I’m a little bit obsessed with Elvis Presley. You may not know this about me (and perhaps now, are a little frightened). Yes, I’ve been to Graceland and I might have bought a few things. I have both volumes of Elvis Gold. And Elvis songs sit very comfortably on my iPod between Elton John and Eminem.
So you can imagine how my ears perked up tonight when Elvis was mentioned on a feature on “delebs” (that’s dead celebrities to you and me) on “60 Minutes.” (Quick explanation in case you’re eyeballing the blog post date: I missed the debut of “Amazing Race” – my favorite reality TV show – earlier in the week so I DVRed it – just getting around to watching it now).
On the show, Robert Sillerman, who paid $100 million to buy Elvis Presley Enterprises in 2004, discussed the wild popularity of Elvis after his death. Sillerman cited a 2002 BBC finding that over 84,000 people claimed “Elvis impersonator” as their primary occupation on their tax returns.
Now, I haven’t been able to find the actual BBC report, nor anything from IRS (yet!), to back this up… But I’d like to think that the fact-checkers at “60 Minutes” didn’t let this one go without checking it out.
It’s a crazy statistic: I’m all shook up. Thank you, thank you very much!
I too have been to Graceland. I saw the jungle room mentioned in ‘Walking through Memphis’ and took a side trip to the Hollywood Cafe. Unfortunately the woman who played the piano has passed on but her posters are still there.
My husband says I should be embarassed to mention that I’ve been there but it was an unexpected treat.
I’d like to see statistics on Elvis impersonators. I’d like to know what expenses are ordinary and necessary for them. If you can find more info, I’d love to hear about it.
It surprises me that so many people would put “Elvis impersonator” on their taxes.