Note: This article originally appeared in our August 1979 issue.
President Jimmy Carter proclaimed that Elvis Presley “permanently changed the face of American popular culture,” but up to now, Memphis’ response to the life and death of its most famous and influential citizen has been a lot of talk and little action. The talk has ranged from the modest (renaming the Mid-South Coliseum for Elvis) to the absurd (constructing a giant guitar-shaped museum on Volunteer Park). But this month, two years after his death, one of the first and most visible memorial projects is finally taking shape.
On August 11 at the Orpheum Theater the Memphis Development Foundation will unveil a full-size completed model of their Elvis Presley memorial statue almost two years after the project began. The continued viability of the Foundation’s effort testifies to its tenacity, especially given the confusion and controversy that surrounded it for months after its announcement.
In their haste to memorialize Elvis in 1977, the Foundation consulted with neither the Presley estate, which was still unsettled and wary of uncontrolled exploitation of its scion’s recent demise nor the City of Memphis, which was, in true municipal tradition, forming a committee to study the situation. In short order, Factors, Inc., to whom the Presley estate had sold Elvis memorabilia rights, successfully sued to prevent the MDF from using the Foundation’s primary fundraising tool, an eight-inch pewter replica of the memorial statue. Advertisements had already appeared in several major publications offering the statuettes in return for $25 donations. Simultaneously a spokesman for the City’s Elvis committee charged that the MDF project was “a tragedy...based on self interest,” and claimed that the splashy and independent effort was confusing potential donors and fragmenting the Elvis memorial effort. When, in December of 1977, the court ruling came down against the Foundation on the statuette issue, a chagrined spokesman stated that MDF’s plans had been put “on the back burner.”
But while things seemed stymied in Memphis, in the Pennsylvania studio of sculptor Eric Parks a massive figure was taking shape. The Foundation had decided that a statue in the hand was worth two in the controversial bush.
The form that Parks wrought from a mass of Italian clay is a powerful and faithful image of Elvis Presley at his most potent. Nine feet tall, the work is considerably smaller than the grandiose 25-foot monolith originally planned, but this scale makes it more accessible, while still embodying the mythic, larger-than-life quality that is its model’s legacy. As art, the statue seems worthy of its subject. As a memorial, it is the first tangible evidence that Memphis acknowledges the enduring importance of the man whose uniquely Memphis music and extraordinary charisma changed so much.
_______
Memphis magazine, August 1979
The scope of the career that began in 1954 in a storefront studio at 706 Union and abruptly ended in 1977 in a mansion at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard can be measured by the difference between the names of the streets alone. The depth of emotion and commitment focussed by Elvis’ death reveals a phenomenon beyond the realm of hero worship. What his fans have known unconsciously, cultural observers are now bringing to consciousness: Elvis Presley changed music and much more.
The top two records in America in 1954 were Kitty Kallen’s “Little Things mean a Lot” and “Wanted” by Perry Como. The nation’s top songs 1956 were “Heartbreak Hotel” and “Don’t Be Cruel by Elvis Presley. The esthetic and social chasm between those two extremes illustrated the musical revolution that Elvis led. The rock & roll tradition that issued from his early work came to dominate international pop music. It still does. And it continues to evolve as a primary factor in the music of the future. But, more importantly, his spontaneous, unbridled, and highly visible persona provided the initial catalyst for a youth revolution that has shaped the lives of every American under 45. The pervasive youth culture it spawned has changed the way all of us live our lives.
That’s why they are drawn here from around the world. Consciously or unconsciously, they know that Elvis made a difference in their lives. The music was born in Memphis, and it was his home until the end. So they come to Memphis.
_______
“Elvis fans come to Memphis to see something, and, besides Graceland, there’s nothing to see,” says Deloss Walker, spokesman for the Memphis Development Foundation. “We felt it was important to bring the statute down for this week, so the city had something to offer the people coming.” While support for the memorial statue seems broader now, with both City and County mayors pledging full support, Walker stresses that this exhibit is not the climax of the project. “The Foundation has come to no conclusions about the final disposition of the project,” he says. “We’re not locked into anything.”
The presentation of the memorial statue is slated to be something more than pulling off a drape and saying, “ here it is.” Plans call for the sculpture to serve as the centerpiece for an audio/visual show on the Orpheum stage, surrounded by images of Elvis and his music. Scheduled to run hourly from 11 a.m through 6 p.m., August 11 through 18, the free presentation will provide another focus of interest during Elvis Memorial Week. MDF also plans to gain some important information from the visiting fans. The project has been operating in a kind of vacuum for the last year and a half. The initial contributions have remained untouched in a trust account, while Union Planters National Bank has provided funds to sustain the project. A lot of money will be needed to complete the project and develop a site. To aid in those future efforts, each visitor to the Orpheum presentation will be asked to complete a market research form. It will provide a targeted mailing list for future use, and will solicit individual opinions on Elvis, Memphis, the new statue, and ideas on suitable projects to honor Presley’s memory. Deloss Walker observes, “A lot of ideas have been thrown around in the past two years. But as far as we know, nobody has ever asked the fans, in an organized way, what they want. They just might have some of the best ideas.”
