Monday 28 May 2012

Elvis in Swansea: You'll Never Walk Alone

When the bookies profane the King's name it's bad enough, but when it's at the expense of the pride of South Wales, that's just asking for trouble.

Brendan Rodgers, manager of Swansea Town FC (the Swans), quite reasonable took exception to the claim by certain bookmakers that punters had more chance of seeing Elvis than Swansea did of staying in the Premiership. Facing Liverpool in their last match of the season, already in the clear to stay up, Rodgers asked fans to don Elvis costumes in celebration and in an effort to harness the strange and mighty power of Elvis' love. Fans took it seriously, and Swansea faced a shortage of Elvis costumes. Said Carol Guy of Swansea's Mardi Gras Fancy Dress shop to the South Wales Post,

"There were people waiting for me to open up this morning, and I wasn’t able to have my morning coffee until midday."

Swansea City's website met the demand by offering a cut out Elvis mask to download (eerily reminiscent of the Forbes Dead Rich list Hallowe'en death mask). And while Carol Guy suggested Brendan himself ought to dress up, Wales Online went one better and offered a Brendan Rodgers Elvis mask to celebrate Swansea's mid-table non-obscurity after the club managed to defeat Liverpool 2-0.

 
The Liberty Stadium filled up with multiple Elvii of all persuasions, Dean Mack, Elvis ETA (we've had him before in Bundoran remember?), sang The Wonder of You, and with that kind of home support, the erstwhile Merseyside anthem, You'll Never Walk Alone belonged to Swansea that day.


Monday 21 May 2012

Elvis & Marilyn?

This scoop from Ed Demetry, on Driggs Avenue, in South Brooklyn, along the Williamsburg Bridge. On leaving a bar and his basketball team, Ed spies the news, which somehow seems better with Marilyn on top.
Sticky
So I looked into it. Did Marilyn even meet Elvis? I looked Marilyn up in the works of Peter Guralnick among others, but no: Bill Monroe, entries many; Marilyn Monroe, entries none. I looked it up in Greil Marcus's great Dead Elvis. "1987 [...] Elvis will become a movie poster, unanimated, still, like James Dean, Marilyn Monroe..." (p134). And indeed, in Chris Consani's various works, like Four of a Kind, you find those three hanging out with Bogey, still and unanimated. 
Stick
But I gotta tell you, in 1987, there was no internet.

I asked Google. According to Wikianswers, they dated once in the 1950s but Elvis thought Marilyn too short. And also Marilyn boasted that she'd slept with E. But Red West, one of the Memphis Mafia, says that Elvis never met Marilyn since she was too busy. But according to the Daily Mail online, Elvis's former agent Byron Raphael told the New York Daily Post that Elvis got him to pick Marilyn up one time and bring him to the Beverly Wilshire hotel, 1956. 

"When he saw her, they came together and, without a word, started kissing."
"I was in shock and didn't know what to do."
...
"The next thing I knew I was startled awake by the door opening and I dove behind the bar."
"And they both walked out stark naked. I didn't say a word, I just stayed quietly."


(According to Google, Elvis was 6'0", Marilyn was 5'5" and Arthur Miller was 6'1").  

Elsewhere, here, for example on Napa Valley TV, is Diana Dawn as Marilyn and "Lloyd" as Elvis. And here, Banbury Cross and Pete Storm do the honours. I could go on.
And I will.

This wonderful image. I got it here, I don't know where it came from originally. You'll see those pringle socks in the Elvis at 21 exhibition if you can catch it.
Edgy
And then there's the sticker itself. It's not just Ed who's been snapping away. Maltagracia's even found the same one.


We could go on. Elvis and Marilyn, together, forever, online and on the Williamsburg Bridge.

Thanks: Ed Demetry
Pics: Ed, Chris Consani; Internet