This conspiracy theory goes back many years. I remember first seeing it back in the days when creating a website meant having funky animations, backgrounds and buttons, sparkling icons and usually a font like comic sans ms. But according to wikipedia the insinuations that Elvis was still alive were being made almost immediately after August 16, 1977.
I can accept that a major celebrity who had parasocial appeal like Elvis would cause many fans unable to believe he could be gone just like that. He was only 42 years old. But this delusion has gone on for nearly half a century. In the last few years it’s been funny to see a segment of the population convince themselves that JFK Jr is still out there ready to come back to help Donald Trump. But I can’t really recall anyone ever doubting JFK Jr’s death in that plane crash until the last few years. Him being alive is a conspiracy based on a political fan fiction by a former president’s supporters. What gives for the Elvis fans to still think he is still out there? He didn’t give many interviews when he was alive, didn’t appear on the talk shows of the time, and he had become a figure of fun anyway in his final years because of his bloated appearance.
Is there a cut-off point when they finally admit he’s dead? He was born in 1935 so it’s possible he could have had a lifespan that would extend to 2024 as an 89 year old. Jimmy Carter turns 100 in five weeks. But we know with pretty grim details how unhealthy Elvis was for a young man at the time of his death. He couldn’t function without drugs and even with them was struggling. His inner circle milked him for all they could and the ones who tried to save him from himself were kicked out. Suppose he lived past that day in August 1977, wouldn’t it be probable he’d simply meet an early death still just a bit further down the line?
No Elvis truther runs the line “he faked his death in 77’ but passed away twenty years ago having spent 25 happy years living a normal life” or something like that. Which at least would have more credibility than this idea any day now the king is going to roll up to Las Vegas and make the biggest comeback in history.
I think some people loved him so much they just wanted him to be alive. I don’t think that many people currently believe he is still alive and living secretly somewhere. That was never his style.
The number who do is surprisingly high with dedicated pages and hijacking of general Elvis posts on facebook. And yes I get it’s facebook and wackiness comes with the territory but given the fact the demographic of that userbase is on the older side those people have probably held onto it for a long time.
Right after his death I predicted there would be a Church of Elvis. Didn’t take that long before there several of them. For my generation, late boomer, he had become a joke. People only a few years older worshipped him. Also a guy my own age from Italy began to cry when he heard the news.
I can’t imagine Elvis would want to live in obscurity.
Ray Manzerak wrote a novel based on the idea that Jim Morrison faked his death in Paris and is living in happy obscurity on an island in the Indian ocean.
Called “The Poet in Exile” I think.
Of course, this was quite explicitly fiction… though it’s a touching wish fulfillment fantasy…
Exactly. As conspiracy theories go, “Elvis Lives” is pretty harmless (as @Alessan notes). Back in the '80s, the idea was only far-fetched – but now, 47 years after his death, to imagine that a guy who was overweight, addicted to drugs, and was already in poor health in his early 40s would have been able to live for another 40+ years, in absolute privacy, is complete magical thinking.
I wish that just once someone would pull it off. Like River Phoenix showing up all gray and hairy, admitting that he faked his death because he really hated being famous.
My ex who had a degree in history said that no one famous ever dies.
I suspect one thing that fueled the rumors was the number of Elvis impersonators. Even if you’re not wearing the outfit, you have to keep the hairstyle, and it helps if you already match the voice.
I met an Elvis impersonator at a nudist camp. Naked as a jaybird, but still giving that feel of him being Elvis
A strip that’s now 33 years old. Even more poignant that Rushdie is still with us, though just barely, having nearly been killed in an assassination attempt two years ago.
Yes, he was, from 1989 (when Iran issued the fatwa against him) until sometime in the late 1990s. The strip above was published during that time, of course…and Rushdie has been out of hiding for 25+ years now. But Elvis is still dead.
“Elvis is still alive” got a lot of traction in the grocery store checkout line for 20 years before the Internet got its hands on it. It was low hanging fruit for anyone wanting to say something a little outrageous or attempting a joke.
The world has hope ‘cause he’s feelin’ good Escaped the city, lives in the woods This is the spot i think he stood Here’s a giant footprint
In his fishin’ vest and his silver cape I’ll bet he’s really looking great You can pretty much tell that he’s lost weight From the depth of his footprint
Even more poignant that Rushdie is still with us, though just barely, having nearly been killed in an assassination attempt two years ago.
