ETAs : Soon to be extinct?

Recently recieved a forwarded email, I'd like to share with you all:



From Tim Reid in Las Vegas

FOR nearly 30 years since the death of Elvis Presley, his impersonators have suffered for their art. They struggle to achieve the perfect quiff. They sweat profusely in white sequined jump suits. Some, whose bellies are bigger than their sideburns, have been floored by gyration-induced hernias.



Now, however, America’s estimated 30,000 Elvis impressionists are really shook up. They fear that they are about to be put out of business. In a move that has made the ranks of the lookalikes queasier than the thought of a deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwich — the King’s favourite snack in the bloated autumn of his life — a New York businessman has bought the rights to Elvis’s name and likeness and has threatened to ban “unauthorised” Elvis clones.

Robert Sillerman, a billionaire media entrepreneur who owns American Idol — the hugely successful equivalent of Pop Idol in Britain — paid $114 million (£65 million) last year for an 85 per cent stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises, which is run by the Presley family. He got control of Graceland, the King’s home in Memphis, Tennessee, and control of his name and likeness, but not his music.

The Presley family, through Elvis Presley Enterprises, has allowed most impersonators free use of the singer’s name and likeness, believing that it was good marketing and a way to ensure that the King would never die. In an interview with The New York Times, however, Mr Sillerman outlined plans that have left many Elvis impersonators weak at the knees.

CKX, Mr Sillerman’s company, intends to open an interactive Elvis exhibit and huge Elvis-themed cabaret show on the Las Vegas Strip, which he hopes will attract millions of visitors a year. In Memphis he plans to demolish the 128-room Heartbreak Hotel, which stands opposite Graceland on Elvis Presley Boulevard, and build two 400-room hotels, convention space, restaurants, shops and an amphitheatre.

Of Elvis impersonators, he said ominously: “If we were going to do a show that was based on Elvis impersonators, then obviously it wouldn’t make sense to have unauthorised Elvis impersonators.” Mr Sillerman has since refused to answer questions about what he plans to do with the Elvis impersonator industry, which many believe has become so risible that it has made Presley more of a laughing stock than an iconic image ready to be mined financially.

CKX is powerless to take action against impersonators in Europe, including Britain, where the Elvis image is in the public domain. Mr Sillerman says that he does not believe that Elvis Presley Enterprises has used Presley nearly to his full potential in the US. Impersonators in America believe that it is inevitable that their industry — which includes dwarf Elvises, Chinese Elvises and African-American Elvises — is in for a cull.

Mr Sillerman has bought Elvis-A-Rama, a museum and impersonator theatre just off the Las Vegas Strip and is shutting it down in October. Justin Curtis, 22, an impersonator who had finished a show at Elvis-A-Rama before an audience of 30, said that he was willing to pay royalties to Mr Sillerman.

But Ted Davis, a trademark lawyer, said that Mr Sillerman had legal precedent on his side. If the owner of someone’s image were successful in stopping impersonators in one state, there was precedent whereby state courts had imposed a nationwide injunction on unauthorised impersonators.

Matt Lewis, another Elvis impersonator, said that his agents had been studying the legal ramifications of his status since Mr Sillerman acquired the rights. Some impersonators make $300,000 a year, and Mr Lewis acknowledged that he made “six figures” per annum.

“If they tried to stop me I’d figure out a way to keep going,” he said. “We would band together. I have this image of old ladies going to underground shows and giving passwords at the door. There would be underground Elvis speakeasies. Honestly.”

KING'S RANSOM


Elvis was named the highest-earning dead celebrity for the fifth consecutive year by Forbes magazine last October

The Elvis estate brought in about $40 million (£23 million) last year


Each year more than 600,000 people visit Graceland

On the 25th anniversary of his death, in 2002, 40,000 people filed past his grave



Graceland says that it attracts $150 million a year to Memphis

Last year William Hill took bets on his being alive at 1000-1

Elvis.com has 600,000 visitors every month


Article Source : - http://tinyurl.com/hk46j

Priscilla supports Tom Cruise

Direct from Contact Music:

ELVIS PRESLEY's ex-wife PRISCILLA has voiced her support for TOM CRUISE and KATIE HOLMES' plans for a silent birth later this month (APR06), insisting she wishes she had done the same for daughter LISA MARIE. The 60-year-old actress maintains Scientology is misunderstood and is urging more people to study the controversial religion. She says, "If people actually read L RON HUBBARD's teachings they would understand that drug-free silent births show respect to the baby and stop them becoming unbalanced. "I wish I'd had a silent birth when I had Lisa Marie."