They had also opened a new archive attraction earlier in the month. This is a building on the grounds of the house where they give you an opportunity to see some of the clothes and documents they have that they don’t have in other exhibits. This attraction looks like it would be easier to change on a regular basis. They have a small auditorium built with concert type lighting. The clothes and documents they showed during the presentation were also projected on the screen using high resolution cameras so you could see these items better than you could when they gave you an opportunity to check them out closer at the end of the presentation. There was a young white girl and an older black lady doing the presentation. They were the perfect people to do this program. There were portions of the show where they played Elvis music. These ladies were dancing and singing along. It seemed like they were doing this because they enjoyed the music and not because they had been told to do it. It was a nice new attraction. On the bus that takes you from the mansion to the Archive attraction, we met a family from France. This was their first trip to Graceland. They were on a music tour of the US. They had visited Nashville earlier in the week. It was just a coincidence that their visit to Graceland occurred during Elvis week. They would be going to New Orleans next. A lady from New Orleans on the tour bus gave them tips for what to do when they were there. They were confused about the Archive attraction when we got to it. It was not included on their tour but the bus driver told them they could still see this. They decided to stay on the bus.
When we returned to the visitor’s center, we alternated between visiting the rest of the attractions and the gift shops. All of the attractions have you exit through the gift shop so we decided following that pattern would be the best way to see the shops. The entrance of the car museum had a distinct urine odor. On our way out of the car museum, we ran into a group of older women wearing matching pink shirts. When I see groups like this, I assume that they are all from the same place and try to talk to as many as possible. This group was from Indiana and we decided that I might have talked to them during previous years. They said that I would probably see them again next year wearing ugly t-shirts. We considered the possibility of upping our game next year as insiders and getting matching shirts. It was suggested that we might join one of the fan clubs. Then we decided maybe we should form our own.
The gift shop located next to the ticketing area at the visitor center is where they always have the official Elvis Week shirts and caps. When I was checking out, there was an Italian from New York standing in line next to us. He is a regular for Elvis week but he wife won’t come with him anymore. He was there with 3 other guys from New York. I said something about the huge TCB ring he had on his finger. He told me that Elvis’ jeweler had made it and also pointed to a TCB necklace around his neck. He mentioned he had picked up a real estate magazine and noticed the low prices of some of the houses in the black neighborhoods in Memphis. It was funny because whenever he would say the word “black” he would say it real softly. Most of the people working in the gift shops are black and all of the women at the counter where we were checking out were black. He was trying his best not to offend the women at the counter. But it was odd to hear this man who usually spoke with a loud voice bring the volume down for the occasional word in a way that drew even more attention to what he was talking about.
When we left this gift shop, we noticed a crowd gathering around the Sirius Radio studio at the visitor’s center. This usually meant they were interviewing a celebrity. As we walked up, we discovered that Priscilla Presley was being interview by George Klein, Memphis personality and member of Elvis’ Memphis Mafia. Tina was able to get in close enough to see, but the glass on the studio window prevented her from getting a good picture.
We proceeded to the airplane exhibit. The planes had been in the news earlier in the month because the company that owns them is currently in negotiations with Graceland. There is a possibility that they might be moved and fans are upset. I just considered that this might be our last opportunity to see them. I asked the Graceland employee on the larger plane how much longer they would be there. She had no idea what I was talking about.
The gift shop next to the planes has always specialized in CDs, records and videos of Elvis. They have always had a small number of 45’s. In addition to the CDs you can find anywhere else that still carries music, they have several CD’s that are exclusive to Graceland. These are usually recordings of live performances from probably any of Elvis’ tours and runs at Las Vegas during the 1970’s. There have been changes to this store since the previous year. They have greatly reduced their inventory of CDs and are using the floor space for shirts and other types of Elvis swag.
After a trip to the car to drop off our purchases, we went to the tent with the non-stop Elvis performers. This is always a highlight of every vigil trip. The interesting people to watch and talk to are more concentrated in this area of Graceland than anywhere else. I ran into Robert Pooran, the Indian Elvis tribute artist from Canada that I see each year. I asked him if he had performed and he said they had him on earlier in the week. It seems like there is controversy over the way the people who coordinate the performers do their scheduling. The tribute artists would like to get the prime spots on the day of the candlelight vigil but supposedly the people coordinating the event save those times for the people they like the most. I have seen Robert perform on vigil day before, but it’s been many years.
It seems like they have upped their game for performers. In years past, I have seen women perform that looked and sounded nothing like Elvis. I have seen guys that looked more like Meatloaf or sounded more like Don Ho than Elvis. For the most part, the guys they have performing now look and sound more like Elvis than ever before. Or at least they look and sound like you would expect an Elvis Tribute Artist to look and sound. This is the part of the trip that seems to fascinate my friend Nick the most. The genuine love that many of the ladies in the audience have for Elvis is in some strange way transferred over to an affection for these performers pretending to be him. In many cases, they have very little of the appeal of Elvis. Probably the most bizarre part of this ritual is when these impersonators sing the love songs and give out scarves to the ladies in the crowd. It is beyond me to understand why an unattractive old lady would want a scarf and kiss from a bad singer with unfashionable sideburns and an odd outfit. At times it comes across as an unfortunate combination that turns up in the world’s oddest game of spin-the-bottle. You don’t know whether to take pictures or turn your head in horror. The performer that looked like Louis C.K. was a great example. This guy shared the stage with another performer that was younger with Elvis hair and sideburns. The young guy had a great voice and interacted with the crowd well. But he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt that had a picture of Elvis in a karate outfit. It also said “Elvis kick my ass back in ’72.” The Louis C.K. Elvis didn’t try to do anything to look like Elvis. He was dressed more like the fat friend in a 60’s beach party movie. He wore a goofy hat. But he was probably one of the best singers we heard that day. And when it came time to do the ballads, he handed out scarves and kisses like the rest of the Elvi. But it was really hot and at one point, he started to use the scarf to really towel off. He realized what he was doing when the crowd started giggling. Then he went all out and started using it as a towel, even lifting his shirt and wiping off his body with this scarf. And he still gave out the scarf. I will admit that this is the first time I’ve ever seen any of the women in the crowd sit down to avoid getting one of these scarves.
The best performer that we saw was Dean Z. He was the winner of the Tribute artist contest last year and we had seen him then. Tina had friended Dean and his girlfriend after last year’s Elvis Week. We knew that he was performing at 4:30 and we made sure we were at the tent early so Tina could talk to him before he went on. During his performance, I considered how much the crowd has changed over the years. The first year, I counted the number of Elvis tattoos I saw and the number was less than 10. I think that many of the tattoos that I saw that year were temporary. This year, I just saw more tattoos period. I don’t know that any of the Elvis tattoos that I saw were temporary.
It was also during this time that I saw Brandon, the kid from Chicago that I had met for the first time last year. He was wearing a gold lame outfit this year. I got my picture made with him again this year. He had grown significantly. When we talked to his mother, he was another performer that wasn’t happy with the scheduling at the tent.
You very rarely see anyone in a jumpsuit on vigil days anymore other than little kids. The ones that do would stand out even if everyone wore jumpsuits. The tall blond with the tall hair in a jumpsuit that took a deep plunge in front was hard not to notice. Then there was the old man in the red and blue jumpsuit with hair that was thinning at a slightly faster rate than his teeth. He seemed to be a little physically and emotionally fragile and his wife stayed close by to assure that no one harassed him. I had seen him the year before. I talked to him and told him how good it was to see him again this year.