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The Last 50 Posts
- Songs About Elvis January 16, 2021
- Elvis Books – Part 1 January 14, 2021
- Thank you. Thank you very much January 12, 2021
- Eclectic and Cheap Elvis Reading Material January 10, 2021
- Elvis Birthday Cakes – A Pictorial Essay January 8, 2021
- Some Interesting Numbers For You January 7, 2021
- Opening Night – Vegas 1969 January 5, 2021
- Happy New Year, Elvis December 31, 2020
- Happy New Year with Elvis — 44 Years Ago December 30, 2020
- Speaking in Elvish December 26, 2020
- Merry Christmas December 25, 2020
- Five Fun Christmas Music Videos December 24, 2020
- Getting A Vaccine Shot – Elvis Style December 19, 2020
- What Elvis Would Look Like at 75 December 16, 2020
- Elvis Has Left the Building December 10, 2020
- Buy an Elvis Christmas Gift for Yourself December 4, 2020
- Tony Curtis, Elvis, and Ducktails November 29, 2020
- A Thanksgiving Prayer In The Times of Covid November 25, 2020
- Variations on the Iconic Jailhouse Rock Image November 21, 2020
- Col. Parker Masterminds the Elvis Summer Festival November 13, 2020
- A Closer Look at Elvis’ Gold Lamé Suit November 7, 2020
- Elvis Pics, Pics, and More Pics November 1, 2020
- Tickle Me October 24, 2020
- The Women Who Loved Elvis October 17, 2020
- 75 Reasons We (Still) Love Elvis October 9, 2020
- Another Assortment of Elvis Goodies That Need a New Home October 3, 2020
- The King Revealed September 26, 2020
- Amusing Captions for Elvis Photos September 23, 2020
- FBI Investigates the Strange Elvis Pimple Scam September 19, 2020
- I Can’t Believe It. An Elvis Photo I’ve Never Seen Before September 17, 2020
- A Nice Assortment of Elvis Goodies That Need a New Home September 12, 2020
- Elvis Photos in the American Cool Exhibition September 7, 2020
- The End of ElvisBlog — Part 2 September 5, 2020
- Auction Results and Backgrounds on Six Elvis Rings September 3, 2020
- Will Vandals Attack Elvis Statues Next September 2, 2020
- Elvis and Southern Maid Donuts August 29, 2020
- ElvisBlog Before There Were Pictures in Every Post August 22, 2020
- The BIG 50 Auction of Elvis Memorabilia August 19, 2020
- Elvis Movie Bloopers August 15, 2020
- Elvis Movie Posters – from Italy August 11, 2020
- Elvis 30-Year Timeline August 5, 2020
- Elvis and Buddy Holly August 2, 2020
- A Better Use of Time July 28, 2020
- Elvis’ Most Valuable Sunglasses July 25, 2020
- Another Item at the First Rockhurst Auction I Found Interesting July 19, 2020
- Benjamin Storm Keough: 1992 – 2020 July 15, 2020
- Elvis’ PIG Pin July 11, 2020
- The Worst Movie about Elvis – Ever July 6, 2020
- Colonel Parker’s Secret Rules for Elvis Scriptwriters July 3, 2020
- Strange Elvis Searches on the Internet June 27, 2020
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My Favorite Elvis Links
- Elvis Today — Best blog for Elvis music. From Sweden by Thomas Melin
- Elvis-History-Blog — A detailed look at the history of Elvis by my friend Alan Hanson
- For Elvis Collectors Only Fascinating forums discussing everything Elvis
- Jerry Osborne Elvis collector, author, and expert
- Official Elvis Website Most popular Elvis website, operated by EPE
- Scotty Moore, Legendary Guitarist Detailed look at Scotty Moore and Elvis. Has features you won’t find elsewhere.
- The Mystery Train — Excellent Elvis blog by Troy Yeary
Category Archives: HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ELVIS
The End of a Decade — 10 Years, 10 Elvis Pictures
How do you link Elvis and the years in the last decade? By finding pictures of Elvis with text on them that includes a year – calendars, Elvis Week logos, Photoshop creations, etc.
Then you remove all the text but the year.
These stamps come from Mustique, a small private island that is one of the Grenadines, a chain of islands in the West Indies. I wouldn’t mind having a strip of these.
You may recognize this as one of the many calendars featuring photos of Elvis taken by Al Wertheimer. They put a bit of color into this iconic Elvis photo.
I like the use of an Elvis silhouette in addition to a nice Elvis photo on this one.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen this picture before, but it’s in my files now. I like the scarf around Elvis’ neck.
I cropped and deleted parts of the original to get this. Apologies to Sandi Fox. She does nice work.
It also took some clean-up here to result in this. I’m glad I could save the silver and blue swirl that compliments Elvis’ jumpsuit. 2015 is my favorite picture, so far.
