My mother was a huge Elvis fan, so I distinctly remember the day even though I was around 4[sup]1/2[/sup] when it happened.
Wrong order.
I was only 11 so I have a child’s perception of it. It was a big surprise. He is one of two celebrity deaths that I remember my parents going out of their way to tell me as soon as they heard about it. The other was John Lennon. My parents weren’t even that interested in music. Dad was a Big Band fan.
I read somewhere at one of the network newscasts some reporters were upset that his death was the lead story , I think it was CBS. They were OK with running the story just not as the lead.
During the 60s, so many famous - even heroic - Americans died in shocking and/or surprising ways that it was hard to be shocked or surprised by most anyone dying.
I never paid a whole lot of attention to Elvis. I wasn’t much of a fan and so I had no idea that he was taking pharmaceutical drugs. So when it was announced that he died, it unfortunately did not make much of an impression on me. I did have some opinions about Elvis that I pretty much kept to myself. Mostly I recall feeling there was something odd with Elvis putting on such a massive amount of weight before he died and also there was something odd about his trying to portray himself to being some kind of martial arts expert. But I was never able to put those facts together to form some kind of opinion as to the cause of his death.
He had a concert scheduled here in NC a week after his death. Many fans kept their tickets as souvenirs rather than get a refund.
After watching the video that was provided upthread, I wanted to say that I was very surprised to see Elvis looking so fit and trim in that video. It was widely assumed that he had put on maybe close to 100 pounds near the time of his death. But that video made that look wrong. He did not appear to be very heavy at all.
Given that, I wonder how many other things I may have also got wrong. I said it was hard to be surprised by most anyone dying. I should have made it clear that it was difficult for me to be surprised. But I guess that a great many other people - probably even the majority of people - were indeed greatly shocked and surprised.
He put out 9 new albums in the 5 years before he died. Also 4 live albums. A lot of people at his level of popularity only put out a new album every few years. He was not slowing down at least in terms of recording.
Did you ever see Elvis when he was younger? He was only 42 there, no reason for age alone to have done that to him. Probably not an extra 100 pounds there, but easily 40 or 50. He looked awful, and that was the story until his death soon after.
US post office let people vote on the picture for his official US stamp. The picture of a young slim Elvis won the vote easily vs. a picture of him not long before he died.
So, the party of the first part becomes the party of the second part?
I was dating a girl who adored Elvis, so she was shocked and heartbroken about the news. He had a concert close by recently and she had wanted to go, but decided to go the next time he was in the area.
How close a parallel is the death of Michael Jackson?
I don’t see a lot of Michael Jackson Impersonators making the rounds.
‘Image Union’, an indy short film showcase shown on public television, at least in Chicago, once had a piece on Elvis fans a few years after he passed. Scary people. One woman’s husband divorced her for her “excessive devotion to Elvis Presley”. Apparently, she saw “Blue Hawaii” and told her husband she was through with him. Her daughter was later murdered as a child, and that may have made her extra loopy. There where also a set of women twins who where convinced that Elvis was their father. They thought Elvis should be made “the first Protestant saint.” Seriously.
There was also an impersonator, who thought of himself as a priest for Elvis.
I wonder if I could find the program on YouTube? I have it on videotape somewhere.
If he had died today with gossip sites and twittering and 24 hour surveillance of celebrities like they do now, I don’t think it would be quite as shocking. Still a shock, but there would be more rumors and gossip. There would be more head-nodding, ‘well, just think of how he looked before he died.’
I was only 12 when he died, but I do remember it being shocking.
As a counterpoint to that video, here’s the text of a contemporary review of Elvis’s concert in Green Bay, WI (from the Green Bay News-Chronicle), from April of '77. A few excerpts, which make it clear that it was pretty obvious that he was not in good shape, physically or mentally (though he also apparently wasn’t as fat as expected):
Wow, you’re not kidding. Other than him not being as fat as I expected, he looks hideous. He looks way older than most people I know in their forties, including myself.
And if you do a google image search for “Elvis Then and Now”, it’s even more disturbing.
I was 12 year old kid in summer camp at the time. I remember one of the counselors taking it really hard. I don’t think it was a big event for anyone my age.
I was in my mid 20s, and I don’t think it was a big event for anyone (that I knew) my age, either.
One of my sister’s friends was my age, and she had been a BIG Beatles fan; her several years older sister was a BIG Elvis fan. That split was rather a hard line between musical generations at that time.
Elvis was more a joke at the time he died to me and most of my contemporaries, and no one was shocked, maybe mildly surprised, that he died.
ETA: I remember Marilyn Monroe dying more. I was about 10 (?), and we were on vacation staying with friends of my mom’s in Indianapolis. I have a super clear memory of seeing a copy of the local newspaper that someone had left in the bathroom with a full page splash on her death.
I remember the day Elvis died, mostly because I was working a DJ shift at a radio station and got to break the news on-air (somewhere I still have the bulletins that came off the AP teletype).
It was a surprise because he was relatively young and details of his last days emerged only later.
I don’t remember any other significant story that day that should’ve pushed Elvis’ death out of the lead on newscasts.