Item Information. Elvis was only the beginning. Shed previously worked in a health-food store, but for Rock and Roll Heaven, she developed a fleeting taste for Southern Comfort, Joplins drink of choice. ), Billed occasionally as The Worlds Greatest Clones, ODay, Rhyne, and sometimes Hazebrouck soldiered on for a few more years, playing clubs in their new home base of Virginia and nearby Pennsylvania. Some of his contemporaries included Rick Saucedo of Chicago and Johnny Harra, a Kansas City native who moved his show to Texas in 1977. During the 1970s, a star attraction at the Aloha Lounge in Florida's Hawaiian Inn was Mr. Fatu. Dennis Wise is the ultimate Elvis Presley fan. That was her life.. Caywood was already a fireball, get-out-of-my-fucking-way person, as she says, with a bad-ass stare and freewheeling vibe to match. I got up one night and did Heartbreak Hotel and the fans liked it, Wise says. In his mind, Rock and Roll Heaven would merely be the beginning. Elvis impersonators set to appear besides Fitter were Brendon Chase, Melissa Perkins and Kerryn Winn. >Las Vegas Leisure Guide. Its America.. In Civilization II, the "Attitude" Advisor in the player's "High Council", who advises on the peoples' happiness, is an Elvis Presley caricature, depicted wearing sunglasses even in the Ancient period. Ehlert performed throughout the Chicago Metro Area until Elvis died, then traveled the country with his act. These talented artists can pose for photos, perform Elvis's greatest hits, emcee corporate events, and sometimes officiate weddings just like in Vegas. Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account. Rhyne survived, and overcome by guilt, ODay brought her to Florida to help with her recovery. He would say, We ought to do this! and I would be, Oh, my gosh!. The large growth in Elvis impersonators seems tightly linked with his ever-growing iconic status. At the recording session, James sang the lead vocals, and the studio band backed him with Momam producing. Las Vegas Sun, 2023, All Rights Reserved, Less Elvis in Vegas doesnt mean no Elvis in Vegas, Elvis has yet to leave the building (5-15-2008), Bartender mixes Elvis moves with Santa Fe drinks (4-13-2001), Vegas Vipers Home Opener Against DCDefenders, Durango Beats Liberty, 57-47, in Boys 5A BasketballChampionship. I was 30 or 32 and wild and crazy anyway. Dennis began his professional tribute to Elvis in 1978, a year after the
In 40 years, its become more acceptable to do something like that, compared to back then, says Eyellusions Pezzuti. All Rights reserved. They didnt know they were talented musicians. In Miami, the tour was booked into the Persian Room at the Marco Polo Hotel, but when not enough tickets were apparently sold, it was downgraded to the Swingers Lounge Disco. It was her motivation that helped him become an Elvis tribute artist. Often, the shows would start with OConnell as Morrison, vamping through the Doors Light My Fire, Love Me Two Times, and Touch Me, before Hazebrouck came out with Croce hits like Time in a Bottle and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. After a brief intermission, the band launched into a stomping groove, and Caywood stuck her hand through a curtain holding a bottle of Southern Comfort before emerging feathers flying, she says and starting her Joplin set, which included Ball and Chain and Piece of My Heart. Then, Gamble would re-enter, karate-chopping his way through a medley of Elvis hits, before everyone reconvened onstage for a grand finale. He had previously wanted to manage a Barbra Streisand impersonator but soon realized the audience wouldnt buy his first choice: At five feet two and 160 pounds, she didnt conjure Streisand physically. His admiration for
For example, an ETA may open his show with a 50s set dressed in appropriate attire (such as a gold lame jacket), reenactments of musical scenes from Presley's movies, and/or reenactments of segments from the '68 Comeback Special; and after an intermission closes his show with a full-blown 70s concert dressed in an appropriate jumpsuit. Dennis Colt, the first famous Elvis impersonator, circa 1978. EXCELLENT CONDITION, SIGNED SLEEVE SAYS, "SHIRLEY BEST WISHES, DENNIS WISE". (AP Photo, File), Leonard Cohen's Kids: Dad's Ex-Manager Fiddled With Trust, Ed Sheeran on His 2022: 'I Felt Like I Was Drowning', After 'Grotesque Conduct,' $29M for Kobe Bryant's Family, Radio Station Shares 