On Aug. 16, 1977, the day Elvis Presley died, folklorist William R. Ferris remembers that in Memphis "it was like the ground began to shake." Within hours, hundreds of pilgrims had descended on Graceland, and the process by which a beloved public personage is transformed into a mythic figure was underway.
But which Elvis would be mythologized, and whose legacy would be preserved? The youthful rock rebel or the Las Vegas glitter god? The sultry crooner who gyrated his way into a nation's (and eventually the world's) consciousness, or the sadly diminished man who rasped his way through his final hit single?
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, July 16, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 47 words Type of Material: Correction
Michael Jackson legacy: An article about Michael Jackson's legacy in the July 7 Calendar section referred to Priscilla Presley as Elvis Presley's widow. She is his ex-wife; they were divorced in 1973 and he died in 1977. The article also appeared in Sunday's special section on Jackson.
The struggle over who gets to control a pop cultural or historical figure's legacy and shape his or her predominant image is a shifting, elaborate progression involving the family and friends of the deceased, public relations managers, fans, journalists and, today, legions of bloggers. Over time, it also may be influenced by museum directors, filmmakers, scholars, biographers, publishers, copyright lawyers and politicians.
In the case of figures as influential and multifaceted as Presley and Michael Jackson, this ultimately is a process that can't be controlled or stage-managed by any single person or interest, said Ferris, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jackson is scheduled to be memorialized today at a public service at Staples Center, but today's testimonials, combined with the millions of words already written, spoken and blogged on Jackson's behalf, constitute merely the prologue to a cultural dialogue that is likely to last for decades, if not generations.
"The power of a charismatic person like Elvis Presley or Martin Luther King or Michael Jackson is a kind of force unto itself," Ferris said. "It's a folkloric process by which people remember and talk about and sing about a mythic figure, and they become greater than life. In the case of Michael Jackson it's already happening, and it will sweep aside the coroner's report and the factual data concerning Michael Jackson's death in favor of making a myth."
