Elvis sightings

Elvis before meeting President Richard Nixon in 1970, a White House photograph by photographer Ollie Atkins^[1]

Sightings of the American singer Elvis Presley have been reported following his death in 1977. The conspiracy theory that Elvis did not die and instead went into hiding was popularized by Gail Brewer-Giorgio and other authors.

Notable sighting claims

The earliest known alleged sighting of Elvis, post-death, was the day after he died, in August 1977, at the Memphis International Airport: A man resembling Elvis gave the name "Jon Burrows", which was the same name Elvis used when booking hotels.^[2] At that time, one could board a flight without ID, using only their plane ticket.

A series of alleged sightings took place in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in the late 1980s. In California, many people believed they had seen Elvis at California's Legoland amusement park shortly after opening in 1999. It was later revealed that Elvis impersonators were hired as an attraction to commemorate Presley.^[3]

In late 1988, record label LS Records released the song "Spelling on the Stone", sung by an unknown vocalist purporting to be Presley. The song's narrative suggested that Presley had not actually died. Airplay received by the song on country music formats caused a number of listeners to call in to radio stations and report sightings of the singer after hearing the song, while program directors of said stations debated whether or not the song's vocal track was actually Presley.^[4]

Weekly World News

A cover from the July 23, 1991, issue of Weekly World News, using the famous Nixon photo, airbrushed to make him look older

The song may have been a response to the 1988 book by Gail Brewer-Giorgio, Is Elvis Alive?, purporting that he was. Eddie Clontz, editor of the Weekly World News, not only parleyed an article about this book into a headline of "Elvis is Alive", but, upon the enthusiastic response of readers, kept it going, taking any claim mailed in that a reader had seen Elvis and treating it as fact:

The tabloid newspaper produced a whole series of articles, each claiming to track some further appearance or adventure of the secretly-living Elvis. The "story" of this Elvis progressed, including an incident where he broke his leg in a motorcycle accident (replete with photo), recovered, traveled through the Northwest and Canada, et cetera.^[5]

Altogether, the Elvis Saga at WWN went on for at least 57 different articles. However, in 1992, the Weekly World News wrapped up the storyline with the headline "Elvis Dead at 58".

Post-mortem film career

Elvis was rumored to have appeared in the background of an airport scene in the 1990 film Home Alone. It was alleged that the bearded man wearing a turtleneck and a sports jacket, who could be seen over the left shoulder of Catherine O'Hara's character while she is arguing with an airline employee, was Elvis. Paranormal researcher Ben Radford responded to Elvis sighting believers with, "Why fake your death and then turn up as an extra in a popular movie? How could the cast and crew have failed to notice the presence of one of the most famous figures in the world? Even if he looked very different, could he have disguised his voice and mannerisms?" Radford was challenged to find the actor who played that part to prove it was not Elvis. He explained that the burden of proof was on the person making the claim.^[6] In an interview with USA Today, director Chris Columbus responded, "If Elvis was on the set, I would have known."^[7]

After being challenged by Radford to locate the true identity of this extra, Kenny Biddle investigated and found the man to be Gary Richard Grott, who died of a heart attack in February 2016. Biddle located Grott's son, Roman, who explained that his father was indeed the extra in the airport scene of Home Alone, and that he had known director Chris Columbus personally. Because of this he appeared in a number of his movies as an extra, including Home Alone.^[8]

The Elvis Files

Bill Bixby, who co-starred with Elvis in Clambake and Speedway, hosted two television specials investigating the conspiracy: The Elvis Files (1991)^[9] and The Elvis Conspiracy (1992).^[10] The conspiracy was also featured in the 1990 video game, Les Manley in, where the titular hero attempts to find Elvis (known in the game as "the King") to win a million-dollar contest.^[11] Bixby was later lampooned on the sketch TV show In Living Color, where Jim Carrey played Bixby as he and a group of hunters track down Elvis in the manner of Bigfoot.

In January 2015, a fake news website claimed that an 80-year-old homeless man in San Diego named Jessie had been posthumously identified by DNA evidence as being Elvis Presley.^[12] A similar-looking man was seen working as a groundskeeper for Graceland in 2016, and was also believed to be Elvis.^[13] Some believe that Elvis attended his own 82nd birthday.^{[citation needed]} An old man with security guards around him, all grey hair, grey beard, sunglasses and a ball cap on, was believed by conspiracy theorists to be Elvis.^[14]

Some believe that Elvis was involved with the Mafia during his time as a rock star, served as an undercover agent and was found out. Thus, they believe he faked his own death to try to escape their wrath.^[15]

In popular media

The frequency of Elvis sighting claims became famous in the 1980s, growing into a pop culture phenomenon in and of itself.

• A movie was based on the premise that this was real, Bubba Hotep (2002), where the protagonist is Elvis Presley, who faked his death and is now living in a retirement home.
• Two other films, Elvis Has Left the Building^[16] (2004) and 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001), include references to Elvis being alive or sighted.
• The Simpsons routinely references Elvis being alive.
• In Men in Black, Agent K says that Elvis did not die, but simply "went home", presumably to his alien planet of origin.
• Shock jocks in the 1980s regularly referenced Elvis sightings, as has Saturday Night Live. In Living Color also did segments purporting to hunt Elvis like a cryptid.^[17]

References

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