Copyright (c) 2009 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc.

Did Elvis Presley REALLY fake his death of a drug-induced heart attack in 1977 and is he still alive today?

Elvis Presley: Your toughest questions about The King and his death answered by Derek Clontz

What about that picture of a “wax dummy” in his coffin – real, or fake?

And those sightings in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1989, 12 years after he is said to have died … what’s the deal with that?

And then there was that motorcycle accident in which he is said to have broken his leg in 1992 – true, or a fabrication?

Ask Derek Clontz, the source for over 70 of those stories – all of them world exclusives – in a tabloid career dating back to 1982, when he wrote Elvis is Alive! for GLOBE based on sightings in Canada.

The story cycle began anew with Weekly World News in 1989, with the publication of yet another Elvis is Alive! story based on Gail Giorgio’s book, Is Elvis Alive?

That was followed with Elvis Lived With Waitress from 1979 to 1982 … Elvis Spotted at Burger King in Kalamazoo … Elvis Breaks Leg in Motorcyle Crash Just Days Ago … and dozens more, including Elvis’ Tomb is Empty and Where Elvis is Really Buried based on inside information from Presley family friend and preacher, the Rev. Gene Maugham, who showed Clontz – and Clontz only – the final resting place of The King’s casket, although not even a deep-seeking sonar scan commissioned by Clontz could prove that Presley was in it.

Maugham stepped forward after psychic and metaphysician Dr. Andy Reiss determined beyond the shadow of any reasonable doubt that Elvis is not, repeat, not under the marker that bears his name in the Meditation Garden at his opulent Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

Intrigued? If you love Elvis, we know you will be. Get the answers to questions you’ve wondered about since 1977. Ask Derek Clontz by sending your questions in through the comments box on this page.

Admitting is the First Step…

For anyone who notices inconsistencies in movies, say a Timex watch in a battle scene of Spartans or a station wagon zooming along in the distance behind the supposed terrain of Hobbits, or as I have, the particular sunny clothing of a pair of friends as we walked through the sunny urban park amid drizzles of coarse bleached white sand and white cotton “snow” stitched up around the trees to give the impression of Winter in July, there’s something to consider in the power of combining forces with other writers – historic or otherwise.

Writers of this persuasion fulfills a specific niche that is sadly underrated, and often in need of a wake up call. Writing is not about being a detail monger or a comedian, it’s about becoming a critic – with something important to say.

If you understand context, you know something about the way stories themselves are stitched together. It’s not what’s on the page, but the symbolism behind what isn’t said because it is universal and doesn’t have to be. A man hitting a baseball is nice only in the image or mood it stages – and the stage up to that point is empty. Babe Ruth hitting a ball after promising a boy on his death bed that the next home run is for him – that is a story.

Culture is the same way. It’s the grandfather of thought and the writer’s secret weapon in an age of conformity. The sort of stuff they don’t teach you in cliche investigation of everybody’s feelings as in many writer’s classes. It’s too risky for most people to really delve into the polemics, but that’s how it also becomes that much more relevant. It’s rare.

Ideas and culture, not just money, passes from hand to hand like invisible gold. Why then, asks the collaborator’s argument, shouldn’t the ideas of books? This argument in particular makes it sound like the evolution of thought is mandatory. And, well isn’t it?

That’s precisely how conversations about collaboration should start:

Collaboration: The argument for Freedom of Speech, Assembly, the Press, and Adaptive Learning through Human Knowledge

It’s inevitable that cultural ideas be borrowed, and there’s no legitimate argument against the passing along of basic tribal wisdom – the glue that helps collaborative efforts from ratifying constitutions to deciding who’s going to pick the kids up. Culture is practically reality itself. This is not to say stealing is in any way related to writing, but understanding where you are on a map of cultural conditions is a key to grasping where you’re heading.