In an ElvisBlog article about Elvis caricatures, I included a quote about his sleepy-eyed look. It said, “It’s the low riding eyelids… the confidence and control factor half-mast eyes seem to exude.”
Elvis had that going here, didn’t he?
How cool is this? 2017 is my new favorite, slightly ahead of 2015.
This is another picture I don’t have in my files. Elvis has got some big-time sideburns goin’ here.
You could Photoshop this one and have Elvis smoking a pipe. If anybody can do that, please send me a copy.
This must be a picture from “Love Me Tender.” Serious-looking Elvis.
While I was researching this, I found a lot of earlier years, too. There will probably be other decade pictorials like this in the future.
And I hope 2020 will be a great year for all of you, too.
© 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.
Christmas Eye Candy for Elvis Fans.
What a great way to start this post. How many of you ladies said, “Oh, yeah” when you saw it?
There are many paintings on the internet showing Bogey, Marilyn, Elvis, and James Dean together in scenes like at a bar or around a poker table. This is the only one that has Elvis and Marilyn in Santa outfits.
I guess the scene is a movie theater – one that’s big enough to have a Christmas tree and presents in it.
Technically, this photo was not taken at Christmas. But it’s nice to see Graceland in winter.
There’s no snow in this side shot of Graceland, but it does show the large manger scene.
The most common shot of a Christmas tree in Graceland is this white artificial one with red balls in the living room.
But the next photo shows how the Graceland dining room is decorated now. You can’t tell if the tree is real or artificial, but it is covered with a variety of lights and ornaments.
I’m guessing they wouldn’t showcase tree decorations that weren’t there while Elvis was around. Or would they?
I love the looks on the young elves’ faces.
I don’t have information on the creator of this Elvis as Santa picture. It’s pretty good, but check out a very different Elvis Claus.
This takes a little explaining. It’s the artwork for the cover of my not yet published book called “Elvis Claus.” We see an older Elvis with a beard that had turned grey over time. After years of avoiding contact with people, he ventures out wearing festive Christmas apparel, and the people who meet him say he looks like both Elvis and Santa. He adopts the nickname Elvis Claus, which eventually gets shortened to Elvis. So, we have Elvis hiding in plain sight as Elvis.
As for this image, it is the work of a great graphic artist. I picked out the Elvis photo for her to age, as well as the other one showing the hat, beard, and coat. By the way, it was a promo photo of Tim Allen in “The Santa Claus 2”
I gave this one a title — “The Elves Have Left the Building.”
I like the design and colors of this. I may use it again as the title image for a future blog post.
You will recognize this as the cover of Elvis’ 1971 Christmas album. It looks OK, I guess. But they also made a promo piece that blows up the Elvis snowman, and it’s not so good.
See what I mean?
Now, let’s take a look at some Elvis Christmas tree ornaments.

?
I think this is pretty cool. Years ago I cropped off the name of the creator. Now I wish I knew, so I could give her a shout-out. Although it is not a real ornament, I think EPE would have a winner if they came out with a line of Christmas ornaments done like this.
Now, here are some real ones produced during the early days of Elvis’ career.
For some reason, quite a few early ornaments were a TV with Elvis on the screen.
I like how this one plus two of those above come with tiny rabbit-ears.
Modern day concepts are interesting, too. How about an Elvis T-shirt ornament?
Or a mini Elvis lunchbox ornament?
There’s a lot going on with this one. Elvis in front of jailhouse bars dangles down, as do the three lower things.
Not a bad Christmas wish list.
This image of Elvis in a Santa hat is done in a style called pointism painting. It’s different, but I’m not that crazy about it.
I heard on the news that yesterday (December 20) was National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.
So, I decided to see if there were any Elvis sweaters out there with this theme. It turns out that there are over 20 ugly Elvis Christmas sweaters for sale, but most of them aren’t really so ugly. Next year maybe I could do a review of them, like I do for Elvis T-shirts.
I could see me wearing this one, except it costs $60, so that prices it out of my reach.
Elvis had the unique ability to joke around and still look super-cool.
Merry Christmas, Everybody
Phil Arnold
Elvis, Elvira, and Halloween
Over the years, I’ve done several posts that feature Elvis in Halloween themes, but the supply of pictures available for this has been pretty much used up. So, this year, how about an article on someone who made a career out of Halloween themes… and also had a connection with Elvis?
Yes, we’re talking about Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, the costumed vamp who hosted a horror movie show on television and went on to great fame.
Cassandra Peterson created the Elvira persona in 1981. Prior to that, she was a Las Vegas showgirl.
It was during this period Cassandra Peterson met Elvis.
