The King Is Toast

To honor the anniversary of Elvis' death, I've created three cocktails to get toasted on. Elvis Presley died on August 16, 1977, and he was carrying quite a get happy mix in him when he shuffled off, (1) courtesy of his own Dr. Feelgood, Dr. George Nichopoulos, or as he was more commonly known, "Dr. Nick." (2) David Stanley, the stepbrother of Elvis, has been quoted as saying, "Drugs were Elvis' escape. He didn't take them to get happy. He took them to get unconsicous." Guess what? It worked. Stanley goes on to say that he thought Elvis' favorite book was the Physician's Desk Reference (an encyclopedic book of pharmaceuticals.) "He'd go through the PDR and pick out combinations, like a drug cocktail, that he felt would be just right for him."

Blue Suede Cocktail

The first cocktail I had made up is called Blue Suede Cocktail, and I drank this in honor of an early hit of Elvis' called "Blue Suede Shoes," written by rockabilly, Carl Perkins. The Blue Suede Cocktail consists of:

1/2 ounce Jim Beam whiskey (preferrably poured from an Elvis shaped decanter)
1/2 ounce Blue Curacao
3 1/2 ounces lemon-lime soda
1 1/2 ounces lemonade

Mix the Jim Beam and Blue Curacao in a glass, stir in the lemonade and soda. Serve iced with a lemon wheel or peel. Drink, tread lightly and go cat go.

Elvis gyrated on to Hollywood where he made a string of films that seemed to be thematic in that there's always this girl, there are his gang of guys, singing is accomplished, and other cultures are explored (Charro!, Harum Scarum, Blue Hawaii) in embarrassingly condescending ways. Plus, each movie was guaranteed to contain at least one surreal moment involving a woman's ass, usually involving either a spanking or some bizarre pop music mating ritual and always a fight scene (Surprise. Elvis wins.)

Elvis In Hollywood Cocktail

To honor these cinematic clunkers, the Elvis in Hollywood cocktail:

1 1/4 ounces Malibu Pineapple Infused Rum
1 ounce Pineapple Juice
3/4 ounces Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur

Mix the rum and the pineapple juice into an iced martini glass, then "sink" the Chambord down the side so that it settles into the bottom the glass. Sunk as in Elvis' movie career. Garnish with pineapple. Sip and think about Elvis surfing on some wired board in Paramount's back lot and cue to ukulele music while Elvis wails on "Rock-A-Hula-Baby." (3)

Viva Vino Martini

Finally, the Viva Vino Martini named after an Elvis song called "Vino, Dinero y Amor," and whose lyrics in part go, "I like to drink wine, and money is fine, but I like the girls even more. Viva el vino, viva el dinero, viva viva el amor." This cocktail consists of:

1 1/4 ounces Fonseca Vin 27 Port Wine
3/4 ounces Shakka Apple Infusion, Eau de Vie
1/2 ounce Midori Melon Liqueur
3/4 ounces Cranberry Juice

Mix contents and shake into chilled martini glass rimmed with red sugar.

So many items have been merchandized using the image of Elvis, but some of my favorites are the bottles of booze, either shaped using Elvis' figure, or my personal favorite, his head. Country singer George Jones has this fantastic bar song called "The King Is Gone," (alternate title: "Yabba Dabba Doo,") and the lyrics are so impressive, I just have to reproduce them here:

Last night I broke the seal on a Jim Beam decanter
That looks like Elvis
I soaked the label off a Flintstone jelly bean jar
I cleared us off a place on that one little table
That you left us
And pulled me up a big ole piece of floor

I pulled the head off Elvis
Filled Fred up to his pelvis
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you

Round about 10 we all got to talking
'Bout Graceland, Bedrock and such
The conversation finally turned to women
But they said they didn't get around too much
Elvis said, "Find 'em young"
And Fred said "Old Fashioned girls are fun"
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you

Later on it finally hit me
That you wouldn't be 'a comin' home no more
'Cause this time I know you won't forgive me
Like all of them other times before
Then I broke Elvis' nose
Pouring the last drop from his toes
Yabba Dabba Doo, the King is gone
And so are you

I've added in a little clip of the song for you: RealMedia


You want to toast Elvis today? Elvis has been made out of toast. Oh, yes. He has. New Zealand artist Maurice Bennett, aka "The Toastman," is known for his toast portraits, and his Elvis work consisted of more than 4,000 pieces of toast (in varying degrees of doneness.)

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(1) The autopsy suggested that he had overdosed on "significant amounts" of: Codeine, Methaqualone, Ethinamate, and miscellaneous barbiturates. There were also traces of Morphine, Valium, Demerol, Meperidine, Placidyl, and Chloropheniramine. The coroner also reported that Elvis' last meal had consisted of four scoops of ice cream and six chocolate chip cookies.

(2) For ten years, Dr. Nick was Elvis' doctor, and he sure didn't stint on the scrips. "Elvis's problem," Dr Nick has said, "was that he didn't see the wrong in it. He felt that by getting it from a doctor, he wasn't the common everyday junkie getting something off the street. He was a person who thought that as far as medications and drugs went, there was something for everything." The Medical Board Tribunal heard evidence of astounding volumes of prescriptions written by Dr Nick. Between 1975 and 1977, he had prescribed 19,000 doses of drugs. In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had written 199 prescriptions totalling more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics: all in Elvis's name. On 20 January 1980, the board found him guilty of overprescription, but decided that he was not unethical. They gave him three months' suspension of his licence and three years' probation. He was charged again in 1992, facing a more aggressive review board, and finally in 1995, he was stripped of his medical license.

(3) Actress Jenny Maxwell played the bratty Ellie Corbett in Blue Hawaii. She got the ass smacking in this film. Not many fans know that Jenny Maxwell was murdered. The details of her death are sketchy and confusing. In June 1981 Jenny and her husband, famous attorney Ervin "Tip" Roeder, were shot to death outside their Beverly Hills condo. Their murder has never been solved. It's an interesting, but odd, coincidence that Tip was also actor Nick Adams' attorney and was involved in trying to solve Nick's death. Nick allegedly committed suicide in 1968, but Tip and others felt he was murdered. (As many fans know, Nick Adams was a good friend of Elvis' and often visited him on movie sets and in Memphis.) Coinky dink? Uh. Yeah. No grassy knolls here.

I want to apologize for the fuzzy fotography. I've just purchased a new digital camera and haven't a clue how to work it, other than knowing where the power switch is, and the shutter button. Hopefully, I'll be sitting down with the manual real soon and figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing.