December 26, 2008
The publicly traded company that owns 85 percent of Elvis Presley Enterprises has completely called off its attempt to go private.
The notice from CKX Inc. cites “global economic difficulties and related credit freeze” as the reason it isn’t pursuing a merger with 19X Inc. that had been planned for earlier this year.
The merger was to be a factor in a number of plans CKX has for the Elvis brand. That includes an estimated $250 million transformation of Graceland and the surrounding commercial area on Elvis Presley Boulevard between Brooks and Raines roads.
Neither CKX executives nor officials at Elvis Presley Enterprises have talked in much detail about those plans or the impact the credit crisis might have on them.
EPE has been buying up apartment complexes west of Graceland Plaza on the other side of Elvis Presley Boulevard from the mansion. Demolition work started on those complexes several weeks ago.
Off indefinitely
CKX president and chief executive officer Robert F.X. Sillerman, through the CKX 2007 annual report, has said the plans would include Elvis-themed attractions including restaurants, a new hotel and some type of convention center.
Sillerman, along with Simon Fuller, controls 19X. Fuller is best known as the creator of the “American Idol” television program. American Idol is among the properties of CKX, along with Elvis Presley Enterprises.
As 2008 began, Sillerman announced the plans for the merger and a target date of Oct. 31.
In August, Sillerman, in a previously recorded message, told a gathering of Elvis fans in Memphis, “It would be irresponsible to say that the economic climate is not having an impact.
“I don’t think it’s going to slow down what we’re doing,” he said in response to a written question about how the national economy would affect plans for Graceland and the area of Whitehaven surrounding the estate. “We have to modify to some extent those things that we’re going to initiate at first.”
He also told the group of Elvis fans that Graceland itself wouldn’t be changed in an expansion. But he said the Graceland plaza where tourists board buses for the ride up the hill to tour the mansion might eventually move to the same side of Elvis Presley Boulevard as the mansion.
By September, Sillerman and Fuller announced they were terminating the 19X merger because of economic conditions, but also said they intended to pursue an “alternative transaction.”
With the Dec. 18 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Sillerman and Fuller have said “that they no longer intend to actively pursue an alternate transaction at this time for the acquisition of (CKX).”
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=40108
Saturday, 27 December 2008
Check out the new Elvis Beanie Babies..
November 28, 2008
Ty is offering a new line of Elvis Beanies just in time for the holiday season. These cute, collectible Elvis Beanies make great stocking stuffers and a fun gift for any Elvis fan.
You can choose from the Blue Beanie Shoes Elvis Bear, Bearning Love Elvis Bear, Viva Las Beanie Elvis Bear, Sold Gold Beanie Elvis Bear or Beanie House Rock Elvis bear - or, collect all five.
Click here to see the Elvis Beanie Bears available now at ShopElvis.com. Or, to find a Beanie retailer near you, click here. The Elvis Beanies are also available in the shops at Graceland.
Ty is offering a new line of Elvis Beanies just in time for the holiday season. These cute, collectible Elvis Beanies make great stocking stuffers and a fun gift for any Elvis fan.
You can choose from the Blue Beanie Shoes Elvis Bear, Bearning Love Elvis Bear, Viva Las Beanie Elvis Bear, Sold Gold Beanie Elvis Bear or Beanie House Rock Elvis bear - or, collect all five.
Click here to see the Elvis Beanie Bears available now at ShopElvis.com. Or, to find a Beanie retailer near you, click here. The Elvis Beanies are also available in the shops at Graceland.
Friday, 19 December 2008
Elvis Presley lives again in an artistic rethinking of a scene from Viva Las Vegas
Shannon Oksanen's Summerland an exploration of movies and image-making
Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, December 18, 2008
What happens when a movie is shown in a theatre? Sitting in a darkened theatre, you look at the moving images on the screen. If it's truly a memorable experience --a 'good movie' -- you forget yourself and become utterly absorbed in what what you're seeing. Unless something goes wrong and there's a disruption in the moving image, you don't pay attention to what's behind you projecting the images. Yet what you're doing amounts to putting yourself inside an big image machine.
At the Contemporary Art Gallery, an image machine of the kind once found in theatres is part of an exhibition by Shannon Oksanen called Summerland. An exploration of movies and image-making, the exhibition includes paintings of Elvis Presley and a remake of a water-skiing scene from the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas starring Presley and Ann-Margret.
