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Elvis impersonator
Elvis Impersonators An Elvis impersonator is someone who impersonates or copies famed American musician Elvis Presley, either as a hobby, a career in entertainment or occasionally for fun. Elvis impersonators can range in ethnic background, size and talent. Professional Elvis impersonators can work all over the world as entertainers and are in great demand due to the unique iconic status of Elvis. There are even a number of radio stations[1][2] that exclusively feature Elvis impersonator material. Many impersonators sing Presley's songs. "While some of the impersonators perform a whole range of Presley music, the raw 1950s Elvis and the kitschy 1970s Elvis are the favorites."[3]
OriginsThe first Elvis impersonators started to appear while Elvis was still alive, evolving mainly out of small town talent competitions which took their influences from major music artists of that time. It wasn't until Elvis's untimely death on August 16, 1977, that impersonating Elvis started to become popular in the mainstream. The large growth in Elvis impersonators seems tightly linked with his ever-growing iconic status. Andy Kaufman is considered to be one of the first notable Elvis impersonators, and Elvis himself said that Kaufman was his favorite impersonator[4]. In his act he would use his famous "Foreign Man" voice while dressed in the 1970s Elvis style jumpsuits to discourage guests and attendants, only to reveal that he has singing and guitar playing talents. The Cambridge Companion to Postmodernism describes Kaufman as a "radical" comic personae, who appeared at some of his early club dates as The Foreign Man, a "completely incompetent comic" who spoke in an Eastern European accent and "would botch the punchlines of his unfunny 'jokes,' then insist on starting his entire act all over again each time he made an error until the audience could stand it no longer. Kaufman did not reveal that The Foreign Man was a fictional construct, but would unexpectedly launch into a skilled impersonation of Elvis Presley that seemed beyond The Foreign Man's abilities and then thank the audience once again as The Foreign Man." Kaufman even "demanded that the audience return items of clothing he had tossed while performing Elvis."[5] As Kaufman gained fame, the act was used less and less. Types of Elvis impersonatorThere are many differing types of Elvis impersonator. Most fall under the following main types which are: 
Example of the "fun/comedy"-level Elvis impersonator, seen here "walking in Memphis."
There are differing levels of impersonation which depends largely on who is doing the impersonation and for what purpose. They mainly fall under three main levels of impersonation which are:
"There are heavily bearded Elvises, four-year-old Elvises, and Elvis duos; Italian Elvises, Greek Elvises, Jewish Elvises, Fat Elvises, a Lady Elvis, even a Black Elvis. Impersonator impresario Ed Franklin boasts, 'We've had every type of Elvis there is in the world.' "[6] Professional Elvis impersonation can be called a special branch of the entertainment industry. "Michael Chapa, an Elvis impersonator who works in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, helped entertain more than 2500 of his relatives at what is believed to be the country's largest Hispanic family reunion ..."[7] There are also some Elvis impersonators who specialise in experimenting with gender, sexuality, race, taste and decency. According to social historian Eric Lott, "the widespread embarrassment and innuendo surrounding Elvis impersonation points more directly to the homoerotic implications built into such acts."[8] There are even some performers who satirize other Elvis impersonators.[9] Elvis impersonation as manifestation of the Elvis cultAccording to Gael Sweeney, Elvis impersonation "offers a spectacle of the grotesque, the display of the fetishized Elvis body by impersonators who use a combination of Christian and New Age imagery and language to describe their devotion to The King. 'True' impersonators believe that they are 'chosen' by The King to continue His work and judge themselves and each other by their 'Authenticity' and ability to 'Channel' Elvis's true essence. True impersonators don't 'do Elvis' for monetary gain, but as missionaries to spread the message of The King. Especially interesting are those who do not perform, per se, that is, they don't do an Elvis act, they just 'live Elvis,' dressing as The King and spreading His Word by their example."[10] However, the Elvis industry includes "professional Elvis impersonator registries." The international guide I am Elvis, for instance, contains "photos, repertoire, and personal testimonies that serve to materialize the phenomenon of Elvis impersonation and further institutionalize it, including female Elvises, child Elvises, Black Elvises, El Vez the Mexican Elvis, and scores of British, German, Greek and Indian Elvises."[11] According to George Plasketes, there are "legions of impersonators. Airlines have offered discount fares for look-alikes on Elvis holidays... His omnipresence hauntingly hovers..."[12] Contests, festivals and eventsThere are many Elvis contests, festivals and other events held across the world celebrating Elvis and his many impersonators. Events tend to attract large numbers of Elvis impersonators and fans. Collingwood, Ontario Canada holds an annual Elvis festival[13] In the UK, the seaside town of Blackpool in England is home to Europe's largest Elvis impersonator contest and convention. This contest is officially licensed by Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.[14] The contest is held annually in early January (currently at The Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool) to coincide with Elvis's birthday. Blackpool also features a busy Elvis Wedding Chapel[15] based at the Queens hotel on the south promenade where couples can have their wedding vows renewed by Martin Fox.