I traveled to Memphis to attend Elvis Week and report on the state of Elvis memorabilia collectors and vendors for No Depression.
My friend Elena Passarello, the amazing nonfiction writer and performer, was spending the week leading up to the anniversary of Presley’s death in Memphis to research Elvis impersonators— or ahem, tribute artists— and invited me to come along. I watched the marathon competition mostly with my jaw dropped, then roamed the shows of memorabilia vendors that popped up in the lobbies and fluorescent-lit conference rooms of chain motels off Elvis Presley Boulevard. In one dim, low-ceilinged room, I met Jimmy Velvet, alone behind a folding table with a hodge-lodge of items, not really for sale. What he had to share was his story. Turns out, Mr. Velvet opened the original Presley Museum before Graceland opened to the public, and was at one time the preeminent dealer of authentic Elvis memorabilia. He also met Elvis when they were both still teenagers, and became a longtime friend of the family. We talked a long time, then I went back to talk with him the next day, and then we set up an official interview. I learned so much, and you can read all about it in the Winter 2019 issue of No Depression!
It had been eight years since I’d been to Memphis and Graceland, and so much has changed. The Graceland entertainment complex feels like a Disneyfied vision of its long-standing kitschy splendor. But man, it was good to eat Memphis soul food—upscale and classic, and to drive slowly past the glinting and gray Mississippi.