Rhymes with Orange

Some things you just can’t place. They seem so new and shocking it’s hard to believe they’re old hat. Others are so diluted their trademark is long gone. They are the gears that keep our cultures tick-tocking along. They are big and heavy, and we see them all the time, like the eagle clutching arrows, the blind lady justice, the twinkling city scape glowing behind the pillar of the Washington monument. Each of those was reverently borrowed from the Romans and Europeans, who were themselves borrowing from the Egyptians and the Greeks. And who came before the Greeks? Somebody of course. They shared as well – if they could. That’s evolution after all. The cultural choices they made formed successful cohesive societies.

To go to the grand scale view, those are all the reasons we are here writing now. Present tense. No one ever thinks that one idea, once as common as the term “bandaid” or “Kleenex” could become so forgotten and yet still intrinsically carry so much human value that it could be resurrected a thousand years later as a 500 level dedicated college course. But it happens all the time. What we discuss now as fossilized language was their every-day reality. Why, then, can’t we write about what we’ve learned from our own little tribal nooks and vantages?

This is the appropriate argument for open sourcing tomes of knowledge like Plato’s “Republic,” as well as the late great-aunt Maude’s “Blueberry Preserves: Secret Recipe – and Others” (leather bound) for the greater good of the public domain. Human information that would otherwise be extinguished with the author is preserved and carried on.

Human beings learn most efficiently from one another (some would say most efficiently from the written word) and with more options they learn rapidly, building great things together. Sometimes these things are the Incan highland cities of Peru, thrumming turbine fields, and hybrid cars, other times they are the atomic bomb and the Radon Girls. But we learn.

We learn the point of tribal knowledge is not to go there again if it was bad the first time. Why keep burning ourselves in future generations? Seems downright uncivil not to course correct with a little polemic and earnest discussion when the ideas in need of moving are all the greater in present force. Non-interference seems a weak excuse when we are Prime – not some value, but the very living source – of Vanilla Ice lyrics and too much metal hand waving fame. Of Elvis the Pelvis and also Miriam Mekeba bringing joy where there was once apartheid. She was a polemicist and she was prime – willing to sing out and cause change. It wasn’t about her back yard, it was about everybody.

Writers are about everybody. Remember that every day that you write. A prayer for relevance and the power to turn heads and do great things.

When we consider who owns what idea, be it a boy on a flying kite, or a plan for a sub-atomic missile, all of these elements play into the final judgment call.

Human stories are open to being retold and given richer meaning and symbolism to grow legs and get away from us, and get closer to other people who need those ideas for their very survival. For anyone to try and stop that sharing and divide the human race out of some misguided notion of fossilized perfection, which itself inevitably misuses the term “perfection” in support of some unrealistic, imbalanced social power, the splitting of hairs is exactly what poetic license was created to overcome.

The truth is, throttling and chaining down the meaning of what we have learned drowns the whole purpose of wisdom in the first place. Power is supposed to spread – through the generations and new experiences. It’s supposed to flow like water. It’s not meant to congeal like spattered blood. Congealed power is decay, and we don’t want that. We want to share our crayons.

The Rabbit Hole: The Special Advantages of a Writer-Collaborator

That lack of understanding of where “borrowed” becomes “lost” is by far the biggest problem we have today as professional writers. It may seem odd that in the solitary profession of writing, collaboration is pushed as such a necessary source of (sometimes painful) inspiration. But writers will only sync up for brief periods with the rest of society unless their wares are specifically engineered with a public target in mind.

The truth of the professional writing process, be it screenwriting, fiction, or even autobiography, is that writers start out the givers, and only end up the takers later on as the market allows. There can only be a few bestsellers a year. Even with the break-down of the traditional model of book and movie sales. While we are already as a culture allowing more niche options available over non-traditional distributional methods, there’s still only so much bandwidth the consumer population can have. For this reason the temptation is strong to follow the buzz extolling the fast track of “the formula.”

