Monthly Archives: September 2019

Postscripts to Earlier ElvisBlog Articles

Posted on September 28, 2019 by | 1 comment

This the same photo I used to start the last Postscripts article back in April. That time, it was followed by a cropped copy of just the face. This time, it will be followed by three other Cat Elvis T-shirts that have been offered recently.

 

I’m not crazy about this one. What makes them think fans want a T-shirt with a cat/Elvis face on his US Army profile photo? I also don’t like the name – Elvis Purrsley – but at least it’s better than the first one – Meowvis Pawsley.

 

I don’t like this one at all.

 

Please, please… No more cat/Elvis T-shirts.

 

Back in 2010 I did a 50th anniversary look at Flaming Star. It featured these pictures of Elvis and Barbara Eden looking pretty chummy. However, as I pointed out then, she was actually the wife of Elvis’ character’s brother, played by Steve Forrest.

 

A few more Elvis and Barbara Eden photos have showed up.

Elvis never got this intimate with his sister-in-law in the film, but it is certainly a good movie promo picture of two beautiful people.

 

Another photo taken at this session was the inspiration for this famous Andy Warhol silkscreen.

 

For more on this Warhol artwork, check out this ElvisBlog post from 2010.

 

I’ve shown many variations on Elvis’ famous pose in Jailhouse Rock, the most recent in 2012. Many of them are very creative, but here’s one in 3D:

 

Here we have Elvis in fireman gear, hose in hand, balanced on the top of a fire truck. Where do people get their inspirations for this stuff?

 

Over the years, ElvisBlog has shown the work of artists and Photoshop jockeys that put US presidents in Elvis jumpsuits. Look what I just found.

Does anyone know if there is an Elvis connection to the Flamingo Café?

 

Once I had found an image of Joe Biden in a jumpsuit, I Googled all the other major Democratic presidential candidates to see if anybody had done them. The only thing I could find is this.

As I’ve written before, someone once said Al Gore was a minus zero on the Elvis Scale. I wonder what they would say about Bernie Sanders?

 

This is a really amateurish job of inserting Elvis into a photo of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road. I recently read an article on the 50th anniversary of the album, and it said a total of six shots were taken. This is one of the rejects with the Beetles going in the opposite direction from the one we know. Here’s a different rejected photo with a slightly better Elvis insertion.

It looks like Elvis has a spear pushing against Paul’s neck, but it just the sidewalk curb.

I guess the Photoshop guys can’t mess with the famous album cover photo without running into copyright problems. They won’t get into any trouble with this:

 

There are many images around pairing up Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Humphrey Bogart, but this is different.

The tag on this one said, “Beatles in Elvis Jumpsuits on Abbey Road.” I don’t think Elvis would have been caught dead in three of them, especially Ringo’s.

 

Just a few weeks ago, I posted these three photos of Elvis looking like a college student on campus. Here’s a new one:

 

 

This is a montage of Elvis doing his performance while on stage floors. It was taken from a post in 2017.

Here’s a new one.

 

I’ve been collecting Elvis photos for 15 years, and I never saw this one before last week. I love it. Doesn’t he looks like an animal on the prowl? Elvis was just so cool.

 

 

© 2019 Philip R Arnold, Original Elvis Blogmeister All Rights Reserved www.ElvisBlog.net

 

Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

 

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Posted in ELVIS and OTHER STARS, IMAGES, Main Page, MOVIES, POLITICS, THE MOST UNUSUAL ELVIS ARTICLES ON THE WEB

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$13 Elvis T-Shirts — Winners and Losers

Posted on September 21, 2019 by | 5 comments

The year 2019 has provided a bumper crop of T-shirts for review on ElvisBlog. They made up ¾ of the items covered in a March post on new arrivals at the internet Elvis stores. Then there was the annual summer T-shirt review around Memorial Day. And now, ShopElvis.com has cut the prices on nearly a dozen shirts from $19.99 to $12.99. Some are pretty good shirts; some not so much.