_______
If Elvis Presley was the rock & roll prophet and harbinger of a new popular culture, he has remained without substantial honor in his own county. Aficionados have long pinpointed Memphis as the cradle of rock & roll and the nexus of the blues traditions, and a growing corps of American ethnomusicologists are now documenting that claim. But Memphis, as a community, has never really liked the idea of being the birthplace of rock & roll.
When Sam Phillips and his brood of seminal rockers were shaking it for the world on Sun Records in the mid-’50s, they were viewed locally as a bunch of hooligans shaking the respectable cage of the status quo–a view shared by most of the American population then over 21. As the years proved the music to be lasting and influential, though, Memphis continued to look upon its successful local rock artists as if they were adolescents going through a flashy phase that they should outgrow. The rowdy emotions and urgent immediacy of rock & roll didn’t sit too well with the city’s conservative traditions, and the feeling persisted that it was rather trivial, after all.
As an individual, Elvis Presley received more local respect during his life than the other Memphis rockers. It was impossible to ignore the most commercially successful entertainer in history. By combining, at his best, the juice of folk music, both black and white, with the commerciality of pop, Elvis rode the first wave of a television-fueled mass media explosion to become the first superstar of a new media age. And Memphis gave him his due on that account. But the outpouring of love and fanatic loyalty that erupted within hours of his death came as a shock to most Memphians. It was obvious that more was involved than Local Boy Makes It real Big In Show Business. Something had to be done.
On the day after Elvis died, the Memphis city Council passed a resolution proclaiming his greatness, offering condolences to the family, and stating “further appropriate actions will be taken.” As this goes to press, Elvis Presley’s life and death are commemorated in Memphis by: Graceland Mansion and Memory Gardens, courtesy of the Presley estate; the forthcoming statue, through a private foundation's efforts; and number of souvenir shops of questionable taste, brought to us by the profit motive.
_______
The “further appropriate actions” the City Council envisioned have been slow in developing. Discussions between the City and the Presley estate began in earnest in 1978, continuing fitfully until Vernon Presley became too ill to participate. The talks centered on the acquisition of Graceland and the establishment of an Elvis Presley museum. Graceland has, in effect, become a shrine since its owner’s death, and continued access has been rightly perceived as a necessity. An abiding fascination with the memorabilia of Presley’s life and career make a museum the most logical way to attract his fans and fulfill their expectations. While government is characteristically slow to take action on anything, the lack of progress in the Elvis negotiations seems less the product of intransigence than of a basic difference in priorities between the City and the estate.
On the City’s side, the need to honor the most famous resident in Memphis history is obvious, as is the immense potential for tourism.
Presley estate attorney Beecher Smith succinctly states the view from the other side: “it’s the position of the estate that we have to jealously guard the image and likeness of Elvis Presley in all forms, because of the tremendous intangible value associated with it.” Elvis was the highest-paid entertainer in history. In death, his income has remained awesome. RCA Victor, his record company, reported that eight million Presley records were sold in the week after his death. The estate’s 1978 income was reported at $5 million, and it’s fair to assume that the total value of the estate has at least doubled in the past two years. Elvis is gone, but the sales go on.
The man who created and controlled the marketing of Elvis until his death was the legendary Colonel Tom Parker, who managed him from 1955 on. It has been said that the colonel is a man who believes that everything has a price...the one he puts on it. In 1972 it was reported in a national periodical that Richard Nixon had requested that Elvis perform at the White House, and Colonel Parker was contacted. After some quick figuring, the Colonel quoted his special presidential rate: $25,000 plus expenses. The emissary was aghast, protesting that no one was ever paid for playing for the President. “Well, I don’t know about that, son,” the Colonel reportedly replied, “but there’s one thing I do know. Nobody asks Elvis Presley to play for nothing.”
While he is not an official executor of Elvis Presley’s estate, it is difficult not to see the entrepreneurial hand of Colonel Parker in the management of the estate so far. “Colonel Parker has many great assets,” states Beecher Smith. “Two of his greatest are his personal experience with marketing Elvis and his own genius for marketing anything. Those two things combined make him a most valued colleague, and still very important, as far as the estate is concerned.”
The desire to make real Elvis’ surviving “tremendous intangible value” seems to be a major factor behind the difficulty in bringing local Elvis plans to fruition. In the first contentious days of the Memphis Development Foundation project, when their plans to distribute statuettes were challenged in court, a witness recalls a meeting with mayor Chandler, at which Vernon Presley and Tom Parker reportedly accused the Foundation of “trying to drain dollars out of our pocket.” The subsequent court decision agreed with them.
