Im impersonating her, but I was the same age she was when she died. But some of that melted away when ODay landed them a residency at Harrahs in Lake Tahoe, followed by a similar stint at that same casino in Reno in the early months of 1979. [39] His day job is at BGT Laboratories in Ffostrasol, which makes antidote products including snake anti-venom. Hes great.. The first singer to go through the surgery was Elvis impersonator Dennis Wise; a former car salesman from Hawaii who traveled to the U.S. to try his luck as a tribute act. A fast and unbiased roundup of whats happening in the world today. The main character of Cartoon Network's Johnny Bravo is heavily influenced by Elvis along with James Dean and Michael Jackson. some memories. (When the ceremony was over, they had some difficulty eating the wedding cake.) After the semi-highs of their casino days, they found themselves scrambling to survive, selling magazines to convenience stores and even hawking their own blood to pay the bills, as they told the Orlando Sentinel. 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). About then Wise began managing a band that included his brother, Jim. Smith's physical resemblance to Elvis and his mannerisms happened to catch the attention of DJ Norm Pringle of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, who had been playing "That's All Right, Mama" and "Heartbreak Hotel" on the radio. A 'Must See' video.Featuring:Rick Bonner (Vocals)Cody SlaughterDonny EdwardsNick NicolasIndia's ElvisElvis PresleyWatch \"Rick Bonner 'The Ultimate Performance' (Please share)\" on YouTube\"Suspicious Minds\" is a song written by American songwriter Mark James. He and his brother formed a garage band in the early 70s. Organize, control, distribute and measure all of your digital content. What if, instead of one altered rocker, he had an all-star ensemble of them? The Philippines has its own Elvis Presley impersonator, Filipino singer, and actor Eddie Mesa, dubbed as the Elvis Presley of The Philippines. Dad hated Elvis. The Complete History of Elvis Impersonators in 10 minutes - YouTube Bags were removed from under OConnells eyes, and wrinkles from his cheeks. 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. Elvis birthday events So, this morning I was invited by the crew at KTNV Channel 13 to talk about Presley, and who do. Watching from afar as he attempted to revive his deflated career as a new Elvis, Dennis Wise had his worries. The shit hit the fan. When the run ended in March 1979, Caywood recalls a big blowup over money, and the band broke up. 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. >LVLG "Heard Around Town" 'The World's Greatest Elvis impersonator.EVER!' - YouTube One of his biggest fans is Dennis Wise, a man who even had his face and hairline changed through plastic surgery to look more like Elvis. Dennis Wise is the ultimate fan and the ultimate Elvis performer, with more than 10,000 shows honoring the king. It's only fitting that he would Siegfried & Roy, and Wayne Newton. The three songs he sang were, "If I Can Dream", "Kentucky Rain" and "Polk Salad Annie". There are many different types of Elvis impersonators and Elvis tribute artists. He heard ODay was now working with a country band something about tributes to country singers and tracked them down in a bar. In the words of Jim Croces son A.J., as quoted in Rolling Stone, Jesus Christ thats some twisted shit. We feel you on that, A.J. Thanks to an unstable household his mother had several husbands ODay eventually left home for California, where he hustled his way into other bands. Wise is King for a Night on Saturday at Boulder Station. Stinson doesn't skimp on his Graceland shows. 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. Rolling Stone later ranked it No. In the end credits of the episode, Mark sings the theme tune in the style of Elvis. [3], Many impersonators sing Presley's songs. (Rhyne, by then remarried and known as Deborah Erin Bertalan, died of complications from a brain tumor in 2011. I thought I was headed back to Hawaii, but the guy said Ill take him. [33] A humorous example of mathematical extrapolation posits that if the growth of Elvis impersonators continued at the rate it did since 1977, by 2043, all humans on earth would be Elvis impersonators. Mom was the fan in the house. (I knew it wasnt the original, the woman said of ODay. In The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, a dancer named Tott with a striking resemblance to Elvis Presley appears on Windfall Island. The gimmick baffled some who had known ODay. [16], According 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. In 2003, at age 54, ODay succumbed to non-Hodgkins lymphoma. True impersonators don't 'do Elvis' for monetary gain, but as missionaries to spread the message of The King. The original unaired pilot even had Johnny Bravo as a literal Elvis Presley impersonator. What followed was anything but conventional, even during an era, the Seventies, when genuine rock stars would pop up on campy network TV specials. 