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Winners:

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American Legend Eagle:

 

If you like to wear patriotic T-shirts on the Memorial Day or 4th of July weekends, and you like Elvis T-shirts, here is your chance to combine both. You will note the words American Legend below Presley up by the neck. I like the flag and the attacking eagle in the middle. It is interesting to see both USA and The United States of America on this shirt. This shirt really works for me.

 

ANTIQUE GREEN ELVIS PRESLEY UKULELE AND SIGNATURE:

 

There were several Blue Hawaii T-shirts in this $12.95 offering. Here we have palm fronds, flowers, a ukulele, and Elvis’ signature. The background color is different than what we usually see. Good shirt.

 

PINK ELVIS PRESLEY BLUE HAWAII:

 

This is obviously a T-shirt for the ladies, and I can see why you would like it. The flowers seem to be the same ones as in the previous shirt. Does anybody know what they are?

 

BLUE GROTTO ELVIS PRESLEY SIGNATURE:

 

This is about as simple as Elvis T-shirt design ever gets, but it has pleasant happy feel to it. I can see it will appeal to some Elvis fans.

 

Beige American Eagle Flag:

 

It might be a stretch to call this design an American flag, but its close enough to work as another patriotic T-shirt. I tried to blow-up the white stripes to see if they were guitar necks, but it got too fuzzy to tell.

 

LOSERS

 

ORANGE ELVIS PRESLEY UKULELE DANCERS:

 

When I first saw this, I thought, “What’s with the stubby legs on Elvis?” Then I realized that the original picture from Blue Hawaii had been cropped. But why? There was plenty of room to show everybody’s full legs. I can’t look at this one without focusing on Elvis’ stubby legs.

 

DENIM BLUE STARS AND EAGLE:

 

Maybe I’m being too critical, but this just seems too dark.  You really have to look hard to see that it is an Elvis shirt. I suppose it is more recognizable when worn, and some folks might like it.

 

RED ELVIS PRESLEY FLAG FACE GUITAR PATTERN:

 

It’s a good thing the name for this one includes flag, face, and guitar. Otherwise, we would have no idea what those tiny images are. This might have been OK if they were three or four sizes larger.

 

PATRIOTIC GUITAR T-SHIRT:

 

This looks more like a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt than an Elvis one. And it looks like some kind of black bugs are eating up everything starting at the bottom. I don’t get it.

 

OTHER INTERESTING T-SHIRTS at ShopElvis.com:

 

HAWAIIAN-PATTERN AQUA ELVIS PRESLEY IN FLOWERS:

 

Here’s those Hawaiian flowers again. I love the background pattern. On sale, down from $29.95 to $21.95. That’s a pretty good deal.

 

ORANGE ELVIS PRESLEY HAWAIIAN SUNSET:

 

This could have been another good Blue Hawaii shirt. I love the palm tree background. But what fool decided to spell ELVIS PRESLEY:

ELVIS
PRES
LEY

Sorry, that ruins it for me. But if you like it, the cost is $21.95 on sale.

 

AMERICAN EAGLE JUMPSUIT PAJAMAS:

 

This is pretty clever. There have been American Eagle T-shirts that didn’t quite work, but these pajamas look pretty good. They could have skipped the blue scarf to make it even better. The best news is that the design is continued around on the back.

This is not a sale item and goes for $39.95. You also get more American Eagles on the pants.

 

BLUE WAVE ELVIS PRESLEY UKULELE AND PARROTS:

 

We’ll end with probably the most colorful Elvis T-shirt I’ve ever seen. Note, it is not necessarily a Blue Hawaii shirt, so those birds are fine even if they weren’t in the movie. This is the best of the shirts marked down from $29.95 to $21.95.

 

 

© 2019 Philip R Arnold, Original Elvis Blogmeister All Rights Reserved www.ElvisBlog.net

 

Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

 

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Posted in COOL STUFF OUT THERE IN ELVISWORLD, Main Page

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ElvisBlog Mini-Nuggets # 26

Posted on September 14, 2019 by | 6 comments

Energizer Bunny:

What’s the Energizer Bunny playing his drum have to do with Elvis? Not much. But there is some resemblance to Laid-back Elvis Hound Dog playing his guitar.

