...Lynn Spigel Communicating With the Dead: Elvis as Medium Lynn Spigel To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was’ . . . . It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes...

... science fiction universes, the fans express their concerns about con- temporary problems and their hopes for a better future. Lynn Spigel’s “Communicating With the Dead: Elvis as Medium” investigates this sense of history arnong fans who participate in musical revivals staged by Elvis...

... audiences with a popular culture icon-Elvis. True Romance also constructs the bathroom as a space for consol- idating oneself: Clarence’s consciousness is effectively represented only in the bathroom, where his interior monologue is exteriorized in dialogue with Elvis; it is here, too, that he...

... her first big break in the early 1960s, when her teacher and mentor, the Hollywood choreographer David Winters, hired her to assist on a number of big-­budget productions, includ- ing Viva Las Vegas (dir. George Sidney, US, 1964), starring Elvis Presley and Ann-­Margret, and the popular...

... Occidental Tourist”: Steve Fagin’s Virtual Voyage for Armchair Trav- elers. No. 24; pp. 47-63. Spigel, Lynn Communicating With the Dead: Elvis as Medium. No. 23; pp. 177-205. Editorial for special issue on “Popular Culture and Reception Studies.” No. 23; pp. 4-7. 186 Response to...

..., aliens: Dennis Rodman, Sylvester Stallone, Newt Gingrich and Elvis Presley are all so identified.13 In other words, what remains an insidiously internal ideological problem has now been displaced onto an externally identifiable, obviously different body. Race and ethnicity have traditionally...

... on. The three kids on the shows of the first season are named Opal, Elvis, and Cher. Pee-wee’s program, then, becomes something of an epitome of pop cultural television history, its brief allegory. This is not a claim one can prove exactly but I can report to you an...

...: “We got to work on our communication.” When they get a last minute chance to make it, Hiller shouts “I ain’t heard no fat lady” and Levinson responds, “Forget the fat lady, you’re obsessed with the fat lady, drive us out of here.” They make it, and Hiller shouts, “Elvis has left the building...

..., though she aptly turns around our understanding of agency in addiction. She argues that it is not the pop icon (Elvis), with his seemingly multifaceted sexuality and excesses, that negotiates the tension embodied in our knowledge of desires; rather, it is this tension in our desire for knowledge...

... celebrities represent musical influences — Little Richard, Ricky Nelson, B. B. King, Bessie Smith. Others represent the difficult climb from obscure beginnings to fame — Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Lana Turner. Still others represent icons who have died young — most notably John F...

... with their previous associations. Several Blake’s 7 songs borrow their music from songs associated with Elvis, an in-joke reference to one of the series’ stars, Paul Darrow, who played Elvis Presley in the British stage play, Are You Lonesome To- night. Other songs borrow their tunes from...

... born to be a star singer. Her mother, Cissy Houston, is a successful singer who sang back up to Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley, and a founding member of the group, Sweet Inspirations. Houston’s first cousin, Dionne War- wick, enjoyed a long stint during the early eighties on a music count...

... Studies” with essays on, among other things, amusement parks, burlesque, film exhibition in African American communities, rap music, and Elvis.17 Further indicating Camera Obscura’s far-ranging involve- ment in cultural studies, two special issues titled “Imaging Tech- nologies, Inscribing Science...

... Charlene’s prompting: at first, the others are all a bit wary, but the trip ends up providing a space for each to reveal her (or his) own “memories” of Elvis. Here, as in most of the episodes, the characters’ communal space is shaped by their relationships to and recountings of...

... Presbyterians seem equally nonplussed by a nearly nude athlete sporting an impressive Elvis bouffant (Kirk Morris) who shows up at their witch burning in the 1962 Maciste all’inferno (The Witch’s Curse, dir. Riccardo Freda, Italy); Hercules is equally ignored by pre-Colombian Incas in Ercole contro...