Sightings of the American singer Elvis Presley have been reported following his death in 1977. The conspiracy theory that Elvis did not die and instead went into hiding was popularized by Gail Brewer-Giorgio and other authors.
Sightings of the American singer Elvis Presley have been reported following his death in 1977. The conspiracy theory that Elvis did not die and instead went into hiding was popularized by Gail Brewer-Giorgio and other authors.
Controversy arose almost immediately after Presley's death in 1977 and rumors circulated for years afterwards. [2] Various doctors made contradictory statements about Presley's health and the circumstances of his death, including whether or not prescription drug misuse may have contributed to singer's demise. There were accusations of a coverup to protect Presley's reputation or to conceal misconduct in the local medical examiner's office. [3] George C. Nichopoulos, Presley's primary care physician, was arrested in 1980 on allegations his prescribing massive amounts of drugs to Presley contributed to the singer's death. Nichopoulos was found not guilty of criminal complicity in Elvis's death in a 1980 trial, but his license was revoked in 1992 after he was found to have routinely over-prescribed medication for other patients. [4] Furthermore, Presley's official autopsy was re-opened for investigation in 1994. [4] These circumstances may have contributed to the belief among some observers that Presley did not actually die in 1977, or that such claims were plausible. [2]
The earliest known alleged sighting of Elvis, post-death, was the day after he died, August 17, 1977, at the Memphis International Airport. A man resembling Elvis gave the name "Jon Burrows", which was the same name Elvis used when booking hotels. [2] At that time, one could board a flight without ID, using only their plane ticket.
A series of alleged sightings took place in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1980s. In California, many people believed they had seen Elvis at California's Legoland amusement park shortly after opening in 1999. It was later revealed that Elvis impersonators were hired as an attraction to commemorate Presley. [5]
From the time of Elvis's death to 1983, Sun Records owner Shelby Singleton marketed the recordings of Elvis sound-alike James Ellis as strongly implied to be that of Elvis. Ellis donned a domino mask and assumed the identity of "Orion," based upon the title character in Gail Brewer-Giorgio's 1978 novel about a major pop star who fakes his death. Ellis disowned the Orion persona in 1983, but returned to it—to less success, since the ruse had been broken and there was little to distinguish his act from Elvis impersonators—from 1987 until his death. [6]
In late 1988, record label LS Records released the song "Spelling on the Stone", sung by an unknown vocalist purporting to be Presley. The song's narrative suggested that Presley had not actually died. Airplay received by the song on country music formats caused a number of listeners to call in to radio stations and report sightings of the singer after hearing the song, while program directors of said stations debated whether or not the song's vocal track was actually Presley. [7]
The LS Records song may have been a response to the 1988 book by Gail Brewer-Giorgio, Is Elvis Alive?, purporting the singer was alive. Eddie Clontz, editor of the Weekly World News , not only turned an article about this book into a headline of "Elvis is Alive", but, upon the enthusiastic response of readers, kept it going, taking any claim mailed in that a reader had seen Elvis and treating it as fact:
We’d say Elvis was still alive and run a picture of what Elvis would have looked like at that time. We’d get dozens of phone calls. If someone calls and says, “I saw Elvis,” you didn’t try to disprove the headline. — Iain Calder
The tabloid newspaper produced a whole series of articles, each claiming to track some further appearance or adventure of the secretly-living Elvis. The "story" of this Elvis progressed, including an incident where he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident (replete with photo), recovered, traveled through the Northwest and Canada, et cetera. [8]
Altogether, the Elvis Saga at WWN went on for at least 57 different articles. In 1992, the Weekly World News wrapped up the storyline with the headline "Elvis Dead at 58", only to announce just weeks later that also turned out to be a hoax. [9]
The American television show Unsolved Mysteries featured segments on the rumors of Elvis's survival during the 1990s.