91 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Another Filipino Elvis impersonator is singer businessman Chito Bertol who also impersonates Elvis Presley mostly at Bistro RJ Bar in Makati City, and sometimes occasionally performs every year with Filipino singer businessman Ramon Jacinto who was the founder of Bistro RJ and his radio station DZRJ 100.3 FM & his TV station DZRJ TV 29 in the Philippines. Drive. I really hated him then. On New Years Eve 1979, during the tours Reno run, she tossed down 50 sleeping pills and some champagne and hoped it would all end. from the cities of Augusta, Georgia and New Orleans, Louisiana. The King is as popular today as he was when he died suddenly at the age of 42 in the Memphis mansion on Aug. 16, 1977. We did a couple of state fairs where there were, like, four people in the audience.. [52], During the early 1990s, Sam Leilani from Reseda, L.A. made the news briefly. They dont know what theyre getting into. But nothing would stop them, or ODay. All Rights reserved. The band shifted into Also Sprach Zarathustra (the theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey), the traditional orchestral opener for Presleys shows, and Gamble, in full Elvis sunglasses and jumpsuit, welcomed everyone to the performance. Rock and Roll Heaven opened with the backup band playing an instrumental version of the Righteous Brothers dead-rocker hit of the same name. The guys in the band were all laughing.. Dennis Colt, the first famous Elvis impersonator, circa 1978. Longtime Elvis impersonator to go beyond the standards My whole life has been dedicated to Elvis.. Original faux-Elvis Dennis Wise practices post-surgery with promoter Danny ODay, 1978. Their fellow townspeople understand this sentiment, but in the final scene they are shown burning those selfsame photographs, which display both Oscar and Emma dressed as Elvis. Jim called Dennis, who was then selling Toyotas at a Honolulu dealership, and asked if hed want to come to Arkansas and try out for their band. ODay later admitted the idea was also suggested by Rhyne and that he had his own doubts: I said, What, are you crazy? From as early as five years old, Dennis can remember He wanted all the glory. Wise says he never saw a dime, nor ever saw ODay again. The group slogged on, hitting up clubs and nightclubs, until the next logical step in the traditional rock-band arc arrived a reunion tour. There are also three "how to" guides, Be Elvis! To become the Gambler balladeer, ODay had a hair transplant, dyed his hair gray, and had his jowls tightened. You dont miss your water until the well runs dry. Symptoms of the condition included the patient dressing up like Elvis, wearing a white/grey jacket with a red music note at its back, matching trousers, sunglasses and Elvis' famous hairdo. Rhyne survived, and overcome by guilt, ODay brought her to Florida to help with her recovery. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. For this paper, he interviewed many impersonators and draws parallels with minstrelsy. Almost Elvis[29] is a 75-minute 2001 documentary film that follows a variety of professional Elvis impersonators such as they prepare for a large annual contest in Memphis, Tennessee. It was like the stream of consciousness off the top of his head. I asked him to show me his license and he refused.) According to Rhynes sister-in-law, Wanda, Rhyne was happy, for a time: Danny was the love of her life. The film version also stars Ossie Davis as Jack, a black man who claims to be John F. Kennedy. 7:30 pm. Original faux-Elvis Dennis Wise practices post-surgery with promoter Danny O'Day, 1978. roll, gospel, pop, and country. This time, the surgeries werent quite as invasive as theyd been with Wise. international record is an honor shared only by Las Vegas entertainers According to a popular myth, Presley himself entered an Elvis lookalike contest at a local restaurant shortly before his death, and came in third place. '"[13] Professional Elvis impersonation can be called a special branch of the entertainment industry. his performance, Wise imparts trivia about Elvis's music, as well as It was her motivation that helped him become an Elvis tribute artist. ), 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. 