Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 8:16 a.m.
There will be plenty of Elvis sightings at the Fremont Street Experience tonight and Saturday as more than 50 amateur and professional impersonators participate in producer John Stuart's first "The Spirit of Elvis Celebration."
"We hope this will become an annual event," said Stuart, who became the king of tribute artistry more than 20 years ago when his legendary "Legends in Concert" premiered at the Imperial Palace.
There will be continuous free performances from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. at the Third Street Stage.
The event includes Elvis contests, with competitors vying for the top prize of $1,000 in two different categories -- Elvis in the '50s and '60s and Elvis in the '70s.
Following the contests there will be Elvis concerts featuring 10 of the top tribute artists in the country, including Greg Miller and Donnie Edwards.
But the highlight of the show could be seven unknown Elvis fans who are part of a documentary "Heart of the King" being produced by Stuart, his son Shane and Andrew Lankes.
For the past 2 1/2 years Shane Stuart and Lankes have followed the seven fans, filming them as they dress in Elvis costumes and perform in karaoke bars, hospitals and other locations.
This weekend's "Spirt of Elvis Tribute Concert" will be the end of the documentary taping. The 230 hours of film that has been shot will be edited to about 90 minutes, a process that could take six months.
"This documentary shows the human side of the Elvis character," John Stuart said. "Did Elvis just create a bunch of screaming fans, or does it go beyond that?"
Shane Stuart and Lankes started out almost three years ago to make a "mocumentary," a spoof about the Elvis phenomenon.
"But I told them, 'When you meet these people, it's going to be a lot different than you think,' " John Stuart said. " 'These people will take a bullet ... When you get into the heads of some of these people, you will have a whole different perspective.' "
It turns out, father knew best.
"It turned into a whole different project," Shane Stuart said. "The real fans were better than the characters we created, so we decided to make an actual documentary."
He and Lankes interviewed hundreds of Elvis fans and impersonators to find the ones they wanted fo follow with a camera, narrowing the subjects down to seven.
Among them is an 11-year-old partially deaf boy from Charleston, S.C., who has a speech impediment. He calls himself "Little E."
Until he discovered Elvis, he rarely spoke or interacted with others.
"But now, he goes and puts on the Elvis eagle suit and his little sideburns and goes out on weekends and hundreds of people flock to see this kid imitate and mime Elvis," John Stuart said.
Little E will be onstage this week.
So will Elvis Priestly, a Canadian minister who changed his name and wears Elvis costumes when tending to his ministry and working with homeless people.
"Priestly will go down on streets in the slum areas wearing his Elvis costume and work with people," Stuart said. "Santa can come up to you in a costume and say anything -- it's the same with Elvis. People are relating to something they can identify with. It drops the barrier."
Also onstage will a welder and a janitor, both of whom made their own Elvis costumes and go out at night in Indianapolis and perform in karaoke bars.
"We bought each of them a $3,000 Elvis costume to wear this weekend," John Stuart said.
He said the ones chosen for the film "possess the unbelievable heart and spirit of what Elvis would have wanted portrayed ... and we are going to fulfill their dream in the middle of Fremont Street with them singing with some of the top Elvis' in the country."
Stuart describes the documentary as a serious undertaking, one that takes an in-depth look at how and why Elvis has affected so many lives.
"We are portraying the spirt and the heart of Elvis and his extemporaneous ability to perform outside the box with his jumpsuit and all the moves and taking rock 'n' roll to a new era," Stuart said.
Interspersed throughout the film will be interviews with celebrities who spoke about their feelings for Elvis.
The interviews themselves may be priceless.
"After Elvis died one of his best friends wanted to make a documentary for friends," Shane Stuart said. "He never did anything with 80 hours of footage he shot in 1977. He is letting us use it."
So fans will hear what Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and others thought about Elvis.
"They will be peppered into the documentary," John Stuart said.
The character of Elvis not only affected professional impersonators, but also fans who might be introverted but when they don an Elvis costume they become totally different people.
"We talk to people who maybe wouldn't have done anything along the entertainment line if they didn't have something so extroverted as the Elvis character to get into and to be part of," Stuart said. "When they put on the jumpsuit, or the black suit or the gold lame jacket of Elvis Presley, they expect to become someone else -- just like Superman who puts on the Superman costume, or Batman or Wonder Woman."
He said it is amazing what happens when someone puts on the Elvis costume.
"They might not be able to sing 'The Lord's Prayer' in front of an audience, but they dress like Elvis and they can stand up and sing 'Hound Dog.' "
Stuart said they focused on fans audiences wouldn't expect to make a living as an Elvis impersonator.
"We look at people who go down to the karaokes or people who are handicapped or have other challenges to overcome and they can use this special formula Elvis Presley created to step outside themselves and become something unique and different.
"They can dream for a minute that they are Elvis because the audiences know what to do -- they know to scream when Elvis comes out; they know what happens when you move your leg or start gyrating your hips -- and when these songs happen they go along with it; they know what happens when (the performer) puts the Elvis scarf on somebody."
Stuart says he and his co-producers have been careful to make sure the subjects of the documentary understand that when the film is done they will go back to what they were doing before.
"We're trying not to give them a bubble that will pop," he said.
Shane Stuart said audiences may start off laughing at the characters in the film.
"But by the end of the movie, you will love these guys," he said.
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