One Last Word On Elvis
To the Editor:
The 20th Anniversary "Elvis Week" is over. It's really been great fun and very enlightening. I've read a book on the band behind Elvis, and a book on the Memphis music scene in the '60s. There's been a real problem trying to identify the True Elvis Fan. Many people went to school with him, or have some story about him. What an idol becomes is what the people who idolize him make him. Someone who had family ties to Elvis or his music might remember him as a "nice, polite young man." That's a great memory because what he became was a circus act, led by a circus barker. And he suffered for it. I just don't understand these fanatics. Why would someone tattoo his face on their arm, or wear those ridiculous jumpsuits?
No doubt Elvis was a phenomenon but he ran out on his band and left behind people who truly made him a star. Those first Sun Studio sessions weren't Presley songs; Elvis didn't write. Give Presley credit where credit is due, I say, but not for being great. I wonder how many diligent Elvis fans know who Big Boy Cruddup ("That's Alright, Mama") or Big Mama Thornton ("Hound Dog") are?
The followers of Elvis are kind of like the followers of Jesus. They desperately want to believe in something. Remember Pandora? She opened the box and let out all the evil, but she closed the box before hope escaped.
We in Memphis, who hate what Elvis has become, may be soothed by this. Maybe the myth of Elvis will lead these poor souls to the truth. He brought to the public the music hidden in the swamps and cotton fields. He made his home music famous and for that we're eternally grateful. That truth is the music and its roots.
Joseph T. Corbell
Memphis
Missions of Mercy
To the Editor:
In City Reporter, [August 14th issue], Dr. Harold Shank says, "Churches can change the face of the city. We're trying to make sure that the issue of mercy is not forgotten in the city."
What I would like to see more than anything else is the joining together of all of our houses of worship -- yes, all of them, regardless of faith -- in this mission of mercy.
What I have in mind is not at all new. The belief in the fatherhood of God also implied belief in the brotherhood of humankind, resulting in practical efforts to relieve the lot of the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden, and transforming the ethical standards of the world.
Throughout their history, our diverse religious faiths have been not simply sets of beliefs, or systems of organization, or beautiful and impressive rituals of worship. Taken together, they have always been a moral force working for the betterment of humankind. Let us never forget that.
Arthur Prince
Memphis
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THE NFL HAS ARRIVED IN MEMphis. An exciting game and a win for the designated home team were almost enough to make people forget that the attendance, 30,171, was about 20,000 less than the next smallest crowd on opening day in the NFL. There were no press dispatches that didn't include the attendance angle. The NFL is a big media event and, in Memphis anyway, empty seats are a part of the story.
Sitting next to the assigned reporter from USA Today in the press box Sunday, I tried to explain why Memphians were not supporting the Oilers' brief stay here. Then I discovered that the reporter was based in Nashville, and his wife works for The Tennessean newspaper there. His response to my explanation for the small crowd: "Still, you've got to admit this is pretty pitiful." I gave up.
You heard it on SportsCenter, on newscasts local and national, and in the 50-cent daily. Yes, it is news when the NFL, the premier sports league in the country, plays opening day to a half-empty stadium. But it is also the obligation of the reporters to explain the entire story. The seats were not empty because Memphians are poor (although the Oilers' price-gouging is shameful -- how about some charts showing the Oilers with the highest ticket prices in the league?). And the stadium was not half-full because Memphians don't like football (although this is and probably always will be first and foremost a college sports town).
There were 32,000 empty seats at the Liberty Bowl on Sunday because many Memphians feel the NFL abused us over the years and because the Bud Adams organization has continued to ignore the city even as they tried to sell tickets here.
The players, at least, seem to have some understanding of the need for goodwill from the city that has, however reluctantly, adopted them for a year or two. When Steve McNair and company came out of their locker room after the game to shake hands with the fans still inside the stadium, they accomplished more than the hired guns in Nashville have since the day the Oilers first arrived in Tennessee. Now that's a story.
CORRECTION: Two issues ago in our review of Playhouse on the Square's production of A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline, we misidentified Richelle Harrington as costume designer. Harrington is in fact the production's stage manager; Karen Murk is the costume designer. We regret the error.
-- Dennis Freeland