ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 27, 1997 TAG: 9702270003
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MEMPHIS, TENN.
SOURCE: JEFF GAMMAGE KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
You can't find the fat Elvis in this town.
That Elvis - the bloated, baggy-eyed addict who popped pills like gumdrops and shot out hotel-room television sets - has left the building.
In his place, peering out from the pillows and pennants that cram the souvenir shops of his hometown, is an earlier image of the King: the young, vibrant rocker whose searing, sad-eyed sexuality made girls weep.
``I always thought that Elvis, like James Dean or Marilyn Monroe, would freeze into a single image,'' said Greil Marcus, the author of ``Dead Elvis - A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession.''
It's already happening here. And it's a transformation that comes at a seminal moment for the King and his fans.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Elvis' death, an event certain not just to draw thousands to the Bluff City but to spark critical reevaluations of his life and music. Elvis would have turned 62 last month. Between now and Aug. 16, the date he died at Graceland, there will be dozens of tributes, TV specials and commemorations.
But beyond that, say those who study fame and its consequence, the shift reflects America's need to homogenize and summarize its celebrities, to reduce complex and textured lives to an image or two. That's especially true for the dead. Today, authorities say, when people think of James Dean, they invariably think of his classic, red-jacketed pose from ``Rebel Without a Cause.''
Two decades after his death at 42, the same thing is happening to Elvis. When the Postal Service put to a public vote in 1992 the question of whether a commemorative stamp should picture a young, swivel-hipped Elvis or an older, jumpsuited version, the younger version won in a landslide.
``He's the man who never died - or if he died, he's risen,'' said Alison Scott, head of the Pop Culture Library at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. ``We're practically in the throes of a new religious movement.''
Part of the fascination is fueled by the contradiction of Elvis' life, she said. Elvis was a definitive figure in American music, an influence on everyone from the Beatles to Bruce Springsteen. And he was a high priest of American schlock, the King of bad movies, mediocre recordings and cheap keepsakes.
``We cannot seem to give him up,'' Scott said. ``Nor do we actually have to.''
They're clearly hanging onto him here. At any Elvis souvenir shop, you can buy:
* Love Me Tender shampoo for $3.99.
* An ``Elvisopoly'' game for $19.99.
* A copy of his will for $1.99.
* A color print of Elvis performing with other dead rock stars, including John Lennon and Jim Morrison, for $7.99.
On every item, image has replaced reality. In Souvenirs of Elvis and other stores, Elvis has shed both weight and addiction. He's wrapped in skin-tight black leather from his '68 Comeback Special, draped in a flower lei during the Aloha from Hawaii concert, or sparkling in a white Las Vegas jumpsuit.
``We've tried to do that just to have the right appeal,'' said Carol Light, who owns the Memories of Elvis gift shop. ``There's so much of the later years that have been misconstrued - that's been published that's not in good taste. It's bad publicity, and we don't need that.''
In these parts, nobody kids about Elvis' girth, or jokes about him downing All Shook Uppers or Blue Suede 'ludes. When people talk of Elvis' last years, they speak of when he was ``ill.''
``Against all odds, we've tried to portray him as a positive individual who did contribute a lot,'' Light said.
Of course, it's not just Elvis who's getting a makeover.
Consider Elizabeth Taylor. In recent years, there have been jokes about her weight. But wait until she's gone. She'll be remembered as the sexy, dark-haired vixen from ``Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.''
Leo Braudy has seen it before. The University of Southern California professor documented the way America condenses its stars in his book, ``The Frenzy of Renown: Fame and Its History.''
``The living we're more willing to tear down, and see revealing pictures and hear revealing stories,'' he said. ``The dead are perfect in a way. So the images of the dead tend to be perfected.''
The Romans never portrayed Alexander the Great bleeding from a war wound, he said. And when poet John Milton died in his mid-60s, his wife commissioned a portrait depicting him as he was in his 20s.
Author Marcus believes Elvis was too big an event for people to incorporate into their experience, which is why so many have busied themselves remaking his history. Just as Marcus predicted Elvis would be reduced to a single image, he foresees that image eventually shattering - unable to contain all that was Elvis.
``Once you get finished with the parodies or the burlesques, or the attacks, or the slavish worshiping, or anything that takes Elvis Presley out of the domain in which he actually lived, once you get sick of that, bored with that, baffled with that, you can always go back to a given record and play it,'' Marcus said. ``And when you do that, the story starts all over again. And you're saying, `Wow, where did that come from?'''
LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: FILE. 1. Love Me Tender hair care products, picturingby CNByoung Elvis on the label, are available in souvenir shops. 2. Elvis
seems to be freezing into a single image - young, vibrant and sexy