Japanese Prime Minister Visits Graceland
In Memphis, 2 Heads of Regime Visit the Dwelling house of Rock 'n' Gyre Royalty
MEMPHIS, June 30 — Plenty of awestruck Elvis impersonators accept passed through the wrought-fe gates of Graceland. Until Friday, none had the president of the United states in tow.
"Information technology's like a dream," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan said to President Bush in the Jungle Room of the Presley dwelling house hither. Amid the faux leopard print chairs and green shag carpet covering both floor and ceiling, the prime minister and then serenaded the president.
"Loooovve mee tenderrrrr," Mr. Koizumi crooned, as Priscilla Presley, Elvis's quondam married woman, and Lisa Marie, his girl, looked on.
When Priscilla Presley pointed out the oversize gold-rimmed sunglasses once worn by the King of Rock 'northward' Roll, the prime number government minister eagerly donned them, thrusting his hips and arms forrad in imitation of a archetype Elvis move.
"I knew he loved Elvis," Mr. Bush said later on. "I didn't realize how much he loved Elvis."
If the visit, the beginning time a sitting president has toured Graceland, resembled an Elvis lovefest, it was a Bush-Koizumi lovefest likewise, orchestrated by the White Business firm to spotlight the close relationship betwixt Nippon and the United States. Mr. Koizumi, who volition step downwards in September, is among Mr. Bush'due south closest friends on the world stage; the trip was both a goodbye souvenir and a thank yous for Nippon's back up on the state of war on terror.
In the annals of international diplomacy, it was not exactly Yalta. But it did bring a trivial bit of milkshake, rattle and roll to American foreign relations — perhaps too much for Mr. Bush, who resisted being defenseless in any poses fifty-fifty remotely Elvislike.
Not then Mr. Koizumi.
The prime minister'southward obsession with Elvis is well known; he shares a birthday, Jan. eight, and a hairstyle with Elvis, and worked in the 1980'due south to erect a bronze statue of the singer in Tokyo. At i signal Friday, Mr. Koizumi happily remarked to Lisa Marie Presley that she looked like her father. He subsequently threw his arm effectually her, belting out some Elvis lyrics, "Hold me shut, concord me tight."
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Mr. Bush, though, eventually cut off the performance, clapping the prime minister on the shoulder and firmly shaking his hand in a none-as well-subtle message that the curtain was almost to autumn.
The sight of the commonly strait-laced Mr. Bush, with his vigorous practise regimen and disdain for alcohol, wandering near the dwelling where a bloated, drug-abusing Elvis died in the bath might have seemed incongruous to some. Indeed, the White House printing secretary, Tony Snow, on Th refused to answer a delicate question: Did Mr. Bush prefer a fat Elvis or a skinny Elvis?
"Uuuuhh, yes," Mr. Snowfall replied diplomatically.
The prime minister was after treated to dejeuner at the Rendezvous, the downtown barbecue restaurant, which changed the labels on its spicy barbecue sauce to read, "One President, I Prime number Minister, One King." The drummer for the Dempseys, a rockabilly band invited to perform over lunch, rescheduled the nascence of his first child (the labor was induced).
With Memphis reeling from a recent spate of drive-by shootings that accept killed several teenagers, the White House took pains to make sure Mr. Bush-league'due south trip was not all frivolity. The president made an unannounced stop at the National Civil Rights Museum, next door to the Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Rex Jr. was killed.
In that location, the ceremonious rights leader Benjamin 50. Hooks showed the prime number minister, Mr. Bush-league and Laura Bush to Room 306, where Dr. Male monarch died. The visit was so final-minute that Mr. Hooks was at a dental appointment Friday morning time when he received a telephone call from the White Firm, asking him to serve equally guide.
The trip attracted onlookers far more than diverse than the already polyglot hordes that usually come to Elvis Presley Boulevard. The street was lined with people, every bit were barricades ready up at the company heart, across the street from Graceland. They included the curious and those just waiting for their plow to take the tour; protesters of the Iraq state of war and supporters of the troops; a woman dressed as Lady Freedom; and a human being who said he had a letter stating that if the Boston Red Sox went to the World Series once more he would throw out the kickoff pitch, and that he would be going past Graceland later to meet his old friend Lisa Marie.
But at that place were likewise those who used the environs for inspiration, at risk of copyright infringement and personal dignity. And not all their messages were for Mr. Bush.
Along the barricades, two Japanese doctors from the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis stood behind a large sign. "I want you lot, I need you, I love you," it read. "Darling, I wish to build a children'due south cancer hospital in Japan together."
Gregory Wetstone, the tweed-suited managing director of United States operations for the International Fund for Beast Welfare, was accompanied past four Elvis impersonators in white jumpsuits. "We're delivering a bulletin," Mr. Wetstone said. "Which is, don't be brutal — to whales."
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At 1 finish of the famous Graceland wall, inscribed by decades of tourists, stood a cluster of onlookers from the nearby predominantly black neighborhood, Whitehaven, that surrounds Graceland. Ane, a former country representative named Bret Thompson, said he had come because of a recent criminal offense wave in Memphis that has caused consternation among the city's leaders.
"We had, I gauge, the nearly trigger-happy week in Memphis history," Mr. Thompson said. "We had a killing every 24-hour interval." He gestured at the flashing lights and barricades closing off the street to protect the president. "This is the safest identify in the globe correct now, isn't it?"
But mostly, Friday was a 24-hour interval to celebrate a peculiar slice of Americana, aureate lamé suits and all.
The White Business firm left no particular unattended for what Mr. Bush described as "this most unusual experience." The breakfast fare on Air Force One was peanut butter and banana sandwiches, a recipe directly from Elvis's kitchen. Elvis movies — "Honey Me Tender" and "Viva Las Vegas"— were available for viewing.
And Elvis music played loudly over the speakers, until Mr. Bush-league asked that information technology exist turned downwardly.
The Graceland tour capped a two-twenty-four hours visit past Mr. Koizumi to the United States; on Thursday, the 2 leaders met at the White Firm, where the threat of a long-range-missile launching by N Korea was loftier on the agenda. The visit hither was Mr. Bush-league'due south idea, said Michael Light-green, a quondam White House foreign policy aide.
"Frankly," Mr. Dark-green said, "I remember the bureaucrats on both sides were a lilliputian bit perplexed, if not aghast."
The house is nearly every bit Elvis left it, a homage to 1970'southward hotel décor. The white couch in the living room is fifteen feet long. The kitchen is paneled in wood. The Idiot box room has three television sets, a mirrored ceiling and a bar upholstered in yellowish Naugahyde. Elvis'south famed pink Cadillac was parked outside; information technology ordinarily sits in a automobile museum beyond the street merely was moved to make way for the traveling printing.
The tour was the same equally ordinary tourists receive, with 1 big exception: there were no ropes to prevent the two leaders from sitting where Elvis sat, walking where Elvis walked or touching what Elvis touched. When Mr. Koizumi picked up the gold sunglasses, Graceland'south curator, who had carefully carried the glasses into the room with gloved hands, looked as if she were almost to faint.
One part of the business firm the Bushes and Mr. Koizumi missed was the upstairs, Elvis's living quarters. Elvis insisted they be kept private, said David Beckwith, a spokesman for Graceland.
"Nobody goes upstairs," Mr. Beckwith said.
Not even Japan'south all-time-known Elvis impersonator and the president of the United States.
Japanese Prime Minister Visits Graceland,
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/washington/01bush.html
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