Where were you on August 16,1977.....

[polkanut]

We were staying overnight in some po-dunk town in the middle of nowhere Illinois on our way to see my Dad's sister who was living in Tamms, IL at the time. I had just turned 8 the day before and couldn't have cared less at the time.

 

[sudsmaster]

I was probably working in a lab at UCSF, and didn't hear about it until I watched the news on TV or listened to it on the radio.

I can't say it had much of an effect - to me at that time Elvis was ancient history, eclipsed by the Beatles and later forms of rock 'n roll. And of course disco was making a big impact in '77, and Elvis wasn't exactly a disco king, even though his size occassionally approached that of Barry White.

But, later on, about five years later, I grew to appreciate some of his early stuff, like "Jail House Rock". Good dance tunes, added variety to dance mix tapes.

I guess when I was a kid when Elvis first became popular, I couldn't for the life of me understand what women saw in him. He seemed like a conceited bore to me. But I guess he had that swagger and that shake that outraged their parents ;-). In truth he was just a country boy who had talent, was exploited, made some serious mistakes, and died a legend.

 

[nurdlinger]

I was driving home from an evening Computer Science grad school course at University of Missouri -- St. Louis. It was hot, humid, and misting rain so everything glistened in the street lights. I had never been a big fan of Elvis, I was too young when he first hit in the swivel-hips days, and by the time I was listening to pop music he was doing other things. So his passing was not a big deal for me, but I have that vivid sense memory of when I heard the news over the radio.

 

[dixieland]

Greetings from Graceland.

This is a big week in Memphis. The world comes to our city and we welcome them with open arms.

Keep the attendees in your thoughts as we're having record heat this week and one of the Elvis fans has already died because of the 5+ days of 100+ degree weather. Others have been sent to area hospitals for heat stroke, etc...

 

[~sudsshane]

Watching the story on Eyewitness News in NY, of course!

Grimsby and Beutel, but of course!

 

[~sudsshane]

was this a significant, life changing event for you at the t

I wouldn't say it was a life changing event, but never having dealt with death before at that time, it did bother me a little.
What affected me more was the Son of Sam's reign of terror on NYC during the Summer of '77.
Even though I was on Long Island, I was terrified of him and slept on the floor in my mother's bedroom every night until he was captured.
Still to this day when I see pictures of David Berkowitz, (Son of Sam) it gives me the creepies.

 

[sudsmaster]

In San Francisco we had the Zodiac killer, but by the time he appeared on the scene I was about 80 miles east attending college. Never really felt personally threatened by any of the serial killers of the 70's, but the guy who kidnapped that girl and then cut her arms off - he makes me shudder a bit. I understand that years later in prison he wanted to meet with her to apologize, but she refused. Good for her!

 

[mayken4now]

I was 16, and leaving our family home thru the front door to go ride dirt bikes when I heard mom loose it.

Steve

 

[jasonl]

I was 6

While I don't remember the announcement that Elvis had faked his death, I remember seeing the mock funeral through the streets of Memphis.

And then almost every TV station (all 4 of them) played something about Elvis.

I remember getting "The King Is Gone" by Ronnie McDowell on a 45. He was the only other person that knows how to correctly imitate Elvis IMHO.

 

[jasonl]

A little tidbit about Lisa Marie

She recorded a cover of the Don Henley song "Dirty Laundry". I have it on mp3.

 

[tomturbomatic]

WOW! You people are so young. I was in my second year of working in the DC area. Two of my favorite aunts had come into town and my mom, who was visiting me, moved across the street to the Holiday Inn in Silver Spring while they were here. I don't remember a big deal being made of his death, except in the media. A friend in Lilburn, GA told me about the effect Elvis' death had in the goings on at the beauty shop his mother used. The first thing was that the air conditioning was broken so it was hotter than the hinges of hell in the place and the owner was moving about 90 miles an hour fixing hair and preaching at about the same speed that nobody ever knew when their time was going to come so they all better get right with God while they still could. He absorbed all of this just going in to pick up his mom. It was the most graphic post Elvis experience I heard.

I was 11 when I bought It's Now or Never which was big on WQXI which we listened to our transistor radios. I remember most of his songs.

I worked at a department store where the Ticketron (sp?) was right around the corner from our section. Elvis had a couple of concerts in Atlanta and the day the tickets went on sale there was a line through the store. The people lining up for tickets were his age and younger and it was easy to see that going to an Elvis concert made them feel like teenagers once more.

On Larry King the other night, he toured the house with Priscilla, I think. The kitchen had an electric cooktop and what looked like the Thermador Flair-style range or ovens. It definitely had the two glass oven doors and what looked like the cooktop which in its closed position had the boxy cover that slid out to cover the cooktop was it was pushed in, but it might have just been the Thermador Flair-style ovens. They did not spend as much time as I would have liked looking at the appliances. The iron skillet that his cook used to make those god-awful fried sandwiches was on the cooktop. At the top of the front stairs was a curving blue curtain and behind that were the rooms Elvis used. Larry made a point of determining that the throne room from which the King left his castle was right above the entry foyer.

Did any of you youngsters know that his mother's mother was Jewish, making him Jewish as well? That has something to do with his middle name of Aaron. Did you know that he was a surviving twin? A neighbor of the family said that they had no money when she was pregnant, no heat and she was almost at death's door all swollen with the effects of pre-eclampsia. Liberace was also the survivor of a pair of twins. Some people claimed that is what gave both men such powerful personalities and was responsible for making them great entertainers.