Keywords
Tribute, Festival, Elvis
Document Type
Fiction
Description
DUBUQUE, Iowa — The Casino Elvises set to kick off the parade at noon were pushed to the rear because a late-summer thunderstorm in Chicago had stranded the Australian team. In the 87-degree heat of the SuperSavers parking lot, the spangled floats hauled by tractors made way for the Marching Nine-Foot Elvises on stilts. Next up were the Novelty Elvises, including one posed squatting (apparently in flagrante) on a rolling toilet, convulsing intermittently as if in cardiac arrest; another led a tiger cub who dived through flaming hoops, a nod to Graceland’s Jungle Room; and an erstwhile husband-and- wife team slathered in pasty white face makeup, flanked by five American flags, as they recreated living statues of Elvis receiving an honorary Bureau of Narcotics badge—Wife/Nixon hunched over in a gray suit and Husband/Elvis decked out in purple velvet with a big WWE-like gold buckle and a Colt .45. When the parade paused, Wife/Nixon would flash a two-handed, two-fingered victory slash helicopter-farewell salute, and Husband/Elvis would swivel his hips and pretend to snort coke from the Colt’s barrel. The couple, Adele and Larry, prided themselves on not using prosthetics; the whole effect was achieved with tensed facial muscles and contorted limbs like Kabuki actors.
Recommended Citation
Duehr, Gary
(2022)
"Elvis Lives,"
Inscape: Vol. 42:
No.
2, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/inscape/vol42/iss2/1