Elvis Is Dead? Nobody
Told the Aussies
Every January, die-hard fans gather in Parkes,
Australia to celebrate the birthday of the King of Rock 'n' Roll.
By Rachel Pannett in
the Wall Street Journal
PARKES, Australia—Elias
Jamhour has a problem. He's bigger than Elvis.
Or at least that's the
case on a train departing Sydney for one of the unlikeliest Elvis festivals on
the planet.
As the tribute artist
gyrates through the carriages on a seven-hour journey into the Australian
countryside, the attentions of his fans—many of whom wear badges declaring
"Elias 4 Elvis" and "I-heart-Elias"—becomes suffocating as
he is mobbed by increasingly exuberant middle-aged women full of cheer and
bored by the limited view of eucalyptus forests that give way to endless cattle
and sheep farms. Last year, he was barricaded in a carriage by a group of
women, he recalled, and had to be rescued by train staff.
"It's flattering,
but it can be too much," said Mr. Jamhour. "You're more tangible than
Elvis. They can feel you, see you, they can touch you."
The train is en route
to the remote town of Parkes, where every January the 12,000-odd population
more than doubles as die-hard fans gather to celebrate the birthday of the King
of Rock 'n' Roll, who came into the world on Jan. 8, 1935.
Conceived as a way to
boost tourism during the southern hemisphere summer months, when inland
temperatures regularly soar above 100 degrees and many Australians head for the
beach, the festival has grown from a few hundred attendees in 1993 to around
18,000 expected for this year's five-day event.
Elvis festivals abound
world-wide, and the King is very much alive abroad, with followings in Japan,
Brazil, Canada and the U.K., among other places.
"It's mainly
people from other countries who want Elvis" these days, said Kay Kohlmyer
at the Belleza Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas, where an Elvis service sees an
impersonator of the King walk the bride down the aisle before performing hits
for the happy couple. "It's more of a novelty thing. Young people don't do
it."
Still, the Guinness
record for Elvis impersonators in one spot—645—is held by Las Vegas.
The success of the
Parkes festival comes despite it not having a scrap of Elvis genealogy in its
history. The King never toured Australia. Some point to the town's remoteness
as the reason for the event's appeal: In a much larger city like Sydney, about
230 miles away, it would have to compete with attractions like the harbor and
famous beaches for fans' attention.
"It's the
spectacle of it," said Carrie Logan, 43, who traveled more than 2,000
miles from Perth in Western Australia for this year's festival, her sixth.
"It's a little town in the middle of nowhere."
It wasn't always
universally loved. Some locals, in the early years of the festival, worried
about the influx of revelers and saw it as something of a "pimple on a
pumpkin,"—Australian slang for an obvious eyesore,—said Katrina Dwyer,
Tourism Manager for the Parkes Shire Council.
Once the festival
began challenging world records though, opposition abated. Parkes won the
Guinness world title for number of impersonators in one spot in 2007 and
narrowly missed regaining it in 2012.
Organizers of the
title challenge concede they erred in holding the bid that year at 7:30 a.m.,
which is prime time for morning TV but ill-suited to the circadian rhythms of
the genus festive Elvi, as a posse of Elvis impersonators are known locally.
"If we'd held it
at midday we would have smashed the record," Ms. Dwyer said.
Now in its 22nd year,
the festival has 150 Elvis-themed events ranging from look- and sound-a-like
contests to gospel services and the chance for couples to renew their wedding
vows, en masse, Elvis and Priscilla style.
This year's festival
is based on the 1964 Elvis movie "Kissin' Cousins," with his co-star
Cynthia Pepper as the main overseas guest, spawning a new line in female
look-alikes impersonating her character, the feisty Private First Class Midge
Riley. Ms. Pepper said she was "delighted" to see Elvis's legacy
alive and well here.
Many festival
participants said Elvis's music left an indelible mark, especially on rural
Australia, in the days before the Internet and widespread air travel, when
radio and TV were the only way to break the isolation felt by many on this
sparsely populated continent.
"Our parents
would rock 'n' roll to Elvis in the kitchen on a Friday night," said Kim
Condon, from the town of Casino in New South Wales state. "There were only
two things to do in the country: play cards and dance," said Ms. Condon,
who was attending the festival for the first time. She and her twin sister,
Kerry Elson, and three others—all wore matching Private Riley outfits.
Australians rank among
the top-five foreign nationalities to visit Graceland, Elvis's Memphis home,
each year and are second only to the U.K. for the number of officially
registered Elvis fan clubs, according to Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.
"My kids know all
of Elvis's songs," said Chris Wicken, a 47-year-old telecommunications
executive from Canberra who has a screen saver of Elvis on her computer, and a
tattoo of Elvis's motto "TCB,"—for taking care of business, on her
left shoulder.
In another sign of the
King's devoted following Down Under, one local resident even changed his name
to Elvis. Aussie Elvis, previously known as Neville Lennox, won a number of
look-alike contests in the early days of the festival. In 1997, after a great
deal of backslapping in pubs from friends who greeted him with: "G'day
Elvis," Mr. Lennox said he decided to make it official. Today, his home in
Parkes is an Elvis museum, with items including a replica of Elvis's white
"Aloha from Hawaii" jumpsuit.
Greg Page—the founding
"Yellow Wiggle" in the popular children's band the Wiggles, an
Australian group that spawned a global franchise—has amassed one of the world's
biggest collections of Elvis memorabilia, part of which is on display in the
town's visitor center. Mr. Page's most prized piece: Elvis's silver and
burgundy 1976 Cadillac Seville.
Mr. Page, who said he
used Elvis's 1950s music as inspiration for Wiggles songs, could even be
surreptitiously responsible for seeding a love for the King among a new
generation of Australians.
Certainly in Mr.
Jamhour's household, the bug is catching. The Elvis impersonator's 11-year-old
son, Gabriel, will join him onstage Sunday, the festival's last day, at a
tribute concert. "Every time I buy a new Elvis CD or movie, he has to have
his own copy," said Mr. Jamhour, who plans to retire after this year's
festival, handing the Elvis mantle to his son.
No comments:
Post a Comment