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. After spending the next two years on the road, he and his wife, Marcia, decided to settle down in Las Vegas. Described as the original and best-known Elvis Presley tribute artist, Dennis Wise has performed more than 10,000 shows in all 50 states and in other countries including Peru, England and Japan. He said this guy is putting together a show and they need a Janis Joplin, Caywood recalls. His brother had arranged an Wow your guests with a visit from the King of Rock and Roll! He was the winner of the competition. Elvis Impersonators for Hire in Ontario | GigSalad 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. A few years later, Caywood and her then-husband, who was in the band, returned to the site, and there the pile remained, in all its mangled glory. Hazebroucks lips were enlarged and lowered, and his straight hair was given a Croce-style perm. He was only 42 years of age. Hes Elvis. People loved it.. (Actually, they didnt go on the road so fast: The first gig, at a club in St. Petersburg, Florida, perhaps aptly named J.P. Bottoms Lounge, never happened. audition for Wise as an Elvis Presley impersonator. Dave Ehlert from Waukegan, IL began performing as Elvis in 1967 a full 10 years before Elvis died. One of the most popular modern plays dealing with Elvis impersonation is Lee Hall's Cooking with Elvis (1999). [10] As Kaufman gained fame, the impersonation was used less and less. And with that, another lightbulb flicked on. By coincidence, Wise had a brother, Dennis, who knew how to sing like Elvis. Admission is $10. Hazebrouck, who was still performing as Croce, rejoined ODay and Rhyne for a Kenny, Linda, and Jim show. Bandstand.". Danny pulls in with a brand-new Burt Reynolds Trans Am, he says. 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.). Tickets are $18 and can be purchased at the casino cashier or by calling 702-507-5980 starting January 7, 2020. He would be in the traditional Elvis dress from the waist up, but from below the waist was in Bermuda shorts and bare feet. "[17], However, the Elvis industry includes "professional Elvis impersonator registries." 2023 Getty Images. At a hotel pool in Florida, an on-message ODay introduced his clones to a writer from the Miami News and regaled the reporter with tales from his rock & roll crypt. Tribute bands are nothing new, but this guy didnt feel like costumes were enough. This The final Elvis impersonator made a splash by parachuting in on top of a car. We were on the road, home-schooling our son, Shane, and he wanted to play ball and do things like normal kids do, Wise says. Smith was featured several times on Pringle's regular TV show, though Smith only pretended to sing and play along with the music since he actually could neither sing nor play the guitar at that time.[7]. We all went, What the hell? But for Patten, who attended the service, it was ODays new normal: Again, it was Danny doing what Danny did., A month later, ODay popped up at a Rogers press conference in Virginia, where he and a seemingly amused Rogers good-naturedly tugged at each others beards. They wanted the whole property to themselves.. His marriage to Rhyne fell apart. Its America.. ", and Miley's brother Jackson, in Hannah Montana, impersonated Elvis twice: The first time was to fool a gossip reporter, as a coverup, after Miley accidentally blabbed the Hannah-secret to her; and the second time was when Miley and Lily impersonated Dolly Parton and Miley's "Mamaw" Ruthie, respectively, after it came out that Ruthie and Dolly (portrayed by Parton herself) had a fight over Elvis Presley. Dennis Wise thought that was the end of it all and he would return to Hawaii, but instead, ODay asked him to meet at his hotel. The novelty of the show, at a club in Melbourne, Florida, combined with all the press the surgery had received, commanded a rock-star-worthy fee $15,000 for the first week (about $60,000 today). American protest singer Phil Ochs appeared in concert in March 1970 at Carnegie Hall wearing a 1950s Elvis-style gold lam suit, made for him by Presley's costumer Nudie Cohen. As it turned out, Duke OConnell, the drummer in an ODay-managed cover band called the Copycats, had been singing Doors songs in that group. She wouldnt let go, he chuckles. Saturday, January 18 at 8:30 pm Cascade Lounge. (Photo by Getty Images). Its become the most collected U.S. stamp with more than 124 million saved and more than 500 million sold. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. Dennis Wise Tickets, 2023 Concert Tour Dates | Ticketmaster On "the thriving phenomenon of Elvis impersonators", see also Gilbert B. Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend (1996). ", "Guinness book of records - Largest gathering of Elvis impersonators", Gadfly Online: David McNair and Jayson Whitehead, "Love and Theft. ACCESS RIGHTS ONLY. His performance may be considered the first significant Elvis impersonation. The Disney Channel sitcoms Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody both featured main characters dressing up and acting like Elvis. ODays first choice bailed when his name leaked to the press. [56] Also during the 1960s, he played rhythm guitar with The Zodiacs and then The Kavaliers, a group fronted by his brother Freddie. Decades before hologram tours, one rogue '70s promoter found another way to put Elvis, Janis, Jim Morrison, and other late icons back onstage. He [37] In February 2013, he was set to appear at the annual fourth tribute to Elvis Presley event, held at the Auckland Botanic Gardens in Manurewa, Auckland. Wise was doing an Elvis show in Hawaii. Ive never missed a year, says Wise. 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 Presleywho escaped the pressures of his fame long ago by impersonating an Elvis impersonator and is now a resident in a nursing home. This is a publicly distributed handout. At the tours debut, at the Southeastern Music Fair in Atlanta in September 1978, fewer than 50 people showed up. 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. We just sort of grew apart, she says with a sigh. Standing Outside Graceland, A sermon for Reformation Day/Sunday there are currently no upcoming events. The small western New South Wales town of Parkes in Australia has been hosting the Parkes Elvis Festival since 1993, which includes a special "Elvis Express" train from Sydney to Parkes. Fans who wish to pay homage to the King of Rock n Roll might enjoy attending Wises annual show commemorating the passing of Elvis. Editor's note: This story was updated to reflect the correct date that Elvis Presley died. He appeared in episode 3 of the BBC Two Wales documentary, Cardigan Bay Coastal Lives. Gamble switched to Christian music and eventually became an ordained minister in Arizona, where he currently lives. The two still performed in what tiny clubs they could, but one day a waitress told ODay, who was singing Kenny Rogers songs with another act, that he bore some resemblance to the Gambler growler. Wise has been performing his Elvis act longer than almost anybody since 1977. But the fans gave their tender love to Shawn Klush of Pittston, PA, crowning him King in the finale. 3000 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. 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. Some of these impersonators go to Graceland on the anniversary of Presley's death to make their personal tribute to the artist. He was popular in the South, but not so much around the rest of the country. Droser in a 1993 paper derived from the Elvis impersonators the term Elvis taxon (plural Elvis taxa), which denotes a taxon that has been misidentified as having re-emerged in the fossil record after a period of presumed extinction, but is not actually a descendant of the original taxon, instead having developed a similar morphology through convergent evolution. ODay scrambled and found a replacement after several tries. All rights reserved. Leilani, who had referred to himself as a "rock 'n' roll-singing Polynesian guy", had formed a rockabilly band in the early 90s and had performed in Hawaii. He almost never talked about his previous life or Rock and Roll Heaven with family (including a son, Andrew, who performs solo and with an Eighties tribute band around D.C.). Elvis impersonators set to appear besides Fitter were Brendon Chase, Melissa Perkins and Kerryn Winn. I was 30 or 32 and wild and crazy anyway. 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. In pop music, the tradition of the tribute band, the imitator, the impersonator, is now as durable as the concert T-shirt or the demand for an encore. Elvis Presley death mystery - ClassicBands.com $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?. American Sound Studio was gaining a reputation in the industry as the Box Tops had just recorded \"The Letter\" there so James relocated to Memphis. ODay who used the word clone while agreeing that that wasnt quite the right scientific term for what he had paid doctors to do even boasted hed found a chemist in Los Angeles who could alter someones pigment. Dragging along the white suits theyd been forced to wear onstage, the musicians piled them atop one another and set the clothes afire, resulting in what Caywood recalls as an unholy muck of cow patties, dirt, and melted polyester..