Four years ago I posted “Variations on an Iconic Photo: Elvis Meets Nixon.” It was a photo essay showing some of the interesting things folks have created using Photoshop on the image we all know so well.
The Official Photo of Elvis and Nixon in National Archives
The variations had replaced either Richard Nixon or Elvis with folks like Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bubba Ho-Tep, and others. In the four years since that post, talented (and somewhat twisted) people have continued to come up with strange variations on the iconic Elvis Meets Nixon photo. Here are some I like.
I’m glad they replaced Nixon, not Elvis, with Darth Vader. However, he wasn’t the only Star Wars character that ended up paired with Elvis.
Darth Vader and Elvis
Jar Jar Binks was such an unpopular Star Wars character, why would anybody want to replace Nixon with him? Maybe they saw some parallel there. I had to erase the comments in the bubbles – too X-rated for ElvisBlog.
Jar Jar Binks and Elvis
Elvis got replaced in many of the photos, as well. Here is Elvis Costello, such an obvious choice, I’m surprised it didn’t show up years ago. Note, the Photoshop jockey did not use the iconic Nixon/Elvis photo. He got creative and used one of the other 27 images taken at that famous meeting.
Nixon and Elvis Costello
George W Bush was in the first pictorial as the Elvis substitute. Here he is replacing Nixon.
Reagan and Bush — Bush and Elvis
I can’t imagine what prompted this one, but that is Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley replacing Elvis in the shot..
Nixon and Chase Utley
I wish there was some text with these images, but we’ll never know the significance of the robot instead of Nixon. If it was just to be silly, it was successful.
Robot and Elvis
Here’s one that uses a person much in the news at the time it was made. Elvis left his three guns in the limo before entering the White House (true fact).
Saddam Hussein
I don’t know who the guy on the left is, but that is Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) wearing Elvis’ clothes. Dwayne doesn’t actually have that much hair, but the Photoshopper simply cut out along his high forward and pasted his face over Elvis’s, obscuring some of those beautiful locks hanging down.
Nixon and Dwayne Johnson
Next, we see a better job of fitting insomeone’s face in while keeping all of Elvis’ hair. That someone is disgraced former Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich. Don’t these two together in one image give a warm feeling about our ethical political leaders?
Nixon and Blago
We shall end with the strangest Nixon/Elvis variation of the lot. Instead of Nixon, someone replaced him with a giant squirrel standing on his hind legs. Gaze at this photo it for a while and see if you can glean the secret hidden meaning of it all.
Giant Squirrel and Elvis
Only kidding. There is none.
This blog post won’t be totally without merit. Here are some facts about the iconic Elvis meets Nixon photo. It was one of twenty-eight photos taken by the White House photographer on December 21, 1970 when Elvis made his surprise visit (and Elvis wore his trademark sunglasses in the first eleven shots).
Elvis Wearing Sunglasses in Oval Office
You can see all twenty-eight photographs at the website of George Washington University. To read an amusing and informative article on this historic meeting, check out the 2011 ElvisBlog post “There’s So Many Funny Things about That Meeting.”
You may already know the iconic photo is the best selling souvenir at the Nixon Presidential Library, and it is the most popular reproduction sold by the National Archives (even more than the Constitution or the Bill of Rights).
And, based on my limited research, it may also be the most Photoshopped picture in the world.
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