In the original, the 30-second water-skiing segment is part of the movie's longer romantic narrative. A classic 1960s date movie full of the era's optimism, it really operates as a series of loosely connected vignettes meant to highlight both Presley's and Ann-Margret's outstanding skills as entertainers.
In the remake, the focus has changed. Now it hones in on how a man and a woman relate to each other while waterskiing. The scene is also much longer at almost four minutes. Not only has the hair colour of the two figures been reversed --the Presley character is blond and the Ann-Margret character, brunette -- more attention is paid to the the speed-boat driver. An additional character is a little girl fishing on a dock.
Both of the two main figures are slalom waterskiing on a beautifully sunny day on a lake situated in an arid landscape. He's wearing baby blue trunks. He's muscley but not muscle-bound. She's in a one-piece red bathing suit that shows off her slim figure.
They glide back and forth across the wake occasionally making googly eyes at each other. Unlike the original, which ends with an embrace and a fall into the water, the two figures in the remake never touch. In their unusual courtship ritual, the closest they get is dangling a hand by their side so that it catches the spray of the water from their water skiis.
Overall, the remake is a 'better' film. In Viva Las Vegas, Presley and Ann-Margret are filmed on a studio set with what looks like a projected background behind them. When the shot cuts to a wide shot of two people water-skiing, the two figures are so distant you can't identify who they are.
In Summerland, the two figures are filmed actually waterskiing in a way that accentuates both their skills and the beauty of the water that sprays when they turn on their skis.
In the CAG, you can sit on a bench to watch Summerland, which is projected onto almost an entire wall. Sitting there, you can hear both the percussive soundtrack as well as the sound of the sprockets of a 35 mm film being fed through a projector. Mounted on a large platform, the projector is a huge, industrial-looking machine of the type that recalls the projectors that would have been used in theatres in the 1960s.
As a title, Summerland suggests an eternally happy place where the sun always shines and everyone smiles.
Summerland as an image machine becomes even more apparent when you look back at the movie from the gallery's other exhibition room. Surrounded by paintings as well as a puppet that depicts Presley as the young man he would have been at the time Viva Las Vegas was made, you can see the projector in front of the moving images. On occasion, when the actual projector appears to be the same size as the moving images of the two waterskiing figures in Summerland, the effect is startling. It looks as if the image machine has become a third figure waterskiing with the moving figures.
The oil on linen paintings are all in soft pastel-like colors. While they don't pack the same kind of visual punch as the Summerland movie, they do work as companion pieces to the film. A little ghostly, the paintings are like memories that fade over time -- like the once bright Metrocolor likenesses of Elvis Presley created by the image machine.
Shannon Oksanen's Summerland continues to Jan. 19 at the Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson St. Vancouver, BC. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday. During the holidays, the CAG will be closed Dec. 25, 26 and Jan. 1.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastlife/story.html?id=7a231893-5ce5-4b4c-9b13-3cc23aeef966&p=1
Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, December 18, 2008
What happens when a movie is shown in a theatre? Sitting in a darkened theatre, you look at the moving images on the screen. If it's truly a memorable experience --a 'good movie' -- you forget yourself and become utterly absorbed in what what you're seeing. Unless something goes wrong and there's a disruption in the moving image, you don't pay attention to what's behind you projecting the images. Yet what you're doing amounts to putting yourself inside an big image machine.
At the Contemporary Art Gallery, an image machine of the kind once found in theatres is part of an exhibition by Shannon Oksanen called Summerland. An exploration of movies and image-making, the exhibition includes paintings of Elvis Presley and a remake of a water-skiing scene from the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas starring Presley and Ann-Margret.
In the original, the 30-second water-skiing segment is part of the movie's longer romantic narrative. A classic 1960s date movie full of the era's optimism, it really operates as a series of loosely connected vignettes meant to highlight both Presley's and Ann-Margret's outstanding skills as entertainers.
In the remake, the focus has changed. Now it hones in on how a man and a woman relate to each other while waterskiing. The scene is also much longer at almost four minutes. Not only has the hair colour of the two figures been reversed --the Presley character is blond and the Ann-Margret character, brunette -- more attention is paid to the the speed-boat driver. An additional character is a little girl fishing on a dock.
Both of the two main figures are slalom waterskiing on a beautifully sunny day on a lake situated in an arid landscape. He's wearing baby blue trunks. He's muscley but not muscle-bound. She's in a one-piece red bathing suit that shows off her slim figure.