'Incredibly Worrisome' Update on Missing DJ, God Save the King From Trying to Find a Band to Play Coronation, Man Who Worked for Disney Longer Than Anyone Has Died, Manager on Sizemore: 'There Is No Further Hope', Chris Rock Gets Ready to Discuss 'The Slap', Judge's Sentencing Remark Shows Murdaugh Family Pull, 2 Familiar Faces Were on Turbulent Lufthansa Flight, Woman Declared Dead Decades Ago Suddenly Turns Up. He was having to be with the band, and the kids were in school. When I take these people in, they already have a basic resemblance to the person I want them to look like, he said. [6], The second known impersonator was a 16-year-old boy named Jim Smith. There we go. I kind of took after him.. This
In the end credits of the episode, Mark sings the theme tune in the style of Elvis. ACCESS RIGHTS ONLY. The Oxford American Book of Great Music Writing, "LadyLuck Music Tribute Artist Radio Station", "Elvis Presley: The King's best impersonators", "Elvis Wade: A Tribute To The Legends Of The 50s, 60s & 70s | Things to do in Orlando", "The Sad End of the First Elvis Impersonator", "Policing Elvis: Legal Action and the Shaping of Post-Mortem Celebrity Culture as Contested Space. The Complete History of Elvis Impersonators in 10 minutes [from the documentary Almost Elvis] BlueSuedeFilms 1.65K subscribers Subscribe 43K views 14 years ago The complete history of Elvis. 2.9K views, 40 likes, 10 loves, 16 comments, 11 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from WiseDrums: So twice a year I play drums for my father Dennis Wise who's been an Elvis Presley tribute artist since. Elvis Presley performs in Providence, R.I., on May 23, 1977. . (The first was a 1981 skit about a sleazy Rock and Roll Heaven marketing company, featuring Eddie Murphy, that made a joke about the Three Js Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Croce.) In 1978, the clone tour was cited in Rolling Stones year-end issue, under the header The Brides of Funkenstein. (Two aspiring women performers underwent plastic surgery: one to look like a female Elvis; the other, Janis Joplin.) But almost as soon as it arrived, Rock and Roll Heaven imploded, and ODay became the smallest of footnotes in pop history books. In an episode of Due South, Season one, episode 10, "The Gift of the Wheelman", It's Christmas time and the police station is filled with Santas, elves and Elvises. He is considered to be one of the first notable Elvis impersonators and even Presley himself supposedly said that Kaufman was his favorite impersonator. My first gig was in March 1978 in Florida. Only after Elvis' untimely death on August 16, 1977, did impersonating Elvis start to become popular in the mainstream. The first night, Wise was singing Love Me Tender and passing out scarves la the King when a woman in the crowd came up and grabbed him in the crotch. By the mid-Eighties, ODay was running out of schemes. As she later told the Orlando Sentinel, the whole show gave her the creeps due to real weird girls who started hanging out during my shows, biker types. She complained to ODay about her female-Elvis role, but he wasnt listening: Nothing I said seemed to sink in, Rhyne said. ensemble. Gradually Elvis became a bigger part of the act. We did a couple of state fairs where there were, like, four people in the audience.. Me go in and have my face carved? But I was pretty ugly anyway. And the hype factor, always important to ODay, appealed to him, too: Man, the monster maker himself onstage. The music will be all Elvis, from the Vegas years. Hazebroucks lips were enlarged and lowered, and his straight hair was given a Croce-style perm. [52], During the early 1990s, Sam Leilani from Reseda, L.A. made the news briefly. There are even several radio stations[1][2] that exclusively feature Elvis impersonator material. The 24th season of the American adaptation of Big Brother featured Daniel Durston, an Elvis impersonator from Las Vegas, Nevada. These days, O'Day (who died in 2003) is "the smallest of footnotes in pop history books," but he was also remarkably prescient, writes Browne: "Long before Las Vegas residencies, biopics, and massive publishing buyout deals, ODay imagined a world in which classic-rock nostalgia would be a lucrative business." Somebody hit him in the face and knocked him out. 1970's Dennis Wise Enterprize ELVIS Impersonator jacket Men's Large satin look . $12.95 Cost of his first