On March 25, 1961, Elvis Presley performed a special concert in Honolulu, Hawaii to raise funds for the USS Arizona Memorial, a tribute to the US service men and women who lost their lives during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
The new 2021 documentary film by the World War II Foundation called Elvis and The USS Arizona tells the story of how Presley literally helped build the memorial that stands today.
A new plaque recognizing Elvis Presley’s role in raising funds to build the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor was unveiled yesterday. The unveiling took place at a private ceremony at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Here is my list for the Top 10 best Elvis Presley holiday gifts for 2021 including new releases and also essential items for your collection:
Continue readingJuly 12 marks the anniversary of Benjamin Keough’s tragic death in 2020. The 27-year-old son of Lisa Marie Presley committed suicide at Lisa Marie’s home in Calabasas, CA. He died of a self-inflicted intraoral gunshot wound.
Not many are aware that the grandson of Elvis Presley had plans to have a career in the music business. When he was only 17 years old, he was offered a $5 million record deal for up to 5 albums with Universal Music. Ben’s first album was scheduled to be released in 2010, but for unknown reasons, was never released.
Continue readingIn May 2021, over 65 years after she dated Elvis Presley, Dixie Locke Emmons finally published her personal account of her one-and-a-half year relationship with Elvis. Considered Presley’s first “serious” girlfriend, Emmons started dating Elvis in January 1954. She was three years younger than Elvis when she dated the future King of Rock and Roll.
As a fan of both Elvis and Hawaii, I was disheartened when I visited the USS Arizona memorial in 2016 only to see virtually nothing mentioning Elvis Presley’s role in helping build the memorial. With his 1961 benefit concert in Hawaii and the massive publicity it generated, Presley was one of the major impetuses in raising the funds needed to complete the memorial.
Without Presley’s concert, the USS Arizona memorial may have never been finished. As George Chaplin wrote in the Honolulu Advertiser in 1991: “His [Presley’s] Hawaii concert did more than raise money. It created national publicity and revived public sentiment for the memorial. That September, Congress was prodded into voting $150,000; then the Hawaii Legislature added $50,000 to a previous contribution.”
The next year on Memorial Day 1962, over 20 years after the “date which will live in infamy” of December 7, 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona memorial was dedicated.
This year, Presley will finally get the historical recognition he deserves with a new documentary by the World War II Foundation called Elvis and The USS Arizona. In addition, filmmaker Tim Gray, the president of the foundation, is organizing the creation of a memorial plaque to be displayed in Honolulu to bring awareness to Presley’s role. Funds for the plaque will rely on public donations.
The Elvis News Examiner was granted an exclusive interview with Gray to discuss the project:
Here’s my list for the Top 10 best Elvis Presley holiday gifts for 2020 including new releases and also essential items for your collection:
Guest contributor, David Hopper of 360°Sound, spoke with Eric Wolfson, author of the new 33 1/3 book on Elvis Presley’s 1969 album From Elvis in Memphis (out now on Bloomsbury Academic). Hot on the heels of the ’68 Comeback Special, Elvis returned to Memphis to record there for the first time since his Sun records in the mid-‘50s. The sessions took place at American Sound Studio under the direction of producer Chips Moman. Backed by the ace house band The Memphis Boys, Elvis cut four Top 20 hits, “In The Ghetto,” “Suspicious Minds,” “Don’t Cry Daddy” and “Kentucky Rain.”
360°: You’re a longtime Elvis fanatic. Please start by telling us a little about your Elvis fandom and what led you to writing this book.
The King of Rock and Roll’s best-selling album of all time in the U.S. is also the number one best-selling Christmas album of all time. Billboard reported that Elvis Presley’s Elvis’ Christmas Album has sold 20 million copies. This is the highest-selling album in the US for Presley’s career to date according to the RIAA, followed by Elvis’ Golden Records, Volume 1. It is also the top-selling Christmas album in the US by far, followed by Kenny G’s Miracles: The Holiday Album which has sold 8 million copies.
Continue reading
Tom Hanks will play Colonel Parker and Austin Butler will play Elvis Presley in an upcoming movie about The King of Rock and Roll. The untitled film is being directed by Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge) and is scheduled for release by Warner Bros. on November 5, 2021.
Elvis News Examiner 