They glide back and forth across the wake occasionally making googly eyes at each other. Unlike the original, which ends with an embrace and a fall into the water, the two figures in the remake never touch. In their unusual courtship ritual, the closest they get is dangling a hand by their side so that it catches the spray of the water from their water skiis.
Overall, the remake is a 'better' film. In Viva Las Vegas, Presley and Ann-Margret are filmed on a studio set with what looks like a projected background behind them. When the shot cuts to a wide shot of two people water-skiing, the two figures are so distant you can't identify who they are.
In Summerland, the two figures are filmed actually waterskiing in a way that accentuates both their skills and the beauty of the water that sprays when they turn on their skis.
In the CAG, you can sit on a bench to watch Summerland, which is projected onto almost an entire wall. Sitting there, you can hear both the percussive soundtrack as well as the sound of the sprockets of a 35 mm film being fed through a projector. Mounted on a large platform, the projector is a huge, industrial-looking machine of the type that recalls the projectors that would have been used in theatres in the 1960s.
As a title, Summerland suggests an eternally happy place where the sun always shines and everyone smiles.
Summerland as an image machine becomes even more apparent when you look back at the movie from the gallery's other exhibition room. Surrounded by paintings as well as a puppet that depicts Presley as the young man he would have been at the time Viva Las Vegas was made, you can see the projector in front of the moving images. On occasion, when the actual projector appears to be the same size as the moving images of the two waterskiing figures in Summerland, the effect is startling. It looks as if the image machine has become a third figure waterskiing with the moving figures.
The oil on linen paintings are all in soft pastel-like colors. While they don't pack the same kind of visual punch as the Summerland movie, they do work as companion pieces to the film. A little ghostly, the paintings are like memories that fade over time -- like the once bright Metrocolor likenesses of Elvis Presley created by the image machine.
Shannon Oksanen's Summerland continues to Jan. 19 at the Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson St. Vancouver, BC. The gallery is open Wednesday to Sunday. During the holidays, the CAG will be closed Dec. 25, 26 and Jan. 1.
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastlife/story.html?id=7a231893-5ce5-4b4c-9b13-3cc23aeef966&p=1
Monday, 15 December 2008
Woman claiming to be half-sister of Elvis drops case, plans new plea to be named heir
By Lawrence Buser (Contact), Memphis Commercial Appeal
Monday, December 15, 2008
A woman seeking to be declared the daughter of Vernon Presley -- and the half-sister of Elvis -- on Monday voluntarily dropped her effort in Probate Court to be named as an heir to the father's estate.
But Eliza Presley, 46, a divorced mother of four from Washington state, more than likely will plead her case in another court.
"The issues are still alive and well," said attorney Kathleen Caldwell, adding that Monday's dismissal was a procedural move. "It's not over by a long shot."
Eliza Presley, who changed her name this summer from Alice Elizabeth Tiffin, initially filed the claim in October, saying DNA from a still-living Elvis Presley showed her to be a relative.
Her mother, former Memphian Florence Sharp Clark of Oregon, said she was part of the Elvis social circle for a period, but that she had no child by Vernon and that the father is another Memphis man.
Clark also has suggested that her daughter has undergone plastic surgery in an effort to bolster her claim of kinship.
Eliza Presley insisted Monday that she can support her claim and said her mother is not to be believed.
"I would love to have these thousands of dollars I've allegedly spent," she said. "I have never had plastic surgery of any kind."
Attorney William Bradley Jr., who represents Elvis Presley Enterprises and Lisa Marie Presley Lockwood, said her case has no merit and that over the years there have been a dozen or more people claiming kinship to Elvis, including several Elvis Jrs.
Vernon Presley died June 26, 1979, at age 63. According to common belief, Elvis died in 1977.
Article Source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/dec/15/woman-who-claims-presley-link-may-drop-case/
Monday, December 15, 2008
A woman seeking to be declared the daughter of Vernon Presley -- and the half-sister of Elvis -- on Monday voluntarily dropped her effort in Probate Court to be named as an heir to the father's estate.
But Eliza Presley, 46, a divorced mother of four from Washington state, more than likely will plead her case in another court.
"The issues are still alive and well," said attorney Kathleen Caldwell, adding that Monday's dismissal was a procedural move. "It's not over by a long shot."