“I had been patterning my whole life after Ann Margaret in Viva Las Vegas. So, Yeah, luckily, really, I met Elvis, and it was kind of my dream come true because by the time I went to Vegas, and I did meet Elvis, it was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s coming true! The whole movie’s coming true, you know!’ And, so, I did hang out with Elvis for a while, and he was wonderful and charming and nice, very down home, very sweet, innocent kind of person. He was so different than what anybody would ever think. Not like Mr. Show Biz Time, just a nice, really charming, wonderful guy, very funny sense of humor.”
Cassandra Peterson got started as Elvira in 1981, but back in 1969 she was just a 17 year old, struggling showgirl, when a friend of Cassandra’s managed to get them both invited to a party at Elvis’ penthouse suite in the Las Vegas International Hotel.
Elvis liked to be around showgirls, and on this night he took an interest in Cassandra.
“Elvis singled me out. I sat at the piano and he played songs for me. We were singing together and he said, ‘Oh, you have a good voice. Why don’t you go take some singing lessons, learn how to sing, and get out of here?’ He said, ‘Because this is a real short-lived career, being a showgirl.’ So, next day, I mean, really, the next day, I went out and I signed up for singing lessons, and within just a few months I got a singing part in the show. It really was the thing I needed to kind of get me out of there.”
Later, in a more private setting, they talked all night, and a variety of subjects were broached. Elvis told her he was very spiritual and discussed numerology. He showed her a jewel-encrusted belt buckle — a present from President Richard Nixon.
“It was the biggest, gaudiest things I had ever seen, and he was just so thrilled with it, like he was a little kid.”
She told him she smoked marijuana and that she was a virgin and both revelations had an effect on Elvis. He lectured her on the evils of pot, and marveled that there was actually a showgirl virgin in Las Vegas. After a while, she came to a realization.
“It was clear that he was not going to, like, hit on me. I could kick myself now for telling him. It would have been great to have him as my first lover. If it’s got to be somebody, it might as well be Elvis.”
How’s that for an understatement?
© 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.
Posted in ELVIS and OTHER STARS, HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ELVIS, Main Page
Tagged Elvis and Elvira
Happy 4th of July, Elvis — Once Again
I posted the first “Happy 4th of July, Elvis” pictorial back in 2009, and repeated that topic regularly through 2014. Then I had trouble finding pictures that hadn’t already been used, so I skipped the next three years, did one in 2017, and skipped last year. I would like to reuse a picture from 2012 to start this year’s post.
The folks who have created these images usually include fireworks, bald eagles, the American flag or combinations of these patriotic symbols.
I have many other images of Elvis with the American flag that don’t specifically mention the 4th of July. Here are some of the more interesting ones.
This is the first Elvis figurine I’ve ever seen with him holding a small American flag. Nice touch.
I’m not sure why the artist put all that dark shading on the left side of Elvis’ face here.
This is very clever.
This wonderful creation was done by the outstanding painter Betty Harper. It’s just one of her many Elvis works.
Here’s another terrific Betty Harper painting of Elvis and the flag. Do yourself a favor and check out her website. https://bettyharper.com/
I like the flag around Elvis’ face, not over it. This is a bit much for my taste
This is a little weird, but there is no problem seeing that this minimalist depiction is Elvis. I kind of like the curvy flagpole.
This is really outstanding.
Here’s some more great artwork, but I can’t make out the artist’s name. Did you notice the American eagle cleverly included?
This could have been a pretty good picture, but why does Elvis’ hair look green?
We all know that Elvis was such a patriotic American, and we salute him for that.
If Elvis was alive today, you know he would wear a pair of these with pride.
We’ll end by reusing a picture from the July 4th 2011 post.
© 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.
Some Elvis Birthday Pictures I’ve Never Seen Before
I picked this one because it said something other than “Happy Birthday Elvis.”
They certainly have a big birthday celebration going on right now at Graceland. EPE came up with enough things to do to make it a four day event. Seems like they did a good job.
There’s the same appeal with this message. I like “Happy Happy Birthday Baby,” and that Elvis shot is a strong one.
This is the most unique message I found. I had to do a screen grab from a video on YouTube to get it. Don’t split those pants, Elvis.
Here we go with the traditional greeting. This sure looks like Elvis doing a song in Fun in Acapulco.
I believe this picture comes from one of the Dorsey Bros TV Show
Joe Petruccio keeps creating wonderful Elvis art. I love the way he’s got birthday cake candles in the lenses of Elvis’ famous shades.
I don’t get this one at all. What does Tinkerbell have to do with Elvis’ birthday?
This is clever — putting Happy Birthday vertically. You know, I think I might have used this one ten years ago. Oh, well.
When I first saw this, I thought Elvis was opening a present from Priscilla. But, no. It’s Debra Paget on the set of Love Me Tender. And what was in the box?
