MAGIC OF VIDEO RESURRECTS ELVIS FOR BIRTHDAY BASH

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 7, 1993                   TAG: 9301060173
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO   
SOURCE: WOODY BAIRD ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MEMPHIS, TENN.                                LENGTH: Medium
MAGIC OF VIDEO RESURRECTS ELVIS FOR BIRTHDAY BASH
Elvis lives! Or rather, the master tape from a 1973 concert survives, which is enough to allow him to perform this week with the Memphis Symphony.
Whether he really passed away in 1977 or is touring Midwestern fast-food restaurants, Elvis Presley will wiggle again in his hometown as part of a three-day celebration of his 58th birthday Friday.
The hoopla includes the release of an Elvis postage stamp. The 29-cent commemorative stamp goes on sale at 12:01 a.m. Friday at Graceland, the king's former residence. Nationwide sales begin at noon.
Saturday's concert uses the same kind of technological wizardry that allows Humphrey Bogart to sell soft drinks on TV with Paula Abdul, and Natalie Cole and Hank Williams Jr. to sing duets with their long-dead fathers.
As Elvis, on a large video screen, croons "American Trilogy" from his 1973 Hawaiian concert, the Memphis orchestra will play and his former backup singers will take their accustomed roles.
"We've gotten the master vocal track from RCA so we could have just Elvis' voice, and we've eliminated all the music and the background singers," said Todd Morgan, a Graceland spokesman. "The orchestra will play live, and the singers will sing live backup. Elvis will sing lead."
A rock 'n' roll show this evening and speeches by Postmaster General Marvin Runyon and Mayor W.W. Herenton will precede the stamp's release.
Fans picking up stamps at Graceland can have them canceled at the center's small post office or the half-dozen mobile postal stations being brought in for the affair.
For the first-day sales, Graceland has 35,000 stamps attached to special covers saying "I was there." They'll go for $5 each and can be bought only at Graceland.
Also on Friday, buses will take fans from Graceland to Presley's birthplace, in nearby Tupelo, Miss., so they can have stamps canceled there.
Graceland, where Presley died Aug. 16, 1977, draws more than 650,000 visitors a year.
Elvis fans have lobbied for the stamp for years, and the Postal Service held a nationwide election last summer to select its art work. The fans went for a 1950s portrait of Presley.
Robin Minard, a Postal Service spokeswoman, says 300 million stamps have been printed and a second issue of 200 million is planned.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB