This is who you do not want on your rugby team. He doesn't know how to play rugby. But he's covered the Elvis 7s for decades. (Credit: C. M. Stevens)
One of my all-time favorite events to cover is the Elvis 7s, the annual rugby tournament honoring Elvis presented by the Memphis Blues Rugby Club. I’ve covered it for decades. It’s such a uniquely Memphis thing.
Games are played against the soundtrack of Elvis recordings, including, appropriately, All Shook Up and Suspicious Minds, the latter with its words “Caught in a trap.” (Or, more fittingly for the occasion, a “maul,” which means being physically detained by the opposing team). An Elvis trivia game is played and, there’s a “Mister Sideburns” contest, in which players with various sizes and shapes of sideburns compete against one another as they sing a snippet from an Elvis song. The winner is usually given some kind of an Elvis memento.
Elvis 7s, which celebrated its 35th anniversary this year, was held August 6th (the event is traditionally held the first Saturday of August). The tournament, which for some years was held at USA Stadium in Millington, was back at its old stomping (literally) ground at McBride Field in Toby Park.
Pablo Sierra at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Julie Sandridge and Shaniah Jones at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Billy Dyer and Sally Kissinger at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Ricky Speed at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)
In years past, the late Bill “Dollar Bill” Walker dressed as Elvis and his wife, now Sophie Duffel, dressed as Priscilla Presley. They were driven onto the field in a pink Cadillac. There also were Priscilla contests with competing women rugby team members in beehive hairdos.
The T-shirts are always great. This year’s shirt featured a drawing of Elvis in a rugby uniform with long socks. Troy McCall, a Memphis Blues Club alumnus came up with the image, which he’d used on previous T-shirts. McCall, a former Elvis 7s tournament director, has designed the Elvis 7s T-shirts for “at least 20 years,” he says.
Troy McCall and Alex Beckett at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Michael Donahue and rugby player John Elmore have a sideburns face off at Elvis 7s (Credit: Caleb Johnson)Gerald Williams, Christian Flynn, and Reagan Rukstad (Credit: Michael Donahue)Blink and Emac at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue) Watching the action at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Wally Dyke, who founded the event, wore one of McCall’s 2011 Elvis 7s T-shirts, which featured an image of Elvis’s face with a Maori tattoo. “That year the Elvis 7s T-shirts were based on the fact that Rugby World Cup was being hosted in New Zealand,” McCall says. “Maoris are indigenous to New Zealand and are part of the culture.”
Wally Dyke at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)
McCall attended the World Cup that year, and was wearing the shirt at a bar in New Zealand. McCall saw a Maori man with a tattooed face on the other side “staring daggers at us,” he says. He wondered if the man was disturbed by the shirt. McCall walked over and said, “Hey, man. We’re from the states and we’re here for the Rugby World Cup. I wanted to know, do you find this offensive?”
“He said, ‘Nah. That’s one of the best shirts I’ve ever seen. I’d love to have one.’ I literally took off the shirt I was wearing and gave it to him. And he gave me the shirt he was wearing.”
Another tidbit about that shirt: “If you look at the bottom left part of his face, the left cheek and jaw, it actually says ‘Elvis’ within the design.”
The first Elvis 7s event was in 1987. “It had four teams and he (Dyke) brought his stereo from home and hung his speakers from a tree,” McCall says.
“A cassette player,” Dyke says.
And, he added, “After that first year I think we had 12 teams. Then we got to our maximum of 16, the most we can do in a day.”
Taylor Osment at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Noelle Equi and Gerald Williams at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Ladarius Holt, Majors, D’untae Barner at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Lacey Magee and William Blake at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Tournament director Rob Reetz says 16 teams from the Mid-South (Tennessee, Arkansas, and Alabama) took part in this year’s Elvis 7’s.
Rob Reetz and Troy McCall at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Chris Lemons, Jonathan Brewi, Ian Rasmussen, Spencer Hansen at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kathy Camire, Jen Johnson, Hayley Wood, Savannah Austin, Jessica Willis, Katie McCord at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Collin Kita at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)
“It went great,” Reetz says.”We had absolutely no issues at all.”
And no rain. I actually covered the event one year when it poured. I stood in muddy water in a tent with a bunch of soggy players while rain pelted the roof. I can’t recall if Kentucky Rain was playing.
“I’ve actually never been to an Elvis (7s) where it rained,” Reetz says.
Knock on wood.
Or, as the King says, “If you can’t find a partner use a wooden chair.”
Oskar Recio at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Fara Captain and Cayden Michael Captain Claude at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Michael Donahue and August Moon Stevens at Elvis 7s (Credit: August Moon Stevens)Jordan White at Elvis 7s (Credit: Michael Donahue)Elvis 7s We Saw You
OK. I had to have a photograph with Priscilla Presley at the Theatre Memphis tribute to her. (Credit: Jonathan Finder)
Wearing a striking Fouad Sarkis black-and-white gown, Priscilla Presley took the stage to thank her fans at “Honoring Priscilla Presley: The Artist, The Woman,” which was held July 22nd at Theatre Memphis.
“This has been a very overwhelming evening for me,” Presley told the audience. “It’s very difficult to take compliments.”
And, she joked, “I didn’t know I did so much, to be honest with you.”
Presley told the audience she learned about Memphis at age 14 from Elvis when he was in Germany during his Army days. “We had long talks about Graceland, about Memphis, about his childhood, about how much he loved Memphis.”
And, she says, “When I came here I was absolutely amazed at the friendships that I made. But not only that, the Southern hospitality just absolutely blew me away. Everyone was so kind, so wonderful as far as bringing me in, accepting me. It was something I will never ever forget. And won’t forget. I do believe Memphis is my home.”
Dabney Coors was co-chair of the event with Elizabeth Coors, as well as the organizer of the event.
The evening began with a reception in the lobby with food from chef Erling Jensen and live Memphis music, and ended with a party featuring more of the same, in addition to a chance for guests to meet Presley.
In between the parties was a tribute, where the 275 or so audience members learned about the staggering amount Presley has done and been involved in. Kym Clark and Kontji Anthony were the emcees. Special guests included T. G. Sheppard and his wife, Kelly Lang, and, by video, Jerry Schilling.
T.G. Sheppard, Priscilla Presley, and Kelly Lang at Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)
For one, Presley was responsible for Graceland being saved and being opened to the public, instead of being sold.
She portrayed “Jenna Wade” on TV’s Dallas. She was in movies, including the Naked Gun trilogy. She came out with her own perfume and line of bed linens. She came up with the idea of coupling a lightning bolt image with the words “TCB” during an airplane flight with Elvis in a storm.
All of this and much more was referred to during the evening. According to the program, Presley also is an ambassador with the Dream Foundation, which helps fulfill dreams of terminally-ill adults. And, the program states, “She has also worked closely with the Humane Society of the United States and has spent time in DC to lobby Congress to pass the ‘Prevent All Soring Tactics’ (PAST Act) bill that will strengthen enforcement of the 1970 Horse Protection Act.”
“Congressman Steve Cohen announced from the stage that he entered a declaration in to the Congressional Record that Priscilla Presley is now an honorary Memphian,” Dabney says. “The Mayor (Jim Strickland) came with a key to the city and a proclamation, and the Tennessee governor (Bill Lee) had a proclamation for Priscilla. Kevin Kane was the presenter.”
Congressman Steve Cohen at Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)Mayor Jim Strickland, Jack Soden, Kevin Kane, Hayden Kane, Leighanne Hart Soden, and Melyne Strickland at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
All the presentations were in honor of “this 40th anniversary of her opening Graceland. It could not have been a better celebration for her.”
