We weren't happy at all about the Elvis Ducks launched for Elvis Week in Memphis 2005 but there are some other ducks that are very famous and loved by Elvis fans and visitors to Memphis.

Elvisly Yours used to run Tours to Memphis, Tupelo, Nashville and Las Vegas and often the highlight of the visit after Graceland was the "Peabody Ducks". For those fans that have never been to Memphis it is hard to imagine the scene at the world famous "Peabody Hotel" in downtown Memphis. but there are ducks that live apparently in the penthouse suite and every morning and afternoon they are escorted down from their room and back up again. During the day they just play in the pool and fountain in the centre of the hotel ground floor.

The busiest time is when they go to bed around 5pm and the red carpet is laid down from the pool to the elevators. A loud fanfare is played and the ducks are marched one by one from pool in the centre of the hotel along the red carpet to the elevators and up to their penthouse suite. There are hundreds of people lining the route hanging from the balconies on the first floor overlooking the spectacle and they are all fighting for a place with their cameras and cine-cameras. I have seen people almost driven to fisticuffs pushing and shoving each other trying to get the best shot of the ducks. It is so neat and an event you should never miss when you are in Memphis. It still gives a thrill however many times you see the ducks at the wonderful Peabody Hotel, just a short walk from Beale Street.

Local Councils are the scourge of small business throughout the country and they simply harass us much of the time for the slightest indiscretion. Just imagine the scene, where an officer of the Council is passing Madame Tussaud and notices the sign that advertises the Elvisly Yours Shop and London Beatles Store was resting for a few minutes against the railing. The sign holder had gone to the toilet for a few minutes and left the sign, a mistake but hardly a crime. The officer makes notes and goes around to the London Beatles Store to interrogate the owner Howard Cohen.

It was only a few minutes and the sign holder was new and did not know you must always be holding the sign to be within the law and Howard apologised. But that wasn't enough for Westminster City Council, they prosecuted the London Beatles Store and Elvisly Yours for breaking some by-law. What a waste of taxpayers money and waste of our time. We defended the action in Court with the help of a barrister. Sherlock Holmes was at the Court on August 20th 2001 to give evidence on our behalf. We had demonstrated outside Court, but made a big mistake. The hearing was in the afternoon and the Judgement was not received until after 6pm so we did not make the papers. It is always best for publicity to have events take place in the morning to make the papers and TV. By 6pm it is too late unless it is a major story. We won the case and had wanted to expose the Council for their waste of taxpayers money. We were awarded costs but it took many months to get the full costs paid by Westminster.

We are grateful to Charles, Deanne and Gary for all their support and I still have the placards, just in case we get prosecuted again. The Sherlock Holmes Museum is just two doors from our Elvisly Yours Shop on Baker Street.

Remembering Bobby Day

As I go through hundreds and hundreds of old photos from the history of Elvisly Yours your memories come back of some great events and some great people I have met over the past 27 years since I left teaching and formed Elvisly Yours.

One of those great people was "Bobby Day". Bobby was just an everyday guy with a regular job but he loved Elvis and always wanted to sing. He noticed a feature about the Russian Elvis, Rafik, in the Elvisly Yours magazine that showed him wearing a jumpsuit kindly provided for free by George Berka of California. I promised to promote George in the Elvisly Yours magazine if he would give a jumpsuit to the Russian Elvis. Good deeds often get repaid and I know Bobby bought at least five suits from George and I am sure many more ETAs as well. 

Once Bobby had the suits it gave him the confidence to perform. He had thin fairish hair so Bobby got a wig, put on the suit, wore the glasses and he was Elvis and started a career as an Elvis Tribute Artist. Whenever I planned a promotion I would first call Bobby and another dear friend Leyton Sommors. I told them if they helped me I would promote and recommend them and both their careers blossomed and we became close friends. He was one of the first ETAs to produce good quality promotional material on my advice that helped him promote himself. What I didn't know was Bobby had a family history of heart failure and his grandfather and father had both died in the early 40's. Sadly, Leyton also died and more on Leyton in our next Newsletter.

We had some great times together and on one occasion we were invited to a special colour screening of "Jailhouse Rock" in Notting Hill. I said I would bring along Bobby if we could hand out leaflets for the credit card. It was agreed and Bobby went down very well meeting and greeting the hundred or so guests at the post film reception until someone from the Elvis fan club it seems complained and they asked Bobby to leave....ridiculous and insulting.

I spoke to Bobby just a few weeks before he died. He had helped promote the launch of the "Elvisly Yours Credit Card" in May 1998 and Bobby appeared in newspapers all over the world, even as far away as Vietnam. But, when Bobby tried to get a card in the name "Bobby Day" he was refused by the Bank of Scotland....why ? Bobby Day was a stage name and not his real name which was Robert Garrard. I said I would try and help, called the Bank of Scotland Management and made special arrangements for Bobby to have a card in his stage name. He was thrilled and the proud owner on a "Bobby Day" Elvisly Yours Credit Card. Sadly, two weeks later he was dead, from a heart attack aged 41 in August 1998. It was a very moving funeral with Bobby and Elvis' songs being played...a great guy who was taken much too soon.

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