Rowland Scherman - Elvis Is Everywhere

CLARKSON N. POTTER, POTTER , and colophon are trademarks of Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scherman, Rowland.
Elvis is everywhere/photographs by Rowland Scherman; edited by
Mark Pollard. 1st ed.
p. cm.
1.

Presley, Elvis, 19351977Pictorial works. I. Pollard, Mark. II. Title.
ML88.P76S33 1991 91-3409
779.9782166dc20 eISBN: 978-0-307-80565-2 v3.1 This book is dedicated to Molly Reily, my best friend. -Rowland

Actually, it might be more accurate to say that he came looking for me. I first noticed him turning up in my photographs on a roll of film I shot in New York City in May 1989. Unseen until the film was processed, there he was in the background a face on a T-shirt smiling down on a kissing couple, a name on a passing bus, a reflection in a shop window. I became fascinated by this discovery. Just how pervasive was this phenomenon, I wondered. Was it just this roll of film? Just this street? Still musing, I walked into a New York bookstore to discover, in the philosophy section, a bit of memorable graffiti.

Some wag had edited (read: defaced) a RETURN BOOKS TO SHELVES sign to read TURN TO ELVIS . I got the message. Elvis, it seemed, was everywhere. From that day on, I never had far to look for signs that Elviss presence is palpably among us. In the past year Ive visited Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, Venice Beach, Orlando, Nags Head, Cape Cod, New York, Pasadena, and, of course, Memphis, gathering evidence that Elvis lives, at least in spirit, long after his well-mourned death. In Chicago friends showed me a rock-oriented McDonalds where Elvis dominated the decor, inside and out, and a bar that displayed the tabloid news that Elviss statue had been discovered on Mars.

In the French Quarter in New Orleans I nearly stumbled over a horse whose name was Elvis thats what it said on his hat, anyway. And what have I learned from my visual pilgrimage? That this book is not so much about Elvis as it is about us. The abiding loyalty and reverence of the Kings devoted fans have enabled him to transcend even the most outrageous promotional hype. His image and his name have been absorbed into the language, the landscape, our very culture. Elvis continues to cast his spell on our collective consciousness, and I do not see any end to it. What I did see is here, in these photographs.

Rowland Scherman