USA: "The King" is still taking care of business thirty years after his death

The world gets ready to remember Elvis Presley, whose career not only has survived, but has flourished three decades after his death. Thirty years ago, alone and adrift in Graceland, dismissed by some as fat and over 40, Elvis Presley embarked on the ultimate career make-over. By the time he died on Aug. 16, 1977, Elvis had revolutionized popular music, starred in over 30 Hollywood movies and reinvented himself in Las Vegas as a kind of all-American superhero, the iconic man in the gilded jumpsuit. But the next phase was arguably just as big and has run longer. As fans gather next week in Memphis, Tennessee, to mark the 30th anniversary of Presley's death in what backers have dubbed the "The Summer of Elvis," it is clear that The King is still taking care of business. Part of the that Elvis staying power was recently on display as part of a Hollywood memorabilia auction. "There are only a few that just transcended stardom," explained Joseph Maddalena, president of the auction house, Profiles in History. "They're bigger than movie stars, they're bigger than performers, bigger than the Beatles. They are just in a different category. They are icons of pop culture. That is what Elvis Presley is." To mark the occasion, two-dozen Elvis movies are also being re-released on DVD, including "deluxe" editions of "Jailhouse Rock" and "Viva Las Vegas," and cable channel TV Land has dedicated a month to Presley programming. Actress and former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley, who starred with Presley in the films Harem Scarum" and "Girl Happy," remeMbers that Presley was different. "When he entered the soundstage you didn't have to look up and see him come through the door," Mobley said in discussing Presley's star power. "Truly, there was an electricity. I know that sounds hard to believe, but the air would crackle." Maybe that's the reason that Forbes magazine ranks Presley as the second-highest-earning dead celebrity after Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, with an estimated 42 million U.S. dollars from licensing deals in 2005-2006. That represents a 40-fold increase in revenue since 1979, when Priscilla Presley stepped in as an executor of the estate after the death of Elvis' father, Vernon. Since opening to the public in 1982, Graceland -- the ornately appointed Memphis mansion Elvis bought for 100,000 (USD) in 1957 -- has become a major tourist hub with some 600,000 visitors a year and more growth planned. Entertainment mogul Robert Sillerman bought 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2005, with the remaining 15 percent of EPE owned by Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie. Sillerman has described a vision for a new Graceland visitors center, convention hotel and digital museum intended to create the effect that Elvis never left the building. Meanwhile, Elvis impersonators of all shapes and sizes and nationalities for have been taking the stage for years in homage to the "King." "He was the first to start rock and roll," explained Kavee Thongpreecha, who's been an Elvis impersonator since 1957, most recently at the Palms Thai Restaurant in Hollywood. "Because, at that time you had the blues and jazz, nobody knew about rock and roll. Elvis was the one to bring it in." And Elvis is, even thirty years after his death, still "the King."

ITN Source | August 16, 2007

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