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An Elvis impersonator is someone who impersonates or copies Elvis Presley either as a hobby, career in entertainment or occasionally for fun. Elvis impersonators can range in ethnic background, size and talent.

Professional Elvis impersonators can work all over the world as entertainers and are in great demand due to the unique iconic status of Elvis. There are even a number of radio stations that exclusively feature Elvis impersonator material.

Many impersonators sing Presley's songs. "While some of the impersonators perform a whole range of Presley music, the raw 1950s Elvis and the kitschy 1970s Elvis are the favorites."

Origins

The first Elvis impersonators started to appear whilst Elvis was still alive, evolving mainly out of small town talent competitions which took their influences from major music artists of that time. It wasn't until Elvis's untimely death on August 16, 1977, that impersonating Elvis started to become popular in the mainstream. The large growth in Elvis impersonators seems tightly linked with his ever-growing iconic status.

Andy Kaufman is considered to be one of the first notable Elvis impersonators. In his act he would use his famous "Latka" voice while dressed in the 1970s Elvis style jumpsuits to discourage guests and attendants, only to reveal that he has singing and guitar playing talents. As Kaufman gained fame, the act was used less and less.

Types of Elvis impersonator

There are many differing types of Elvis impersonator. Most fall under the following main types which are:

• Look alikes who concentrate more on visual elements of Elvis fashion and style using accessories such as wigs, costumes and jewellery.
• Sound alikes who concentrate on changing their voice to sing or talk like Elvis.
• Combination who try to use a hybrid of both the visual and aural methods listed above.

There are differing levels of impersonation which depends largely on who is doing the impersonation and for what purpose. They mainly fall under three main levels of impersonatation which are:

• Professional Full time entertainers who usually do it to earn a living.
• Amateur Enthusiasts or people who do it for a hobby.
• Fun / Comedy Usually done as part of a parody.

A minority of Elvis impersonators chose to specialise in experimenting with gender, sexuality, race, taste and decency with varying degrees of success and controversy.

There are also a minority of people who choose to impersonate Elvis as part of lifestyle choice. According to Gael Sweeny who mentions this in a published essay, comments, "Especially interesting are those who do not perform, per se, that is, they don't do an Elvis act, they just 'live Elvis,' dressing as The King and spreading His Word by their example."

Contests, Festivals and Events

There are many Elvis contests, festivals and other events held across the world celebrating Elvis and his many impersonators. Events tend to attract large numbers of Elvis impersonators and fans.

Collingwood, Ontario Canada holds an annual Elvis festival that features an Elvis impersonation contest. Florida also holds an annual competition called the Elvis Invasion of Florida. In Las Vegas, there is an Elvis competition called the Elvis Extravaganza which attracts many fans and Elvii from around the globe, they compete for a title of the "Worlds Finest Elvis Impersonator".

In the UK, the seaside town of Blackpool in England is home to Europe's largest Elvis impersonator contest and convention. It is held annually in early January to coincide with Elvis's birthday. Blackpool also features a busy Elvis Wedding Chapel based at the Queens hotel on the south promenade where couples can have their wedding vows renewed by Martin Fox.

Every year there is an Elvis Festival in Parkes, New South Wales in early January. This festival has look alike competitions, parades, concerts and markets with memorabilia.

2007 brings us the Ultimate Contest. For the very first time, Elvis Presley Enterprises will be holding an Elvis Tribute Artist Contest in search of the best representation of the legacy of Elvis.

Literature

A number of books are available on the topic of Elvis tribute artists. One of the first books to document the phenomenon was, I Am Elvis: A Guide to Elvis Impersonators released by American Graphic Systems in 1991. More recent titles include photo essays, Living the Life by Patty Carroll and The King and I: A little Gallery of Elvis Impersonators by Kent Baker and Karen Pritkin.

Novelist William McCranor Henderson wrote about his attempts to learn the Elvis trade in, I, Elvis: Confessions of a Counterfeit King.

A more scholarly examination of Elvis impersonation is, Impersonating Elvis by Leslie Rubinowski released in 1997. On "the thriving phenomenon of Elvis impersonators", see also Gilbert B. Rodman, Elvis After Elvis: The Posthumous Career of a Living Legend (1996).

There are also two "how to" guides, Be Elvis! by Rick Marino, a well-known tribute artist, released in 2000 by Sourcebooks and the more recent, The Elvis Impersonation Kit by Laura Lee, released in 2006 by Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers.