 

Maybe what we need is an Energizer Elvis Bunny playing guitar.

Or…maybe not.

 

Elvis Pins:

The August 13 Graceland Auction had some interesting collections of 1956 pins worn by Elvis fans. These pictures were blown up from tiny images, so they are a little fuzzy.

“I like Elvis” was a popular theme, and the message was done with several different designs.

They even made pins for the folks that didn’t like Elvis.

 

Here are some other interesting themes.

 

This has to be my favorite pin message.

 

Song titles connected with Elvis seem to have been popular, too.

 

I had to look this one up in a Yiddish Slang Dictionary. It said, “Exclamation of shock or fear. This is similar to the expression ‘oy vey’ but with a larger sense of doom.” So Elvis caused some people to feel a sense of doom??? Give me a break

 

Vince Everett:

You good fans will remember this was Elvis’ character’s name in Jailhouse Rock. With the help of Peggy Van Alden (Judy Tyler), Vince became a recording star. He and Peggy founded Laurel Records, and these picture sleeves represent the first three records Vince released during the movie. Here are the fake 45 RPM records in paper sleeves used during filming.

This record had significant screen time in the movie. Note that this sleeve is actually autographed by Elvis.

Elvis sang all five of these songs in the movie, making Jailhouse Rock one of his best sound tracks. The sixth song in the movie was “I Want to Be Free,” which I ranked #7 on my Top 10 list of Elvis songs in a 2012 post.

 

Elvis Karate Fight MARKER:

On June 24, 1977, while riding from the Madison, Wisconsin airport to his hotel, Elvis noticed a street fight in progress at E. Washington Ave and Stoughton Road. It was two young men pummeling a teen on the ground.

While his limo was stopped at the nearby red light, Elvis ran from the car and threatened the combatants with a classic karate stance, and reportedly yelled, “I’ll take you on.” The young men recognized Elvis and stopped fighting in favor of shaking hands with the star. Elvis reportedly left after ensuring that everything was settled and taking time to shake hands with several onlookers.

A plaque to commemorate the event was installed at the site. It shows Elvis with a guitar and describes the incident. The plaque is not in good shape now. A metal plate bearing a description of what happened that day has been pried from the stone. But the image of Elvis, remained on the marker.

Elvis had flown into Madison for a performance at the Dane County Coliseum, part of his final tour. Unfortunately, his death came just 53 days later

 

Elvis’ $1.8 Million Dollar Watch:

A 1960 Omega watch that once belonged to Elvis sold at auction in May 2018 for $1.8 million. Wow.

It set a record price for the any Swiss Omega watch brand ever sold. Wow.

The timepiece sold for 18 times the highest estimate. Wow

RCA Records gave Elvis the watch to commemorate him selling 75 million records.

The watch is a manually winding, 18ct white-gold Omega Calibre 510, adorned with 44 round diamonds. It features the logo of Tiffany & Co – the company that originally sold the watch.

The back of the watch carries the inscription: “TO ELVIS, 75 MILLION RECORDS, RCA VICTOR, 12-25-60” – marking the date, December 25, 1960, when Elvis’ record sales reached that landmark.

 

Al Hirschfeld’s Caricatures of Elvis:

My son and his fiance treated themselves to a long weekend trip to New York City, and they took in a musical at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. His name sounded familiar, so I Googled him and found out he was regarded as the greatest caricaturist of the 20th century.

His biography included samples of his incredible drawings of famous people, including Elvis Presley. Here are three of the best.

This is regarded as the first published caricature of Elvis. It appeared in the July 6, 1956, issue of Collier’s magazine to illustrate a column criticizing the singer and his fans.

This one is titled Blue Suede Shoes and was a limited edition print (300 copies) in 1999. One sold at auction recently for $1,500.

A version of this drawing was published by The New York Times on December 1, 1968, in anticipation of the broadcast of the NBC-TV special Elvis two days later. This version was used to make limited-edition lithographs. An autographed copy sold at Heritage Auctions for $2,500.

