Elvis & STAR WARS: 40 Years Ago Today

Elvis Presley died on this date in 1977. STAR WARS was released earlier that summer.

So the big pop culture question is: did Elvis see STAR WARS?

Sadly, the answer from every source is no, he didn’t, but he wanted to. The day before he passed he was trying to obtain a print of the movie so he could watch it with his daughter, Lisa Marie. Three days before that, he had taken her, and his girlfriend Ginger Alden to see the then latest James Bond movie, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, the last film he saw at the cinema (the picture above is of them in his 1973 Stutz Blackhawk III coming back from the movie).

I posted the above blurb a year ago today on Facebook - the 39th anniversary of the King’s death - and doing new research now, I see that I wasn’t alone in wondering about whether he was able to experience the hugely popular space epic before he shuffled off this mortal coil. The STAR WARS blog, Episode Nothing, had a very similar post entitled “Did Elvis see Star Wars?”, and in 2014 the Elvis blog, elvispresleyexpert.wordpress.com, even asked “Could Star Wars have saved the life of Elvis Presley?”

As far back as 2005, the site everything2.com, also speculated about it, and pondered if the movie’s director, George Lucas, ever saw Presley in concert.

It’s too bad that one of the biggest films of all time wasn’t seen by one of the biggest performers of all time. I, of course, can’t (or don’t want to) speculate on whether if it would’ve saved him, but I bet he would’ve loved it.

More later...

That Time I Met Mary Tyler Moore

In 2009, I met Mary Tyler Moore at a book signing in Las Vegas. It was for her then newly released book “Growing Up Again: Life, Loves, and Oh Yeah, Diabetes,” which I bought and stood in a long line to have her sign. When it was my turn, I said I was very happy to meet her and “you know what? I *like* spunk!” 

This, for folks who don’t know, was a reference to a moment on the first episode of her classic television sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, in which WJM-TV’s Six O’Clock News Producer Lou Grant (Ed Asner) said “You’ve got spunk” to Moore’s character, Mary Richards, during her job interview for Associate Producer. Mary blushed and said “Well…” but Mr. Grant (as she called him throughout the show’s run) interrupted by fiercely spouting out: “I hate spunk!”

Moore, and the people standing around us laughed at my pro spunk declaration, and that encouraged me to ask her: “What of the movies that you’ve made is your favorite?” She looked away and thought about it for a moment then replied “ORDINARY PEOPLE.” I almost jokingly said “What, not CHANGE OF HABIT?” referring to the silly yet very likable 1969 movie she made with Elvis Presley (which incidentally also featured Asner), but thankfully I thought better of it, and said (I think mumbled is more like it) something I don’t remember that I think was about how great she was in ORDINARY PEOPLE as she signed my copy of her book, then thanked her and left. It’s a great memory that I’ve been randomly replaying in my head since I heard that she passed.

Coincidentally, in the last few months I’ve been re-watching episodes here and there of The Mary Tyler Moore Show on Hulu. It’s one of my all-time favorite sitcoms, and it had been a long time since I watched the whole run (seven seasons) of it on Nick at Night so it’s been fun to revisit. For those who haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend it as I do her film of choice, Robert Redford’s 1980 drama ORDINARY PEOPLE. Moore deservedly got an Oscar nomination for her performance, and the film itself won the Best Picture Academy Award.

Also recommended: Moore’s five seasons as the spunky, Capri-pants wearing Laura Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show, her acerbic performance in David O. Russell’s FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, and, yes, her part as a nun who has to choose between Elvis and Jesus in CHANGE OF HABIT.

R.I.P. Mary Tyler Moore (1936-2017)

More later...

Elvis Impersonation On Film: 10 Pretenders To The Crown

Inspired by the inspired casting of cult legend Bruce Campbell (The EVIL DEAD movies) as Elvis Presley in BUBBA HO TEP (2002) (to be released on DVD on May 25th) we thought it would be fun to take a look at:

ELVIS IMPERSONATION ON SCREEN: 10 PRETENDERS TO THE CROWN

1. KURT RUSSELL

Russell took on the roll of the King in the 1979 made-for-TV ELVIS : THE MOVIE (his first of five films for director John Carpenter), and also voiced Presley in FORREST GUMP. His uncanny likeness to the King was further exploited when he played an Elvis impersonator in Demian Lichtenstein’s 3000 MILES TO GRACELAND (2001). Amazingly Russell's first feature film role when he was only a child was in an Elvis movie, Michael Taurog's IT HAPPENED AT THE WORLD'S FAIR (1963). The best Elvis on this list for sure.

2. MICHAEL ST. GERALD: Also a convincing look-a-like, Gerald did a brief cameo as Elvis in Jim McBride's unfortunately lame-as-Hell Jerry Lee Lewis bio-pick GREAT BALLS OF FIRE (1989, but he had better material and a more respectful forum in the sinfully short-lived Elvis TV series (1990). Like with Russell's turn as the King, Gerald's vocals were provided by Ronnie McDowell.

3. NICHOLAS CAGE: Never played Elvis on film but appeared as Tiny Elvis on Saturday Night Live in 1992, disguised himself as a sky-diving Elvis impersonator in HONEYMOON IN VEGAS, was a curled lipped Elvis fanatic in David Linch’s WILD AT HEART, and he was briefly married to Lisa Marie Presley. Whew!

4. ANDY KAUFMAN

Only on stage and SNL did Kaufman do his full blown Elvis impression but he’s one of a kind on this list because he was approved by the King as his own favorite impersonator. In Milos Forman's 2000 biopic MAN ON THE MOON when Jim Carrey did Andy doing Elvis I heard that somewhere in the cosmos John Belushi's caller ID exploded. I have no idea what that means.

5. VAL KILMER: Not content with having nailed the Lizard King, Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS (1991), Kilmer inhabited the character of Elvis' ghost who counsels Christian Slater in Tony Scott's Quentin Tarantino-scripted TRUE ROMANCE (1992).

6. DAVID KEITH: An awful unconvincing portrayal in Chris Columbus' awful unconvincing 1988 comedy HEARTBREAK HOTEL, a severely misguided attempt to theorize that Elvis’s last sad years in Vegas could have been turned around by idealistic teenager who kidnaps him as a gift for his depressed mother Tuesday Weld. Weld was actually in a movie with the King, Philip Dunne's WILD IN THE COUNTRY (1961), but I digress.

7. DON JOHNSON: What the…?!!? Yep, that's right. In Gus Trikonis' long forgotten 1981 TV movie ELVIS AND THE BEAUTY QUEEN, the later stubbled, sockless, pink T-shirt wearing Miami Vice superstar was actually cast as the King. 

8. DALE MIDKIFF: Who?!!? I dunno, just a guy who played the King in ELVIS AND ME, another bad Elvis made-for-TV movie based on Priscilla Presley’s book of the same name. Shame shame shame.

9. RICK PETERS

Any Elvis impersonator would be doomed in Allan Arkush's extremely lowbrow 1997 cable movie ELVIS MEETS NIXON, but this guy doesn’t cut it at all.

10. STEPHEN JONES: Just for a haunting moment in Jim Jarmusch’s MYSTERY TRAIN (1989) Elvis’s ghost appears to Nicoletta Braschi giving this execellent movie another layer in it’s depiction of late 80’s Memphis. Also in the same movie the late great Joe Strummer spouts: “Don't call me Elvis! If you can't use my proper name, why don't you try "Carl Perkins, Jr." or something? I mean, I don't call them "Sam & Dave", do I?”

Until next time: Elvis has left the building.

More later...