Hey pallies, likes we were so supremely swankly smitten on sweetly sharin' yester-Dino-day's Dino-gram 'bout The King of Rock 'n Roll, Elvis Presley's boypallie Elvis Jr followin' in his daddy-o's footsteps in his incredible idolization of our most most most beloved Dino that we simply had to do a wee bit of google searchin' to likes see if we coulda locate any more info on Elvis Jr and his awesome adulation of our main man.
Likes what we found was an amazin' article published way back in the year of our Dino 2000 in the rag the "Cape Cod Times" by their lifestyle editor, Mr. Bill O'Neill (pictured on the right) that was tagged "Is this the son of the king?" Likes this powerful prose gave even more details about Elvis Jr and one of the deep details we learned that Elvis Jr., tagged Philip Stanick at the time, actually met his daddy-o, even though at the time he did not know that he was Elvis' flesh and blood...back in 1976 when he was 15, going on 16.
Of course, Dino-holic that we are, we were deeply drawn to the two Dino-statements that Elvis Jr proudly proclaimed in this interview.
"I also grew up listening to and watching Dean Martin. He was my idol. Later on in life I found out that Elvis Senior’s idol was also Dean Martin."
"A lot of people ask, ‘How did you develop such a sound?’ I don’t know how, but I was listening to Dean Martin and I guess my father was, too, so we both have that vocal quality."
Likes how thrillin' it is to learn that Elvis Presley had a son, but even more thrillin' that both the senior Elvis and the junior Elvis was incredible immense idolizers of our mighty marvelous majestic DINO!
ilovedinomartin expresses our awesome appreciato to the pallies at "Cap Cod Times" and 'specially scriber Mr. Bill O'Neill for this wonderful write up, we are likes just so so sorry that we were over a decade late in discoverin' it and sharin' it with all the Dino-philes who hang their hat at our humble little Dino-devoted waterin' hole. To checks this out in it's original source, simply clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram.
We Remain,
Yours In Dino,
Dino Martin Peters
Is this the son of the king?
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| Elvis Presley Jr On Stage |
By BILL O’NEILL / LIFESTYLE EDITOR
Suspicious minds may have their doubts, but Elvis Presley Jr. insists he’s the real deal
Somewhere in America, during 1968, that most turbulent of years, a little boy held a transistor radio to his ear, listening to country music. Life in a circus family meant he’d be in another town the next night, so the boy’s best friends were the disc jockeys who were always just a flick of a switch away.
He dreamed of another life - a life where his would be one of the voices on the radio. Not the voice of a DJ, though, but the voice of a performer. Someone like George Jones or Johnny Cash, or maybe Elvis Presley when he was doing one of his good songs, one of his country songs, like “When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again.”
Dreams can come true, and they did for young Philip Stanick.
He started a singing career and he even met Presley, just a few months before the death of the King of rock ‘n’ roll. It was an inspiring moment for the teenager, one that would gain greater import five years later when his parents sat him down and told him that they weren’t his biological parents, but his adoptive parents.
His real dad? Elvis. Yes, that Elvis. Philip is the one and only son of the King.
At least that’s how the former Philip Stanick, now legally known as Elvis Aaron Presley Jr., tells it.
The voice at the other end of the phone sounds just like the one you’ve heard in dozens of B movies.
“You call me Junior, if you want,” he says.
OK, Junior, what’s the deal?
“It was the biggest secret in show business,” says Presley Jr., who was born in 1961.
He says his biological mother was Angelique Dolores Pettyjohn, an actress who worked as an extra on “Blue Hawaii” and “Wild in the Country.” Pettyjohn died in 1993.
“Colonel Tom Parker, who was Elvis Sr.‘s manager, came from a carnival background and a circus background,” says Presley Jr. “It was his decision that when my real mother was impregnated that she put this child up for adoption because it could have ruined Elvis’ career. Not being married to the actress and having a child born out of wedlock would have ruined him - totally.
“I’m proud to say that I saved his career by not being shown to the public way back then.
“Colonel Parker looked for a circus family that wanted a child, needed a child, and all traces (of me) were erased. But I did find my roots and I did take my place. I’m very happy now with what I’m doing.”
What he’s doing now is touring the world with a lounge act. He’s on the road, away from his Las Vegas home, at least 250 days a year. Presley Jr. has performed on six continents. He’ll hit the stage in Dennis Friday night, with a mix of his original songs, classics by the King and old rock ‘n’ roll hits by Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and Ricky Nelson.
“As a boy, I was forbidden to listen to rock ‘n’ roll,” says Presley Jr. “My folks told me it wasn’t a good thing to listen to, so I listened to country music. I also grew up listening to and watching Dean Martin. He was my idol. Later on in life I found out that Elvis Senior’s idol was also Dean Martin.
“A lot of people ask, ‘How did you develop such a sound?’ I don’t know how, but I was listening to Dean Martin and I guess my father was, too, so we both have that vocal quality.”