Eliza Presley, who changed her name this summer from Alice Elizabeth Tiffin, initially filed the claim in October, saying DNA from a still-living Elvis Presley showed her to be a relative.
Her mother, former Memphian Florence Sharp Clark of Oregon, said she was part of the Elvis social circle for a period, but that she had no child by Vernon and that the father is another Memphis man.
Clark also has suggested that her daughter has undergone plastic surgery in an effort to bolster her claim of kinship.
Eliza Presley insisted Monday that she can support her claim and said her mother is not to be believed.
"I would love to have these thousands of dollars I've allegedly spent," she said. "I have never had plastic surgery of any kind."
Attorney William Bradley Jr., who represents Elvis Presley Enterprises and Lisa Marie Presley Lockwood, said her case has no merit and that over the years there have been a dozen or more people claiming kinship to Elvis, including several Elvis Jrs.
Vernon Presley died June 26, 1979, at age 63. According to common belief, Elvis died in 1977.
Article Source: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/dec/15/woman-who-claims-presley-link-may-drop-case/
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Elvis Presley's 'biological son' will not be able to appeal conviction
*Now people this has to be the most ridiculous article I have yet to share... get your laughs.. lol* huugs Charmaine
By Linda Thomson
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 4:44 p.m. MST
The Utah Court of Appeals has declined to hear an appeal from a man who believes he is Elvis Presley's biological son and who was convicted of making threatening phone calls to 3rd District Court judges.
Ernest John Young, who also is known as Jason Presley, was sentenced in 2007 to zero-to-five years in prison for one count of retaliating against a judge, a third-degree felony. Young pleaded guilty, but later tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his plea.
In his appeal, Young claimed that he had not entered into the plea bargain knowingly and willingly, and cited the law regarding plea bargains and withdrawing a guilty plea after it has been entered.
However, the appeals court in a brief ruling issued Thursday said that Young in his appeal, "makes no effort to analyze the facts in his case based upon the law he cites."
The ruling said "it is not the court's responsibility to scour the record looking for facts and arguments to support an appellant's broad assertions."
At his sentencing, Young's lawyer, Brook Sessions, said that Young had not been taking necessary medication and had been drinking heavily when he made threatening phone calls to two judges in 2006, insisting that they pursue people whom Young said had conspired to murder Presley.
Young also insists that the is the heir to the vast Presley fortune. Among other things, Young has previously filed court documents regarding Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.
One document Young filed in federal court alleges that Lisa Marie Presley was involved in kidnapping triplet children by helicopter from the University of Utah Hospital as well as conspiring to commit other crimes, including several murders.
The case involving the threats against the state district judges was moved from the state's 3rd District to the 4th District to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Sessions at the time of sentencing asked 4th District Judge Gary Stott to give Young probation and have him monitored in the community by a mental health court. But a pre-sentence report drawn up by Adult Probation and Parole said Young was not a good choice for community-based services and supervision, and Young was subsequently sent to prison.
Article Source: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705269833,00.html
By Linda Thomson
Deseret News
Published: Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 4:44 p.m. MST
The Utah Court of Appeals has declined to hear an appeal from a man who believes he is Elvis Presley's biological son and who was convicted of making threatening phone calls to 3rd District Court judges.
Ernest John Young, who also is known as Jason Presley, was sentenced in 2007 to zero-to-five years in prison for one count of retaliating against a judge, a third-degree felony. Young pleaded guilty, but later tried unsuccessfully to withdraw his plea.
In his appeal, Young claimed that he had not entered into the plea bargain knowingly and willingly, and cited the law regarding plea bargains and withdrawing a guilty plea after it has been entered.
However, the appeals court in a brief ruling issued Thursday said that Young in his appeal, "makes no effort to analyze the facts in his case based upon the law he cites."
The ruling said "it is not the court's responsibility to scour the record looking for facts and arguments to support an appellant's broad assertions."
At his sentencing, Young's lawyer, Brook Sessions, said that Young had not been taking necessary medication and had been drinking heavily when he made threatening phone calls to two judges in 2006, insisting that they pursue people whom Young said had conspired to murder Presley.
Young also insists that the is the heir to the vast Presley fortune. Among other things, Young has previously filed court documents regarding Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie.
One document Young filed in federal court alleges that Lisa Marie Presley was involved in kidnapping triplet children by helicopter from the University of Utah Hospital as well as conspiring to commit other crimes, including several murders.
