Elvis lives: Impersonators seek respect with new professional group

Monday, June 10, 2002 | 10:43 a.m.

He's been dead for almost 25 years and still he brings down the house.

Women swooned and men cheered as Elvis after Elvis took the showroom stage at the Lady Luck this weekend, paying tribute to the king of rock 'n' roll. But as females fought to touch an Elvis' hand or snag one of his signature scarfs, the impersonators were fighting for respect.

"This was a great way to bring all the members together and let them perform and shine," Johnny Thompson said of his recently formed Professional Elvis Impersonators Association. The showcases were part of the association's first convention and featured more than 20 of the top impersonators from all over the world.

"Everybody loves Elvis," he said. "We want to show the world that we are professional entertainers and not just a bunch of hacks."

People often see the impersonators as clowns and not real performers, Thompson said. Miro Yasumasa of Japan said he struggled with this stereotype when he first started impersonating Elvis Presley 20 years ago.

"The people in my country back then didn't treat Elvis right," said Yasumasa, whose band backed up all of the performers for the showcase. "They mimic him very comedically. At first I thought that he was a strange guy with the way he moved and all, but then I saw one of his movies and that convinced me that he was great."

He now puts a lot of energy into impersonating those "strange" moves -- the writhing legs and grinding hips that Elvis made his trademark -- and his peers say that is what makes Yasumasa's performance.

"Physically his moves are down to the exact mathematical detail," impersonator Greg Winston said of Yasumasa as he watched his performance admiringly in the audience. "All of that was right on the money, down to the karate kicks at the end."

Winston, like many of the impersonators, caught Elvis fever at the tender age of 9, and has extensively studied many of the king's taped performances, movies and albums to get every detail right.

"I wore the grooves out on the (live Madison Square Garden) record, and by 10 years old I was already imitating him," Winston said. "It came naturally to want to be like him."

Impersonating is more than just hero-worship, however, for the scores of musicians who have made it a full-time job. For British performer Joel Ewens, impersonating Elvis or other classic artists such as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole is about capturing the image they created and that people already adore.

"Image is just as much a part of Elvis' legend as his songs," said Ewens, who started doing Elvis after seeing a VH1 special four years ago at age 16. "You couldn't get away with wearing a jumpsuit like this unless you were doing Elvis."

Whether they've been in the business for just a few years or a few decades, the impersonators all strive to live up to the legend -- and keep it alive.

"Elvis had more charisma on stage than any other performer," Thompson said. "You can't put your finger on what it is about Elvis that made him so great."

Dennis Roberts, and old friend of Elvis who designed all of his jewelry and sunglasses, said Sunday that what made Elvis great was simply that he was Elvis. He added that Elvis would have been flattered by the imitations done in the showcases.

"He would have laughed for three days," Roberts said. "But he wouldn't have laughed because it was stupid, but because it was fun. And at the end he would have come up on stage with all of the Elvises and said, 'Now pay attention because I'm only going to do this once.' "