Elvis - A Lighted Candle

[Wanda June Hill]

Starla told me she heard on the radio and it was in the TIMES newspaper in LA which she didn't bring home so it's probably gone now. Anyway, someone in So. Carolina found in the river Elvis' GI Blues army outfit that had washed out of the Hard Rock Hotel during a tornado or a hurricane (she couldn't recall which) came through-
and they had it cleaned, repaired and then returned it to the Hotel which was rebuilt. It's on display there with a small notice of "its" experience and return. See, even clothes he wore like to "hit the road" at every opportunity~ joke. I worry about Graceland and tornados as it is old and getting worn and isn't being repaired as well as I would like to think. A guy who was there again after two years of not being there said he was saddened to see that nothing had been fixed, just covered over with paint and that the weak flooring (there is a basement under there) had been "fixed" by placing carpeted board walk way where people constanly walk in and through the rooms. When we were there in 1991 or 92 I was appaled at the termite ravaged door framing of the front door-as we filed in we were told not to touch the door frames! Only paint was holding them in place and that was a fact! And the front entrance hall flooring was very weak feeling-I could tell, I know what that feels like having lived in an old house with weak floors in my early lifetime. He said they had not been repaired that he could see-or else they had rotted out again. What I want to know is with all the money EPE supposedly makes each year (Millions) why isn't that place kept in good repair? If they let it go, then build a musem there they will find that the interest in coming will diminish because it's GRACELAND they come to see-that represents Elvis' HOME that he bought for his mom and dad and loved so much himself. Where his baby played with him, where he taught her to drive the go carts, where he held her and showed her the stars, where she squirted him with water and he chased her-they come to Graceland to 'FEEL AND SHARE' those things "with him" and to be in a place that was his refuge, his home, his heart- it won't be the same as a musem no matter how elegant and beautiful or modern and cold it might be-it won't be GRACELAND anymore. I don't understand why they don't get it. Maybe it's a case of they just don't notice. wjh

[Blue Moon]

Well that is something that Elvis' army uniform was found in a river! I mean what are the chances of that happening. I think this was no accident. Heaven made sure it was found IMO.

Here's hoping that the guy who bought out so much of EPE (I think his name is Sillerman?) will do repair work on Graceland. But I don't know because Lisa owns the Graceland house, not Sillerman. Still, if he got a % of tourists profits, then maybe he would have a vested interested in keeping Graceland in good condition. Lord, I hope they don't let it rot. You are right Wanda, people would not want to go down there nearly so much if the house was torn down and turned into a museum.

[Amanda Viola]

Maybe the history is repeating itself. Before Graceland was built, it was sacred indian soil, a pilgrimage place to them (as El'vis told Maia). They lost it then as such, it changed into another thing...

[Blue Moon]

Here is the story from USA Today

Casinos were always lucky places for Elvis Presley, so maybe he left just enough luck behind to rescue a piece of his legacy blown out of a Mississippi casino by Hurricane Katrina. Or at least that's one way to look at the remarkable recovery and restoration of the badly damaged Army uniform costume Presley wore in 1960's G.I. Blues, the first movie he did after getting out of the Army himself.

The khaki costume, which he wore to sing the film's title track, had just been installed in the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Biloxi when Katrina destroyed the gambling barge just days before its grand opening in 2005. The costume, acquired by Hard Rock in 1988, floated out into the Gulf, along with other rock memorabilia collected by Hard Rock. Like so much else destroyed by Katrina, it was thought to be gone for good.

And then, incredibly, the costume washed up on shore days after the storm, complete with its Army green service cap. It was a mess — torn, stained with oil, rust and mildew, encrusted with salt and smelly. But it was still recognizable. "It's amazing to me that people would think enough to get this stuff back to us — that would not be the first thing on my mind after a storm," says Don Bernstine, head of acquisitions for Hard Rock. After 35 years of collecting, Hard Rock owns what is believed to be the largest hoard of rock artifacts in the world — 69,000 items worth about $45 million.

But the costume needed a lot of restoration work, and for that Hard Rock turned to Imperial Gown Restoration of Fairfax, Va.,which has restored garments for the Smithsonian. Steven Saidman, the company's president, says Hard Rock told him to restore the costume but not to hide what it had gone through. "Clean it, preserve it, repair the tear so that it doesn't fall apart — but that tear is now part of its history," Saidman says. After 60 hours of work over two months, at a cost of about $3,000, the restoration is complete. The costume will return to Biloxi, to be reinstalled in the rebuilt Hard Rock casino opening this summer. "We're ecstatic," Bernstine says. "This is something that can't be replaced."

Steven Saidman went on eBay for the black Army tie and to Home Depot for plastic tubing to replace the cap's horsehair tubing.

[Amanda Viola]

JUST FANTASTIC!

I would love to know more about the person that found it and his/her thoughts and feelings that led him/her to bring it back to its owners...

[miracle]

yes Amanda me too, it was the first thought i had in my mind!

miracle

[Amanda Viola]

I have been searching at ELC and here at the forum and I have found at last what El'vis said about Graceland to Maia, for the new friends.

"...As an aside....Graceland is upon a Native American sacred grounds, where only priests and preistesses lived and others came to do sacred ceremony with the "Gods" (natual forces) of the earth. These "natives" had originally migrated from the Yucataan, and so were a mixture of Mayan and Cherokee descent.

In my lifetime as De-Ka-Nah-Wi-Da I visited this place then, as it was known to be a gathering ground for sacred pilgrimage. "

The rest of the message can be found in the thread "A Field of Roses":

elvislightedcan-about879.html

[Rainbow Light]

Many thanks for posting this information up for us, Amanda!

Bringing this back around for anyone who didn't catch earlier, including me!