Debbie Litch, Theatre Memphis executive producer, announced “The Theatre Memphis – Priscilla Presley Scholarship,” which, according to the program, will “make an artistic dream come true.”
Erling Jensen and Debbie Litch at the Theatre Memphis tribute to Priscilla Presley (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Memphis artists who performed during the evening included guitarist-songwriter-producer Mario Monterosso, singer/pianist Brennan Villines, who wore a pink tuxedo and slippers with the “TCB” lightning bolt on the toes, and Kallen Esperian, who sang “God Bless America.”
Kallen Esperian and William R. Eubanks at the Priscilla Presley tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)Brennan Villines at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
“One of the most popular drinks of the evening was the one created for the party named the ‘Priscilla,'” Dabney says.
“The drink was a French 75 made with vodka instead of gin.” It also included lemon juice, simple syrup, and champagne.
Lansky Brothers was corporate sponsor of the event. And, as a side note, Monterosso’s tuxedo came from Lansky’s.
Dabney says she received more than 100 texts, telephone calls, and emails from people about the tribute. People are “so thrilled for her and for the city of Memphis to acknowledge her continuing great works on behalf of our city,” Dabney says.
It was also good timing that the celebrated movie directed by Baz Luhrmann, Elvis, recently released and premiered at The Guest House at Graceland. “We were able to celebrate her a month after she welcomed the cast and crew and Warner Brothers into Graceland. She had a dinner party inside the mansion for them.”
Lurhmann also gave remarks via video at the event.
Dabney met Presley 25 years ago at a red carpet event in Los Angeles. “We just see each other all the time. And we just have a ball.
“This has been in my heart to honor Priscilla in our city for years and years. And her family knows it, my dear friends know it.”
Priscilla stayed in town several days after the event. Elizabeth Coors and her husband, Giles, held a private dinner party for Priscilla the night after the tribute.
Giles and Elizabeth Coors at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Dr. Jonathan Finder, who attended the tribute with his wife, Jana, talked with Presley a few days after the event at Sam Phillips Recording Studio. “What struck me about chatting with Priscilla was how she came across as incredibly kind and down to Earth,” Finder says. “And at the same time so very sharp and insightful. A remarkable person who has led a remarkable life.”
Dabney Coors and Dr. Jonathan and Jana Finder at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Lucy Woodson and Pat Kerr Tigrett at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Veronica Batterson, former Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, Rev. Keith Norman, and Brett Batterson at the Priscilla Presley Theatre Memphis tribute (Credit: Michael Donahue)Cristy Beasley Cass and Cary Brown at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Doug Browne and J. W. Whitten at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Jerry Phillips, Scott Bomar, and Laura O’Mell at Priscilla Presley tribute. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Shirley Brown, Don and Elizabeth Scott, Gary Beard, Randall Hartzog, Dr. Mel Litch at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Josh and Lindsey Hammond at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Leslie Fowler at the Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue)Kerri Mahoney and Scott Bomar at Priscilla Presley tribute at Theatre Memphis (Credit: Michael Donahue) We Saw You
Jerry Schilling at the Memphis premiere of Elvis at The Guest House at Graceland (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Jerry Schilling was Elvis’ buddy for 23 years after he played football with the King one hot Memphis afternoon on July 11, 1954.
Schilling, who was 12 at the time, went on to become part of Elvis’s entourage, a business associate, and a long-time friend.
Now Schilling is watching himself being portrayed on screen in Elvis. The motion picture, which opens June 24th, was directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Austin Butler as Elvis. “I think the movie, overall, is the best piece of work in a project done on Elvis,” Schilling says. “One, I think it answers a lot of questions by just telling the story of misconceptions of my friend.”
And, he says, Luhrmann, “put his heart and soul into it and put together an unbelievable cast.”
The project took 11 years from the idea to the finished movie, Schilling says. “There were sets burning up in Australia, Covid, you name it.”
But the delays “gave them time to really marinate this story. And everybody went back and rethought it and made it a much better film.”
Schilling now is manager of The Beach Boys, who recently released Sounds of Summer: The Very Best of The Beach Boys box set.
Author of the 2006 book, Me and a Guy Named Elvis, Schilling also has been involved in numerous Elvis-related projects. “Over the years, I have produced more shows on Elvis than I think anybody can count. I’ve cast or been part of casting various actors to play Elvis over the years. And I’ve worked with others cast by other people.”
He thought Michael St. Gerard, who played the King in the 1990 Elvis TV series, was “innately Elvis, because he was playing the younger Elvis and he didn’t have the high collars and jumpsuits and everything. But when I saw Austin Butler, he had the young Elvis down. He had the middle. He had the end. He didn’t overdo it.”
Austin Butler at the Memphis premiere of Elvis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Butler concentrated on the part, Schilling says. “For years he did nothing but become Elvis. He was not a performer, not a singer, but a terrific actor. It was Denzel Washington who brought Butler to Baz Lurhmann. They had done something on Broadway — The Iceman Cometh. Denzel was so impressed with his work ethic.”
Butler’s role as Elvis was “multi-faceted,” Schilling says. “He did a lot of his own singing, which Michael didn’t do. I will never take anything away from Michael St. Gerard. I was in awe of him.”
But Butler was “so sincere. He fell in love with the character. He said it was like, ‘I can climb Mt. Everest.’ That was the challenge.”
But, Schilling says, “He doesn’t overdo it. He does it subtly. None of that curling the lip, ‘Thank you very much,’ all the bullshit. He’s got charisma. You want to be around him. You like him. And, you know what? When he walks in the room he’s got that little shyness Elvis had as well. It’s like a magnetic attraction goes to him.”
And, he says, Butler “fell in love with Memphis.”
Butler and Lurhmann spent time in Memphis and Tupelo, Schilling says. “They really put their heart and soul into this movie and I think it shows on the screen.”
Schilling met Lurhmann three years ago at dinner with an RCA executive during the promotional tour of the Elvis Presley: The Searcher at HBO documentary that Schilling conceived. “I think he was still looking for his Elvis at this point. He just said, ‘If this ship pulls anchor, I want you on it.’”
Baz Luhrmann at the Memphis premier of Elvis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Schilling and Priscilla Presley got together with Tom Hanks — who plays Elvis’ manager, Col. Tom Parker — before filming began. “Priscilla ran into Tom Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, at the grocery store and Rita said, ‘Why don’t you and Jerry Schilling come over for dinner?’ This is two weeks before Tom went to Australia to start filming. So, we go there and Tom opens the door and the first thing he says is, ‘Jerry, are we going to talk about the Beach Boys or Elvis?’”
Hanks is a huge Beach Boys fan, Schilling says. But they spent the next three or four hours talking about Elvis and Parker. “Priscilla and I really wanted to give a full picture of Colonel Parker to Tom.”
The movie was “pretty much finished” when Schilling met Butler. “Priscilla and I went to New York for the Metropolitan Gala that Baz Luhrmann invited us to.”
They met Butler in a revolving door at The Carlyle hotel on their way out to dinner a few days before the gala. “He comes in and says, ‘Hi,’ to both of us. Seems like a nice guy. Good looking guy. It’s Austin. So, he goes, ‘Oh, my God.’ He’s really nervous. He says, ‘I want you two guys to be happy with this.’”
Schilling and Priscilla wouldn’t commit to going to the Cannes Film Festival for a showing of Elvis until they saw the movie. So, Lurhmann arranged a special screening of the film for the two of them. “I purposely didn’t sit next to her. I sat down, wanting to have my own thoughts. I wanted her to have her own thoughts. Half way through, I’m beside her. By the end, Priscilla looked at me and said, ‘Well, I guess we’re going to Cannes.’”
