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On August 16 2007, 70,000 Elvis Presley fans came to
Graceland. They were there for the 30th anniversary of the death of the
King of Rock and Roll. But there were devoted Elvis fans
who stayed away from the Presley family home in Memphis.
‘He’s not buried there,’ they insisted,
‘because he’s not dead,’
There were rumours from the beginning. Some
fans had always refused to believe that their hero had
died from heart failure, aged 42.
Not dead?
Suspicion increased when an
autopsy report mysteriously disappeared. And many pointed
to something Elvis often said in his final concerts:
‘I don’t look very good now, but I will look
good in my coffin.’ What was he trying
to tell his fans something?
There were several theories about this supposed
‘fake death’. Elvis had
escaped his fame and returned to a simple life. Or he
was hiding from the Mafia in a FBI witness protection
programme. Or working as an undercover drugs agent for
the government. Or as a CIA spy.
Some even suggested extra-terrestrial involvement:
‘Aliens Kidnap The King.’
Colonel
Parker
The most believable theory involved Presley’s manager
‘Colonel’ Tom Parker. Parker had a history of
faking things - including the story of his own life.
‘I come from West Virginia,’ the Dutch illegal
immigrant told the press. ‘I ran away from home to
join my Uncle’s circus.’ None of this was true.
Parker had brilliantly stage-managed his star’s career. He
reinvented Elvis several times: from wild rock and roll
star to film star to Las Vegas cabaret act. The Colonel
even made Elvis join the army to improve record sales.
And the sudden, tragic death of the King of Rock and
Roll did sell a lot of records.
Had Colonel Parker fooled the world again? Not according to
a close Presley friend and pallbearer at the funeral. ‘That
was Elvis in the coffin,’ he said.
Elvis
Alive?
So why all the reported Elvis sightings over the years? Why
the reports of him being seen burger bars or shopping mall
or gas stations?
One possible explanation is that there are a lot of Elvis
Presleys around. The King lives on through 85,000
official impersonators and countless unofficial
ones. In Hong Kong, for example, fans could mark the
30th anniversary with two
Kings: Elvis
Ishikawa,
from Japan, and
the ‘Hong Kong Elvis’, Johnny Ma.
Elvis Presley died in 1977. His music lives on.
