I never had any desire to be an Elvis impersonator, but to help my veterinarian sister’s practice out in the local small town parade, I agreed to be “Mongrelvis”, half dog, half the King of rock-n-roll singing “Hounddog”, of course. I found out first hand the power of impersonation and Elvis’ persona. Just being half Elvis was more than enough to draw people instantly in. It was rare not to get at least a smile. I finally understood the allure of donning the white jumpsuit.
Another interesting story along these lines is that of James Brown. When Little Richard got a contract with Specialty Records and had to leave for the west coast he asked Brown to take over his remaining gigs, pretending to be Richard. Brown was quite a bit shorter than Little Richard. When he asked Richard how he could pass for him he was told "they don't know what I look like".
Great essay The apocryphal story of Sonny1 and 2 is that they met and agreed Sonny one would stay north and Sonny 2 {Miller] would stay south ? I don't remember what their " Mason Dixon" line was. Of course Sonny 1 died during his being robbed in 1947 and Sonny 2 went to Chicago and had a great career only to begin spitting up blood later in life and decided to go back to West Helena AR [to finish out his life]back to where he started on King Biscuit Flower Hour. Their is a great unmade movie in their somewhere
It occurred to me that the perfect entertainment enterprise for cloning copies is the Blue Men Group. Lots of blue paint and PVC pipe and you are indistinguishable from the original.
In "Good Morning Blues," Basie recollected trying to tour Minnesota in the early '30s only to find Lawrence Welk had multiple orchestras spread across the state, booking all the best ballrooms.
Elvis lives on Vegas! I think the King would be honored that people want to be married with his memory presiding over the nuptials. What will they go after next? The street performers in LA in front of the Chinese Theater? F-king Lawyers man.......
But no one imitates actually great musicians like Bird..(!) Or as Mingus titled a composition, "If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats"...(!)
Trans-Siberian Orchestra has two touring groups, east and west. They don't hide it though. They would never be able to make all their dates without doing it given their targeted touring season.
My guess is the owner of Elvis’s name and likeness is concerned that unlicensed use of his name and likeness will make it generic and in the public domain. This means they would lose their rights. The way to keep these rights is to enforce them, as with the wedding chapels. Whether it is good policy for society to allow artists’ names and likenesses to be owned long after death by artists’ estates or transferred to companies is a thorny question, particularly in this age of easy deepfakes (who gets to profit from that?), but under our current system this is how it works.
Big fan've Elvis impersonators here! Used ta enjoy the genuinely great Jay Elvis (in Chicago) and I'm a fan've wacky covers (his an' others')--the awesome Swede Eilert Pilarm's "werks" are classics...
What I wanna say is that these impersonators came outta LOoooong Vaudeville n' later entertainment TRADITION!--no "plastik" surgery needed! If ya admire Marilyn Michaels or Frank Gorshin or Rich Little (an' earlier folks'at did the same thing--and were good at it too!) then ya'd NEVER wanna deny these folks a livin' from enjoyable tributes that COME FROM talent! I find AI and Cyber "deep fakes" a fright but real folks doin' imprersonations...a De-LIGHT!
Also, Elvis is all that's GOOD about the America I adore--Long Live THE King!
Considering the topic. I think this You Tube clip might lighten every boy's day.
A disguised Adele entering Adele impersonators auditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHXjxWaQs9o
You can't make that up. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
I never had any desire to be an Elvis impersonator, but to help my veterinarian sister’s practice out in the local small town parade, I agreed to be “Mongrelvis”, half dog, half the King of rock-n-roll singing “Hounddog”, of course. I found out first hand the power of impersonation and Elvis’ persona. Just being half Elvis was more than enough to draw people instantly in. It was rare not to get at least a smile. I finally understood the allure of donning the white jumpsuit.
Another interesting story along these lines is that of James Brown. When Little Richard got a contract with Specialty Records and had to leave for the west coast he asked Brown to take over his remaining gigs, pretending to be Richard. Brown was quite a bit shorter than Little Richard. When he asked Richard how he could pass for him he was told "they don't know what I look like".
Great essay The apocryphal story of Sonny1 and 2 is that they met and agreed Sonny one would stay north and Sonny 2 {Miller] would stay south ? I don't remember what their " Mason Dixon" line was. Of course Sonny 1 died during his being robbed in 1947 and Sonny 2 went to Chicago and had a great career only to begin spitting up blood later in life and decided to go back to West Helena AR [to finish out his life]back to where he started on King Biscuit Flower Hour. Their is a great unmade movie in their somewhere
It occurred to me that the perfect entertainment enterprise for cloning copies is the Blue Men Group. Lots of blue paint and PVC pipe and you are indistinguishable from the original.
In "Good Morning Blues," Basie recollected trying to tour Minnesota in the early '30s only to find Lawrence Welk had multiple orchestras spread across the state, booking all the best ballrooms.
Elvis lives on Vegas! I think the King would be honored that people want to be married with his memory presiding over the nuptials. What will they go after next? The street performers in LA in front of the Chinese Theater? F-king Lawyers man.......
I have met a few scientist impersonators over the years.
Why aren't Elvis weddings covered by parody?
“let’s call him Sonny the Third” made me laugh
But no one imitates actually great musicians like Bird..(!) Or as Mingus titled a composition, "If Charlie Parker were a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats"...(!)
It can now be told . . . I impersonated famous musicians for years!
Me too, playing air guitar :D
Watch out! Or you'll become victim to the infamous Milli Vanilli curse. Curses? Should have been known as "Milli Vanilli Silly."
Trans-Siberian Orchestra has two touring groups, east and west. They don't hide it though. They would never be able to make all their dates without doing it given their targeted touring season.
Yes, these waters are muddy all the way back to Greece!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimesis
My guess is the owner of Elvis’s name and likeness is concerned that unlicensed use of his name and likeness will make it generic and in the public domain. This means they would lose their rights. The way to keep these rights is to enforce them, as with the wedding chapels. Whether it is good policy for society to allow artists’ names and likenesses to be owned long after death by artists’ estates or transferred to companies is a thorny question, particularly in this age of easy deepfakes (who gets to profit from that?), but under our current system this is how it works.
Big fan've Elvis impersonators here! Used ta enjoy the genuinely great Jay Elvis (in Chicago) and I'm a fan've wacky covers (his an' others')--the awesome Swede Eilert Pilarm's "werks" are classics...
What I wanna say is that these impersonators came outta LOoooong Vaudeville n' later entertainment TRADITION!--no "plastik" surgery needed! If ya admire Marilyn Michaels or Frank Gorshin or Rich Little (an' earlier folks'at did the same thing--and were good at it too!) then ya'd NEVER wanna deny these folks a livin' from enjoyable tributes that COME FROM talent! I find AI and Cyber "deep fakes" a fright but real folks doin' imprersonations...a De-LIGHT!
Also, Elvis is all that's GOOD about the America I adore--Long Live THE King!