While there is certainly a real craft to mixing the right formula of entertainment, suspense, and laughter in any project, there’s also the higher art of contextualizing the work resonate with reality, social need and the warning of the dangers to come. Writers who jump to rephrase their work in the cookie-cutter format of whatever sells is missing a huge point as well as possibly further sabotaging their own work. Instead of bending your ideas into the shell of a specific meme, find the cultural significance in what you as a writer are actually trying to say.

Writing at the end of the day is a public service, and writers are responsible for being the scouts as well as the poets in order for a thriving society to continue abiding its checks and balances.

Never forget this rule. Follow it, and you will find your readership.

Copyright (c) 2009 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

After years of speculation, the truth can finally be told: Elvis Presley not only faked his death in 1977, he’s alive today – and we’ve got the photograph to prove it.

The stark, black-and-white snapshot taken by a stunned fan on June 26 clearly shows the aging superstar resting in a wheelchair on the grounds of his Graceland mansion in Memphis.

ELVIS PRESLEY: Photographed at Graceland, say eyewitnesses, just days ago.

And while nobody can say for sure if The King is back at Graceland to stay, Presley insiders hint that the 74-year-old legend, “if he really is alive, might go public at any minute” if he gets some kind of indication that fans still care.

“I’m not saying Elvis is alive – honestly, I’ve always suspected it, but I’ve never known for sure,” said a close friend of the singer and former member of his close-knit “Memphis Mafia.”

“But I’ll tell you one thing – if that picture of him in the wheelchair is authentic, and it sure looks to me like it is, then you can bet your bottom dollar that El set the whole thing up to find out if people still remember him.

“Elvis isn’t stupid. In fact, he’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever known. If he faked his death and kept himself out of the public eye for 32 years, he sure wouldn’t screw up and let somebody take his picture now, especially one that shows him in a weakened condition and unable to use his legs.

“At least, he wouldn’t ‘screw up’ unless he wanted to. I think that’s what might be going down. He‘s a sensitive guy and I guarantee you he wouldn’t come out of hiding if he felt like fans don’t care about him anymore.

It‘s easy for me to believe he‘s testing the water before he does something drastic like go on Good Morning, America or Larry King and tell everybody he’s alive.”

Nobody officially involved in the maintenance of the Presley estate and its various for-profit enterprises has ever said anything to support the notion that Elvis faked his death of a heart attack on Aug. 16, 1977.

And they certainly aren’t forthcoming with any new information now.

But if the story develops along the lines suggested by the ex Presley insider, they might have to. And that includes The King’s former wife, Priscilla, and only child, rock-star-in-her-own-right, Lisa Marie.

“There are plenty of good reasons for Elvis to come out of hiding now,“ says Wes Thomas, an investigative reporter and Presley expert who has written extensively on the performer.

“He’s certainly no spring chicken. And after the recent death of Michael Jackson, he might have stopped to reflect on his own mortality and decided that if he‘s ever going to tell fans the truth, he better do it now.

“That the kind of man Elvis was. He loved his fans and he never wanted to lie to them or cheat them. If he faked his death to escape the pressures of being a star, those who know Elvis would tell you they always expected him to come out of hiding and explain everything.

“What’s really got me about that picture is the wheelchair. It could mean he’s had a stroke and lost the use of his legs or maybe he has an unsteady gait. Then again, he might be using a prop to generate interest among fans.

“When you see Elvis Presley in a wheelchair 32years after he ‘died’, well, that’s something the whole world will want to see.”

Photo analysts commissioned by YourWorldReport.com say the photograph taken by a 53-year-old woman who sneaked onto the grounds of Graceland through an unlocked gate “absolutely, positively has not been altered or retouched” in any way.

And while they can’t say for sure whether the senior citizen in the wheelchair is Elvis or a mere look-alike, a nationally known aging expert says: “It’s The King.“

“Judging from my analysis of blowups, the man is Elvis or, if not Elvis, someone who aged exactly as our computer models say Elvis would have aged – which is a virtual impossibility,” says Phil Telers, of Washington, D.C. Telers has worked closely with police departments nationwide to “age” abducted children in computer models that are used to help find the kids years after they went missing.