Priscilla Presley at the Memphis premier of Elvis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
They knew Luhrmann was going to make his type of movie. “Baz is a very private filmmaker. He’s going to do what he wants to do. So, you never know” — like the Russwood Park concert scene, where Elvis/Butler pulls out all the stops with his seductive gyrations, shakes, and wiggles. Schilling was 14 when he went to that show. “In real life, it was much more subtle than they make it in the movie ‘cause you’re making a movie. But he did make the statement and he did his own show. And it was a ‘wow’ show.”
Elvis had recently appeared in a tuxedo singing “Hound Dog” to a dog on TV’s The Steve Allen Show after being introduced by Allen as “the new Elvis Presley.” Elvis, Schilling says, told the Russwood audience, “I’m not going to let those people in New York change me. That was his way of saying, ‘You’re going to get the real Elvis.’”
Was Parker a villain in real life? “The film is really difficult for me because I know the controlling side of the Colonel. I know the bullying side. But I also know the human side of the Colonel. I don’t think he was dishonest at all. The only concern I have was when Elvis wanted to do A Star is Born and travel overseas and have his own production company.”
Tom Hanks at the Memphis premier of Elvis (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Elvis eventually started his own production company with himself and Schilling as heads of the company. But he never got to travel overseas. “The Colonel didn’t want it known he wasn’t an American citizen. But, creatively, the Colonel was really holding Elvis back.”
Elvis did “some good movies,” but most of them were the same type of musical. “I think I lost my friend at an early age because of creative disappointments. He was embarrassed and he tried to fight. And the machinery was too big.”
As for Elvis’s ambitions, including doing more serious roles, Shilling says Parker and other business associates “killed all that.”
With every Elvis musical, there was a soundtrack, “no matter how good or bad the music might be. At one point, Elvis said, ‘I’m not doing any more of this stuff.’ And the Colonel said, ‘You’ll fulfill your contract or you’re not doing anything.’”
As for Schilling talking back to Parker in the early days, he says, “Listen, I wasn’t in a position most of the time to be telling Colonel Parker what to do, or any of that.”
Schilling stopped working for Elvis for a time and went into film editing. “Because I quit working for him, I didn’t have to be under the Colonel’s supervision. For me, idolizing, looking up to Elvis as a 12 year old, and him not having a hit record when I met him, to be able, years later, to discuss a movie of his or a tour of his, that’s full circle.”
But, Schilling says, “There was a human side of Colonel Parker. Did he love Elvis Presley? Yes. Did Elvis love the Colonel? Yes.”
And, he says, “It was the best team. Elvis never forgot what the Colonel did for him in the beginning. It’s hard to get all that in the film.”
Schilling is portrayed in the movie by Luke Bracey. But Schilling hadn’t met Bracey when he, Priscilla, Hanks, and Butler flew to Cannes. “I asked Tom Hanks, ‘So, how was Luke Bracey playing me? I haven’t met him.’ He said, ‘He was the voice of reason through the whole thing.’ And Austin said, ‘Yep. He really was.’”
“I think what it means to me — and I think what the message they were trying to give me — is so many times the guys around Elvis were these hangers-on who laughed when Elvis laughed. And were just ‘yes’ men.”
Schilling wasn’t one of those. He remembered when he “challenged” one of Elvis’s decisions. “And he goes, ‘Okay, you can go back to Memphis if you don’t like it.’ Over the 23 years I knew him, we had three or four arguments. It wouldn’t have been a real friendship if we hadn’t.”
Schilling was “totally pleased” with Bracey’s portrayal of him, which he says was respectful and based on facts. “They read my book, I’m sure, more than once. Austin told me they read everything.”
Schilling says Bracey “doesn’t overdo anything. And yet when it was time to maybe have a difference of opinion whether it was Elvis or it was the Colonel, he played it right. He didn’t come back and do a big argument, which I wouldn’t have done either. He got me down.”
In trying to put Elvis’s life in perspective, Schilling says, “We’re all familiar with the ‘68 Comeback Special’ and what that did to Elvis’s career when it was really, as the movie says, in the toilet.”
Elvis, the movie, is “the ‘’68 Legacy Comeback,’” Schilling says. “I think this is going go do for his legacy what the ‘’68 Comeback Special’ did for his career while he was alive. It gives viewers an understanding of how special this man was.”
Schilling adds, “Ironically, 68 years ago in July was when Elvis’ first record was played, and when I met him.”
When I interviewed him, Schilling was headed to see the Elvis movie with Priscilla for his fourth time, and Priscilla’s fifth. “I’m glad this movie will be a record years from now for the history of Elvis, the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, and of Tupelo, of Memphis. It really needed to be documented. If this was written and not filmed, I would put it in the National Archives.”
Austin Butler’s performance as Elvis is electrifying.
The most insightful film I’ve ever seen about Elvis Presley is “The Singing Canary,” a five-minute experimental short by Memphis director Adam Remsen. It contains neither images of Elvis nor his music, only footage of astronauts and rocket launches. Remsen’s voice-over casts Elvis not as a singer or entertainer or idol, but as an explorer of new psychic spaces.
Yes, Elvis was supremely talented, superhumanly good looking, and unbelievably charismatic. But it was sheer luck that he came along at exactly the moment in history when a combination of rhythm and blues, amphetamines, and television could transform a penniless truck driver into the most famous person who had ever lived. “No one had ever been in his position before. He did the best he could,” said Remsen. “He was just living his life, making the best choices he could. As it happened, he was unprepared to make those choices, in one way or another.”
Who could have been prepared? The only people who had been as famous as Elvis circa 1957 were pharaohs. A decade later, The Beatles would express relief that, when they were thrown into the maelstrom of modern fame, at least they had one another. Elvis was alone, going through stuff no one in the entire 300,000-year history of Homo sapiens had ever gone through before. “He was the singing canary we sent into the gold mine. And when the singing stopped, we learned it was dangerous in there.”
The latest big screen attempt to tell The King’s story shares this view of Elvis as a martyr for the information age. Baz Luhrmann is one of a handful of directors with an instantly recognizable style. As technically exacting as he is bombastic, Luhrmann’s films are the closest thing we have to the lavish MGM musicals of Old Hollywood. Emotions are heightened, the cutting is frenetic, and realism is an afterthought. Music and montage are Luhrmann’s love language, and everything else is in service of maintaining the momentum. When he’s on his game, Luhrmann can sweep you up and transport you to another place like the tornado in The Wizard of Oz.
This film rises above the simple jukebox musical I feared we would get when I heard Luhrmann was taking on the story of The King. Credit for much of its success must go to Austin Butler, who has the unenviable task of trying to bring to life the most impersonated man in history. On the Louisiana Hayride and at the triumphant July 4, 1956, Russwood Park homecoming show, Butler is electrifying. He’s got the cheekbones, and he knows how to use them.
Austin Butler as Elvis Presley.
The racial politics of the era are never far from the surface. In Luhrmann’s vision, Elvis’ smoking-hot sexuality was what made him dangerous. But what scared The Establishment about this poor white kid singing Black music was not how he danced — it was that Elvis represented a crack in the South’s Jim Crow apartheid. He didn’t just laugh at the minstrel show; he identified with B.B. King, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Little Richard. Some of the white kids who followed him would go on to discover The Bar-Kays, Sam Cooke, and Aretha Franklin, and begin to think, “Hey, maybe these Black people are humans, just like me.”
But the protean summer of ’56, which has for so long formed the fetish of rock-and-roll, doesn’t interest Luhrmann as much as the Vegas era. It begins with an elaborate staging of the ’68 Comeback Special. Instead of focusing on the in-the-round jam session, which remains one of the greatest live musical performances ever put before a camera, Luhrmann finds meaning in Elvis’ selection of “If I Can Dream” as his closing number. Butler delivers the moment with maximum gravitas.
