At that age, I didn't know who Elvis was.
I like his movies, I like his music... NOW.
But at that time I just hadn't been exposed to his work. Even at the news of his death and overviews of his life, I saw him as an overweight guy who wore rhinestone costumes in Las Vegas, desperately trying to reclaim a fraction of his former glory, with obvious substance abuse problems.
It wasn't until a decade later that I began to see movies and videos that showed Elvis in ihis prime. I may have heard Elvis' music on Happy Days, but was unaware it was his.
Like I said, I similarly had no idea who Marilyn Monroe was until Madonna started exploiting her image in the mid-1980's in her videos.
As discussed in another topic, Elvis' Christmas album is one of my favorites. But in 1977, up till then I'd just had no exposure to his work.
One Christmas, I think 2004, I gave my mom a hardcover photo-book of Elvis, that she loves. She's told me many times she thought he was the handsomest guy she'd ever seen, the reason I thought to give it to her as a gift.
I also recorded a 1-hour documentary 5 years back, "Elvis at 80", a retrospective of his life and legacy at that point in time.
