  I’m not crazy about either of these two images, but the different depictions of Elvis’ famous lip curl intrigues me.  So, forget about the young versus old thing and just pick your favorite lip.

Elvis Statues:  The first statue is in the lobby of the Hilton Hotel/Casino in Las Vegas.  I found the second picture on both French and German web sites, so I assume the statue is somewhere in Europe.  However, I don’t know either language, so I couldn’t read the text that told where it is located.

Elvis Sweeties:  These are two shots you haven’t seen much, if at all.  For my money, these are the two sexiest shots ever of Priscilla and Linda Thompson.  All I can say is “Elvis, you lucky dog.”

©  2008   Philip R Arnold   All Rights Reserved   www.ElvisBlog.net

How do you like that for a news headline?  Or, perhaps you would prefer:  “Elvis Revealed: Secrets of the King.”  You get both in the October 3, 1978 edition of MIDNIGHT GLOBE, a classic example of supermarket tabloid journalism.

The issue followed in the grand tradition of the blockbuster National Examiner story “EXCLUSIVE… Elvis – The Untold Story,” that came out on September 7, 1977, just a few weeks after Elvis’ passing.  It can be said that National Enquire started a brand new tabloid genre with that issue.  Many headlines promising revelations of new Elvis secrets would grace the supermarket checkout lanes in years to come.

Last week, we got serious and did a historical piece on Elvis’ most significant ancestor.  According to my wife, it was too serious -- and boring.  She likes all the fun stuff I put in ElvisBlog.  So, this week, we are going back to fun – fun with Elvis on Photoshop..  It’s too late to give proper credit to all the clever people who created these things and put them on the web for me to borrow.  When I added them to My Pictures, I failed to note where they came from --  but thank you all, anyway.

Let’s start with a nifty image of what Elvis would look like if he had lived to be an old man.  He still looks very handsome, doesn’t he?  Vernon kept his full head of hair into old age, so Elvis may well have turned out like this.  Looks like he could still beat the crap out of the bad guys in a movie, doesn't he?

Now that I’m retired, I spend even more time on the Internet searching for Elvis stuff.  Not just the big Elvis sites that come up on the first two Google search pages.  What I really like to find are sites where Elvis isn’t the whole deal – other kinds of sites that happen to contain some obscure Elvis content.  You find strange and wonderful stuff that way.

Like altered photos of Elvis.  I guess these are done on Photoshop or something similar, and some of them are so clever.  Like this one where Elvis looks like an Arab.  It’s pretty dark, but you can see that somebody did a great job of putting Elvis’ face inside that headdress.

For the past two years, every time I find a really good one of these altered Elvis photos, I copy it to a file.  There’s enough in there now to do a couple of blog articles.  Here’s another picture with a different twist.  In my photo file, I label it Melting Elvis, and you can see why.

Another way of doing this is to put someone else’s face on Elvis body.  Bill Clinton is a natural for this, because his election staff in 1992 called him Elvis.  Here’s what he looks like in a jumpsuit.

While we are on Presidents, here are Bush’s that served before and after Clinton.

Of the three presidents, I think Clinton looks the best, probably because he’s wearing a jumpsuit.  However, there is one other president who gets my prize for the best President in a jumpsuit.  Does Ronald Reagan look cool, or what?

Here’s one more of Reagan, but on this one he’s doing the Richard Nixon thing, and George W gets to be Elvis.  How do people come up with these ideas?.

I wish the quality on this next one were a little better, because the concept is great:  Elvis in a gift box.  I sent e-mail birthday greetings to two female friends and asked them how they would like to open up that present.

Did you ever wonder what Elvis might have looked like if he had been born twenty or thirty years later and sang heavy metal Rock & Roll?  Here’s your answer.

I labeled the next one “Shiny Elvis” for obvious reasons.  If I knew anything about Photoshop, I put some clever phrase in that bottom right turned-up corner and send it out to my Elvis friends.

I wish I had kept track of where I found all these photos.  Talented folks made artful creations and should be credited.  The best I can do is say thanks to all of them for having fun with Elvis while still respecting his legacy.  Well, with the possible exception of this last one.

Each year, as we approach the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King on January 15, I wonder if I should write a blog article about the time I proposed a new holiday named Kings Day.  I don’t want anyone to think I’m insensitive to racial issues, but I do like to look for the humor in things and write about it.  So, here goes.

I live in a wonderful little city in South Carolina.  Actually, I live in an unincorporated part of the surrounding county, out where you can own a house on a couple of acres without breaking the bank.  Back in 2003, this county was one of the very few in the country that had not yet recognized the third Monday in January as Martin Luther King Day.  For years, a few stubborn folks on our County Council blocked it from being recognized as a national holiday in the county.

Naturally, this was prime fodder for the morning radio talk show I listened to each weekday.  Those in favor of the proposal were vocal and adamant.  Lots of county employees called in and said they deserved the same extra holiday that all the other government employees got.  Some of the excuses from those against the proposal were rather lame, and the discussions often got pretty stupid.  That’s when I got the idea for “Kings Day.”

