They Love Him Tender, Love Him True . . .

In the distant future scholars may ponder the remains of an ancient, jewel-encrusted belt, scratch their heads and wonder: What was it about this overweight minstrel that so enchanted this strange race?

It’s a question worth considering, but the faithful horde who gathered at La Luz de Jesus Gallery on Melrose Avenue in the Fairfax District on Friday night for the opening of “The Elvis Show” came not to decipher The King, nor did they come to bury him. They came, as have countless others before them, to exhume him and take part in a ritual of high kitsch held in memory of the pelvis that launched a thousand merchandising schemes.

A multimedia extravaganza, “The Elvis Show” is the brainchild of gallery curator Robert Lopez, who brought together 28 artistically inclined Elvis Presley fans from all over the country. While it’s unlikely that Sotheby’s will stage a major auction of art of the Elvis ilk, Lopez’s show is a first-class exercise in trash culture.

Elvis was nothing if not a man of the people, so it comes as no surprise that many of the artists included are folk primitivists. Among the genuine folk art on view: a stone head carved by 45-year-old David George Marshall, a Georgia quarryman; paintings by Mr. Stark, a 75-year-old Romanian immigrant who was moved to begin painting the singer when Elvis died in 1977; and portraits by ultra-hip folk artist the Rev. Howard Finster, who’s done album covers for R.E.M. and Talking Heads.

Art, however, constituted but a fraction of what was offered at Friday’s opening. Platters of the Kings’ favorite foods--fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches and bacon--were served, and in a show of solidarity with the spirit of the corpulent rocker, many revelers overate. Shoppers browsed around the Elvis Boutique, stocked with all manner of Presleyana from room deodorizers to rubber masks, while those with a taste for the exotic examined two live female models posed on pedestals displaying their Elvis tattoos.

Elvis’ TV footage flickered on a video monitor and Elvis movies screened in an adjoining gallery, while the lineup of live entertainment included Kashiselvis, who performs cover versions of post-Presley material--the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” for instance--as Elvis might have done them. A Col. Tom Parker impersonator (Robert Lopez) sang “I Made Elvis What He Was,” Tim Presley (Tim Parker) and the Elvisairres vocal group did “Elvis Was My Father,” and Melana Luke opened the show as Lisa Lisa Marie lip-syncing “God Called Elvis Home.”

Those who missed Friday’s performers can still catch the artwork, along with two Elvis film shorts that screen at the gallery nightly through this month. Elisa Blattein’s “Elvii” explores the world of Elvis impersonators, while Tom Corboy’s “Mondo Elvis” is a collection of interviews with fans.

But wait, the magic doesn’t stop there--in fact, the Elvis magic seems stuck to the soul of Western civilization like a stubborn wad of gum. A play called “Graceland” is currently being staged by the Beverly Hills Playhouse, and Joni Mabe’s traveling Elvis Show (the subject of an article in the current issue of Artforum) rolls into town next month. Mabe’s traveling Elvis Show is not to be confused with Jimmy Velvet’s traveling Elvis Museum, which has yet to pass through town. Velvet roams from town to town setting up temporary exhibitions of his collection of Elvis’ actual underwear, Elvis’ actual bathroom scale and other not-to-be-missed actual Elvis items.