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Fall 2008
Dear Friends and Fans:
The days are shorter and there's a little nip in the air - sure
signs of fall - my very favorite time of the year.
It was a great summer - lots of shows and contests and, of course,
lots of fun!
When I finished the last newsletter, we were getting ready to leave
for Florida and a brand new contest in Immokalee which is just south
of Ft. Myers. The Change of Habit, Ronny, Jerome and I flew down and
set out for the Seminole Casino. You can just imagine the heat in
south Florida over the 4th of July! We were horrified to find that
we were in a tent attached to the Casino! When we arrived, the
temperature in the tent was about 450 degrees. The looks on the
faces of the band members was priceless! Clearly, I was going to die
an ugly death at their hands before the end of the day. To
everyone's great relief, however, they turned on the
air-conditioning and shortly, the temperature was comfortable.
Because this was a last minute contest, neither Kathy nor Marie was
able to join us - so - D'Arcy and Trish (from the CoH) helped me and
we quickly got things organized. We were please to have 13
contestants for this quickly-planned event. At the end of the day,
the winners of the $5000.00 purse were:
1st - Dwight Icenhower
2nd - Ted Torres
The Casino was extremely pleased and we will be back in 2009 over
the 4th of July weekend.
Two weeks later, we took off for the Horseshoe ElvisŪ Fest in
Bluff's Run, Iowa. This Casino is right on the Iowa-Nebraska border
and, even in the third week of July, we saw sad signs of the June
floods as we drove. Our prayers are with those who suffered the
effects of these floods.
This is an invitational contest and the Casino treats us like kings
and queens. They provide meals, lodging, and a minimum of $400.00 to
each contestant. The Whiskey Roadhouse is a fabulous room and we
were blessed with a wonderful sound man. After the Saturday portion
of the contest, all the ETA's jumped on stage and entertained the
fans with duets and even non-ElvisŪ music. The Change of Habit
members were great sports and everyone had a ball.
Sunday, after another session, the finalists were chosen. After a
hard-fought round of finals, the winners were:
1st - Matt Joyce
2nd - Ted Torres
3rd - Stephen Freeman
August found Ronny, Kathy and I headed fro Memphis. It was so great
to see so many old friends and catch up on everyone's news! It has
become obvious that the EPE Ultimate contest and the Images contest
can continue to co-exist. Both had great crowds and deserving
winners - and, we might add, 5 out of the 6 winners of the 2
contests were EEN members!
Winners at the EPE Ultimate contest were:
1st - Brandon Bennett
2nd - Donny Edwards
3rd - Joe Hall
Winners at the Images contest were:
1st - Gino Monopoli
2nd - Jim Barone
3rd - Todd Martin
September brought us to LaCrosse, WI, and Ronny's ElvisŪ Explosion.
Ronny absolutely puts on a quality event! We had 30 ETA's and the
contest was wonderful! Saturday afternoon we had a special show
called "The Great Pretenders." It starred Dwight Icenhower as Elton
John, Irv Cass as Tom Jones, Steve Bobbitt as Rod Stewart, Ted
Torres as Ricky Nelson, Chris Solano as Buddy Holly and D'Arcy Park
doing the Ladies of Country music. A surprise performer was E-Rock,
all dressed up in drag (he looked pretty good too!), singing Patsy
Cline's "Crazy." What an amazing voice - Patsy herself would have
been fooled! Check for the pics in our current pictures. The show
was a huge success - in fact - Saturday night, we were scrambling to
find tables and chairs for an over-sellout crowd!
Sunday morning, we had a free gospel show. Most of the contestants
sang during the show and it was a wonderful way to start the day.
Special guests were Dwight Icenhower and Ryan Pelton - the crowd
enjoyed them. Ryan about gave me a heart attack practicing with his
air gun behind stage. Teddy bears were flying!
Thursday night through Sunday night, there were jam sessions at the
Day's Inn - Hotel Central. I have never laughed so much in my entire
life! The ETA's were line dancing, playing fantasy roles, singing in
groups and, of course, Dwight was there with his ever-present
pucker. Kudos to Allan Robuck for doing a fantastic job managing the
"animals."
After an exciting finals on Sunday afternoon, the winners were:
1st - Ted Torres
2nd - Brad Boice
3rd - Kevin Mills
One week later, Ronny, Irv, Jerome, Kathy and I were on a plane
headed for Dewey Beach, DE. The venue puts Ronny, Irv and Jerome in
a condo with Kathy, Marie and I in one next door. It's a great
puzzlement to me that not one of these 3 talented men can brew a cup
of coffee. My mornings were spent making pot after pot of java. Do
you have any idea how much coffee Ronny can drink????? As usual, the
crowds were enormous and the Rusty Rudder was filled to capacity. 30
ETA's graced the inside and outside stages on Friday night and all
day Saturday. The Dewey Beach fans never can get enough ElvisŪ! The
whoop and hollar at 1:00 AM as loud as they do at 7:00 PM. The
weather was beautiful and sun sparkled on the water of Rehobeth Bay
right next to the stage. Two blocks away, the waves on the Atlantic
shore were enormous. The Rudder supplies all the contestants with
rooms and wonderful food - so - it's like a vacation. Early Sunday
morning, the winners were:
Professional
1st - Kevin Mills
2nd - Jim Barone
3rd - Mark Anthony
4th - GaryElvis Britt
5th - Jed Duvall
Non-Professional
1st - Jim Parsley
2nd - Tim Collins
3rd - Ernie Fisher
4th - Robert E Lutz
5th = Paul Daniels
The Rusty Rudder has already scheduled next year's contest for
September 25 & 26, 2009.
As we continue into autumn, our next stop is the ElvisŪ FANtasy Fest
in Portage, IN. This is a wonderful venue as all the proceeds go to
the Special Olympics.
ElvisŪ in Branson is the end of October at the beautiful Lodge of
the Ozarks.
The EEN Christmas show will be November 29 - the Saturday after
Thanksgiving. Stars this year will be Dwight Icenhower, Ted Torres,
Todd Martin, Jerome Marion and, of course, Ronny Craig. There will
be a few surprises.....
December 13th will find us in New York for a show called "Christmas
with ElvisŪ and Friends." This show will feature a mixture of
Christmas songs with ElvisŪ, Ricky Nelson, and Elton John with a
little help from the "Ladies of County."
Hope to see everyone sometime this fall. In the meantime, enjoy the
gorgeous fall weather and colors...
Nance
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