Here’s the background.  The two greatest presidents in our country’s history are George Washington and Abe Lincoln.  Do they each have their own national holiday?  No.  They have to share the third Monday of February as Presidents Day.  Lincoln was born on February 12, and Washington was born on February 22.  Here are two men of the highest stature who have to share a holiday arbitrarily set for the third Monday to give a three-day weekend to lots of folks.

Well, if it’s OK for Washington and Lincoln to share, I didn’t think it would any big deal to suggest that Dr. Martin Luther King share his holiday.  Elvis’ birthday is January 8, just a week before Dr. King’s.  So, I sent an e-mail to that talk radio show and proposed a compromise to settle the impasse.  The message ended with: “I humbly suggest that Greenville County Council should declare the second Monday as Kings Day, to commemorate the January 15 birthday of Martin Luther King and the January 8 birthday of Elvis Presley, the ‘King of Rock & Roll.’”

When I sent the e-mail, I thought, “Well, that ought to stir things up.”  It certainly did.  Although it sparked a little reasoned debate, there certainly was much more uncontrolled ranting.

A few months later, we had elections for County Council, and four new members were voted in.  At the new Council’s first meeting, they had another vote on the holiday, and nobody brought up my Elvis idea.  However, by a 8-to-3 vote, they finally recognized Martin Luther King Day in the county.

Kings Day still seems like a good idea to me.  If Washington and Lincoln have to share a holiday, why can’t ‘The King’ and Dr. King share one?  Elvis has been named one of the 100 outstanding Americans of the 20^th century, and he’s been honored on a US postage stamp, so this is no slap at MLK.

Think about it.  Isn’t it about time we got a day off to celebrate the birthday of ‘The King?’  Bring on the Elvis videos.

Halloween is coming up quickly, so I thought it might be interesting to see what’s available in the way of Elvis costumes.  www.amazon.com seemed like a good place to start, and indeed, it did offer many choices.  Some of the same items were also offered on www.shopelvis.com, and many of them showed up repeatedly on other sites I checked out.  The more unusual (and unflattering) selections avoided problems with Graceland by having generic titles, rather than anything Elvis-themed, but the idea that they were Elvis costumes was clearly evident.

This article probably should have been titled “Elvis Really Is Everywhere – Part 3,” because it fits that category so well.  But, it’s much more fun to go with a wonderful eye-catcher like “Giant Floating Elvis Head.”  Either way, here is the story.

Elvisblog readers in the Seattle area know all about the early-May Opening Day celebrations marking the start of the boating season.  The Seattle Yacht Club has sponsored Opening Day since 1914, and a parade of boats has been part of the festivities since 1920.  The boat parade takes place in Montlake Cut, a ship channel 350 feet wide and 30 feet deep, which links Lake Washington to Puget Sound.  A total of 316 boats entered the 2007 Opening Day parade, and thousands more lined the channel,  I like that:   Watch the parade from the comfort of your boat.  Sounds like party time to me.

In 1959, a theme for the boat parade was first used, and the tradition continues.  Last year it was “Caribbean Carnival,” and this year it was “Musical Memories.”  Every yacht club or individual with a boat in the parade was encouraged to decorate their boat with a musical theme and to have that music playing loud as they go by the spectators.  Judging was held in various categories.

Well, the winner in the category for boats with a sponsor was the entry by the nearby Bremmerton Yacht Club.  Their entry had no official name, but a popular favorite among the local media was the “Giant Floating Elvis Head.”  Its closest competition came from a boat made up to look like the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine.

The Elvis idea was the brainstorm of a Seattle police officer, Don Hardgrove.  His shift starts at 5:30 a.m., and he had a vision during one of his long morning commutes from Bremmerton.  He’s not sure why he got the idea, because he is not a huge Elvis fan and owns no Elvis CDs.

Hardgrove took his idea to the club membership, and they agreed to go with it.  They even allocated $1,150 for construction costs and another $500 for costumes for the club members on board.

Hardgrove owns a sailboat, so another member volunteered his 42-foot cruiser for the project.  Club members constructed the giant Elvis head  -- about 22 feet high and 11 feet wide.  It had lips that moved and eyebrows that arched, both controlled manually by pulleys inside the head.  Eleven crewmembers on board wore white Elvis jumpsuits made of Tyvek, a popular house wrap for homes under construction.  They also wore cheap Elvis wigs and sunglasses.  With Elvis songs blasting from the ship, these “Impersonators” did their best to duplicate Elvis’ famous stage moves. 

The frame for the giant Elvis head was made from PVC pipe and chicken wire, which was covered with heavy-duty canvas.  The eyebrows and lips were foam, and the hair was made from several hundred feet of synthetic weed-blocker fabric.  When the float was dismantled, the weed-screen mesh was given to the yacht club members for their gardens.

So, parts of ‘Elvis’ will carry on for many growing seasons, keeping down weeds in the gardens of Bremmerton, WA.  The Giant Floating Elvis Head is just one more example validating that well-known fact:  Elvis really is…  everywhere.

