AWESOME!

I daresay Elvis Presley is Kelly O.'s totem animal. Beyond any other accolade, he was light-years ahead of anyone else on the wealthy white-trash front, a True Master of Tacky.

That was AMAZING!

I love Elvis and his many incarnations, for awhile, great writers were seriously asking questions like "will Elvis become a new religion?". There was Elvis the mama's boy, Elvis the rebel, Elvis the Idiot Savant musical genius etc.., Sadly, it looks like the gaudy, lizard lounged, heavier, maniacal half-insane Jim Jones look-a-like is the one most people (imitators included) focus on. So many of the great things about him are pretty much ignored.

Fuck that disgusting, fat, drug addicted, child molesting, cliche celebrity weirdo.

Today I learned I'm more fat than Fat-Elvis. That's depressing.

Makes me wonder if he ever hung out with Hunter S Thompson.

number 9, ya, he wasn't as fat as people like to remember him as. I've heard ridiculous statements that he was 300 pounds , even 250 sounds like a stretch. And ya, I'm about as fat as Elvis. Funny, people love to find one thing about an icon and just drive them into the ground with it.

I'm surprised this didn't mention the fact (?) that Presley suffered from what's known as a megacolon; the subject was covered in one of Mary Roach's books, which I believe is titled "Stuffed". Very interesting. She makes the case that the intense discomfort and constipation he suffered because of this condition was one reason for his dramatic weight gain and desire to self-medicate.

that's true, he had a congenital defect and his own doctor said he died from what's called a "valsalva maneuver" in which a person strains at the toilet and has a heart attack, no one really seems to know. I don't doubt all factors were a key, crazy lifestyle, drugs, food.

I really like the drawing of Carter.

I wouldn't be shocked to find out Donald Trump maintains a similar regimen.

My friend in sophomore high school, a creative partner (we made some Super 8 comedies-- you may have seen "Lord Save The Queen" (1976) a James Bond satire featuring me as an evil robot Peter Lemongello, or "Star Flaws" a takeoff (1977) with my sister as Princess Leia wearing two painted bagels on either side of her head. No? Didn't see those?) was a massive Elvis fan. He was the first person I met who was into Elvis and this was in 1975 before his death and the massive re-celebration of Elvis due to it.

His family was typical of many in New York who were on the edge of showbiz. His brother an aspiring songwriter. His room was covered with pictures and he regularly read the National Enquirer and the Star, the only publications with weekly Elvis coverage at the time. At first I thought it was weird that a kid my age would like a singer from 20 years ago. But history showed he was ahead of his time.

Ya, when elvis died I didn't really know who he was but I knew he was important. Somehow, in my dad's apt. we didn't get the news until the next morning, I woke my dad up to tell him Elvis died and he was shocked. I think i saw some of Elvis' movies but other than that, I knew next to nothing. I can still remember a friend my age asking me if I had ever seen Elvis on either Allen's, Berle's or Sullivans' show. this was also before he died, and i didn't have a clue. My dad was really interested in the news and bought that now infamous enquirer which would probably be worth a few bucks today. Elvis was special, nutty? sure but very special and when people focus on the peanut butter sandwiches and all the bizarrenness, I think part of it is just so they don't have to think too hard about exactly what Elvis was.

I think he was around 210-220 when he died and was around 6 foot tall. I don't think that's obese; just overweight. Also, he didn't "carry" the weight well (if that's a thing) he was doing lots of various drugs and wasn't physically active at all so that probably contributed to him looking fatter in the face than he should have.

Nothing about Drug-addict Rapist Elvis is charming. It's just sad. He was ill-served by nearly everyone he knew, including himself.

Elvis Presley and Civil Rights …
The Role of Rock 'n' Roll

There is no evidence that Elvis ever publicly commented on the issue, but the thousands of Northwest teenagers, who had just days before reveled over Presley on stage, were now starting a new school year themselves. They were forced to judge the situation in Little Rock in the context of their own lives.

In October 1957, just a month after Elvis finished his tour there, a rock ’n’ roll touring show came to the Pacific Northwest. It included black performers Fats Domino, Clyde McPhatter, LaVern Baker, Frankie Lymon, Chuck Berry, and The Drifters. They shared the same stage and billing with white performers, such as The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Paul Anka, Buddy Knox, and Eddie Cochran. The show must have validated what the overwhelmingly white teenage population already intuitively felt—that the segregated policies existing in the South were wrong. As teenagers throughout the country grew into adulthood, many threw their political power behind the movement that ultimately brought about the civil rights legislation of the mid-sixties.

http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/civil-…

max, the older I get the more I just accept that most people, just being human, make horrible mistakes. If you aren't famous no one will ever know or care though. Elvis did some horrible things, most people have. You've done horrible things more than likely, which probably only you know about, so I'm always skeptical of people who are eager to point fingers because it's a way to not focus on themselves. How would I know that you didn't rape your wife? Beat your kids? Suck cock behind your wife's back? I don't know and I don't care because you're no one. Promise you, if you were in the shoes of anyone that well known you'd be driven near crazy by it, not too many aren't.

@23: fair enough. though i like to believe i wouldn't have put platforms in my slippers.

i wasn't pointing fingers. i think the entire demise is sad, and i absolutely love sun sessions elvis.

don't know where the platformed slippers statement comes from, there is a lot of elvis info out there, hard to know what's true and what's false. His height is generally listed at a full six feet and about 175 in the fifties. His army years ironically he never looked better, the point where a lot of people say he began his descent artist, he lost weight and some of the pictures are just plain beautiful, even for Elvis. The sun sessions are my favorites but really, he did lots of great work, much of it forgotten about today, all the way up to his death. Way Down, Hurt, Stranger in My Own Hometown and many others are just a great artist at work whether anyone cared anymore or not.

It's so telling when people who know nothing about firearms attempt to write of, and illustrate, the topic.

"… and an 'assassin's' high-powered break-down rifle with a detachable scope."

1) The "assassin's" rifle is an M-14, which can, and was, used for sniper purposes.
2) Virtually ALL scopes are detachable. This minor point is nearly irrelevant.
3) All the firearms depicted have the capability to be configured for automatic fire, so why mention only the M-16?
4) The M-16, if configured for automatic fire, would still be capable of "select" (semi-automatic) fire.
5) Did Elvis possess the required permits for fully-automatic weapons? THAT would have been relevant and useful information for the article.

ya, when someone who has pedestrian knowledge on any subject it's clear, that's why i don't really take this article too seriously, the pictures are not bad though.