elvis for hire

I finally got my 100% Elvis Bearbrick!

Don't you just love the campy white jumpsuit? Very 70s! FYI, Medicom Toy and AllRound Music Japan created this bear for the King of Rock & Roll's 30th death anniversary last August 16, 2007.

Elvis is the most impersonated man in the world – there are as much as 50,000 Elvis performers worldwide! In Las Vegas alone, one can pick from more than a hundred Elvises online. To book one for your grandpa's birthday, click here. :-)

The best Elvis-for-hire is Shawn Klush of Pennsylvania (above). He won the first-ever contest for Elvis 'tribute artists' endorsed by Presley's estate in 2007. An Elvis of his caliber gets paid up to $50,000 for a show!

But nothing compares to the real King: Elvis (right), during a live television broadcast from Hawaii in January '73, the same year he got divorced from wife Priscilla.

After that year, health problems, exacerbated by drugs and middle-age crisis greatly affected his stage act and self-esteem.

“The image is one thing and the human being is another...it’s very hard to live up to an image.”
– Elvis Presley, during a press conference for his record-breaking Madison Square Garden shows in New York City, 1972.

Just wondering: if it was difficult for Elvis to live up to his own image, how much more for the thousands of poor Elvis wannabes?

Info and Elvis Presley pics from Wikipedia, www.abc.net.au, www.gigmasters.com, www.toybeast.com, usatoday.com, spitting-images.com, mainetoday.com, bbc.co.uk, canadianchristianity.com, quotesandsayings.com