Elvis was rumored to have appeared as an extra in the background of an airport scene in the 1990 film Home Alone . It was alleged that the bearded man wearing a turtleneck and a sports jacket, who could be seen over the left shoulder of Catherine O'Hara's character while she is arguing with an airline employee, was Elvis. Paranormal researcher Ben Radford responded to Elvis sighting believers with, "Why fake your death and then turn up as an extra in a popular movie? How could the cast and crew have failed to notice the presence of one of the most famous figures in the world? Even if he looked very different, could he have disguised his voice and mannerisms?" Radford was challenged to find the actor who played that part to prove it was not Elvis. He explained that the burden of proof was on the person making the claim. [10] In an interview with USA Today , director Chris Columbus responded, "If Elvis was on the set, I would have known." [11]
After being challenged by Radford to locate the true identity of this extra, Kenny Biddle investigated and found the man to be Gary Richard Grott, who died of a heart attack in February 2016. Biddle located Grott's son, Roman, who explained that his father was indeed the extra in the airport scene of Home Alone. Roman Grott also stated his father knew Columbus personally and appeared as an extra in several of the director's films. [12]
Bill Bixby, who co-starred with Elvis in Clambake and Speedway , hosted two television specials investigating the conspiracy: The Elvis Files (1991) [13] and The Elvis Conspiracy (1992). [14] The conspiracy was also featured in the 1990 video game, Les Manley in: Search for the King , where the titular hero attempts to find Elvis (known in the game as "the King") to win a million-dollar contest. [15] Bixby was later lampooned on the sketch TV show In Living Color , where Jim Carrey played Bixby as he and a group of hunters track down Elvis in the manner of Bigfoot.
In January 2015, a fake news website claimed that an 80-year-old homeless man in San Diego named Jessie had been posthumously identified by DNA evidence as being Elvis Presley. [16] An extremely similar-looking man was seen working as a groundskeeper for Bakersfield in 2016, and was also believed to be Elvis. [17] Some believe that Elvis attended his own 82nd birthday.[ citation needed ] An old man with security guards around him, all grey hair, grey beard, sunglasses and a panama hat on, was believed by conspiracy theorists to be Elvis. [18]
The frequency of Elvis sighting claims became famous in the 1980s, growing into a pop culture phenomenon in and of itself.
Elvis Aaron Presley, known mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Known as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Presley's energized performances and interpretations of songs, and sexually provocative dance moves, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, brought both great success and initial controversy.
Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley. Presley is buried there, as are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson, and daughter.
The Weekly World News is a tabloid formerly published in a newspaper format reporting mostly fictional "news" stories in the United States from 1979 to 2007. The paper was renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical. Its characteristic black-and-white covers have become pop-culture images widely used in the arts. It ceased print publication in August 2007. The company has a library of 110,000+ articles and 300+ original characters.
An Elvis impersonator is an entertainer who impersonates or copies the look and sound of American musician and rock singer Elvis Presley. Professional Elvis impersonators, commonly known as Elvis tribute artists (ETAs), work all over the world as entertainers, and such tribute acts remain in great demand due to the iconic status of Elvis Presley. In addition, there were several radio stations that exclusively feature Elvis impersonator material. Some of these impersonators go to Graceland Memphis, Tennessee on the anniversary of Presley's death to pay tribute to the beloved artist.
Colonel Thomas Andrew Parker was a Dutch-American talent manager and concert promoter, best known as the manager of Elvis Presley.
Elvis Presley has inspired artistic and cultural works since he entered the national consciousness. From that point, interest in his personal and public life has never stopped. Some scholars have studied many aspects of his profound cultural influence. Billboard historian Joel Whitburn declared Presley the "#1 act of the Rock era".
In the folklore of Lee County, South Carolina, the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is an entity said to inhabit the swampland of the region. First mentioned in the late 1980s, the purported sightings and damage attributed to the creature yielded a significant amount of newspaper, radio and television publicity.
Clambake is a 1967 American beach party musical film directed by Arthur H. Nadel and starring Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Bill Bixby, Gary Merrill and James Gregory. Written for the screen by Arthur Browne Jr., the film is about the heir to an oil fortune who trades places with a water-ski instructor at a Florida hotel to see if girls will like him for himself, rather than his father's money. Clambake was the last of Presley's four films for United Artists. The movie reached number 15 on the national weekly box-office charts.
