“Oh! This is nice! Louie!!” She looked around the store with a dead look on her face. Finally Louie shows up and she shows him the life size cardboard cutout of Elvis. “Wouldn’t this look nice in our living room?” Louie replied “actually it wouldn’t.” It was a rare moment of honesty that you don’t see that often at Graceland. I don’t know where they were from, but judging from their skin tone and a possible accent, Mr. and Mrs. Louie may not even be from the U. S. Even if they are, there is a good chance they flew to Memphis for Elvis week. In a post economic meltdown world, I can imagine them trying to board a plane with this thing. How much would it cost and where do you store it? It reminds me of the flight I took out of Memphis the day after Elvis’ birthday several years ago. A fan club from England was on the flight and someone was trying to board with a velvet Elvis painting. They don’t go under the seat or in the overhead very easily. Now you can’t even find a velvet Elvis painting at Graceland. Louie isn’t the only one feeling the pressure. It seems like Elvis Presley Enterprises as well as the fans are all feeling the economic crunch. On a week that celebrates the death of a musical icon, the presence of death feels even more real this year.
Part of it may be the heat. They announce that the heat index was 119. I don’t know if it was more than a couple of years ago when the lady died at the Heartbreak Hotel RV park, but it reminded me of that year.
Part of it could have been the fact that I got to meet Dr. Nick this year. George Nichopoulos was Elvis’ doctor and prescribed him the drugs that most people feel are the cause of Elvis’ death. Dr. Nick has written a book and was signing copies at the event. It wasn’t promoted as an official event. I imagine that things might not be so good between Dr. Nick and Elvis’ estate. His book signing was at Boulevard Souvenirs, the low-rent memorabilia shop on the same side of the road as Graceland. It’s not an official part of Graceland and is an outpost the people who were part of Elvis’ world that aren’t welcome at Graceland. Dr. Nick was an old, frail man. I spoke with him briefly and got him to sign my book. He had already autographed the book so he just added a message below that says he hope I enjoy the book. I also got my picture made with him. A strange man with huge sideburns snapped a picture with my camera. My Facebook update said that I met the man that killed Elvis. I’m sure that some of my friends probably wonder why I didn’t choke him while I had my arm around him.
But Dr. Nick wasn’t the only thing that added to the sense of death for the event. I also got the feeling that the event is near death. It seems like I ran into more international people this year. Maybe American Elvis fans were smarter this year and stayed at home. Maybe they’ve had a falling out with the way things are changing at Graceland. Maybe they just don’t have at much money. Maybe they are dieing.
Before this year, I had never met any Elvis fans from Australia. Crossing the road after buying the Dr. Nick book, I ran into Trish Bishop, a tall, older lady on her first trip to Graceland. She was on her way to join her three friends who had joined her on her journey. I also met Marlina and Margarita from Brazil. I ran into them when I was trying to take a picture of the Elvis impersonator wearing a silk KISS shirt. Things are getting real casual at Graceland and no where is it more evident that in the Elvis impersonators. Usually when I get to Graceland in the late morning or early afternoon, the action is in full swing at the Elvis tent. This is a tent where they usually have non-stop tribute artists, the preferred job title for these performers. But this year, they were getting more casual. There were the brothers that were wearing denim shorts, not even trying to look like Elvis except for the hair. You can always count on them having at least black hair. Sideburns are optional. And this year it seems like the jumpsuit has almost been completely abandoned. The only one I saw was on a guy posing for pictures in one of the gift shops. One of the low points this year for the performers was a guy dressed all in black with a receding hairline wearing flip flops. Elvis would never wear flip flops when performing!