There are also several university studies, for instance, Eric Lott's critical essay, "All the King's Men: Elvis Impersonators and White Working-Class Masculinity," published in Harry Stecopoulos and Michael Uebel, eds., Race and the Subject of Masculinities (Duke University Press, 1997). The author, professor of American Studies at the University of Virginia, has also written a long piece on Elvis impersonators and the EPIIA (Elvis Presley Impersonators International Association) to be published in his next book. For this paper, he interviewed many impersonators and draws parallels with minstrelsy. "It is indeed one place minstrelsy ends up; where 19th-century white guys imitated what they thought of as slave culture and Elvis took from R & B performers, the impersonators copy the copy, if you will—it's minstrelsy once-removed." In her paper, "Women Who 'Do Elvis' ", Cornell University researcher Francesca Brittan deals with female Elvis Presley impersonators and finds them to be "campy, cheeky, and often disturbingly convincing." According to Marjorie Garber's academic study, Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety (1992), Elvis impersonation is so insistently connected with femininity that it is "almost as if the word 'impersonator', in contemporary popular culture, can be modified either by 'female' or by 'Elvis.' "

Quotes

• "Impersonating Elvis may seem a tad bizzare, but it is a human rationale that deserves articulation." (Eric Lott)
• "No phenomenon makes the perfomative character of Elvis clearer than the impersonators. These people are not known for their musical abilities. The culture's interest in them is not in how they sing or play an instrument, but in their bringing to life the character Elvis Presley first performed." (David Shumway)
• "Elvis impersonators and fans create an ever-evolving Elvis folklore and collectively sustain a deep distrust for those mass-media versions of Elvis from which his estate and their official licensees continue to profit." (Rosemary J. Coombe)

Trivia

• Elvii is a plural for Elvis impersonators (this, however, is not grammatically correct, as the name "Elvis" derives from Old English. Even if it somehow were a third-declension Latin noun, the plural form would be Elves). This term was popularized by a Saturday Night Live sketch where Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi respectively impersonated the younger and older versions of Elvis.
• In Memphis, Tennessee, the term Elvira (plural, Elviras) has been used to refer to female Elvis impersonators.
• There is a lot of speculation as to how many Elvis impersonators are out there, with experts reckoning that the number of Elvis Presley impersonators has reached an all-time record high.

"There are now at least 85,000 Elvis’s around the world, compared to only 170 in 1977 when Elvis died. At this rate of growth, experts predict that by 2019 Elvis impersonators will make up a third of the world population." - The Naked Scientists 3rd December, 2000.

• Some professional Elvis impersonators have taken a dislike to the term "Elvis impersonator" and prefer "Elvis Tribute Artist" instead. The reasoning behind this is to try and distance themselves from very bad amateur attempts that might harm their professional image. These requests have had little effect over the years and "Elvis impersonator" still remains the most popular phrase used.
• Billionaire Robert Sillerman, owner of the TV show American Idol, bought an 85% stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2005. Among other things, this gives him control of Elvis Presley's name and likeness in the US, this however does not include Britain (where the Elvis image is in the public domain), Europe and most other countries in the world.

References

1. "LadyLuck Music Tribute Artist Radio Station". LadyLuck Music. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
2. "Elvii.com Radio Station". Kitty Coyne. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
3. Eric Lott, "All the King's Men: Elvis Impersonators and White Working-Class Masculinity." In Harry Stecopoulos and Michael Uebel, eds., Race and the Subject of Masculinities (Duke University Press, 1997), p.198.
4. See Sweeney, Gael, "The King of White Trash Culture: Elvis Presley and the Aesthetics of Excess." In Annalee Newitz and Matt Wray, eds., White Trash: Race and Class in America (1996), p.262.
5. "Collingwood Elvis Festival". Collingwood Chamber of Commerce. 2004. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
6. "Elvis Invasion of Florida". Magic Moment Productions. 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
7. "Elvis Extravaganza". The Jamie Coyne Company. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
8. "Elvis Impersonator Contest". FoxKing Productions. 2005. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
9. "Elvis Weddings". Elvis Weddings. 2003. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
10. "Elvis Impersonator". Martin Fox. 2003. Retrieved 2007-03-15.
11. Gadfly Online: David McNair and Jayson Whitehead, "Love and Theft."
12. Francesca Brittan, "Women Who 'Do Elvis': Authenticity, Masculinity and Masquerade", published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Vol. 18, No. 2. (August 2006), p.167-190.
13. Marjorie Garber, Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety (1992), p.372. See also Matt Hills, Fan Cultures (2002), p.164.
14. Eric Lott, "All the King's Men: Elvis Impersonators and White Working-Class Masculinity," p.194.
15. David Shumway, "Performance". In Bruce Horner and Thomas Swiss, eds., Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture (1999), p.197.
16. Rosemary J. Coombe, The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship, Appropiation, and the Law (Duke University Press, 1998), p.99.
17. "Robert Sillerman comments about likeness rights". NME. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-15.

See also

• Body double
• Doppelgänger
• Dorian Baxter
• Eilert Pilarm
• El Vez
• Impersonator
• List of fictional Elvis impersonators
• Look-alike
• Billy Elvis Murphy

External links

• List of Elvis impersonators Extensive list of Elvis impersonators at the Open Directory Project
• Elvis Is In The Browser Open database of worldwide Elvii with forum and blog.
• A.P.EP.T.A The Association of Professional Elvis Presley Tribute Artists
• E-impersonators An Online Resource for Elvis Tribute Artists

• Elvis Presley