Orion: The Living Superstar of Song

[Jai Guru Deva]

I found this book which really looked kind of fascinating. I would look around for a good and cheap copy, www.alibris.com had a couple copies for about $15.00.

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www.biblio.com/books/12857093.html

Orion: The Living Superstar of Song
by Brewer, Gail

New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1981. Worn, cocked, creased. Store stamp. Controversial novel about an Elvisesque figure who faked his own death. "He was Orion Eckley Darnell. Named for the brightest stars in the heavens. Destined to be the brightest star the world had ever known. There in the squalor of the Tennessee backwash, only his mother knew that he had been marked by God for greatness. With a voice of pure gold and a body that shook with sexual innuendo, he horrified one generation and mesmerized another. Soon millions had made him their King--and their prisoner. He gave them everything, till there was nothing left to give. Suddenly Orion knew he could not live with his fame. He had to make a choice. And a plan . . .". ISBN: 0671415034. 1st Edition. Mass Market Paperback. Good. elvis presley the King Orion.

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The story was fiction first, but then became a real-life drama. A man named Jimmy Ellis was found to play out the "Orion" role...

weeklywire.com/ww/11-08-99/nash_cover.html


Jimmy Ellis's official site:

www.orionjimmyellis.com

[xpt626]

sadly, Jimmy Ellis and his wife were murdered a few years ago.

Gail Brewer-Georgio is the lady who wrote the "Elvis is Alive" book (released with an accompanying cassette tape).

[Imgonnaopenmymind]

Deva, what are you trying to say? Maybe Paul's still out there?

[Jai Guru Deva]

No, I'm not saying Paul's is still around, I was just offering the fictional novel "Orion" as interesting reading. Now the Jimmy Ellis story, if there are any parallels to PID, I think it show how a record executive thought of profit first and cared less about how it would effect the performer. Ellis himself had some reluctance, but he also saw it as his ticket to success, then the fame greatly overwhelmed and burdened him.

[revolver]

Here's a quote from the [link=http://weeklywire.com/ww/11-08-99/nash_cover.html
]above article[/link]:

When RCA heard the Jimmy Ellis recordings, it too thought Singleton had dug up more lost Elvis tapes. "RCA came very close to suing me over the record," Singleton says. "I kept telling them it wasn't Elvis, but they didn't believe me, and they thought I kept a name off the single because it was Elvis.... So they ran a voice print on it. That's when they found out it really wasn't Elvis."

This lends support to the validity of the voice prints done on the Paul's pre and post '66 recordings.

[xpt626]

I'm surprised RCA had to go as far as having voice prints done. Jimmy Ellis was a good "sound-alike", but definitely distinguishable from Elvis.