©  2007   Philip R Arnold   All rights Reserved   www.elvisblog.net

As I mentioned in an earlier article, many of the items on display at ELVIS-A-RAMA were placed so low in the cabinets that it created an exercise regimen for determined visitors like me.  My knees were hurtin’ from squatting up and down to read everything, so when I came to something that really interested me, I just sat on the floor and took my time.

One thing I liked was a love letter Elvis wrote while stationed in Germany to old girlfriend Anita Wood in November 1959.  It was four hand-written pages long, and Elvis’ penmanship made it difficult to read, but the entire text was reproduced on a brass plaque.  If Elvis wrote it without help, he deserves credit as something of a romantic poet.  See what you think.

“I want you to know that in spite of our being apart, I have developed a love for you that cannot be equaled or surpassed by anyone.  My every thought is of you, my darling, every song I hear, every sunset reminds me of the happy and wonderful times we’ve had together.”

You know, that’s pretty nice.  Toward the end of the letter, Elvis perhaps revealed some other thoughts on his mind as his discharge from the Army quickly approached.

“I can’t explain to you how I crave you and desire your lips and your body under me, darling.”

I guess Col. Parker never saw that, or he would have licensed it to Hallmark for a line of Elvis Valentine’s Day cards.

Another thing that intrigued me was an open page in the screenplay for “Jailhouse Rock.”  Do you remember the early scene in a bar when Elvis’ character Vince Everett tries to sing but is heckled by a drunk guy named Ken?  When Vince confronts Ken, the jerk pours beer down the front of Vince’s shirt.   Here’s what follows in the screenplay.

“Unwittingly, Ken has tackled a ring-tailed terror. Vince fights with a strange and incongruous fury. It is apparent that there are deep wells of hatred and resentment within him waiting to be tapped.  He punches with accuracy and jolting power; Ken’s hands drop as the blows drain his strength.  Vince sets him up with a left hand to the belly that goes in wrist-deep.”

Wow.  And people said Elvis couldn’t act.

Elvis has been a mainstay of the supermarket tabloids for nearly forty years, but it was well into the 80’s before the cover stories started getting weird.  Titles like “Statue of Elvis Spotted on Mars,” or “Elvis Fathered My Alien Love Child” were nowhere to be found in my recently acquired 21 tabloids from 1977-78.

Most of the subjects in these magazines were about love and remembrance, titles like “Elvis & Priscilla’s Eternal Love” and “Elvis Love Letters.”  However, there was one issue that foreshadowed the kind of Elvis stories to come.  The June 20, 1978 Midnight Globe featured, “SUPER SÉANCE!  5 Psychics Contact Elvis.”

The story describes how British psychic, Sybil Leek, Midnight Globe’s own psychic editor, selected four other famous female seers and had them flown to mysterious (so they say) Merritt Island, Florida.  They conducted their séance in an abandoned mansion called Hacienda Del Sol (House of the Sun) in a secluded location on 80 acres.  According to Sybil Leek, “It’s a place filled with spirits, a good place to communicate with those who are beyond.”  Ooooohh, spooky.

The one lady who supposedly connected with Elvis was Lou Wright.  According to the article, Elvis had summoned her to Graceland frequently to “guide him through the maze of decisions he faced daily.”  This seems to be confirmed in the excellent reference Elvis – His Life from A to Z, which says Wright did readings for Elvis during the last three years of his life through close friend Charlie Hodge.

So what kind of secrets did Ms. Wright discern?  Mostly bland non-controversial stuff like Elvis is so glad Lisa Marie is safe and protected, and he will always be with her in spirit.  A bit more interesting is his notion that three pieces of his jewelry are missing.  Only a cynic like me would note that the psychic didn’t reveal who took them from his bedroom.

The most startling revelation of the séance (according to Midnight Globe) was that Elvis’ spirit revealed he had left another will, one which divided his fortune up among more of his friends and relatives.  However, someone found it hidden under his mattress, and that was the end of it.

It was all pretty tame stuff compared to what was to come in the tabloids. We’d have to wait a few years before we’d see cover stories like “Elvis Sighted At Donut Eating Contest In Tulsa.”

I recently had the good fortune to acquire the modest collection of a deceased Elvis fan.  In addition to a few books, old magazines, and snapshots of Elvis in concert in Ashville, NC, there were 19 supermarket tabloids from 1977 and 1978, all with delightful cover stories about Elvis.  I’m going to have such a ball reading them.

There was one big prize: the famous September 6, 1977 issue of the National Enquirer, with its cover photo of Elvis in his open casket – and the headline you see above. There has been lots of speculation about the National Enquirer coffin issue, but here are some facts.

Iain Calder, veteran Editorial Director of the magazine, wrote a book, The Untold Story: My 20 Years Running the National Enquirer.  In it, Calder admits they got the photo from a cousin of Elvis for $18,000.  Basically, they bribed him to sneak a camera into Graceland and snap the picture of Elvis’ corpse.  It became the most famous cover picture in their history, and the return from this investment has reaped National Enquire over 1000% profit so far.

According to an article by Lea Frydman on