Col. Tom Parker (Tom Hanks) advises Elvis (Austin Butler).
Luhrmann’s most polarizing decision is to tell the story from Col. Tom Parker’s perspective — and not just because of Tom Hanks’ accent. Having the villain as the narrator is a very Shakespearean choice, intended to make Parker into Iago, a malignant influence confiding to us about the lies he’s whispering in the hero’s ear. Parker was the consummate confidence man and a natural-born carny barker. In the early days, he and Elvis were an unstoppable team. When Elvis was languishing in Vegas, it would have been better if he were alone. Parker gets the blame for Elvis sitting out the Civil Rights fights of the late ’60s and for missing opportunities to tour the world. He gets credit for the groundbreaking Aloha from Hawaii concert, the definitive document of Elvis’ late period. But Luhrmann declines to use the first satellite broadcast to a global audience of one billion as a climax, like Queen at Live Aid in Bohemian Rhapsody. As for Hanks’ performance as the shady Dutch immigrant, let’s just say that the veteran actor knows when to put the ham on the sandwich.
Elvis (Austin Bulter) and Priscilla (Olivia DeJonge).
The standouts in the sprawling supporting cast include Helen Thomson’s sad turn as the alcoholic Gladys and Olivia DeJonge’s uncanny Priscilla. The Power of the Dog’s Kodi Smit-McPhee gets a standout cameo as Jimmie Rodgers Snow, one of the first people to understand the depth of Elvis’ power. During the early film’s frequent digressions into the Beale Street music scene, Yola Quartey and Shonka Dukureh each get show-stopping moments as Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Mama Thornton.
Ultimately, your reaction to Elvis is going to depend on whether or not you can vibrate on Luhrmann’s frequency. I was a fan of the director’s early work, like Romeo + Juliet, but found The Great Gatsby off-putting and snoozed through Australia. Elvis is a return to the explosive Luhrmann of Moulin Rouge. He freely twists the songs, sometimes in ways that are insightful, and sometimes in ways that betray a lack of trust in the material, like using anachronistic hip-hop beats whenever we return to Beale. The film is massively overstuffed with striking images, but that kind of sounds like complaining because you have too many scoops of delicious ice cream. It’s understandable if you find the constant barrage of visual information disorienting or the constant dance on the edge of camp cloying. But when Elvis is on stage, and Luhrmann is on fire, you understand why The King will live forever.
Austin Butler, who plays Elvis, and Michael Donahue at the Memphis premiere of “Elvis.” (Credit: Austin Butler)
If Priscilla Presley gives her seal of approval to your portrayal of Elvis in a movie, that’s all you need.
And that’s exactly what Priscilla, who was married to The King and is the mother of their child, Lisa Marie Presley, did during the Memphis premiere of the Baz Luhrmann movie Elvis, which stars Austin Butler as Elvis, on June 11th at The Guest House at Graceland.
“Elvis morphed into you,” Presley told Butler on stage before the movie started. “You had his guidance.”
Stars from the movie, director Luhrmann, and members of the Presley family, including Lisa Marie and her daughter, Riley Keough, and Elvis’ buddy and business associate, Jerry Schilling, were at the premiere. They all gathered on stage at one point. The movie is slated to open nationwide June 24th.
The Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
Earlier, I talked to Priscilla and people involved in the film.
I asked Priscilla what sets Elvis apart from other movies and documentaries about the performer. “It’s very sensitive to me and the family,” she says. “Baz has done an amazing job in this film. This has been two years. I know he’s been wanting to do this forever, do a movie on Elvis. But, with Baz, I get a little nervous because Baz does what he wants. He’s got an eye. He’s got such style. But now dealing with such a sensitive story was a bit worrisome [as to] where he’s going to take it.”
But, she says, “It is a true story between the ups and downs of Elvis and Col. Parker, but with his stylized way, beautiful way. Especially with Austin Butler, who plays Elvis so realistically. He had him down pat to the point of a gesture. He studied him for two years. And the story will prove it. When you see it, you think you’re seeing Elvis Presley. But, again, he is not Elvis Presley. He is an actor playing Elvis Presley. And that’s what I like about it, too. He’s not trying to be Elvis. He is his own person.
“But the story is a wonderful story and I think it’s a different take on what we normally see.”
Priscilla Presley at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
I asked Butler, who described Elvis as “such a complex human being,” what was the most difficult part of Elvis for him to play. “One of the most challenging things is the fact that he has been held up as either a god-like iconic figure or as this caricature that is not the real man,” Butler says. “So, for me, it was stripping all that away and getting down to his humanity.
“And the challenging part about that is you want to be incredibly technical. You want to be meticulous about all the details. But it could never be the details sacrificing the humanity.”
Luhrmann told me Elvis movies were shown at the theater in the small town where he grew up. “The matinees were the Elvis movies,” he says. “So, like as a 10-year-old, he was the coolest guy in the world. And then I grew on and all that. He was always present.”
As for making Elvis, Luhrmann says, “I didn’t do this so much out of fandom, although I have a great respect for him. I did this because I really believe he is at the center of America in the ’50s, ’60s, and the ’70s. And he is a way of exploring America. To understand that he was this rebel in the ’50s and it was dangerous to do what he was doing. And his relationship to Beale Street and people like B. B. King and then him being put in a bubble in Hollywood and then finding himself again in the [Elvis] ’68 [Comeback] Special and reconnecting with gospel, his great, great love. And then, to put it bluntly and to quote one of his songs, being caught in a trap in Vegas. That’s the sort of tragedy of that.
“And yet, what he’s left behind, as you see in that last great performance of him is still the voice and still the spirit. To me, whatever you say about Elvis, he was a spiritual person. And that comes from his love of gospel.”
I received direction from Baz Luhrmann, who showed me how to properly take a selfie, at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Baz Luhrmann)
Kelvin Harrison Jr., who plays B.B. King in Elvis, told me what drew him to the role. “For me, it was just how smart he was and how savvy he was with his business,” he says. “This was a very strategic man, in my opinion, but also [he had] so much heart and soul. And a simple man. He literally was working in the fields, and literally put up a wire on a post and started learning how to play and find sounds playing one string. That is so incredible to me. So I was just so inspired by the tenacity that he had, and just the rawness.”
Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Jerry Schilling at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
In the movie, Elvis is astonished at the stage presence, complete with the most amazing moves, of Little Richard. Alton Mason plays Richard in the film. What attracted him to the role was “how powerful, how outspoken and loud he was,” Mason told me. “How sexy he was. How fly he was. And his aura.”
Mason, who said the revered gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is his great-great-great-great aunt, also told me, “I had to develop empathy for not only who he was, but the period and the time that he was in. And him being that in that time, it takes a lot of power, a lot of fearlessness, to choose to be so different in a time like this. It was an amazing learning experience for me, too.”
Michael Donahue and Alton Mason at the Elvis premiere. (Credit: Alton Mason)
I loved what Tom Hanks, who plays Col. Tom Parker, said on stage before the movie began: “As an actor I found myself shooting in castles in which kings once lived in. I shot in palaces that have been turned into museums that were the homes of kings. I shot in museums in which kings and queens have lived in.”
But he told the audience to notice that all of those kings and queens “have an ‘s’ on the end of them. Meaning that there were more than one. At Graceland, we are visiting the home of The King.”