The case involving the threats against the state district judges was moved from the state's 3rd District to the 4th District to avoid any conflicts of interest.
Sessions at the time of sentencing asked 4th District Judge Gary Stott to give Young probation and have him monitored in the community by a mental health court. But a pre-sentence report drawn up by Adult Probation and Parole said Young was not a good choice for community-based services and supervision, and Young was subsequently sent to prison.
Article Source: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705269833,00.html
Monday, 1 December 2008
He Was Nothing but a Hound Dog
December 1, 2008
by Richard Horgan
Fifty years after the father of Elvis Presley ruined the life of an American soldier stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, that soldier’s son has turned their tale of friendship, adultery and betrayal into the screenplay for his second feature film. The fact that writer-director D. Edward Stanley, after these events went down, would go on to become Elvis’ stepbrother (at age four) and eventual bodyguard (at age 16!) only adds to the intrigue of how Vernon Presley proved to be no friend of Master Sergeant William J. Stanley.
Titled Restoring my Father’s Honor, the flashback drama chronicles the efforts of Stanley Jr. to right the story of how Vernon, after befriending Stanley Sr.overseas in 1958 and starting an affair with the latter’s wife Dee, relied on the trappings of his celebrity to squash the distraught husband’s attempts to expose the adultery. Instead of flushing out Vernon as a scoundrel, Stanley Sr. wound up in a padded room at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington and saw his wife go on to marry Elvis’ dad in 1960, just as the truth about the sordid love triangle was finally being exposed.
The idea that Stanley Jr., after living at Graceland from 1960 through 1977 and making a 2006 feature about his bodyguard days titled Protecting the King, is now engaged in the business of vetting Vernon (pictured above right, circa 1959 with Dee) as vermin to today’s audiences cannot help but elevate this project above the usual indie fray. Especially when you add the fact that Stanley Jr. did not attend his biological father’s funeral in 1991 and only really started to learn about what went down in Germany in the late 1950’s via dad’s unpublished memoirs, which he received posthumously in the mail.
In terms of Elvis lore, Stanley Jr. is perhaps best know as the earliest and most vocal proponent of the theory that the King’s death was in fact a suicide. These allegations first came to light in 1990, when the now Dallas based filmmaker shared his theory in a Life Magazine interview article written by Presley biographer Albert Goldman.
Source Article: http://www.filmstew.com/showBlog.aspx?blog_id=1460
by Richard Horgan
Fifty years after the father of Elvis Presley ruined the life of an American soldier stationed in Frankfurt, Germany, that soldier’s son has turned their tale of friendship, adultery and betrayal into the screenplay for his second feature film. The fact that writer-director D. Edward Stanley, after these events went down, would go on to become Elvis’ stepbrother (at age four) and eventual bodyguard (at age 16!) only adds to the intrigue of how Vernon Presley proved to be no friend of Master Sergeant William J. Stanley.
Titled Restoring my Father’s Honor, the flashback drama chronicles the efforts of Stanley Jr. to right the story of how Vernon, after befriending Stanley Sr.overseas in 1958 and starting an affair with the latter’s wife Dee, relied on the trappings of his celebrity to squash the distraught husband’s attempts to expose the adultery. Instead of flushing out Vernon as a scoundrel, Stanley Sr. wound up in a padded room at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington and saw his wife go on to marry Elvis’ dad in 1960, just as the truth about the sordid love triangle was finally being exposed.
The idea that Stanley Jr., after living at Graceland from 1960 through 1977 and making a 2006 feature about his bodyguard days titled Protecting the King, is now engaged in the business of vetting Vernon (pictured above right, circa 1959 with Dee) as vermin to today’s audiences cannot help but elevate this project above the usual indie fray. Especially when you add the fact that Stanley Jr. did not attend his biological father’s funeral in 1991 and only really started to learn about what went down in Germany in the late 1950’s via dad’s unpublished memoirs, which he received posthumously in the mail.
In terms of Elvis lore, Stanley Jr. is perhaps best know as the earliest and most vocal proponent of the theory that the King’s death was in fact a suicide. These allegations first came to light in 1990, when the now Dallas based filmmaker shared his theory in a Life Magazine interview article written by Presley biographer Albert Goldman.
Source Article: http://www.filmstew.com/showBlog.aspx?blog_id=1460
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