I was committed to a Covid safe, socially distanced Candlelight Vigil experience. This also meant that I wouldn’t be talking to as many people as usual. I didn’t purchase access to more crowded areas of the site, so I spent a lot of time outside watching and sometime filming people in the open area in front of the ticketing building. I did run into the lady that I met in 2019 that told me the “sweet soul in an SUV” story. She told me the story again. This year she was wearing some homemade Elvis boots. She talked about not coming to Elvis Week in 2020 and having the Covid virus. My gut tells me that Elvis fans are also more likely to be anti-vaccination and anti-mask. More reason to stay away from them as much as possible.
Out next to the big Elvis Week letters, I encountered the only other person I saw in an Elvis jumpsuit. He was a genuine Elvis impersonator type with the hair, white jumpsuit with rhinestones and a big belt. He was one of the few people who seemed to be there to have fun. He told me he was from Georgia but when I asked him on camera, he said he was Elvis from Memphis. There was a line of people waiting to get their picture with him.
People often ask if I dress up for Elvis Week. In general, I have attempted to blend in with the crowd. I would usually wear a polo shirt or sometimes a shirt from a previous Elvis Week. My wife made me a couple of Hawaiian shirts with Elvis-themed material that I wore a few years. But I had never dressed like Elvis until this year. My wife bought me an official Red Elvis Blue Hawaii shirt, just like the one on the artwork for this year’s Elvis Week. I also wore some denim shorts and didn’t do anything special with my hair, so I wasn’t trying to look like Elvis. This would be the closest I’d ever come to dressing like Elvis for the candlelight vigil. I didn’t have anyone asking to get a picture with me. One lady did tell me that she had bought her grandson a shirt like mine. I only noticed one other man wearing a shirt like this. While I was eating, I noticed a man on the other side of the restaurant wearing a shirt like mine. He also had “Elvis hair” dyed black with sideburns. He wore his shirt tucked in so he could show off his Elvis Belt with the huge buckle. It didn’t look right with the Blue Hawaii shirt but looked more appropriate for a jumpsuit. The was a small man and he looked more like actor Harry Dean Stanton than Elvis. I wanted to sneak a picture of him. I started taking video with my phone, holding on the table trying to make it look like I was watching a video. He caught me and came over to talk. I dropped the phone on the table but continued to record, capturing our conversation. He told he was from upstate New York. Told me he was doing a show at the pavilion the next night. He said he was a little horse and was looking for some special throat “lozengers” because he didn’t want to embarrass himself. I told him I was from Jackson, Tennessee, home of Carl Perkins. He sang a little bit of Blue Suede Shoes for me then pointed out that he was wearing black suede shoes. I told him I had seen him there before. When I asked his name, he told me he was J. G. Elvis. No one would tell me their real name.
As time for the Candlelight Vigil drew near, the crowd made their way to the gates of Graceland. I stayed outside of the secured area, choosing to watch the events from a safe distance. I knew I was missing my best opportunity to meet interesting people, but my safety was more important. The exhibit areas were moving people out and the restaurants were closing their gates and mopping the floors. In the past, you could do the Vigil ceremony then grab something to at the diner. Now, everything was closing. Maybe Graceland is having issues with staffing like every other business, but I suspect it’s more about shutting down things that aren’t bringing in money. Graceland is moving on to other ways of making money. Their new facility has a venue called The Soundstage at Graceland where they host concerts they are promoting shows by everyone from Elvis Costello to Cheap Trick. From The Marshall Tucker Band to The Monkees Farewell Tour. They can probably make more money in a night from one of these concerts that they can from all the tours during Elvis Week, arguably their busiest week of the year. For years I’ve said that Graceland would need to find another way to make money if they were going to keep this business afloat. I always thought an amusement park would be the way they would go. It’s nice to see that their plans so far involve making Graceland a place to enjoy music.
I’m not sure where this leaves the fans. The people here this year appear to be the most hardcore fans. They have always been nostalgic for Elvis, his music, and his movies. They have also added an affection for the group of young tribute artists, which seems odd but has always been a part of the unique Elvis culture. More recently, you can add nostalgia for how Elvis Week used to be to the feelings of the crowd. Not only have the fans lost Elvis, they have lost their visitor’s center, their Elvis tent, their Elvis Week celebration. At its height, Elvis Week was big news. An event deserving of international attention. Today, it’s a shadow of its former self. Hanging on to traditions. Struggling to stay significant. It’s an event in need of a radical boost. It needs a ’68 Comeback Special moment but it feels like we might be having a moment more like the final concert at Market Square arena in Indianapolis.
I stayed at the Candlelight Vigil long enough to hear Priscilla address the audience. She talked a lot about picking the right people to work with to continue to run Graceland. She talked about the man currently running the business. He was not an Elvis fan when they selected him. I think that shows in how the business is run. So much has changed. The focus on tending to the Elvis fan during this celebration is gone. Elvis Week is a necessary distraction to business as usual.
I also stayed long enough to hear the beginning of the Vigil ceremony, conducted by the Elvis Country Fan Club. This group started the vigil ceremony in 1978 and have conducted it every year since then. They usually select a song that Elvis recorded as the theme for the year, play the song, then have something that they read relating the lyrics of the song to their love of Elvis. These heartfelt ceremonies come across a cheesy most years and this year did not disappoint. Bridge Over Troubled Water was this year’s song. As I was walking back to my car, I could hear a voice saying. “Elvis has been our bridge over troubled waters for so many years…”