As Elvis fans know all too well, circumstances surrounding The King’s “death” in 1977 were mysterious at best. Officially, he suffered a drug-induced heart attack while reading a book on the Shroud of Turin in the opulent bathroom adjoining his second-floor bedroom at Graceland – while girlfriend Ginger Alden slept just a few feet away in his bed.

But reports from mourners who said Presley was sweating profusely as he lay in his open casket before his funeral fueled persistent and compelling rumors that he was, in fact, alive.

Those rumors intensified when Presley insiders told friends that anybody who bothered to dig up the performer’s coffin would find – not Elvis – but a wax dummy inside.

In fact, Presley’s dad, Vernon, had the casket moved from Forest Lawn Cemetery, where it was originally buried, to Elvis’s beloved “Meditation Garden” at Graceland to keep overzealous fans from digging it up to find out who – or what – really was inside.

“If it’s truly Elvis I saw I’ll just die,“ says the excited fan from Cheraw, South Carolina, who took the wheelchair-bound man’s picture and requested that her name be withheld “so other fans won’t think I‘m trying to take advantage of anything.”

“I just had time to take the one picture and the camera was set to take black and white because my son is studying photograph at the junior college and they’re using black and white,” she adds.

“I was pretty far away and had to use my zoom lens. But I know he saw me because we made eye contact. I felt like it was Elvis and my heart was beating out of my chest. I tried to say something but my mouth was so dry all I could do was croak like a frog.”

The woman says security guards caught up with her “and they were real nice about escorting me out, not mean like you’d think they’d be.

“By then I could talk and I kept saying, ‘That was Elvis! I saw Elvis.’ The funny thing is, they didn’t deny it. And they didn’t make fun of me, either. But when I turned back around, Elvis was gone.

“If I hadn’t taken the picture, I probably wouldn’t have believed any of this ever happened. It still feels like a dream.”

Elvis in his 1957 film, "Jailhouse Rock"

In my two previous posts, “Elvis the Pelvis” and “Elvis: Too Sexy for His Shirt,” I wrote about Elvis Presley and the TV appearances that made him a star. His hip-gyrating performance of “Hound Dog” on NBC’s June 5, 1956, “The Milton Berle Show,” created a huge new fan base and a storm of controversy. Moral crusaders tried to keep him off the air. Critics in the press labeled his performances “vulgar” and “obscene.” Elvis was dubbed, “Elvis the Pelvis.” Top-rated TV host Ed Sullivan vowed, “I wouldn’t have Presley on my show at any time,” as he considered Elvis unsuitable for family viewing.

In a New York radio interview, Elvis said, in his defense,

“Rock and roll music, if you like it, and you feel it, you can’t help but move to it. That’s what happens to me. I have to move around. I can’t stand still. I’ve tried it, and I can’t do it.”

As they say in show business, all publicity is good publicity. The Berle show drew such high ratings that comedian Steve Allen, not a fan of rock ‘n’ roll, rushed to book Elvis for “The Steve Allen Show” for July 1, 1956. “The Steve Allen Show” ran on NBC opposite its chief rival, “The Ed Sullivan Show” on Sunday nights. It was Steve’s aim to defeat Ed in the TV ratings game.

Steve wasn’t about to let Elvis strut suggestively on his program. He decided to introduce a “new Elvis,” one the whole family could love. He costumed Elvis in a top hat and tails and had him sing “Hound Dog” to a basset hound. With its sad eyes and droopy ears, the hound dog severely upstaged Elvis who was reduced to minimal movement.

Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis, and Ed Sullivan

Elvis was reportedly angry with his treatment on Steve’s show, but the ratings were phenomenal. Elvis’ manager, the ruthless Colonel Tom Parker, was able to sign Elvis for three engagements on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Ed offered Elvis the unprecedented amount of $50,000 for the three shows.