Tom Hanks at the Elvis Memphis movie premiere. (Credit: Michael Donahue)President and CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises Jack Soden and his wife, Leighann, at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Joel Weinshanker, majority owner of Elvis Presley Enterprises and managing partner of Graceland Holdings LLC and EPE, and Kim Laughlin at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)Hal and Geri Lansky and their daughter, Lia Lansky, at the Memphis premiere of Elvis. (Credit: Michael Donahue)We Saw You
Tommy Kha’s Constellations
VIII (Courtesy: Tommy Kha)
Tommy Kha has always had trouble in airports. The Memphis-born, New York-based fine art photographer uses a variety of props in his photographs — life-sized cardboard cutouts, Greek busts, improbable kitsch baubles — all of which make for peculiar carry-on luggage. Passing through airport security on his way to photo shoots across the country, Kha would often have to have what he terms “the conversation” with Transportation Security Administration agents. “I got the most responses when I was carrying 3-D printed plastic masks of my face,” Kha told the Memphis Flyer. TSA agents would become suspicious when they discovered the lifelike masks peering out of Kha’s baggage. Kha would hurry to explain to the officers: “It’s for art!”
In recent weeks, Kha once again found himself having to explain his artwork in an airport. Only this time, Kha’s work wasn’t hidden in luggage, but displayed in large format on the airport walls. And this time, “the conversation” played out on an international stage, between livid social media posts, corporate boardrooms, and in the press. The firestorm over Kha’s photo series, Constellations VIII/Golden Fields, led to the artwork’s removal and subsequent reinstallation within a week. It garnered the Memphis International Airport accusations of censorship and racism and roped in such unlikely players as the mayor of Memphis, the host of an HGTV show, The Advocate magazine, a notable Hollywood film director, and the CEO of Memphis’ largest tourist business.
The removal of Tommy Kha’s Constellations VIII/Golden Fields from Concourse B inspired national outcry. (Photo: Jon Sparks)Photo: Jamie Harmon
It might be difficult to explain why Kha’s photos elicited such a dramatic public response to anyone not from Memphis, but Memphians will have no problem understanding. Kha’s photographs depicted Elvis Presley. Memphians know that whenever Elvis is involved, there’s a high chance of — to quote the artist Don Lifted from his social media post about the controversy — “Memphis Memphis’ing.”
A New Symbol and an Old Icon
In early March, Jon Daly arrived at the newly renovated Memphis International Airport to catch a flight to Denver. Daly, who owns the nearby Elvis Presley Boulevard Pawn Shop, was excited to see the airport’s new Concourse B. The $245 million project both downsized and modernized an airport that, in its previous incarnation, more closely resembled an off-hours bus station than an international flight destination. Once a busy hub, Memphis International has struggled in recent years with declining crowds, a loss that airport CEO Scott Brockman described to The New York Times in 2018 as “death by a thousand cuts.” Brockman feared that the decline of the airport symbolized something greater to Memphians, about the transformation of the city from a bustling urban center to a place that no longer felt like “a real city.” Concourse B was an attempt not only to save the airport as a functional utility but to renew the airport as a symbol of a resilient Memphis.
The remodel opened in January 2022 to much praise. The renovation replaced low ceilings and beige brick with soaring glass galleries. Gleaming restaurants and stylish gift shops operate amid spacious gate seating. The crowning jewel of Concourse B, occupying nearly every square foot of wall, is a million dollar contemporary art collection sourced from predominantly local visual artists. The tourism blog ILoveMemphisBlog.com called the art collection “The coolest part of the new terminal.”
When Jon Daly arrived at Memphis International for his trip, he expected to be impressed. Daly travels frequently around the country in search of Elvis Presley-related memorabilia and archival material for his shop. His business in Whitehaven is near both Graceland and the airport; when he’s not listening to Elvis records, he is listening to the drone of planes flying low. “Being a big Elvis fan, I was excited to see how they would honor Elvis in the airport,” said Daly. As he progressed through the concourse, however, he became frustrated. “I didn’t see Elvis in the airport. I did see this artwork, and I’ve got to be honest, it was very disheartening.”
The artwork that Daly saw was Kha’s. The piece consists of two photographs. The first — Constellations VIII, installed as a large vinyl sheet directly on the wall — is a self-portrait of Kha dressed in a white bejeweled Elvis-style jumpsuit and red scarf, standing in a blue retro kitchen. Kha’s black hair is twisted into a gelled pompadour. He stands impassively behind a table, looking neither elated nor upset and appearing strangely flat. The flatness derives from the fact that the Kha in the photo is in fact a cardboard cutout of Kha, a prop of himself that he made to insert in his photos. The second photo, Golden Fields, is installed in a small frame set within the first photo. It features a red room and another cardboard cutout, this one a golden Elvis Presley, lying prone in gold sheets.
These were not the photos of Elvis that Daly had imagined. He was expecting to see Elvis in an iconic light. He wanted a figure closer to the one he’d first admired as a 6-year-old, a wax sculpture in a museum in Myrtle Beach. There, Elvis was dressed in his Aloha in Hawaii getup, complete with a floor-length white cape. To the 6-year-old Daly, Elvis looked like “a superhero” at a time when Daly needed a superhero. Growing up in rural Ohio, he had what he describes as “a rough early life” and Elvis’ gospel music and movies helped get him through. Said Daly, “I would come home and put on Elvis on Tour or Girl Happy. And then it would be okay.” In 1999, he went to his first Elvis Week and met friends who “are more like family now.” These days, Daly is an informal figurehead for Elvis fans and collectors internationally. He lives in Memphis, runs his own Elvis festival, and has a sizable online following of other Elvis aficionados.
After seeing Kha’s photograph in the airport, Daly did what people do when they want to air grievances — he posted on Facebook. He wrote, “The new $245 million dollar wing of the Memphis airport is nice and new. For those of you flying in for Elvis Week … the city of Memphis has forgotten Elvis fans. I saw no photos of him or Graceland. This however is half of a wall near the bathrooms. What a joke.” He posted an image of Kha’s artwork and tagged the Memphis International Airport in the post.
The post immediately went viral among Elvis fans. Nearly 300 people commented, and many shared it. The comments ranged from confused (“Seriously Jon what does this represent? What is it advertising?” and “Who is that supposed to be in the jumpsuit?”) to livid (“The idiots running Memphis need to realize without Elvis nobody would care about their city!!!!” and “This is disgusting!”) to threatening destruction (“Needs a little spray paint.”)
Comments also involved Kha’s race. A commenter named Karol Donath described Kha as “Kim Jong Un in a poorly made copy of Elvis Stage wear.” In response to a commenter asking, “And what the hell does that picture mean?” a commenter named Alan Wade said “It means they don’t want to offend the black community …” A commenter named Paul Snell asked, “Has the Chinese bought the airport too?” Daly told the Flyer that he attempted to delete “ignorant” comments and does not support racism.
To Daly, Kha’s work was just one more mockery of Elvis that reduced the singer to pop-culture punchline. Daly interpreted the refrigerator in Kha’s photo as a reference to Elvis’ poor eating habits in the last years of his life. He didn’t like the fit of the jumpsuit. But when asked what else, besides the setting, struck him as disrespectful and mocking about the photo, Daly also brought up Kha’s race: “My thought process on that would be, if we were going to go to the Detroit airport, would we have someone who is Asian dressed up as The Temptations? Probably not, because Motown is a very respectable record company. If we were to go to the Nashville airport, would we see someone who is of Asian descent dressed as Dolly Parton? Or Hank Williams Sr.? No, we would not … so if we are not going to do it in Detroit and we are not going to do it in Nashville, why is it okay to represent Elvis in that light?”
Kha looking like he does in the photo — a short Asian man in an ill-fitted, cliched jumpsuit — confirmed to Daly that “Elvis is not viewed as a historic figure” in Memphis. In Daly’s view, there was no way that Kha’s Elvis could be anything other than a mockery. Many fans seemed to share Daly’s sentiment. Within hours, hundreds of Elvis fans from all over the world had flooded the airport authority, Elvis Presley Enterprises, and the city of Memphis with comments demanding the photo’s removal.