[16] CKX, INC which now owns Elvis Presley's Estate and will have full control including the grave of Elvis Presley and his Family members along with his home Graceland in early 2008 has seen the impact on what Elvis Impersonators and contests have on the media and marketing industry. They began using the contest to brand along with their Elvis brand in a way by licensing anyone wanting to have an Elvis contest charging a fee to do so. These have produced poor quality contests. The Elvis Extravaganza Contests These contests are put on by the Worlds Largest Elvis Presley Fan Club a free membership fan club since 1989. It hosts a variety of contests and tribute shows at major venues in Countries throughout the World. Venues to include State Fairs, Large Festivals and Casinos. The Elvis Extravaganza is the originator of what are called regional contest qualifying rounds which the industry has adapted including Elvis Presley Enterprises. The Elvis Extravaganza hosts a regional round in Las Vegas annually with a National Finals held at a premier venue. The Elvis Extravganza National Finals for 2008 were held at the Florida State fair with an actual attendance figures of 40,000 attendees for it's show alone. The 2009 Elvis Contest Finals and Elvis Presley fan Convention will be at the Florida State Fair February 13 and 14th 2009. The Elvis Extravaganza is the most premier contest provider and the longest running contest producers in the world reaching thousands of attendees at each of its contest events. Other contests include Images of the King which in 2006 the longest contest producer died is now run by an elvis impersonator, they license their contests for $150.00 per regional site at various places such as VFW's, casinos and festivals with their finals being held in Memphis each year during Elvis Week. These contests have shown poor attendance figures since CKX,Inc has included itself in the contest industry and having their contest the same week. Controversies about special impersonatorsIn August 1996, Elvis Herselvis, a lesbian Elvis impersonator, who had been invited to take part in the Second International Elvis Presley Conference held at the University of Mississippi in order "to test the limits of race, class, sexuality and property...," was banned from this event by the conservative sponsors of Elvis Presley Enterprises.[17] This ban and some other complaints and controversies concerning unorthodox Elvis impersonation show the powerful influence the Elvis industry still has on mass-media related activities of professional impersonators. LiteratureA number of books are available on the topic of Elvis tribute artists. One of the first books to document the phenomenon was, I Am Elvis: A Guide to Elvis Impersonators released by American Graphic Systems in 1991. More recent titles include photo essays, Living the Life by Patty Carroll and The King and I: A little Gallery of Elvis Impersonators by Kent Baker and Karen Pritkin. Novelist William McCranor Henderson wrote about his attempts to learn the Elvis trade in, I, Elvis: Confessions of a Counterfeit King. A more scholarly examination of Elvis impersonation is, Impersonating Elvis by Leslie Rubinowski released in 1997. On "the thriving phenomenon of Elvis impersonators", see also Gilbert B. Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend (1996). In the Summer 1997 issue of The Oxford American magaine author Tom Graves wrote an acclaimed article, Natural Born Elvis, about the first Elvis impersonator, Bill Haney, the only tribute artist Elvis himself ever went to see perform. The article has been published in the anthology The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing. There are also two "how to" guides, Be Elvis! by Rick Marino, a well-known tribute artist, released in 2000 by Sourcebooks and the more recent, The Elvis Impersonation Kit by Laura Lee, released in 2006 by Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers. There are also several university studies, for instance, Eric Lott's critical essay, "All the King's Men: Elvis Impersonators and White Working-Class Masculinity," published in Harry Stecopoulos and Michael Uebel, eds., Race and the Subject of Masculinities (Duke University Press, 1997). The author, professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia, has also written a long piece on Elvis impersonators and the EPIIA (Elvis Presley Impersonators International Association) to be published in his next book. For this paper, he interviewed many impersonators and draws parallels with minstrelsy. "It is indeed one place minstrelsy ends up; where 19th-century white guys imitated what they thought of as slave culture and Elvis took from R & B performers, the impersonators copy the copy, if you will?it's minstrelsy once-removed."[18] In her paper, "Women Who 'Do Elvis' ", Cornell University researcher Francesca Brittan deals with female Elvis Presley impersonators and finds them to be "campy, cheeky, and often disturbingly convincing."[19] According to Marjorie Garber's academic study, Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety (1992), Elvis impersonation is so insistently connected with femininity that it is "almost as if the word 'impersonator', in contemporary popular culture, can be modified either by 'female' or by 'Elvis.' "[20] Films3000 Miles to Graceland is a 2001 thriller film, starring Kurt Russell, Kevin Costner, Courteney Cox Arquette, David Arquette, Bokeem Woodbine, Christian Slater, and Kevin Pollak. It is a story of theft and betrayal, revolving around a plot to rob the Riviera Casino during a convention of Elvis impersonators. Bubba Ho-tep is the title of a novella by Joe R. Lansdale which originally appeared in the anthology The King Is Dead: Tales of Elvis Post-Mortem (edited by Paul M. Sammon, Delta 1994) and was adapted as a 2002 horror-black comedy film starring Bruce Campbell as Elvis Presley - now a resident in a nursing home. The film version also stars Ossie Davis as Jack, a black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy. He says he was patched up after the assassination in Dallas, dyed black, and abandoned by Lyndon Johnson. The film was directed by Don Coscarelli. Honeymoon in Vegas is a 1992 comedic movie which was directed by Andrew Bergman. Jack Singer, played by Nicolas Cage, encounters a group of "Flying Elvises" (skydiving Elvis impersonators) while trying to reunite with his fiancee. Almost Elvis is a 75 minute 2001 documentary film that follows a variety of Elvis impersonators as they prepare for a large annual contest in Memphis, Tennessee. PlaysOne of the most popular modern plays dealing with Elvis impersonation is Lee Hall's Cooking with Elvis (1999). The comedy centers on the family life of Dad, an Elvis impersonator who was paralyzed in a car crash and is forced to spend the rest of his life in a wheel chair. Climaxes of the play are surreal fantasy scenes in which Dad's hallucinatory Elvis dreams are bursting into popular Presley songs as a reminiscence of his one-time persona of Elvis impersonator. Quotes
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