guitar, bought in 1946 at the Tupelo Hardware Store, $17.50 Tickets to dinner show at the Hilton, including lobster or steak, in the 1970s, 837 Consecutive sold-out shows at the International and Hilton, $43.7 million Worth of show tickets sold in Las Vegas (more than $150 million in 2008 dollars), 1956 Heartbreak Hotel, I Want You, I Need You, I Love You, Dont Be Cruel / Hound Dog, Love Me Tender, 1957 Too Much, All Shook Up, (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear, Jailhouse Rock, 1960 Stuck on You, Its Now or Never, Are You Lonesome Tonight?. [21], Blackpool in the UK, features a busy Elvis wedding chapel[22] based at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Queens promenade, where couples can have their wedding vows renewed by Martin Fox. He has continuously performed his Elvis tribute act for almost 50 years, including performances in Las Vegas and headlining an Elvis tribute show in Branson, MO for almost 20 years beginning in 1993. He said this guy is putting together a show and they need a Janis Joplin, Caywood recalls. This has prompted other impersonators, like Mark Lee Pringle of Ohio, to include these details in their shows. Ultimately, just as in the living-person rock business, money changed everything. Ramona Caywood then Mona Caywood Moore was playing bar gigs in Ohio, in a band called Stage Fright, when she received a call from a friend in the business. Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at the casino cashier or by calling 702-507-5980 starting January 7, 2020. Due to confusion about who is going as Elvis all three do it, appearing in sequence as Elvis at different stages of his career, winning the competition. The play features a Chinese Elvis impersonator called Timothy Wong, who transforms the lives of the characters in the play. A fast and unbiased roundup of whats happening in the world today. Last year, he earned $54 million, topping the list of dead performers who are still making money. In an episode of How I Met Your Mother Marshall and Lily are serenaded by a Korean Elvis. O'Day made sure there was fanfare around itWise recalls exiting the plastic surgeon's clinic in a wheelchair to find "100 people from the press all over the world taking pictures. Growing up, he dressed like Elvis and answered to Elvis in the school halls. 1970's Dennis Wise Enterprize ELVIS Impersonator jacket Men's Large satin look . It just took off, Wise says. >LVLG "Heard Around Town"
In the mid-1970s, Andy Kaufman made an Elvis impersonation part of his act. America," "Today," "Oprah Winfrey," "The Mike Douglas Show," "48 Hours",
[56] Also during the 1960s, he played rhythm guitar with The Zodiacs and then The Kavaliers, a group fronted by his brother Freddie. He spent years touring the U.S., living a rock and roll lifestyle while playing his favorite music. After the tape was mixed, James and Chips flew to New York, where James's manager had contacts with Scepter Records. Know more in just minutes with our free newsletters. The requisite jumpsuits and jewelry are there too. 2023 Getty Images. When I found out I was going to do this, I said, Well, enough of [health food], and I went out and had a cheeseburger with a shot of whiskey and beer. To dispel any doubts about the actual alcohol in her onstage bottle, shed pour some of it into the glasses of skeptical fans in the front rows, and watch as they gulped it down and realized they were drinking genuine Southern Comfort. I wanted to be an entertainer, and who doesnt want to be like Elvis come on!, Effie insists the idea was her late husbands. Danny pulls in with a brand-new Burt Reynolds Trans Am, he says. The TV appearance was a mixed bag: Dr. Joyce Brothers, the star psychologist and talk-show regular, accused ODay of being a Manson-style cult leader. The shows are on the weekends before or after the dates so fans can sleep in. Tourists would visit the mansion and then stop by Wises club for the tribute act. When the band broke up my brother returned to the mainland but I stayed on in Hawaii a couple of years. SUMMERS: So it is deep cuts and classics all weekend at the Birmingham Hilton. Other honors bestowed upon Wise