The story could have ended there, with a few hundred Elvis fans, upset because their favorite singer didn’t look the way they wanted him to. But it didn’t. Instead, the airport listened.
Tommy Kha as Andy Kaufman as Elvis Minus the Singing
In their evaluation of the photograph, the Elvis fans had gotten one thing wrong. Constellations VIII is not a portrait of Elvis. It is a portrait of Tommy Kha.
Tommy Kha grew up, almost literally, in the shadow of Graceland. He attended Graceland Elementary (which closed in 2013) and remembers school field trips where he and his classmates would walk around the walls where Elvis fans signed their names. As a young person, Kha was “not exactly a fan” of Elvis, but he didn’t have to be. Elvis was everywhere, a fact of life, a figure whose name decorated streets and marked the change in seasons. For Kha, Elvis Week represented the end of summer and the beginning of the school year.
Kha is a second-generation immigrant from a Chinese-American family who came to Memphis following the Vietnam War, when the city opened its doors to refugees. He grew up in a neighborhood that shifted from a white suburb to a predominately Black one following bussing in the 1970s, a place starkly defined by Black and white racial politics. Whitehaven — an enclave of one-story red brick homes with small carports and neat front lawns — is the kind of place that families move to pursue the American Dream. Kha’s family was no different. He attended Overton High School and Memphis College of Art. As a young artist, he often felt invisible but found community in Memphis’ punk art and music scenes. In the late 2000s, it seemed impossible to go to a rock show in Midtown without running into Kha, crouched near the band behind a large camera.
In the years since graduating MCA, his talent carried him far away from Whitehaven. His meticulous formal photography, which takes visual cues from William Eggleston, earned him a place in Yale’s prestigious MFA program. His photos of Memphis build on Eggleston’s colorful vernacular of the South but twist it into the South that Kha knows — one of quiet curtained backrooms that threaten as much as they welcome. Kha’s South is a place where things don’t appear quite as they are or even as they pretend to be, a place where even the facades are fading.
Kha speaks softly and punctuates his sentences with quick laughter. His presence is at once unassuming and unforgettable; once you’ve met Kha, you know him forever. He dresses a little bit like a dandy, in coordinated jackets and ascots. Throughout his life, Kha has made work about his identity — a queer Asian-American man from the South — and work that makes a visual pun of his appearance. In one photograph, he stands in only his underwear next to a towering redhead. In a short video, he slumps on a pool bench next to a powerfully built man flexing his pectoral muscles. He likes unlikely couples and twins, look-alikes, and opposites. Kha knows he doesn’t look like the American masculine ideal, and he uses that knowledge to play with viewers’ expectations.
Kha didn’t really get interested in Elvis until he left Memphis. At grad school in New Haven, he felt homesick and lonely. He bought his first cardboard of Elvis because he needed “someone to keep me company,” and Elvis reminded him of home. He would use the cutout to help him frame shots, to focus his camera. He didn’t find a way to really incorporate Elvis into his work until 2015, when he met an Elvis tribute artist in Brooklyn. “I thought it would be amazing to make a body of work that is sort of about Memphis but through the filter of meeting [tribute artists] from all over who are doing this thing that I think is art.” That year, he returned to Memphis to photograph the tribute artists at Elvis Week. He watched hours of Andy Kaufman videos in preparation. He made a video piece called “Tommy Kha as Andy Kaufman as Elvis Minus the Singing.” He also tried his hand at performing as Elvis but realized that he was “not a performer in that regard.” What he prized most about this work were the conversations, the fleeting connections he felt with the Elvis community.
He also felt a peculiar joy in his own failure to be Elvis or imitate Elvis. “I thought it was more poetic to talk about not being able to look the part at all or actually be an Elvis tribute artist. It is not about mockery, but about my own failures. I always try to place myself in a position of disparaging myself.”
Another thing the Elvis fans who critiqued Kha’s photo got wrong: If there is a joke in Constellations VIII, the butt of the joke isn’t Elvis. It’s Tommy Kha.
Kha does not mind being the punchline of a joke, so long as it is a joke he has constructed. And so long as, when you get it, you’re not sure if you should really be laughing.
A Respectful Representation
When Kha got a call, on March 10th, that the airport was considering removing Constellations VIII because of controversy it had caused among Elvis fans, he was distraught. He was also not surprised.
Kha hasn’t had the best luck showing in the South. In past showings, his work had been spit on, censored, and threatened with destruction. He’s had work go missing and displayed incorrectly. He only submitted to the airport’s call for artists because he was specifically invited by the project managers, the UrbanArt Commission (UAC). He also submitted because, for Kha, there is something that feels different about being recognized as a Southern artist, rather than a gay artist or an artist of color, though he identifies as both. Said Kha, “I know I am from the South, but it is one thing to be seen and to know yourself as a certain way, and it is another thing to be seen by other people that way. I always thought of myself as an artist, but I never considered how it would feel when other people started looking at me and seeing me as an artist.”
The airport offered that visibility.
Kha initially submitted a series of pictures from a decade-long project called “Return to Sender,” or “Kissing Pictures,” photos that show Kha receiving kisses from many different people and not returning them. One of the submitted photos shows Kha being kissed by another man. In January of 2021, they were initially accepted by a subcommittee and then rejected after debate among a larger decision-making committee. Kha felt that the photos were not accepted because they depicted a same-sex kiss, and he felt let down. Here, again, was a Southern exhibition he would not be able to participate in because his work spoke too plainly about his own Southern experience.
A photo from Kah’s “Kissing Pictures” series depicts a same-sex kiss. (Photo: Courtesy Tommy Kha)
In January, he wrote to the UAC, “I owe a lot to Memphis, I still make work about it. But I wish to push for the ‘Kissing Pictures’ as I think the work is fresh, peculiar, and, more importantly, could reflect nicely for Memphis to open to art that isn’t necessarily safe or censored, it’s really about what is possible, and in Memphis, one could do that. What can hope and progress look like by opening up to art that can be reflective and offer new voices?” From there, he let it drop.
That summer, UAC approached him again and suggested that he instead submit a few of his other works, some of which referenced Elvis. Kha was still wary, worried about complaints from the Elvis Estate, but he decided to go forward with the submission. In late August, he found out the work had been approved by the board for purchase. He was happy, even a little stunned to be a part of the collection, which includes work by 62 artists with Memphis connections, half of whom are artists of color.
His happiness was short-lived.
On March 10th, Kha was contacted by Lauren Kennedy, the director of the UrbanArt Commission, telling Kha that complaints from Elvis fans might lead to his piece’s deinstallation. Kennedy was on vacation with her husband, driving through a remote part of West Texas. She’d spent the day frantically attempting to find high ground with cell phone service so that she could speak to the people at the airport authority and determine exactly what was going on. She’d been aware of the Facebook complaints but initially, said Kennedy, “I was more amused than concerned. I didn’t expect it to become what it did. It escalated really quickly. Within the day, it escalated to the airport saying they were being told to take it down, which I understand to have been a board decision.”
Lauren Kennedy (Photo: Courtesy Lauren Kennedy)
No one could give her exact information on who was involved: “I know the airport got a lot of complaints, though I don’t know what ’a lot’ means numerically. I was told that the mayor’s office had been contacted and that in some capacity Elvis Presley Enterprises participated in some kind of conversation. But I don’t know who that included and what was communicated.” Both the mayor’s office and Elvis Presley Enterprises denied multiple requests for comment on this story.
Kennedy strongly cautioned the airport against removing the piece. “We thought it was a really bad idea. … We shared our thoughts on how things could transpire if it did come down and just really advocated to keep the piece up.” But the airport did not heed Kennedy’s warnings or wait to remove the piece. Over the weekend, without notifying either Kennedy or Kha, Constellations VIII/Golden Fields came down.
