King-Size Rumors Live on in County

A touring production called “Elvis: A Musical Celebration” will arrive at the Orange County Performing Arts Center next year. But some of The King’s local fans may be content to hold the party until the genuine article reappears.

They have, you see, heard the speculation that Elvis isn’t really dead--just hiding. It’s all been triggered by a book, “Is Elvis Alive?” by Gail Brewer-Giorgio, who questions whether Elvis has really left this mortal coil, suggesting that he may have faked his death so he could live incognito in Europe, traveling unnoticed from coffee shop to coffee shop.

Amazing? Perhaps. Calendar asked several of Orange County’s musical tastemakers for their thoughts:

I think he’s dead.

He was a big man in the music industry--the king of rock ‘n’ roll for 20 years--and it makes money if you can start a controversy. The book will sell. How many people (visit) Graceland every day? You see all the memorabilia. Somebody will make a lot of money starting a controversy. I wish I had thought of it.

--Gary Folgner, owner of the Coach House concert club, San Juan Capistrano

I think we all have great imaginations. But if he was available, I’d book him.

--Fred Reiser, co-owner and talent buyer for the Crazy Horse Steak House, Santa Ana

I’m sure he’s dead. But I don’t really know if I care if he’s alive . . . . There are people who die and they have a funeral and then you never hear from them again--and then there’s Elvis. His music is alive. You hear it played every day. Well, maybe every other day . . . . If he’s dead, he’s probably in heaven, (but if he was reincarnated instead, Elvis would likely be) reincarnated as a peach tree ... in a park where people would be able to pick his fruit and enjoy a little of him every day. --Jim Palmer, an independent concert promoter

I think we’ll be seeing him soon. Elvis will appear to the true believers in what he’s trying to (communicate): that rock ‘n’ roll is the true religion in the world and that people should be dancing in the streets. The more people do that, the more he’ll come back.

Maybe he should run for President. With Dukakis and Bush running, there would be no match. They’d be thrown down to the minor leagues. And Col. Parker should be put in charge of the Pentagon--no contracts, just handshakes.

--Sam Lanni, band manager and former nightclub owner

It certainly is food for thought--the “what if” thing. My favorite one is “What if Superman was born in Germany?” What if Elvis was alive? He hasn’t called me yet.

I was a big Elvis fan from the word go, and I don’t want to slander his name all over the place, but it’s hard not to get glib and funny about it. Like (the book) says that Elvis weighed something like 600 pounds when he died, but that the body in the casket only weighed 58 pounds or something.

But then they say that the body loses some weight when the soul leaves, and maybe Elvis had so much soul that that’s all that was left. Normal people lose 1/50th of an ounce. Nobody would deny that Elvis had a lot of soul. I’m sure there are logical explanations like that for every one of (the “mysteries” posed by Brewer-Giorgio’s book).

I just think it would be so great to have a hoax come true. They discover Hitler’s diaries, but you know it’s a hoax. Is Paul dead? Is Elvis alive? I would just like to have one of them come true. I don’t care which.

--Jerry Roach, band manager and former nightclub owner

What do you mean he’s dead? I had lunch with Elvis yesterday.

--Chuck Battaglia, nightclub entertainer and former Elvis Presley impersonator