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[The Kats Report]

Priscilla Presley talks preserving the King’s legacy at Westgate’s Graceland and beyond

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Plans for an Elvis attraction are revealed Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, at Westgate Las Vegas.
Graceland / Westgate Las Vegas

New Elvis Exhibit at Westgate

For Priscilla Presley, it’s time to reign in faux Elvis. For decades, the only woman married to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll has observed the often twisted exaggerations of Elvis Presley’s image. We’ve seen these characters all over town, and it ain’t always Viva Las Vegas.

To be fair, some of these gents who evoke Elvis do serve a purpose. Able actors and musicians have long performed in Elvis-styled tribute shows on and off the Strip. Elvis in his Vegas era has been reprised in Legends in Concert for more than 30 years (today at the Flamingo), and a young Elvis is smartly portrayed in Million Dollar Quartet at Bally’s.

But where flattery becomes folly, regretfully jumpsuited buskers pose for photos on Fremont Street, ordained ministers perform wedding ceremonies on Las Vegas Boulevard, limo drivers scoop up visitors at McCarran International Airport, and folks hold and spin promotional signs on our neighborhood streets. By the time you pass a person holding a “Colonic Elvis” sign, which was a not-uncommon sight in Vegas a few years ago, you’ve strayed far from what made Elvis a legend for all time.

This Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, photo shows simple and bedazzled suits once worn by Elvis, many while performing onstage in Las Vegas, displayed at the Westgate Las Vegas, originally the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

This Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, photo shows simple and bedazzled suits once worn by Elvis, many while performing onstage in Las Vegas, displayed at the Westgate Las Vegas, originally the International Hotel in Las Vegas.

Priscilla Presley recognizes the distinction between tribute and caricature. And as she describes that distinction, her deeply ingrained diplomatic disposition becomes evident.

“I haven’t really spent much time around impersonating shows, or tribute artists, as you call them,” she says during a phone conversation from her home in LA. “I’ve kind of kept my distance, only because from the family point of view it’s kind of difficult ... How can I say this? As much as I appreciate them, what they do, they seem to take on a whole other personality. They seem to lose themselves in all this, um, portrayal of Elvis.”

Presley then laughs a little. “They come in all shapes and forms, and our objective is to kind of keep that caricature of Elvis away and do justice to his legacy.”

Sadly for the multitudes of devotees who crisscross the city in Elvis costumes, there will be no Elvis impressionist performing in any capacity at Graceland Presents Elvis: The Exhibition – The Show – The Experience opening April 23 at Westgate Las Vegas. This is the hotel that opened as the International in 1969 and became the Las Vegas Hilton two years later, and where Elvis performed 837 consecutive sold-out shows from July 1969 through December 1976.

Plans for an Elvis attraction are revealed Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, at Westgate Las Vegas.

Plans for an Elvis attraction are revealed Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, at Westgate Las Vegas.

As the only authorized Graceland exhibit to open outside the original Memphis estate, the attraction is at once vast and detailed. It covers more than 28,000 square feet, and also overtakes the 1,600-seat theater, which is being redesigned to reflect the traditional showroom design (with booth and table seating and an elegant gold curtain) of the days when Elvis headlined the room. The stage show Elvis Experience, fronted by the actor Martin Fontaine, moves into the refurbished showroom as the attraction opens.

It’s an operation befitting a king. As Priscilla Presley says, “This is going to be much bigger than people think. We have so many great things on display: the American Eagle jumpsuit that Elvis wore in 1972, the tunic he wore on opening night from July 1969, a telegram he sent to Barbra Streisand wishing her well on her opening night at the International, the jumpsuit he wore in Viva Las Vegas. We have all the original Sun records he recorded. It’s going to be pretty amazing.”

Last year Priscilla Presley took a scouting tour to Quebec to see Elvis Experience, and was impressed that the show is not a mere recitation of Elvis hits performed by a singer impersonating the real thing. “Martin doesn’t try to be Elvis,” she says. “He doesn’t walk like Elvis, talk like Elvis, act like Elvis. He’s an actor, a very good actor, and he’s pretty much done a character study of Elvis while remaining his own person.”

Crucial to the appeal of the Graceland West fortress is the opening of the first wedding chapel outside of the original Graceland chapel to be authorized by Elvis Presley Enterprises—meaning the Presley family itself. The first wedding ceremony at Elvis Presley’s Graceland Wedding Chapel is set for the morning of April 23, by winners of a national contest on NBC’s Today show. But it’s not to be presided over by someone dressed in a kitschy Elvis costume.

“I just made the decision not to do that,” Priscilla Presley says. “We’re going to make it a great experience for couples and their friends and families. But if they’re expecting to see that, then it’s the wrong chapel for them.” As they say in such holy enclaves, amen to that.

Graceland Presents Elvis The Exhibition: Daily, 10 a.m.-10 p.m., $22. Elvis Experience: April 23-May 30; Tuesday-Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; Friday & Saturday, 8 p.m., $49-$80. Westgate Las Vegas, 702-732-5298.

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