DATE: Thursday, May 29, 1997                TAG: 9705290046

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CRAIG SHAPIRO, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  118 lines

DISCIPLES OF THE KING RELIGION SCHOLAR CASTS CURIOUS EYE ON GATHERING OF ELVIS IMPERSONATORS

ELVIS ISN'T the only one who will be everywhere this weekend. Ben Fraser is going to be out and about, too.

Saturday morning, when the Elvis Parade steps off, Fraser will be in the crowd lining the Virginia Beach Boardwalk. He'll be nearby when the Skydiving Kings touch down at 24th Street and the juggling, fire-eating and stilt-walking Elvises juggle, eat fire and walk on stilts.

No way he'd miss Young Elvis, Black Elvis or the other Elvis impersonators. Jerry Presley, Elvis' cousin, is performing with The Jordanaires, Elvis' backup singers. Twice. Count Fraser in.

But although the director of Regent University's Center for the Study of Faith and Culture will hit most of the events at the big Oceanfront festival, Viva Elvis III - ``Elvis Is Everywhere,'' he's not a big fan. He's not even a sometimes fan. He owns one Elvis CD. A greatest hits collection, or something like that.

Instead, this is a working weekend for Fraser and his students. They'll be at the Oceanfront to interview the Elvis artists and Elvis audiences, a project that began with the first Viva Elvis festival in 1995.

``I was teaching a class on qualitative research and ethnography,'' Fraser said. ``At the same time, I read an article on Elvis. Here he'd been dead 18 years. People still listened to his music.

``And the impersonators . . . I mentioned to the class that we ought to study why these people do this; why grown men, and at time, I thought it was only grown men, would dress up in a jumpsuit and act like Elvis.''

That first year, he arrived with two film crews and a team of interviewers, all student volunteers. They set up in a hotel room because it made sense to stay at the festival; it also gave them a place to conduct interviews.

One of the first acts he came across was a 4-year-old Elvis impersonator, a Norfolk boy, performing in public for the first time.

The boy's mother told Fraser that her son heard Elvis mentioned on the TV show, ``Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.'' One character was an Elvis fan, and the writers would slip in references.

Mom, never much of a fan herself, dug out an old cassette tape. Soon, they started renting Elvis' movies.

``In a couple of weeks he was doing karate kicks, moving his hips, learning all the songs,'' said Fraser, 49. ``When I saw them the next year, they said they'd enjoyed (the first festival) so much, they used the money they'd saved for a trip to Disneyland to go to Graceland instead.

``In taking that pilgrimage, she became an Elvis fan. She would get up early every morning and lay a rose on his grave and cry. When I asked why, she said, `I don't know.'

``Now, his (the boy's) whole room is an Elvis shrine.''

Fraser, a single father of two teen-age boys, makes his first trip to Graceland in August, the 20th anniversary of Presley's death. Again, it will be a working vacation.

He's trying to put together a documentary on the Virginia Beach festival; he also has two books in mind. His research has generated two papers, the second of which, ``How Elvis Impersonators Communicate Cross-Culturally,'' will be presented in July at a World Communication Association conference in Costa Rica.

The first, co-written with a student, was titled ``Islands of Modernity: An Ethnographic Analysis of Elvis Impersonators as Poachers.''

``In old England, it was poaching when you went on someone's property to shoot a pheasant to feed your own family,'' Fraser said. ``Elvis was the ultimate poacher. He never wrote his own music. He took other people's songs.

``What are impersonators doing? They're dressing up like him. They're feeding off him. They're poaching.''

Fraser has other stories - about the personal shrines, some costing tens of thousands of dollars; or the backhoe operator who saved $100 and created four imitation Elvis jumpsuits. He's now sold more than 5,000 - at $2,800 a pop.

And the group of ladies who belong to a Richmond fan club, one of some two dozen registered in Virginia. Each had been to Graceland at least 12 times.

``When I asked what the club does, they said they carry on the spirit of Elvis,'' Fraser said. ``The fervor was something I wasn't prepared for. There's a narrow ridge between a fan and a disciple.''

Dressing up because it's fun and leads to new friendships is one thing. But it's that narrow edge where Elvis Presley - or any media-generated hero, including sports figures - is elevated to role model that intrigues Fraser.

It also concerns him, because he sees them replacing traditional models such as teachers and grandparents.

``The myths that surround Elvis are very persuasive,'' he said. ``Particularly in the South, they have energized this devotion. Some common kinds of things have happened. A lot of men who are impersonators talked about their fathers being absent, or away a lot, but Elvis was always there.

``There are points when people are more apt to be persuaded. One man, whose father had just died, was driving in his car and turned on a song by Elvis. He said, `Elvis was always there for me.' A woman told me that when she was growing up, her mother went through a series of difficult marriages. The only positive role model in her teen-age years was Elvis.''

While there was a lot about Elvis to admire - his generosity and humility, his love for his family, loyalty to his country and work ethic - Fraser said it gets problematic when people refuse to look at both sides of the man.

He calls it ``dealing with the real issue.'' Elvis abused drugs, he couldn't control his weight and he was a womanizer.

``It's very interesting to see how people handle it,'' Fraser said. ``Some are very realistic. Others excuse it. `Nobody's perfect.' Or they blame the media and others around him for over-emphasizing the negative. They only want to believe the positive.

``Look at the words they use: Elvis didn't die from drug abuse, he sacrificed his life for his fans. Elvis gave his life for them. There are all these religious inferences.''

Two years of research have led Fraser, a native Californian, to one theory.

``We're living in an unsettled world, and people are looking for some sense of stability,'' he said. ``I think they look back at Elvis, and the middle-class values he embodied, and use him in that way.

`` `The X-Files' has it right. It's a whole program based on conspiracy. Don't trust anyone. It's an outgrowth of post-modern philosophy. Our roles are uncertain. Businesses re-invent themselves every few years. People ask, `What can I hold onto?' They hold onto Elvis. In an uncertain world, they look for role models that embody that certainty.

``What bothers me is some fans will look at someone else and be critical. I don't think the world is so black and white.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/The Virginian-Pilot

Ben Fraser is the director of Regent University's Center for the

Study of Faith and Culture. He says the Elvis fervor springs from a

need for stability in an unsettled world.

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