ATHENS, Ala. — Gregory L. Reece said he met a middle-aged woman in a Memphis hospital emergency room waiting area who had sold everything to move from California to Memphis “just to be with Elvis” nearly 15 years after the death of The King.
The woman’s cult-like worship of the late rock and roll singer spurred an interest in Reece that led to years of research and finally his book, “Elvis Religion: The Cult of the King.”
In a recent phone interview, Alabama native Reece was walking off a tour bus in front of Graceland. In Memphis for two television interviews and a book signing, Reece’s tour of the singer’s estate was the latest of several since embarking on his research.
Reece’s quest to find if there really exists an “Elvis Religion” led him to delve into Elvis impersonators - " tribute artists” - of which there has grown up a whole industry. He found that although most are fanatical about authentic costuming, makeup, hairstyling and sounding as much like The King as possible, they don’t give up their day jobs.
For the most part, the tribute artists know they’re not the reincarnation of Elvis and use it as a way to pick up a few extra bucks or have fun.
The same held true with Elvis collectors, some opening museums of memorabilia, including a woman in Georgia who has what she purports to be Elvis’s toenail picked up off the Jungle Room floor on a tour of Graceland soon after Presley’s death, and also a wart that was removed from his wrist by a Memphis doctor in “1957 or 1958.”
Cultish followings notwithstanding, Reece found most posthumous Elvis groupies get together the same as do Trekkies or stamp collectors or anyone else with like interests.
If there is an “Elvis Religion,” Reece contends, it is in dozens of books, films and songs with the “Memphis Messiah” or “Jumpsuit Jesus” as a literal or fictitious character, sometimes taking on Christ-like attributes and affecting the outcome of people’s actions and lives.
Asked why Elvis’ mystique survives nearly 30 years after the singer’s death, Reece said he believes Elvis inspires the common man to believe that he, too, could aspire to greatness.
“I think it’s because Elvis was a mixture of two elements: a very humble, lower class boy from a small town in north Mississippi, and then the other side as the bigger-than-life entertainer,” said Reece. “I am intrigued by the people who are intrigued by Elvis. I can’t get my mind around such devotion.”
Reece, a former lecturer in philosophy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, is now a free-lance writer. His next book, scheduled to come out next year, concerns the “UFO Religion.”
Karen Middleton writes for The News Courier in Athens, Ala.
Archive
Related Photos
August 18, 2006
Raw Video: Gay Protest Blocked in Moscow
Vatican in Chaos After Butler Arrested for Leaks
Jimmy Carter Endorses Egypt's Election Results
Biden Addresses West Point Graduating Class
Dozens of Children Killed in New Syria Attack
Raw Video: Activists Allege Massacre in Syria
NJ Man Charged With Murder in Death of Patz
Support, Fun for Kids of Fallen Soldiers at Camp
Fugitive Penguin Caught, Returned to Aquarium
50 Years Later, Underground Fire Still Burning
Light Show Transforms Sydney Opera House
Raw Video: Unruly Passenger Restrained in Miami
Raw Video: Robber Uses Drive-thru Window
Raw Video: Dragon Arrives at Space Station
Calif.'s Coronado Named Nation's Best Beach
CEO Salaries Become Sore Issue in Labor Disputes
