I was proofreading when I heard. It was an August night in 1977, and I was in The Daily student newspaper office at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Surrounded by typewriters and telephones, pencil in hand, I was hunting for errors on paper galley proofs. There wasn’t a computer monitor in the place.
Somebody on the staff walked in with the news: Elvis Presley was dead.
I thought about that moment last week as I discovered a new Elvis phenomenon – impossible during the life of the king of rock ‘n’ roll.
When Presley died, the PC revolution was still a few years off. We had all studied Marshall McLuhan’s idea of a “global village,” but few had a clue about the Internet.
Today, on what would have been Presley’s 71st birthday, you can go online to Google and type in “Elvis” and “Everett.” Among the many choices, you’ll find the site http://elvis.meetup.com. If you keep clicking, it will turn up local folks interested in getting together to share their mania for the King.
You know about Meetup groups? Founded in 2002, Meetup.com is a Web site that links people living near each other who happen to share an interest – be it politics, Portuguese, poodles or pregnancy. They meet, usually monthly, most often in public places like coffee shops.
The Elvis Meetup phenomenon is only one of hundreds of interest groups. There are now 16 Elvis Meetup groups in 14 cities and three countries. While I found a number of Snohomish County people interested in a group here, none has yet been organized.
An entry from someone calling himself “Tim” from Everett says he has 13 Elvis CDs and “wants to meet single women who are Elvis fans for friendship and possibly more.”
I decided against contacting Tim. I did call Beryl Gosney, who lives in Everett, is in the real estate business and is a devoted Elvis fan.
Gosney entered his name on the Elvis Meetup site as possibly being interested in a group. That idea hasn’t gone further, but Gosney is involved in the undying Elvis craze in other ways.
He is the nationwide booking agent for Radford Ellis, an Elvis impersonator who performs regularly at a club on Beale Street in Memphis, Tenn. And Gosney’s son-in-law is Tracy Alan Moore, an Elvis tribute singer who performs in Western Washington.
“Elvis is in our psyche. People want to go back to those years of nostalgia,” said Gosney, 58. He and his wife, Verlyn-Rose, have watched the crowds at Elvis tribute shows. “It’s standing-room-only, and you see that love when you look at the eyes of the people there.”
There have been better singers, Gosney said. “One of the greatest of all was Roy Orbison. But he didn’t have the stage presence and charisma of Elvis.”
To experience an Elvis Meetup, you’d have to travel. The closest groups are in Vancouver, B.C.; Portland, Ore.; and Spokane.
Stephen and Kathleen McSpadden are Elvis Meetup hosts in Spokane.
He’s not a professional Elvis, but Stephen McSpadden can boast being named best Elvis in a Halloween karaoke contest at Donna’s Cafe in Spokane.
“I have the outfit, but I wear a wig. My hair is receding a bit,” he said. McSpadden, 53, went so far as to get a Spokane tailor to put a big Elvis-style 1970s collar on one of his cowboy shirts.
Even so, the look isn’t the important thing for this Elvis fan. “I always loved his music,” McSpadden said. “I dress like the crooner Elvis, but I love the old rock ‘n’ roll.”
With their Elvis Meetup pal Jacque Hultquist, the Spokane couple have thrown Elvis parties that attracted hundreds of people. With the Elvis Meetup events, the music starts, and “before you know it, the whole neighborhood is here,” Stephen McSpadden said.
He found out about Elvis Meetups after “my kids set me up on the computer.” All he did was type in “Elvis,” and he found like-minded fans near and far.
My 18-year-old son’s bedroom is decorated with awful stuff from horror films and punk bands. In one place of honor, though, he has Elvis album covers and old 45-rpm records on display.
In 2000, TV Guide ranked Elvis as the top entertainer of the 20th century. We’re more than a few steps into the next century, and the King’s influence is spreading in ways he couldn’t have imagined.
“Everywhere we go, we hear his music. My wife points it out to me when we walk into a store and it’s playing,” Gosney said. “I love the man. I love everything about him.”
Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.
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