King of Rock 'n Roll Turns 80 -- Elvis Sighting in Gringolandia

I had no idea that Quito has a Gringolandia as well.

All stocked up with peanut butter and bananas for the big 8-0.
Reminds me of one of the quotes in the IL propaganda, one of their friends says
"Living in Ecuador is just like living in the USA in the 1950's"
So evidently 38,000 war dead have returned home from Korea in Ecuador.
And there must be separate drinking fountains and bus seats for the blacks.
Was there an Ecuador Supreme Court decision forcing the integration of public schools?
Was some of the integration done by units like the 82nd Airborne?
Are there no personal computers or internet or cell phones or i-phones in Ecuador?
How do you get international tv shows, bounce them off Sputnik?
I would imagine the current minimum wage is about what it was in the USA in the 50's.
Of course if it is just like the USA in the 50's you would get to see Elvis perform live, but as the local Elvis specialist informed us, Elvis never performed outside of the USA, so that's out.
ENJOY YOURSELVES THURSDAY AT 6:15 PM!!!

mugtech wrote:

as the local Elvis specialist informed us, Elvis never performed outside of the USA...

To be precisely correct, the original post should have said that Elvis never performed "overseas."  He gave several performances in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, in 1957.

Elvis and 500 of his fans arrived in Ottawa from the U.S. in a train named the "Rock 'n Roll Cannonball."

It's widely believed that Elvis never toured overseas because his long-time manager, "Colonel" Tom Parker, was an illegal immigrant from Holland who might have been refused a passport (or deported) had he applied for such.

Nards Barley wrote:

I had no idea that Quito has a Gringolandia as well.

"Only a 20-minute walk from the old town, Quito's 'new town' is a different world entirely....For travelers, its heart is the colorful Mariscal Sucre, which has trendy cafes, international restaurants, travel agencies, cybercafes, bars and small hotels. 

"The area definitely lives up to its nickname gringolandia, but quitenos dig it too, so it keeps its Ecuadorian flair."

    -- lonelyplanet.com

Another little known fact about Elvis is that Hound Dog, according to Canadian experts, was really about USA expats in Ecuador (Crying all the time)

cccmedia wrote:

It's the 80th birthday of Elvis Presley (b. Jan. 8, 1935)....

Top Ten True Facts About Elvis Not Known to Most Ecuadorians

10. Among the 600-plus tracks recorded by Elvis, more than 20 contained the word "blue" in the title.  Among the most famous are Blue Suede Shoes, Blue Christmas and Blue Moon.

9. Elvis had a stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, who preceded Elvis's arrival by 35 minutes and who was buried the next day, Jan. 9, 1935.

8. Elvis bought the 13-plus-acres Graceland Estate and mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 22.  Decades later, it became a major tourist attraction and the second most-visited home in the United States (after the White House) -- with over 600,000 visitors in a single year.

7. Elvis married Priscilla Beaulieu in 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.  He had met her in 1959 when he and her family were all stationed with the U.S. military in Germany.  At the time they met, Elvis was 24, Priscilla 14.  They divorced in 1973.

6. The U.S. National Archives' most-requested photograph pictures Elvis with Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970. 
Nixon:  "You dress kind of strange, don't you...."   
Elvis:  " Well, Mr. President, you got your show and I got mine."

5. Elvis's only child with Priscilla -- singer Lisa Marie Presley -- was not only the daughter of the King of Rock 'n Roll, but (from 1994-96) the wife of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson. 

4. Elvis did not write the songs he performed, although he received some writing credits, including co-writing credit for Love Me Tender.  In 1972, he released his cover of Always On My Mind just weeks after he and Priscilla separated, and that hit song has long been associated with his feelings for her.  However, the writers of that song were Wayne Carson, with studio assist from Johnny Christopher and Mark James.

3.  Elvis's last girlfriend was actress Ginger Alden, who was his fiancee.

2. Elvis had blonde hair as a youth.  It changed to natural brown when he was a teenager.  He then dyed it black for the rest of his life, to achieve an edgier look.

And the number-one little-known fact about Elvis on this list...

1.  Elvis had released one of his top hits, Return to Sender, in 1962.  Thirty years later, the U.S. Postal Service released the Elvis commemorative stamp, showing a close-up of Elvis with a hand-held microphone.  It became the number-one commemorative among stamp collectors....When the stamp was released, many collectors affixed it to envelopes which they then mailed to fictitious addresses -- hoping to get the letters back now at a higher value, having been officially marked:  "Return to Sender."

cccmedia in Quito

Sources: PopMatters, History in the Headlines, philbrodieband.com, Wikipedia, Heather Jarvis, The Telegraph (U.K.)

From a political newsletter I receive that (obviously) usually has a non-political item or two in it:

"... on this date in 1946 a mother in Tupelo, Mississippi took her only son shopping for his birthday. The kid was lobbying for a bicycle, or maybe a rifle -- memories later differed -- but this much is certain: he didn't get either one. What that mother brought her son at the Tupelo Hardware Store on January 8, 1946 was a guitar that retailed for $6.98."

Fans of Elvis who gathered in Memphis, TN, this week for events honoring the King of Rock 'n Roll were greeted outside the Graceland mansion on Thursday -- his 80th birthday -- by Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley and Elvis's four grandchildren.

Some fans who had waited in 15-degree (F.) cold got slices of a cake "fit for a king" that Graceland had prepared for the festivities.

Also on hand was Scottie Moore, 83, the last man standing from the historic 1954 recording session of "That's All Right Mama."

(Sources:  ABC News, dailymail.co.uk)

There were two Elvis sightings in the Gringo-rich Mariscal sector of Quito, Ecuador, Thursday evening --  outside Dobie's Peluqueria y Masaje on Calle Wilson and at Plasa Foch, several blocks away.  Both featured musical Elvis interludes.

(Source:  eyewitness accounts)

Of course others refer to "The King" in their music, but one of the more obscure ones is Talking Heads in their "Cities" on Fear of Music, perhaps their greatest album.  It is an expat wannabe song, with the main line being

"Find a city, find myself a city to live in"

Mentioned previously were London and Birmingham, but then comes:

"I forget to mention, forget to mention Memphis
Home of Elvis and the ancient Greeks"

Speaking of Elvis sightings, I just read that Norwegian Cruise Line's newest ship, the Escape, will be cruising out of Miami starting this November with 4,200 passengers and a performance of Million Dollar Quartet, a Broadway show about Elvis and three other guys having a great jam session in 1956.  I think the other guys were Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.  Certain people might want to audition for the parts, the Broadway shows on cruise ships usually last for 2 or 3 years and the casts are constantly changing.

Because of all the Elvis birthday hoopla I just realized we missed the 200th birthday of Andy Jackson's  victory in the Battle of New Orleans, also a #1 hit of a song by John Horton in 1959.

mugtech wrote:

the Battle of New Orleans, also a #1 hit of a song by John Horton in 1959.

You need to realize that there are some historical inaccuracies in said song, such as:
" We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down
  Picked up a gator and fired another round
  Stuffed his head with cannonballs and powdered his behind
  When we torched the powder off the gator lost his mind"

There is no evidence, written or otherwise, that a gator was ever used in such a fashion.