When the Elvis museum discussions began, Vernon Presley strongly opposed the City’s proposal of a site on publicly-owned land downtown. In a letter to Mayor Chandler dated April 27, 1978, Mr. Presley said, “It still appears to me that site near the home of Elvis would be proper.” Specifically, a site on estate-owned land across from Elvis Presley Boulevard from Graceland. The letter further proposed a 50-year lease on the property at $85,000 per year, with periodic cost index adjustments, and “25% of admissions and net gift shop income” to accrue to the estate. A projected cost of $2 million for the museum was discussed, with the City and County to share the expense. According to Public Service Commissioner Wallace Madewell, who was closely involved with the discussion, “We countered [the Presley proposal] with some proposals that would have let the estate share a little bit more equally with the City the risk of reduced income, as time goes on.”
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the amount of money required for the project was high ($2 million for construction; at least $4,250,000 in cumulative rent), but not the most difficult question. The problem that arose, on the City’s side, was determining what they would get for their money. According to those sources, the estate would not specify the amount or nature of the memorabilia to be provided. “It does become a chicken-egg situation,” responds estate attorney Beecher Smith. “I realize the problem that mayor Chandler is up against. He has to have something concrete before the can bring it before the City Council. But it’s hard for us...He says ‘What do you have?’ and we say ‘What do you want?’ and that’s where it stops...Without a commitment on either side, it’s almost like verbal volleyball.”
With the museum discussions bogged down, Mayor Chandler announced, in September, 1978, that he was negotiating to buy the Graceland Mansion and grounds. But progress towards that goal has been equally elusive. “Where we are, as far as acquiring that, I don’t know at this time,” Commissioner Madewell said in July. In discussions with Vernon Presley, said Madewell, “We were looking for a concrete offer from the estate, what they wanted for the piece of property, and we did not receive that.” In October, 1978, Vernon Presley revealed that he had turned down a private offer of $10 million for Graceland. Sources close to the estate have told of other offers of at least $20 million. Mr. Presley stated that he would “do nothing unless Lisa Marie would be happy.”
Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis’ only child, will inherit the entire Presley estate when she is 25. She is now eleven. “As far as things look right now,” Smith elaborates, “all plans are still very much go...eventually. Right now, we don’t have any immediate plans. Our preference would be for the self-governmental entity to manage it, where it would be done in a dignified way, without the taint of the profit motive.” Until that day comes, the estate’s memory gardens will presumably remain open for visitors, and the City’s plans for a rock & roll Mt. Vernon will join the museum plans, in limbo.
In the months following Presley’s passing, the City was in a position to realize an important project independent of the estate, but they seemingly dropped the ball. The missed opportunity involved the purchase and restoration of the old Sun Records location at 706 Union, a project of relatively modest cost and large historical value. The small storefront where Sam Phillips and his proteges labored was the womb from which rock & roll and Elvis Presley sprung. It is a hallowed spot in the history of popular music.
The City agreed, at one point, to buy the property, according to record producer Knox Phillips, Sam’s son and a prime mover in the project. “The Mayor committed to do it,” he recalls. “I don’t think he meant to get the thing messed up. I really don’t. But it did get messed up.” The City appraised the property and, for a time, negotiated with the owners, but on August 2, 1978, Gray Lines announced that they had leased the location to restore as a stop on their Elvis bus tour. According to a newspaper story at the time, Gray Liens was able to make the deal because the owners and the City were unable to agree on ap rice. At City Hall they have a different recollection: Wallace Madewell says that they were persuaded that the “Gray Lines dead was suitable...that they would maintain it in the fashion that it had been when Elvis recorded there.” That has not been the case. According to those who remember the studio as it used to be: the interior restoration is considerably less than authentic, and the tourism company has little access to the original equipment. “Sam has got all the old equipment,” says Knox Phillips, “just about every single piece that Elvis ever recorded on. But the only way Sam would have participated at all was if it was a non-profit, non-commercial enterprise.” These days they’re selling t-shirts and albums. “There’s not even a historical marker there,” Knox laments. “There never has been.”
With the city’s various efforts stalled at the gate, the Memphis Development Foundation’s statue remains the only project visibly progressing, but Presley estate attorney Beecher Smith does not take a rosy view of the Foundation’s persistence. (“Expletive deleted,” was his initial response to news of the statue’s imminent appearance.) “Whenever the powers behind the promotion of the statue are willing to make a deal with Factors and Boxcar [Colonel Parker’s company that administrates the memorabilia money], then maybe something can be worked out,” Smith said. “But if they don’t see fit to do that, then I don’t think anything will ever be done.” Meanwhile, the Memphis Development Foundation continues to pursue an appeal of the troublesome 1977 court ruling and seems determined to find a way and a place to put Elvis Presley on a pedestal in Memphis.
____________
The continuing phenomenon of Elvis Presley as a musician, myth, and product has brewed an uneasy stew of different interests and points of view.
But amid all the brouhaha over giant projects and modest ones, big bucks and small change, dignity and profits, there is an important point, perhaps the point, that often is overlooked. Knox Phillips, who from childhood knew Elvis Presley and understands his odyssey as well as anyone, states it eloquently: “They should let Elvis rest in a non-commercial way. I feel that whoever controls the estate has not really been doing right. I don’t think Elvis would have wanted it that way. He is something besides a commercial entity...he is an artist and a person who changed history.”
