Back in 1997, 24-hour news network CNN decided to do something special for Elvis fans. As the 20th Anniversary Elvis Week festivities approached, CNN added a special link to their website. It was called “VIVA ELVIS,” and it must still get enough hits to keep it accessible deep within their archives. If you are looking for something different to fulfill your need to connect with Elvis, may I suggest you click on http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9708/elvis/
You will see the site boasts “7 Great Selections,” but the passage of time has rendered some of them less satisfying (especially links to sites that are no longer available). However, the first choice, “Destination Elvis” is still a good one. The subtitle, “All Roads Lead to the King,” is an apt description of what you will find. There are short articles telling you about all sorts of lesser known Elvis-related places and things you might want to check out when you plan an Elvis pilgrimage.
A sample of these includes: wax images of Elvis in four different wax museums around the country, various private museums of Elvis memorabilia, the famous (?) “Plywood Elvis” of Bozeman, Montana, the “Elvis Inn” in Israel, and a bronze statue of Elvis, one of his guitars, and a jumpsuit on display in the lobby of the International Hotel in Las Vegas, where he performed in the 70’s
“Destination Elvis” also includes “Graceland Tour de Force,” which is a brief slide show of Graceland, inside and out. Other websites do a more complete job with this, but you might as well check it out while you are there. The next category is “Meet Me in Memphis,” which would have been of value for any fans traveling to Elvis Week ’97. It’s a bit dated now, but one link shows the limited list of events and features offered at Elvis Week nine years ago. There sure were a lot more this year, and there will be even more for the 30th Anniversary next year.
I would suggest you skip “Interactive Elvis.” This would have been fun if you could access the overall votes for best and worse Elvis movies and songs, but the results are no longer available.
The next category is “The Elvis Presley Story,” and most of it is familiar stuff for long-time fans. However, the “Long Live The King” section has some information on the old Elvis Is Alive theme, and “Elvis Almanac” has a list of interesting Elvis statistics (I didn’t know his favorite toothpaste was Colgate).
“King of the Web” is not of much value, because most of the links to suggested websites no longer work. “Arcade Elvis” offers quizzes on Elvis song lyrics, movie promos, and who made quotes about Elvis, but again you can’t click to find out the correct answers. I think I’ll do some research to get it all straight, and then steal the ideas for Elvisblog.
So, if you’ve got some time to kill and want to have some Elvis fun, check out “VIVA ELVIS.” You might want to do it before January. Maybe the CNN website archives automatically delete when they reach ten-years old.
© 2006 Philip R Arnold All Rights Reserved www.elvisblog.net