 

That Al Hirschfeld link led me to another site with almost a hundred cool Elvis caricatures, and I had never seen 75% of them before. I can’t wait to do a blog post on the best ones.

 

 

© 2019 Philip R Arnold, Original Elvis Blogmeister All Rights Reserved www.ElvisBlog.net

 

 

Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

 

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Posted in COOL STUFF OUT THERE IN ELVISWORLD, IMAGES, Main Page, PRODUCTS BASED ON ELVIS, THE MOST UNUSUAL ELVIS ARTICLES ON THE WEB

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Some Elvis Pictures I’ve Never Seen Before – Part 14

Posted on September 8, 2019 by | 8 comments

How do you like this outfit? We’ll look at some other photos of Elvis in distinctive fashions, but this one deserves a little study. If we look at his left arm, we see the sleeve of his shirt. But above that we have maroon fabric that matches the color of a second button-less shirt with that crisscross pattern. The arm appears to be coming out through a slit in the blue coat (cape?) with the huge red collar. That’s really making a statement. And is that a pipe in Elvis’ right hand?

 

And here is young Elvis back when his wardrobe was simpler. My friend Zoey Goto has a book titled Elvis Fashion – From Zoot Suits to Jumpsuits. This would have been a good illustration for it.

 

Taxicabs in Chattanooga used to carry signs advertising “See Rock City,” and maybe they still do. This picture had to been taken in the late 50s.

 

Elvis and Jennifer Holden both seem to be very happy on the set of Jailhouse Rock.

 

I may have seen this photo many years ago, but it wasn’t in my files. It is now, after I scanned a number of pictures out of Elvis International magazines I cut up to get Elvis centerfolds. By the way, the centerfold offer was a big bust. Only one sold out of a dozen. I can’t figure out why. Color centerfolds of outstanding Elvis images for $5 or $6 seemed like such a good deal. They will be back sometime at lower prices.

 

Elvis got a few perks while stationed in Germany, but it looks like he had to shine his shoes in the barracks, just like everyone else.

 

I know some of you hate Photoshopped Elvis pictures, and this isn’t a very good job of putting Elvis’ head on the biker. However, I kind of like this one. Sorry.

 

There are tons of Viva Las Vegas backstage photos of Elvis and Ann Margret out there, but this one is new to me.

 

I guess this is a fan photo, because no professional photographer would frame Elvis and Priscilla like this. She has black hair, so this is probably from the early 60s. Check out Elvis bathing suit and then compare it to this…

 

Pretty baggy looking.

 

Elvis looks better here in the White Concha jumpsuit that he wore in August 1970 at the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Concha is a Mexican word meaning metal rings. Elvis’ jumpsuits wouldn’t stay simple like this for very long.

 

I’m can understand the reason why Elvis’ is drawn with squiggly legs in this caricature, but what’s up with the squiggly guitar?

 

This is such a strong photo of Elvis wearing his signature glasses. Has any other man looked so handsome wearing glasses? I can’t think of one.

 

Here’s Elvis with a jug of whisky on the table and a stogie in his hand. I don’t remember him smoking in Kissin’ Cousins, so this must have been a shot taken between filming.

 

Elvis sure did love his collection of law enforcement badges, didn’t. This is the federal narcotics badge he received as a result of his visit to President Richard Nixon in the White House.

 

There was no tag identifying what’s going on here, but it almost looks like lawmen are restraining Elvis from going after a heckler. Does anyone has more information on this shot?

 

Any help identifying this one would be appreciated as well. It appears to be an early-to-mid 60s shot of Elvis, so what caught my attention is the car-phone in Elvis’ hand. He certainly was a pioneer in embracing new technology.

 

 

© 2019 Philip R Arnold, Original Elvis Blogmeister All Rights Reserved www.ElvisBlog.net

 

Elvis, Elvis Presley, and Graceland are registered trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.

 

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Posted in IMAGES, Main Page, THE MOST UNUSUAL ELVIS ARTICLES ON THE WEB