Elvis Presley image used by permission, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc.
Oct. 29, 2008 — More than three decades after his death, Elvis Presley is still making an impact from beyond the cemetery with his specter raised in three different news stories just days before Halloween.
• The owners of Endsley Funeral Home in Bartonville, Ill., celebrated the business’ 80th anniversary with a crypt-ic party: An Elvis impersonator sang songs and danced at an open house that featured a replica of the 650-pound casket that houses the King’s remains. Approximately 300 people joined the moody-blue party.
• Million Dollar Quartet, a theatrical project showing in Chicago, recounts the famous 1956 recording session in which Sun labelmates Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins gathered round a piano for an off-the-cuff sing-along. The show’s back story is bathed in eery mystery: Elvis showed up that day with a girlfriend believed to be named Marilyn Evans. According to The Chicago Tribune, the woman — unlike the King’s other exes — never stepped forward publicly, and her true identity and whereabouts remain lost to history.
• Forbes named Elvis the Top-Earning Dead Celebrity, having generated an estimated $52 million in the 12 months from October 2007 to October 2008. Among the 13 names on the list are such figures as John Lennon, Heath Ledger, Marilyn Monroe and Marvin Gaye. One name that’s disappeared from the annual chart is the Man in Black: Johnny Cash.
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