FLASH-BACK...

Sunday Herald Sun, January 9, 2005

          FROM A JACK TO A KING

MISSISSIPPI POOR BOY CHANGED THE WORLD

    "As Elvis fans accross the world were celebrating what would have been The King's 70th birthday yesterday, the man himself was showing that not even death could slow him down.
     Elvis-born on January 8, 1935 in the Mississippi town of Tupelo to Vernon and Gladys Love Presley-is poised to take the No.1 spot in Britain tomorrow with a re-release of Jailhouse Rock, becoming Britain's 999th single to reach the top.
     Another release, One Night, could then become the 1000th No.1 on a tide of Elvis birthday mania. Not bad for a man who died of a heart attack at his Graceland, Memphis, home in August, 1977. He was only 42.

   
      THE BOY PRESLEY:                                YOUNG GUN:
   Elvis aged six. His first school        Elvis aged 10 in cow-boy gard at
   photograph.                               the Tupelo Fair, 1945.

     In Memphis alone, four days of birtyday events will include such diverse events as a concert of this music played by the Memphis Symphony Orchestra and a scavenger hunt at Graceland. Fans and impersonators have been getting ready for months and most are happy to remember Elvis in Las Vegas years: overweight, paranoid, sweating and dressed like some nightmare version of a Vegas showgirl. As one US magazine columnist put it: "Just imagine-Elvis at 70. White suede shoes. Heartbreak hospital. A little more conversation, a little less action."

 
        TOOCH WOOD:                             MY HERO:
When Nathalie Wood visited               Elvis withBrook Benton
Elvis in 1956, he took her to meet     -one of his favourite singers,         
Red Hot & Blue WHBQ radio show             backstage in 1957
host Dewey Phillips at the station's
location within the Chisca Hotel,
Memphis.

                     
                              GETTING HIS KICKS:
                      A very young Kurt Russell Kicks 
                      Elvis in a scene from it Happened
                      At the World's Fair, 1962.  

    So it's easy to forget the other Elvises-the angelic child, gauche teenager, shy performer and finally the electrifying, ground-breaking superstar who was idolesed by millions around the world and feted by the famous. Those sides of Elvis are brought alive in Todd Slaughter and Ann E. Nixon's The Elvis Archives, an account of Presley's life illustrated with more than 100 rare or exclusive photographs, some of which appear on these pages. They show Elvis in all his form, but are reminder of a talent and charisma that dominated the entertainment world."   The Elvis Archives  

    
          NASHVILL MEET GRACELAND:                          BOBBY DAZZLER:
   Johnny Cash with his arm aroud Elvis in         Bobby Darin joins up with Elvis in 
   Nashville, December 1957.                          Las Vegas for the opening night
                                                                of the Georges Burns show at the
                                                                Sahara Hotel &Casino, July 1960.

           
            THE KING MEET THE KING OF THE RING:
 Muhammad Ali "spars" with Elvis in his Hilton Hotel suite
 in Las Vegas in February, 1973. Elvis gives Ali an embroidered
 robe and Ali gives Elvis a pair of signed boxing gloves.

    
                       THE KING AND THE GOVERNOR:
    Colonel Parker links arms with Mrs Wallace and Governor georges Wallace
    backstage with Elvis in Alabama, March 6, 1974.