OK, a hound dog. Elvis was going to get a lot more after that.
Here one last variation on the greeting. Sandi Fox Norton did a nice job.
We Elvis fans send birthday wishes, as well.
Happy Birthday, Elvis. We miss you.
Christmas Greetings from ElvisBlog
This photo was taken in December 1957, Elvis’ first Christmas at Graceland. It appears that his first outside decorations included a life-size model of Santa’s sleigh containing lots of presents, including two guitars. Behind that was a huge Santa Claus, which appears to be about 12 feet tall.
The woman and child are not identified, but it is said that Gladys can be seen to the left of the sleigh heading toward the Graceland front door.
Here, Santa and the sleigh are incorporated into the Christmas scene and message that endures at Graceland to this day.
The tag on this photo says that this is Elvis in front of Graceland in March 1957 while renovations were going on. He and his parents moved in on May 16.
I’m not promoting a Photoshop make-over here, but how nice would it have been if somebody had snapped Vernon, Elvis, and Gladys in front of Graceland with Santa and his sleigh ?
A Merry Christmas to all,
Phil Arnold,
Original ElvisBlogmeister
Many thanks to reader Karen Middleton for sending me the first photo above.
The Ghost of Thanksgiving Past
For some reason, my blog platform won’t let me upload any photos right now, So I can’t do the Thanksgiving message I wanted to. But I do have pictures in my blog media library from the other years I did do a Thanksgiving post. So, like the Ghost of Christmas Past, these old shots will energize from the vapors and appear here tonight.
In 2016 I found three turkeys made up to look like Elvis on the internet.
This one does not have many of the iconic Elvis attributes like the sunglasses of jumpsuit. But the turkey is playing a guitar and has a badge saying Elvis, so I posted it.
This guy has the sunglasses, a cape, lots of bling, and a sign saying Elvis.
This turkey doesn’t need a sign. With the hair, sunglasses, jumpsuit arms and legs, and a bunch of rings on his fingers, we know this is supposed to be Turkey Elvis.
I did post some serious photos as well. The message under this photo of Elvis praying said:
“I hope Elvis fans everywhere have much to be thankful for.”
I used this picture back in 2012, but it didn’t have the little X in the top right corner. I wonder where that came from.
I posted this picture the day after Thanksgiving when everybody had lots of leftovers. This was one suggestion in a online article. I had hoped to find a peanut butter, banana, and turkey sandwich, but this is the closest I could find.
Yes, Happy Turkey Day to everyone. Have a great Thanksgiving.
Phil Arnold
Original Elvis Blogmeister
Posted in HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ELVIS, Main Page
Tagged Elvis and Thanksgiving, Turkey Elvis
An Elvis Birthday Scrapbook
It’s a challenge to come up with a different way to celebrate Elvis’ birthday every year. One thing I haven’t tried is a scrapbook – an album of photos marking the event. So, I gave it a try with the pictures arranged in different categories.
Elvis Enjoying His Birthday Cake:
If you recognized Sam Phillips in this shot, you’ve got a good eye. The website where I found it says it was taken in 1957. If anyone has more accurate information on the dates of these photos, please post it on Comments.
This is obviously an Army shot, taken in the barracks by the look of the cot nearby. I believe this was taken in 1959.
Elvis never performed at the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel, so I’m not sure why he had this cake on his 27th birthday in 1962.
Elvis’ 26th birthday in 1961 took place while he was filming Wild In the Country.
The website where I found this says it is Elvis feeding birthday cake to Priscilla in 1960. I don’t know if it was for her birthday or his. Anybody Know?
That’s Delores Hart on the left, so it looks like Elvis celebrated his 23rd birthday while filming King Creole in 1958 or his 24th during Loving You in 1957.
Elvis With His Birthday Presents:
It looks like Elvis is having a great time opening this big box.
This present is smaller, and Elvis is older and snappily dressed.
Elvis Cake Designs:
I’ve seen several round cakes designed to look like a record, but this is particularly well done.
It looks like this icing Elvis is about to slide off the cake. I can’t imagined that it was planned to look like this.
Somebody went all-out to create this three-tier cake with Elvis and a hula dancer on top.
I wonder how many sections of cake had to be held together with icing to give this guitar cake a seamless look. There’s a round cake below it, but the glare makes it impossible to see what it says.
Birthday Greetings Creations:
Nicely done. Not so busy as most.
Triple Elvis. I like it, but one of them should have been a 50s Elvis.
Enjoy that hunk-a hunk-a birthday cake.
Nice use of the Northern Lights to frame Elvis’ face.
I hope you enjoyed our Elvis Birthday Scrapbook.
© 2018 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.
Posted in HOLIDAY GREETINGS TO ELVIS, Main Page