On Wednesday, March 16th, Kha met via Zoom with Kennedy and the airport’s communications manager, Glen Thomas. Kha scribbled two notes to himself to prepare for the meeting: “You did not do anything wrong” and “I love Memphis. I’m from Memphis. I love Elvis and I love the community.” In the meeting, the airport explained that they’d received complaints, some of which were racially motivated. They’d decided to “temporarily” remove Kha’s piece — a move that effectively destroyed the piece’s delicate vinyl. The decision was made, according to the airport, because they now saw the piece and its depiction of Elvis as too much of a “lightning rod.” They worried about tourism during Elvis Week. In the meeting, Kennedy pressed the airport: “It is hard to see the decision to remove without it seeming like giving into the ugly racist part of what has been shared,” she said. “That needs to be addressed.”
Kha was asked if he would consider doing a recommission for the space, which he declined. “I’ve been trying to avoid this,” said Kha. “If that is how people feel — okay. … It just feels like I was left out of the conversation. To even consider a recommission for me is exhausting. … It is a really upsetting thing.” Kha became emotional in the meeting. “I teach students how to navigate a world where they will face this sort of thing and I think that conversation is way more important than what happens to me in this moment.”
Speaking Out
Kha shies away from controversy. He knew that if he wanted to speak about the piece’s removal, he had a platform to do so: In New York as well as Memphis, his work is well-known, and his fans include members of the national press and prominent artists. He is followed by around 30,000 people on Instagram. But he felt tired. He’d tried to avoid being in this position. He was teaching and chasing several deadlines. Was saying something even worth it? Would he look like a complainer?
When he decided to post something to Instagram that let people know what happened, it was after reading the formal statement from the airport on Monday, March 21st. The statement from the airport emphasized that they did not want “public figures or celebrities” in the work, that the purchase of Kha’s work had been an exception to that concern. It also said that “Among the complaints, there were a small number of comments that included language that referred to Mr. Kha’s race, and such comments are completely unacceptable. The Airport Authority does not support those comments, nor does it form the basis for the Authority’s decision regarding the piece.”
For Kha, this felt like erasure. The complaints that the airport had listened to called for a respectful representation of Elvis. “I know,” said Kha, “that ‘respectful representation’ is code. It just immediately reminded me of how much I have to explain myself. Explain why I am in the room, why I am here. What does that mean, ‘respectful representation?’ It is just another way to say ‘Where are you from? Why are you here? Why is this here?’”
On Instagram, Kha once again found himself having to explain.
“After some disturbing complaints about my work, it was decided, and without my knowledge, the pictures were removed,” he posted. “For many years, I have created work that explores my own experiences of becoming an artist in the South. I love Memphis still, and I love the countless contributions from many voices and people that have [made] Memphis what it is to me: home.”
Much like the response to Jon Daly’s post had been, the response from Kha’s followers was instant. Hundreds of fans from Memphis, New York, and elsewhere commented to voice confusion, anger, and a call to action. Carmeon Hamilton, a Memphian and the star of Reno My Rental on HGTV, shared the story and her disappointment to her 171,000 followers. Everyone from the photo editor of The New Yorker, to a national association on censorship, to The Shops at Saddle Creek voiced support of Tommy Kha’s work in the comments of his post. Soon, the Memphis International Airport was flooded with more complaints. Only these accused the airport of affirming racism and censorship and called for the reinstallation of Constellations VIII/ Golden Fields.
By the next day, Tuesday March 22nd, the story had made the local news and national journalists were inquiring: How had this happened? And what did it mean about Memphis that it had?
The Weird World of Airport Art
What is airport art, anyway? A porous category. Some airports display giant blue horses or massive glass flamingos. Airport art programs, according to Kennedy, have only existed in living memory, and each airport has a slightly different take on what art might elevate and inspire tired passengers. Perhaps the question is easier answered in the negative. Airports are not usually where people go to see the most stunning and challenging selection of visual accomplishment.
From the beginning, the Memphis airport’s art collection was different. It is striking and contemporary. Kennedy said she has heard the new airport described as “an art gallery with planes” — a compliment she cherishes. The airport authority wanted, according to Kennedy, an art collection that reflected Memphis — not as a city mired in decades-old history, desperate for tourism dollars — but as a city that offered new accomplishments to culture. The airport tapped UAC for the project because they had a proven track record of being able to undertake large projects and work well with local artists. When selecting work, Kennedy said, “We wanted to be really representative of Memphis in the broadest possible sense. There was also an element of ’Memphis art canon,’ who are folks who really deserve to be included in this space that are part of the artist community here in a really meaningful way.” From UAC’s perspective, Kha was canon and he needed to be a part of that collection.
Kha is a studio artist. He does not make colorful abstracts for public art commissions. But that was okay — even desirable — because the airport’s collection was not going to be public art in the strictest sense of the term. It is a private collection of art that is shown to the public and ideally reflects a public ethos. Because of this distinction, the artwork occupies a strange space symbolically and legally. True public art, site-specific commissions for public entities, usually involve lots of paperwork, extensive meetings, and Artists Rights clauses that dictate legal procedure for if a work has to be removed or changed. The airport’s purchase of Kha’s work involved none of that paperwork. Kha didn’t even sign a contract. So, when the airport decided to remove Kha’s piece, there was little legal difference between removing Kha’s artwork and removing an outdated advertisement from the wall.
But there is far more symbolic significance to removing artwork than removing a poster. To the concerned public, removing the artwork was censorship.
Concerns over censorship were why filmmaker Craig Brewer got involved. Brewer posted a long post to his social media in response to the controversy, writing, “The folks at Memphis International Airport removed a perfectly inoffensive photo by our own famous photographer, @Tommykha, because they got some complaints from ‘Elvis fans’ on a Facebook thread. This is not who we are. WE ARE MEMPHIS! Our artists don’t act like other artists in other cities. Our artists get dismissed and called ‘gangsters and thugs’ and then go on to win Academy Awards for their work or have 20,000 Grizzlies fans chant Whoop That Trick in the Forum.”
Brewer, an influential figure, also placed two calls — the first, to Mayor Jim Strickland, who was aware of the controversy and voiced his support for Kha’s piece being reinstalled. Strickland said he had called the airport and voiced his concerns. The second call Brewer made was to Elvis Presley Enterprises CEO Jack Soden. Said Brewer, “I don’t know if Jack went further on any of that; all I know is that he was very sympathetic, and I was grateful that he listened. He has always been a really stellar guy.” EPE had no comment.
It is unclear what factors — potential calls from the mayor or Elvis Presley Enterprises, complaints on social media, news coverage, or internal discussion — inspired the decision, but by Tuesday evening, the Memphis airport issued a statement of their decision to reinstall the piece. When reached by phone on Wednesday, March 23rd, CEO Scott Brockman claimed responsibility for the decision to both remove and reinstall Kha’s work.
“There was dialogue with a number of entities and they provided their comments as to what they thought,” Brockman said. “There were other people who were involved but that is not relevant to this discussion. I was the lead.” Brockman also stuck to the airport’s initial statement and denied that censorship was the airport’s goal: “Things have gotten blown out of proportion and there are a lot of negative things that were said that weren’t true. … Ugly things said by a number of people that don’t provide any value. Our goal was never to create any angst or issue with Tommy Kha. … In hindsight we realized there was a bigger impact than we anticipated. We are not art people. We are airport people.”
By Wednesday night, Kha’s piece was reinstalled. The reinstallation was celebrated across social media and made local and national news. Kha thanked his supporters on social media. The news cycle moved on.
In the week that has followed, Kha has had more trouble moving on.