Ed Sullivan was asked to explain why he’d reversed his opinion of Elvis:

“What I said then was off the reports I’d heard. I hadn’t even seen the guy. Seeing the kinescopes, I don’t know what the fuss was all about. For instance, the business about rubbing the thighs. He rubbed one hand on his hip to dry off the perspiration from playing his guitar.”

Presley’s first Ed Sullivan appearance (September 9, 1956) was seen by some 55–60 million viewers, one out of every three Americans. On the third Sullivan show on January 6, 1957, Elvis sang only slow paced ballads and a gospel song. Nevertheless, for the first time, Elvis was shown to the television audience only ‘from the waist up.’ The conventional wisdom has been that Elvis was “cropped” at the request of TV host Sullivan to please network censors by hiding Elvis’  hip movements. However, this was Elvis’ third appearance on the show and Elvis’ first two appearances hadn’t been censored. He had been shown full-bodied both times before. It is more likely that Elvis’ notoriously greedy manager, Colonel Tom Parker, and not network censors or Ed Sullivan, who ordered that Elvis be shot from the waist up to generate publicity.

Italian-born actor Rudolph Valentino in the 1921 silent film, "The Sheik"

In spite of any misgivings about the controversial nature of his performing style, Ed Sullivan declared at the end of the third appearance that Presley was “a real decent, fine boy” and that they had never had “a pleasanter experience” on the show.

Below is a clip from Elvis’ 3rd appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” January 6, 1957, – the official “Waist-Up Appearance” in which Elvis sings, “Too Much.” One biographer has suggested that Elvis’ spangled vest, heavily made-up eyes, and hair falling in his face made Elvis resemble the smoldering silent film idol Rudolph Valentino as he appeared in “The Sheik.” What do you think?

Elvis in "Harum Scarum" (1965)

Whew! Waist-up or full-bodied, Elvis proves he’s got what it takes.

If Elvis really did want to dress up like Valentino in “The Sheik,” then, in 1965, he got his wish when he was cast as Johnny Tyronne in his nineteenth movie, “Harum Scarum.” Elvis’ wife, Priscilla Presley, recalls in her memoirs that Elvis liked the exotic Arab costumes so much that, after wrapping up filming for the day, Elvis wore his full make-up and costumes home from the movie set.

Elvis performing "Hound Dog" ("The Milton Berle Show," June 5, 1956)

In my last post, “Elvis the Pelvis,” I wrote about Elvis’ sensational and controversial performance on “The Milton Berle Show” (NBC) on June 5, 1956, when he sang “Hound Dog.” His playful yet sensual rendition of the blues number – his hips gyrated provocatively  – rocketed Elvis to fame while also unleashing a floodgate of criticism. Elvis was too sexy for prime time TV, some said.

Ed Sullivan, host of “The Ed Sullivan Show,” CBS’ long-running (1948-1971), top-rated Sunday night variety show. Ed is shown with the little lovable Italian mouse puppet, Topo Gigio, that made more than fifty Sullivan appearances. On the show, Topo Gigio greeted Ed with a sugary "Hello Eddie!" and ended his weekly visits by crooning to the host, "Eddie, Keesa me goo'night!"

At the time, TV variety and comedy shows were the rage and ”The Ed Sullivan Show” (CBS) was  the #1 show on TV. The host of the top-rated Sunday night show was Ed Sullivan, nicknamed “Old Stone Face” for his deadpan delivery. But Ed Sullivan made up for what he lacked in personality in instinct. He had a knack for spotting talent and promoting it. Many entertainers who began on his program became household names. But Ed was a family-minded man. Elvis Presley may have been the flavor of the day, the month, or even the year, but Ed let it be known that he didn’t consider Elvis family entertainment and that he would never allow Elvis to appear on his show.

