Hi Monica,
Yes that's him, thank you!
Great article too, which I posted below.
Fifty-two years ago, there was only one Elvis Presley.
Today, 30 years after his death, there are about 35,000 Elvises worldwide. And that's one of the more conservative estimates.
Jim Smith is Elvis number 2.
Talent booking website Gigmasters. com counts 82 Elvises who'll play Victoria, and in some versions of rock 'n' roll history, the city is where the Elvis impersonator took its first swivelling steps.
Smith, who still lives in the city, holds the credit. In 1956, wiggling his hips at a local dance, 16-year-old Smith was scouted by DJ Norm Pringle. Smith had Elvis's rebel look: the slick hair, the upturned collar, the gyrating moves. So despite the fact he was six years the King's junior, and couldn't play or sing a note, he was booked to lip-sync Elvis's hits twice a month on Pringle's CHEK-TV program, House Party.
Smith held that gig for two years, even travelling to Vancouver in 1957 to compete in a "Battle of the Elvises." He took second place. "A guy there told me, 'If this were in Victoria, this would be yours,'" he says. Around that time, he picked up a guitar and joined a band performing up and down the Island. One singer would ape Hank Williams, Smith would sing Elvis.
"It was great. I have fond memories of those days," he says. "People would react just as though I were Elvis. It made you feel good. I sure had plenty of girlfriends then," he chuckles.
When the King traded his leather jacket for a Hawaiian shirt, Smith left his Elvis days behind. The requests keep coming, though. Still a musician, at a show last September he reluctantly played Blue Suede Shoes and Heartbreak Hotel to appease old fans.
It has been 50 years since Elvis's -- and Smith's -- heyday. Thirty years since the King passed on. Still, people want Elvis live -- and maybe, if they're lucky, to catch a sweat-stained satin scarf.
Adam Leyk is the president of B.C.'s official Elvis Presley fan club, Loving You Elvis. About 20 per cent of the group, he says, is from the Island. Their eldest member, an 89-year-old woman, saw Elvis six times. Younger club members like Leyk, who's 34, never had the chance to see the the glitter of a rhinestoned cape firsthand. Tribute acts are the next best thing, and they hold a special place for Leyk, who never would have started the club, never mind admitted to owning an Elvis record, had it not been for a tribute act.
"These people, when they perform, you see what it was like live in concert. I thought it was great," says Leyk. "It sparked my interest in Elvis again. I was a 25-year-old closet fan. I mean, I should have been listening to Top 40."
When tribute acts are the closest thing many have to the Elvis experience, performers such as local Elvis tribute performer Scott MacDonald (a.k.a. Virtual Elvis) approach their job with an added level of responsibility.
"They're fascinated by Elvis," MacDonald says of his audiences. "They see me to see Elvis. But I always point to the end of my fingernail and say, 'I've got this much Elvis in me.' "
MacDonald has played an Elvis anniversary show at the Blethering Place since 2002. He'll be there again tonight.
He says he does three shows a week -- everything from a night at The Empress to county fairs in Nova Scotia. His career, he says, started when he accidentally videotaped a re-run of the Aloha From Hawaii special. "I watched it when I came home and holy geez, he was magnificent I loved how the audience adored him, and wondered what it was like."
He began mimicking the tape in his living room, singing into a toothpaste tube, much to the chagrin, he says, of his neighbours. At a karaoke night in the early '90s, he finally got the courage -- with the help of a couple of beers -- to break out his act. "I flipped up my collar and before you know it, I'm doing the thing. A woman comes up to me and asks me to sing Love Me Tender and her husband's fanning her off with the song list." The audience has had MacDonald hooked on being Elvis ever since.
Chris Barrington-Boam plays to a much different crowd, but his audience isn't any less enthusiastic. As a music program co-ordinator at Oak Bay Lodge, Glengarry and Mount St. Mary, he leads residents through their favourite tunes.
"They always ask me to sing Elvis," he says.
Five years ago, though, he tried singing those hits in character. His family whipped up a white-and-gold jumpsuit ("they spared no expense") and he made the Oak Bay Lodge's New Year's Eve party more sensational than the '68 Comeback Special. He's in demand among an exclusive group of clients. He played a birthday party last weekend.
"They [the residents] love the Elvis shows," he says, explaining it gets them up dancing, something he would never see during any of his other music programs. Their reaction, he says, is often bittersweet. "A lot of the people are a little confused. I've heard them tell their families that Elvis was here."
Barrington-Boam plays the music his residents loved decades ago, but he says the songs are timeless.
Fans agree. Leyk says his club has members as young as 16. Elvis has a MySpace account, he has guest-starred on American Idol (although in mildly creepy hologram form, in a duet with Celine Dion). As long as there are fans, someone will want to see Elvis live, or at least the next best thing.
Even though he was the first to stand in for the Elvis, Jim Smith doesn't think any tribute can come close. As he puts it, "Who can top the King?"
Great article too, which I posted below. 