They Can’t Help Falling : Elvis Diving Team Invades Knott’s, Sideburns and All

Ten Elvis impersonators--known to the movie-going public as The Flying Elvi--descended from the sky Friday in white jumpsuits, red scarves and sideburns, in a parachute performance before an appreciative crowd.

One of the Elvi landed on Dianna Berrena, 49, of Whittier, whose posterior was slightly bruised but whose love for Elvis remained unabated. “It was worth it,” she said.

Berrena was among several thousand Elvis fans who crowded in and around Calico Square at Knott’s Berry Farm to watch a performance by The Flying Elvi, the group that gained attention in the movie “Honeymoon in Vegas.”

Jumping from a plane at 12,500 feet and braving gusty 15-knot winds, two of the Elvi landed feet first on a large white target; two landed in a reflecting pool and had to do a quick costume change; and the rest managed to land safely elsewhere in the park.

Well, except for Roger Foster of Las Vegas, who accidentally landed on Berrena.

“I tried pulling her out of the way, but he was just too quick,” said Berrena’s husband, Dennis. “He (Foster) tried real hard to make it a miss, but he just couldn’t make it.”

“I was really jealous when he hit that lady,” said Yolanda McPeck, 25, of Anaheim, noting she is looking for an Elvis impersonator to marry. “I wanted it to be me.”

The small crowded square was one of the tightest drops the team has tried to land in since banding together in 1992, when “Honeymoon in Vegas” was made, Elvi members said.

“On a scale of one to 10, this was an 11,” team captain Mark Gilespie said. “This is our job, but it does make it thrilling.”

Gilespie, who was born and raised in Memphis--home of Elvis Presley--said that he has always been partial to the King’s music. He added, however, that none of the team members feels quite the adoration of a true Elvis worshiper.

Still, The Flying Elvi act has taken on a “life of its own,” Gilespie said, noting that the group has performed about 40 times since 1992.

The team, which originally called themselves Into the Fire sky divers, was performing group formation jumps in and around Las Vegas when the filmmakers of “Honeymoon in Vegas” started looking around for a team that could make a parachute jump in the movie.

After “Honeymoon,” groups started calling to see if The Flying Elvi were a real act, said Joe Speck, the team’s executive vice president who started managing the group after the movie was released.

Team members do not actually spend their time outside the act in bell-bottomed jumpsuits studded with sequins and wigs with sideburns. Gilespie, for instance, is a health inspector for Clark County, Nev. Other members include airline pilots, a schoolteacher, an owner of Jiffy Lube franchises, and a carpet salesman.

“They are sky divers, they are not singers,” Speck said, adding that each team member is in great physical shape. “It’s a very precise, choreographed show.”

The group’s performance Friday kicked off a summer-long tribute to Elvis Presley at Knott’s Berry Farm. Called “Elvis Rockin’ U.S.A.,” the tribute will run through Labor Day.