"Million Dollar Quartet" is a recording of an impromptu jam session involving Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash made on December 4, 1956, at the Sun Record Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. An article about the session was published in the Memphis Press-Scimitar under the title "Million Dollar Quartet". The recording was first released in Europe in 1981 as The Million Dollar Quartet with 17 tracks. A few years later more tracks were discovered and released as The Complete Million Dollar Session. In 1990, the recordings were released in the United States as Elvis Presley: The Million Dollar Quartet. This session is considered a seminal moment in rock and roll.
George Constantine Nichopoulos, also known as Dr. Nick, was an American physician of Greek descent. He was best known as Elvis Presley's personal physician and was controversial due to the singer's longstanding abuse of prescription drugs. Although Nichopoulos retained his medical license after Presley's death, the Tennessee Medical Board eventually permanently revoked Nichopoulos's license in light of his practice of overprescribing to many patients over multiple years.
Spirit photography is a type of photography whose primary goal is to capture images of ghosts and other spiritual entities, especially in ghost hunting. It dates back to the late 19th century. The end of the American Civil War and the mid-19th Century Spiritualism movement contributed greatly to the popularity of spirit photography. The omnipresence of death in the Victorian period created a desire for evidence of the afterlife, and those who partook in Spirit Photography oftentimes hoped to receive images that depicted the likeness of a deceased relative or loved one. Photographers such as William Mumler and William Hope ran thriving businesses taking photos of people with their supposed dead relatives. Both were shown to be frauds, but "true believers", such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, refused to accept the evidence as proof of a hoax.
Gail Brewer-Giorgio is an American author whose works have speculated about the possibility that singer Elvis Presley may have faked his death in August 1977.
A faked death, also called a staged death, is the act of an individual purposely deceiving other people into believing that the individual is dead, when the person is, in fact, still alive. The faking of one's own death by suicide is sometimes referred to as pseuicide or pseudocide. People who commit pseudocide can do so by leaving evidence, clues, or through other methods. Death hoaxes can also be created and spread solely by third-parties for various purposes.
Since the beginning of his career, American singer Elvis Presley has had an extensive cultural impact. According to the monthly magazine, Rolling Stone, "It was Elvis who made rock 'n' roll the international language of pop." The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll describes Presley as "an American music giant of the 20th century who single-handedly changed the course of music and culture in the mid-1950s". His recordings, dance moves, attitude, and clothing came to be seen as embodiments of rock and roll. His music was heavily influenced by African-American blues, Christian gospel, and Southern country. In a list of the greatest English language singers, as compiled by Q magazine, Presley was ranked first, and second in the list of greatest singers of the 20th century by BBC Radio. Some people claim that Presley created a whole new style of music: "It wasn't black, wasn't white, wasn't pop or wasn't country—it was different." As most singers in his time created music geared for adults, he gave teens music to grow up with.
James Hodges Ellis, who used the stage name Orion at times in his career, was an American singer. His voice was similar to Elvis Presley's, a fact which he and his record company played upon, making some believe that some of his recordings were by Presley, or even that Presley had not died in 1977. Ellis appeared with many artists, including Loretta Lynn, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tammy Wynette, Ricky Skaggs, Lee Greenwood, Gary Morris, and the Oak Ridge Boys.
A death hoax is a deliberate report of someone's death that is later revealed to be untrue. In some cases, it might be because the person has intentionally faked death.
The Woman Who Loved Elvis is a 1993 American drama television film, directed by Bill Bixby and written by Rita Mae Brown, based on the 1992 novel Graced Land by Laura Kalpakian. It stars Roseanne Barr and her then-husband Tom Arnold, with Cynthia Gibb, Danielle Harris, and Sally Kirkland. It was filmed in June 1992 in Ottumwa, Iowa, where Arnold was born.
Elvis' Greatest Shit is a bootleg recording of Elvis Presley, released in July 1982. It assembles a number of studio recordings, live recordings, and outtakes intended to represent the worst recordings that Presley made in his career.
"Spelling on the Stone" is a 1988 song about American musician Elvis Presley, recorded by an uncredited artist impersonating him and released in response to sightings of him following his death. Since its release, the song has been attributed to Dan Willis by some sources.
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