[58], Another Elvis of Samoan descent is Johnny Angel. 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. We were offered a job to go to Hawaii, Wise says. This show will be a little different from the past few years, Wise says. He would be in the traditional Elvis dress from the waist up, but from below the waist was in Bermuda shorts and bare feet. Later that year, he was joined by the rest of the clone army for their post-surgery reveal on the daytime show America Alive! I do two annual shows one for his passing and one for his birth (Jan. 8), the 54-year-old tribute artist says. By 1977, the band found itself gigging in Arkansas, doing what their guitarist Jim Wise calls Stevie Wonder and disco stuff. ODay was also learning how to work the system. Hes consistently at the top of its top-earning The group slogged on, hitting up clubs and nightclubs, until the next logical step in the traditional rock-band arc arrived a reunion tour. This fabricated myth was featured as a news item in the Weekly World News, and has been misunderstood to be factual by people who do not realize that the Weekly World News is well known to publish outlandish and often unbelievable articles. After James' recording failed commercially, the song was handed to Elvis Presley by producer Chips Moman, becoming a number one song in 1969, and one of the most notable hits of Presley's career. "PM Magazine," "Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon" and "American
His marriage to Rhyne fell apart. "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 willit's minstrelsy once-removed. Once the artists are gone, theyre gone, says Pezzuti. Watching from afar as he attempted to revive his deflated career as a new Elvis, Dennis Wise had his worries. But he hit a snag: According to his musicians, the Vegas casino establishment wanted ownership of the idea and were less interested in working with ODay himself. People were calling me from all over the world. But the fans gave their tender love to Shawn Klush of Pittston, PA, crowning him King in the finale. And with that, another lightbulb flicked on. He said, Give me something! and a nurse came over and plunged this needle into me. Wise soon went under. But long before Las Vegas residencies, biopics, and massive publishing buyout deals, ODay imagined a world in which classic-rock nostalgia would be a lucrative business. The next night, they and a new batch of clones appeared onstage, and suddenly ODay was Kenny Rogers and Rhyne was looking a bit like Linda Ronstadt, then at the peak of her pop career. In 1985, he resurfaced in his home state of Maryland, managing a bar, Dannys, on Route 50 in Easton. Wise says that, inspired by Dark Passage, the 1947 film in which Humphrey Bogarts escaped-con character undergoes plastic surgery to avoid recapture, he suggested altering his face to look more like the King. covering all phases of Presley's recording career, including rock `n'
And I said, Well, you know, I guess I could do something. Caywood was up for singing Joplin tunes: I thought, Cool, that sounds fun! Im famous for picking up and moving my entire life. [45] The following year in August 1977, he was appearing at the Colonial Inn, fronting a nine-piece band called Coastal Connection. It is a story of theft and betrayal, revolving around a plot to rob the Riviera Casino during a convention of Elvis impersonators in Las Vegas. So O'Day moved on: to "Rock and Roll Heaven," a tour he dreamed up that would feature not just an Elvis, but Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jim Croce, too. He would sit around talking about things like that. He could visualize things happening or ways to promote them. I got more publicity over that than John Travolta did in 1978. Travolta was popular at the time because of Saturday Night Fever and Grease.. Dennis Wise has been paying tribute to Elvis for more than 30 years. The pub and everything in it, including Hamilton Beach mixers, towels, and soap dispensers was sold in 1988. I have no idea. CKX, INC, which now owns Elvis Presley's estate, has full control including the grave of Elvis Presley and his family members along with his home Graceland in early 2008. The best known was the Upsetters, an R&B and soul outfit that ODay joined in 1965. favorite song was "Heartbreak Hotel", and to his father's chagrin, he
