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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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