But TV ratings are hard to ignore for TV hosts. This was 1956, the infancy of TV programming. While only 0.5% of U.S. households had a television set in 1946, 55.7% had one in 1954. ABC existed but only began to air programs like “Leave it to Beaver” in the mid-1950s. The only two TV networks were NBC and CBS.  In 1956, NBC offered Steve Allen a new, prime time Sunday night aimed at dethroning CBS’ top-rated “Ed Sullivan Show.” It was NBC’s aim for Steve Allen to defeat Ed Sullivan in the ratings.

Comedian Steve Allen’s personal distaste for rock and roll didn’t cloud his business sense. He needed a ratings boost and Elvis was hot stuff. Steve had seen Elvis on another TV show, didn’t catch his name, but was enchanted by his gangly, country-boy charm. He sent a memo to his staff to find out who the entertainer was and book him for “The Steve Allen Show.” They booked Elvis for a July 1, 1956, performance on “The Steve Allen Show,” three weeks after Elvis’ performance on “The Milton Berle Show.” From the time of the memo to the date Elvis performed on “The Steve Allen Show,” Steve’s show outperformed Ed Sullivan’s in the ratings game.

Writing in Hi, Ho, Steverino!, Steve Allen recalls:

Elvis singing "Hound Dog" ("The Steve Allen Show," July 1, 1956)

When I booked Elvis, I naturally had no interest in just presenting him vaudeville-style and letting him do his spot as he might in concert. Instead we worked him into the comedy fabric of our program. I asked him to sing “Hound Dog” (which he had recorded just the day before) dressed in a classy Fred Astaire wardrobe–white tie and tails–and surrounded him with graceful Greek columns and hanging draperies that would have been suitable for Sir Laurence Olivier reciting Shakespeare.
For added laughs, I had him sing the number to a sad-faced basset hound that sat on a low column and also wore a little top hat. We certainly didn’t inhibit Elvis’ then-notorious pelvic gyrations, but I think the fact that he had on formal evening attire made him, purely on his own, slightly alter his presentation.

Elvis Presley with his manager, the notorious "Colonel Parker"

“Inasmuch as Elvis later made appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, I’ve often been asked why I didn’t make the same arrangements with him myself. Here’s the reason: Before we even left the studio the night Elvis appeared on our show, Ed telephoned Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, backstage at our own theatre. So desperate was he to make the booking, in fact, that he broke what had until that moment been a $7,500 price ceiling on star-guests, offering the Colonel $10,000 per shot. Parker told Sullivan he’d get back to him, walked over to us, shared the news of Sullivan’s offer, and said, ‘I feel a sense a loyalty to you fellows because you booked Elvis first, when we needed the booking; so if you’ll meet Sullivan’s terms we’ll be happy to continue to work on your program.’

“I thanked him for his frankness but told him I thought he should accept Ed’s offer. The reason, primarily, was that I didn’t think it reasonable to continue to have to construct sketches and comic gimmicks in which Presley, a noncomic, could appear. Ed’s program, having a vaudeville-variety format, was a more appropriate showcase for Elvis’ type of performance.

“For his own part, Elvis had a terrific time with us and lent himself willingly to our brand of craziness. He was an easy-going, likeable, and accommodating performer. He quickly become the biggest star in the country; but when I ran into him from time-to-time over the years it was clear that he had never let his enormous success go to his head.”

Nor an Olivia Cruise for that matter.  My uterus is on vacation, more like a sabbatical. I was not asked or consulted about participating in said vacation. Apparently my uterus sent an email to the travel agent about booking a little trip and I missed the whole thing.  I didn’t know my uterus had thumbs or could type for that matter.  And just like that, bam.  Gone.

I am adjusting.  I am not happy because, again, no one asked me. No little note on the kitchen counter, no Hallmark card, no Kiss My Ass, Lady…zippo. 