Hes lead singer for the dance band Deja Vu, which performs from 6 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays at South Point. According to Rolling Stone, less than 50 people turned up to their debut show in Atlanta. He recalls seeing cocaine backstage, and during a Tahoe drive, Gamble stocked his black Lincoln with a cooler of beer and some Jack Daniels and was, of course, pulled over by cops for some infraction. Shane will be drumming for with his dad on Saturday night. Dean Vegas and Paul Fenech from Australia were also booked for the event. "[18] According to George Plasketes, there are "legions of impersonators. At Gambles suggestion, his girlfriend, a North Carolina native named Deborah (or Erin) Rhyne, had her nose straightened and hair dyed black to resemble a female Elvis. (Im going to be Elvis in the early 1950s, when he was feminine-looking, she said.). In February 1980, friends, family, and roller-disco ushers gathered at the Fifth National Banque, a club in Norfolk, Virginia, for what ODays business manager would call the first clonehead marriage. Their faces covered in bandages, ODay and Rhyne took their vows; even the bride and groom figurines on the cake were swathed in bandages. Admission is $10. It was perfect, but it was a lot of trouble, Wise says. [59][60] Like Alphonso Keil before him,[61] Angel regularly performs at the Parkes Elvis Festival, an event that now attracts 20,000. Written in 1968 by Mark James, who was also co-writer of \"Always on My Mind\" (which Presley would later record), the song first was recorded and released by James on Scepter Records in 1968. In Fallout: New Vegas, the Kings are an Elvis-themed gang based out of the "King's School of Impersonation". But in the current landscape, where dead pop stars seem as prevalent as living, breathing ones, Danny ODays outlandish vision remains open for business. Some ETAs record CDs to sell at their shows, which of course contain many of the Elvis standards, but could also include some of their own songs as well as songs of other artists. He needed those people if we were going to play in Las Vegas, says Caywood. Access the best of Getty Images with our simple subscription plan. The Getty Images design is a trademark of Getty Images. Eventually, ODay was able to smuggle Wise into that clinic on that day in January 1978. One of the most popular modern plays dealing with Elvis impersonation is Lee Hall's Cooking with Elvis (1999). Dave Ehlert from Waukegan, IL began performing as Elvis in 1967 a full 10 years before Elvis died. [3], Many impersonators sing Presley's songs. David stayed with Elvis at Graceland for 17 years, and traveled with him until the end, August 16,1977. A lot of guys stick to your basic Elvis songs, like Jailhouse Rock, but what I try to do is to expand it to let people know this is what Elvis did gospel, rock n roll, R&B. A lot of us in the entertainment business dont get a chance to do some of the normal things. Croce had perished in a plane crash in 1973, but Marc Hazebrouck, a former truck driver and psychology major from Rhode Island, was already playing songs by Croce and had a droopy mustache to match. It took a long time to get over that.. They began using the contest along with their Elvis brand, licensing anyone wanting to charge a fee to hold an Elvis contest. "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 "[14], There are also some Elvis impersonators who specialize in experimenting with gender, sexuality, race, taste and decency. Thousands of "Elvi" gave it their best shot in the 2007 BBC competition show World's Greatest Elvis. From left: Rhyne, ODay, and Hazebrouck performing as Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, and Jim Croce at a Florida club in 1981. I dont know where it went or if somebody didnt get paid.). He wound up in one called the Flim Flam Band, where his future wife Effie saw him perform covers in her hometown of Ocala, Florida, in the early Seventies. Some of the performers had reservations about what they were doing. It's only fitting that he would
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Arona Mane Shows Off His Production on Thandi Phoenix's new single 'Hot Sauce'. He knew the time was coming when the bond between rock icons and fans would grow so intense that an industry could rise to exploit that union. Despite ODays high hopes, and a decent amount of news coverage, the Rock and Roll Heaven tour didnt quite make the impact hed imagined. Siegfried & Roy, and Wayne Newton. Some ETAs perform under stage names, mostly using names associated in some way with Presley's life or career (such as Presley's character names in his movies).
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