July 20-21, 2024: ElvisStudying: Representing the King

[July 19thwas a doubly significantday for Elvis Presley: on July 19, 1954, his debut single wasreleased; and on July 19, 1977, what would be his final album dropped. So thisweek I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of layers to the Elvis mythos, leading upto this special post on cultural representations of Presley!]

On quick takeawaysfrom just a handful of the literally countless cultural depictions of Elvis.

1)     Andy Warhol: It can be difficult, from our2024 vantage point, to really understand the cultural significance of Warholand his pop art. But inthe 1960s no single figure shaped American popular culture—or at the very leastits representations of and relationship to celebrity—more than Warhol, and hepainted no less than ten “silkscreens”of Elvis, with 1963’s Double Elvis perhapsthe most iconic.

2)     The Twilight Zone: “The Once and Future King,”the first episode of the second (1986-87) season of the 1980s revival of TheTwilight Zone, tells the story of an Elvis impersonator who travels back intime to meet the real King. By far the most interesting thing about thisepisode from a 2024 perspective is that it was written by none other than George R.R.Martin! But it also reflects the King’s towering cultural presence a decadeafter his death.

3)     Bubba Ho-Tep: In this 2002 comic horror film,Bruce Campbell plays a nursing home resident who claims to be Elvis Presley,having in this telling switched places with an Elvis impersonator who was in theone who died in 1977. And that’s about the fifth least-weird thing in thisfilm, which also stars Ossie Davis as a Black man who claims to be John F.Kennedy and which eventually teams the two up to fight an undead Egyptianmummy. By the 21st century, that is, all things Elvis weregetting pretty strange.

4)     Fallout: New Vegas: I don’twant to overstate the presence of Elvis in this post-apocalyptic 2010 videogame, but on the other hand: the game features a group of roving bandits knownas “The Kings”because they found an abandoned Elvis Impersonator school and make its costumesand other materials their own. But apparently Presley’s name has been lost tothe ravages of time, so they only know him as “The King,” a striking commentaryon how a real figure can become his iconic image.

5)     Recent Biopics: I didn’t see Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis,so I can’t say too much about its depiction of Presley, but it’s interesting tonote that AustinButler dedicated himself so fully to his own impersonation of the King thathe found himself unable to stop talking like him when filming was complete. Butmore interesting still, for this not-yet-viewer, is Sofia Coppola’s 2023 film Priscilla,perhaps the first cultural work to focus on Presley’s wife (played by CaileeSpaeny, with Jacob Elordi’sperformance as Elvis as a supporting character). If we’re going to keepElvis present in our pop culture going forward, it’s long past time to broaden whoas well as how we think about him.

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other takes on Elvis?