I called Customs and asked them to kindly track my uterus’ passport but they have yet to get back to me.  I am sure they are very, very busy. We have borders to protect. We have people sporting socks and sandals from other countries that need to get in to stimulate the US economy.  Forget about stimulating my uterus. I am not sure that I will hear back from the Customs office anytime soon. Perhaps it was the long pause after I explained to the agent that I was looking for my uterus and “could he kindly track it for me.” 

And to top it all off I haven’t event gotten one post card. The nerve.

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz.4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Marybelle McKindly says the velvet painting of Elvis Presley she bought from a roadside vendor begs for food, says “Thank you very much” – and weeps real tears.

And paranormal researchers who are investigating the strange case say there is “compelling evidence” to suggest the longtime Elvis fan isn’t imagining things – she’s telling the gospel truth.

“I’ve got no reason to lie about it – I wouldn’t sell my painting of Elvis for any price and I’m not trying to get on TV because I have no desire to go on Jerry Springer or Oprah and make a fool out of myself,” McKindly, 52, of Belle Glade, Florida, told me exclusively.

“All I know is that Elvis is here, in this room, in this painting – not in the flesh, but spiritually. Sometimes I’ll talk to it, and sometimes it talks back.

“I know that sounds crazy, but I’m not a nut. As God is my witness, my painting of Elvis talks.”

And cries. According to McKindly, who works as a secretary in a church, the haunting image of The King breaks into tears … story continues, click to read Painting of Elvis Talks, Sings and Weeps Real Tears …

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

EVERYONE remembers Elvis Presley’s version of Hound Dog, but it wasn’t a No. 1 hit for The King – in fact, it barely cracked the Top 20. And did you know that Elvis had an “eternal flame” like President John F. Kennedy’s that burned out a few years after he died – and was never re-lit? 

That’s a sample of the fascinating Elvis trivia I’ve got for you on the heels of reports that a highly-personal and secret diary he kept throughout his career has been found in a box of old books in a thrift shop and will be published in time for this year’s Christmas book season.

Here’s more: 

1. An “eternal flame” stoked in memory of Elvis was extinguished in 1981 after businessmen who vowed to keep the fire burning “until the end of time” changed their minds. 

The flame flickered for three years at Presley’s super-secret Circle G Ranch just south of Graceland, his better-known mansion in Memphis. Elvis had purchased the Circle G as a hideaway for himself and his “Memphis Mafia” entourage.

And in classic Presley fashion, he spent a fortune on the place, including a mind-boggling $1 million on, among other things, new mobile homes and pickup trucks for all his pals to use while visiting.

After Presley died, investors bought the ranch and installed the eternal flame. It burned brightly until bean counters concluded fans weren’t interested in visiting the Circle G with Graceland and its treasure-trove of Elvis memorabilia located just a few miles up the road.

2. By the most accurate counts available to trivia buffs and fans who keep track of such things, Presley’s face has appeared on 6,391 potatoes, 243 floor tiles, 111 tacos, 64 tree trunks, 52 … story continues, click to read it …

Presley kept a private journal for more than 20 years – and never told anyone about it

Copyright (c) 2008 Derek Clontz/4-Page Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

A college professor claims to have found Elvis Presley’s secret diaries in a box of used books that he purchased in Memphis, Tennessee just days ago.

The volumes allegedly span the years 1956 to 1977, with the last comments having been entered just hours before The King died.

“They’re authentic, I guarantee it,” the scholar told me in a world-exclusive interview. “There are seven volumes containing entries that begin November 16, 1956 and end August 16, 1977.

“The diaries appear to reveal Mr. Presley’s innermost thoughts and feelings about life, friends and his career. To the best of my knowledge nobody, not even the people closest to Elvis, knew that these diaries existed.

“At least they didn’t know, until now.”

The professor revealed that he was in possession of The King’s secret diaries in an e-mail to derekclontz.com editor-in-chief Derek Clontz on Monday, June 16. He … story continues with 20 diary entries that will astound you …