For Kha, Constellations VII/Golden Fields was never supposed to be a statement on race, an insult to Elvis, or anything so clear cut. It was supposed to be a self-portrait.
“It was my face in the photo,” said Kha. “I was hoping people could make fun of me! I was there and I was happy to be included. Now, after everything, I don’t feel that way.”
As with Daly, you can’t tell the story of Kha’s life without talking about Elvis. Kha’s Elvis is not just the one version Elvis, but the many Elvises that all Memphians know — the Elvis who used to sign autographs at the gate for our grandmothers, the Elvis who has been endlessly reproduced in velvet paintings and on tchotchkes, the Elvis who Andy Kaufman and hundreds of others have imitated for 50 years, the Elvis who speaks to the lonely and who can bring you to tears singing gospel music. That Elvis is at once a real person who did real things — good and bad — a superhero or a joke. He is a symbol we can’t seem to agree over, and he belongs to all of us, for better or worse.
Kha says he still loves Elvis, but this experience has spoiled something for him. He doesn’t want to have to explain himself again, to have to justify his right to be in the room. Said Kha, “I think there is so much work to be done. Though it may have worked out for me, I know it may not have worked out for other people. There’s so much at stake and I’m pretty sure it is not good for people who don’t have the same microphone that I have, or the same support system.” Kha wants to make sure this experience doesn’t happen to others. He doesn’t know quite what that would look like but is continuing conversations with UrbanArt Commission to try to see what protections can be put in place for artists in similar situations.
As for his Elvis photographs, said Kha, “It does make me rethink if I want to explore this project. I don’t know what more I can say, at the moment. I don’t think I’ll go to Elvis Week this year.”
Update: On Tuesday, March 22nd, the Airport Authority, in a statement from president and CEO Scott Brockman, announced its intentions to reinstall the photo. “The Airport Authority appreciates the support that the community has shown for Tommy and we have made the decision to reinstall the artwork,” the statement reads. “We apologize to Tommy for the effect that this ordeal has had on him.”
Memphis photographer Tommy Kha’s work has been displayed in prominent galleries and museums all around the world. Not surprisingly, one of his photographs was included among the artworks selected for the new Concourse B at Memphis International Airport by the UrbanArt Commission. It was taken down this week, said the Airport Authority, in response to complaints from “Elvis fans.”
The photograph in question features Kha in an Elvis jumpsuit, standing in a kitchen with what appears to be 1950s-era furniture.
Tommy Kha’s photo “Constellations VIII / Golden Fields” at the opening of Concourse B. (Photo by Jon W. Sparks).
Scott Brockman, president of the airport authority, released a statement regarding the removal of the photo:
“Recently, the Airport Authority has received a lot of negative feedback from Elvis fans about one of the art pieces that was purchased and installed in our recently modernized concourse. When the airport created its art program, our goal was to purchase and display artwork that did not include public figures or celebrities.
“Our selection committee made an exception in the case of Tommy Kha’s piece and recommended its purchase. This was the only piece in the art collection that depicted a celebrity or public figure. While we understand that the artist created the piece as a tribute to Elvis, the public reaction has been strong, leading us to revisit that original goal of avoiding the depiction of public figures in our art collection. As a result, the airport determined it was best to temporarily remove the piece while we determine our best path forward.
“We are open to the possibility of commissioning new artwork by Tommy Kha to replace his previous piece.
“Among the complaints, there were a small number of comments that included language that referred to Mr. Kha’s race, and such comments are completely unacceptable. The Airport Authority does not support those comments nor does it form the basis for the Authority’s decision regarding the piece. MSCAA has been very intentional to emphasize local artists, diversity and inclusion with this art program, and we will continue to do so.”
The UrbanArt Commission also issued a statement:
“UAC respects and appreciates Tommy Kha and his art, and was pleased to recommend him to be included in the Memphis International Airport collection. Tommy grew up in Whitehaven, has spent years doing documentary work around Elvis tribute artists/impersonators, and considers himself a part of that community.
“We are opposed to Tommy Kha’s installation being removed from display, especially considering the openly racist comments made online in the development of this situation. … Airport leadership has chosen to remove an artwork from a Memphis artist, for reasons that we adamantly disagree with. UAC is in contact with the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority and advocates for the artwork to be reinstalled.”
Editor’s Note: The Flyer is working on a more comprehensive story about this situation. Stay tuned.
Mighty Lights, the ever-changing light show on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, did what the MEMernet suggested last week. The bridge lights were changed Sunday to yellow and blue, the colors of Ukraine’s flag, to show solidarity with the country now under Russian invasion.
But some said the image of the bridge Mighty Lights shared to Facebook was old, showing a previous light arrangement used for a Grizzlies game.
Never Ending Elvis
Posted to YouTube by Warner Bros. Pictures
In about a week, the trailer for the new Elvis biopic (issued last week) racked up more than 13 million views on YouTube. The movie is due in theaters in June and stars Austin Butler as Elvis and Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker.
Kimball Coyote?
Nextdoor user Jill Anne Dyer Levy said last week she saw what looked like two coyotes near her house in the Kimball neighborhood. Comments on the post remembered the mythical Midtown Coyote, though someone claimed the animal had been shot. Other comments, though, listed other fauna spotted in and around Memphis including bears, beavers, foxes, and even Manny, the wayward manatee in the Mississippi River.
Spend the Fourth with Elvis. (Photo: Courtesy of Elvis Presley Enterprises)
Recently, a young co-worker asked me if Graceland was cool or cheesy. The answer is both. Seriously, the ’70s were total cheese. You just can’t get past that. But talk to any Memphian and they have an Elvis story — either about their parents, grandparents, or friends who had a brush with Elvis. And that’s pretty cool.
So, if you are a Memphian, the upcoming Fourth of July holiday might be just the ticket to get your cool cheese on when Graceland throws their All-American 4th of July Weekend event.
Elvis Presley Enterprises states, “Graceland is so excited to celebrate America’s birthday with friends, family, and fans.”
Aren’t we all, in some form or fashion, a friend, family, or fan of Elvis Presley — if not directly, by proximity? Plus, Graceland knows how to throw a party. On Saturday, events range from a $25 Ultimate Elvis Tribute concert by Bill Cherry to a $500 Hidden Graceland Tour. On Sunday, you can attend a Gospel Brunch for $50 or a private barbecue dinner reception for VIP and package holders. The finale is free and open to the public, with fireworks set to Elvis music.
VIP and package tickets are $346-$1,200 and include special perks, access to Graceland, including the interactive and special exhibits, and most of the Fourth of July weekend events except for the Hidden Tour of Graceland.
Sounds like a great staycation for America’s birthday. There is nothing more American than Elvis, rock-and-roll, fireworks, and barbecue.
All-American 4th of July Weekend, Graceland, 3717 Elvis Presley, Saturday-Sunday, July 3-4, free-$50+.
A big-box retailer emailed Memphis journalists last week to say they’ll carry a “GIANT 20 Foot Pink Limo Pool Float” at their stores this year. “Perfect for riding off into the sunset this summer in true Elvis style,” says the company. All yours for $199.98.
Forum Flight
Posted to YouTube by Stadium Landings
YouTuber Stadium Landings landed on top of the FedEx Forum last week using Microsoft Flight Simulator. The yellow plane’s flight begins north of the city, following the Mississippi River, past the Pyramid, to and through Downtown. The plane circles the Forum and successfully lands on top. Just goes to show, there’s something for everyone on the internet.
Drake Weighs In
Posted to Reddit by u/goldchainnightmare
“I still hear their jingle in my head,” wrote Reddit user goldchannightmare.
Sam’s Club 
Posted to YouTube by Stadium Landings 
Posted to Reddit by u/goldchainnightmare