Presley Jr. says his family worked with the Ringling Brothers and Vargas circuses, among others.
“I was a clown at the age of 5, and then I became a wild animal handler. In my early teens, I was one of the youngest wild-animal trainers in circus show-business history. From there, I proceeded to get involved with the motion picture industr in the early ’80s trained wild animals for the movies, such as ‘Cat People’ with Nastassia Kinski and ‘Sahara’ with Brooke Shields.”
Good luck charm
As a teenager, he also started a lounge act.
“In 1976 I had a chance to meet Elvis Presley. I was 15, going on 16. I was there to meet him as a young entertainer would meet another entertainer. Right before the show, we were escorted to meet him before he went on stage.
“When he came up to me, I didn’t know what to say to him. I just said, ‘Man you’re a great entertainer.’ He took a ring off his finger and said, ‘Try one on.’ It didn’t fit me at all and I gave it right back to him because I was afraid I’d drop it. He said, ‘Keep it, son, it looks good on you.’
“It was one of the freak things of nature that something like that would happen to a person.”
It was five years later, when the former circus clown turned 21, that he was told that his father was the only man to have more than 100 singles hit the Top 40 charts.
How do you react when you hear news like that?
You might say I was all shook up,” says Presley Jr.
Don’t be cruel
What does Presley Jr. say to people who think he’s full of, let’s say deep-fried peanut-butter -and-banana sandwiches?
“It’s their own decision and I’m not trying to make them believe. They’ve got their own right to believe in what they want to believe.
“One of the things that I believe in is don’t judge a book by its cover. Read the book. Go see this artist or entertainer perform. There’s not too many people that can really bring that memory back to life. Basically, I bring my father’s show back to life.”
Presley Jr. says that he has affidavits from movie producers who worked with Pettyjohn. “She had spoken about me and often wondered about me,” he says. He says he also has affidavits from people close to his father and Colonel Parker, but he’s keeping the documents private for now.
He says he legally changed his name from Stanick to Presley Jr. by filing documents, including the results of his lie-detector test, in the federal court in Las Vegas in 1985.
One small matter of concern. The King was born Elvis Aron Presley. His son goes by Elvis Aaron Presley Jr. Where’d the extra A in Aaron come from?
“Going by the Biblical testament, Elvis Sr. decided to change his name to the two A’s. He never had the time to change the legal documents, but on his tombstone, there’s two A’s.”
Junior doesn’t know whether he has any siblings besides Lisa Marie, daughter of the King and Priscilla Presley.
“All I do is know is that a lot of people have claimed to be his child and claimed something from the estate. That’s one thing I’ve never done: claim anything from the estate. I’m a self-made man.
“I tried for many years to write to Lisa Marie and never got a response. I realized later on that if you try to seek somebody, they think you want something from them. I left it at that and decided to be my own persona.”
Are you lonesome tonight?
No disrespect intended, but the King was known as quite the ladies’ man. Does Junior have a wife or girlfriend?
“No, I don’t, sir. It’s been very, very hard to establish my career, so I do travel a lot. I’m very, very single at the moment.”
Presley Jr. doesn’t believe the occasional tabloid report that his father has been spotted in a Wal-Mart in Oshkosh. Instead, he dreams of going to rock ‘n’ roll heaven, and having a father-and-son talk.
“I’d like to thank him for leaving me the greatest gift that was ever left anybody: his voice and his talent.
“Without that, I couldn’t make it. It’s brought me a lot of wealth and a lot of encouragement.”
Presley Jr. has bought hundreds of pieces of Presley memorabilia, ranging from rings and jumpsuits to one of his father’s three pink Cadillacs. Some of the items were auctioned off by the Presley estate.
“I felt that was not the right thing to do,” says Presley Jr., who claims he owns “the world’s largest private touring collection” of Elvis items. “I’ve been buying all this stuff up and trying to preserve that heritage and history.”
My way
Brief soundbites of Presley Jr.’s can be downloaded from his Web site (www.elvisjr.com). Fans can purchase his CDs from the site, including his latest, “The Majestic Millennium,” which was recorded during a tour of Japan in 1997 and ’98.
But Junior can’t decide which of his father’s many CDs are essential.
“That’s hard to say, because the music was so widespread and he was such a great entertainer,” he says. “I know that a lot of people are still becoming fans every day. A new generation is popping out and just loving his sound.”
Presley Jr. says he is an entertainer who does a tribute to his father, but is not an Elvis impersonator. Not that he has a problem with the legion of impersonators.
“People enjoy going out to see them,” he says. “There’s bad ones, and there’s good ones out. I’d say to the bad ones that they should get more practice.
“As for the good ones, they’re just making a living and making people happy. That’s the way I look at it. There’s not much time in this world, and we’ve got to enjoy it as much as possible.”
