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Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/15/06
BY CHUCK DARROW
CORRESPONDENT
It's certainly not news that an Elvis Presley impersonator is playing Atlantic City. But the take on "The King" provided by "The Image of Elvis" promises to be different than what has been seen so many times before in casino showrooms.
"What we're going to do is reproduce the "Aloha' concert from 1973," reports Tony Destro, the 56-year-old Franklin Lakes resident who'll star as Presley tonight at Trump Marina. "That was the one that was broadcast by satellite to a billion people around the world. It was his big moment, when he looked his best. Then he went to Vegas and really started going downhill."
According to Destro, the show will be a virtual clone of the '73 telecast whose full title was "Elvis — Aloha from Hawaii." Everything from that gig in Honolulu will be re-created, from the costumes (made for him by Presley's tailor) to the between-song patter to, of course, the musical charts (performed by a 14-piece band billed as The Bowery Boys).
The set list includes such Presley signatures as "Suspicious Minds," "Can't Help Falling In Love" and "Blue Suede Shoes." Interestingly, Destro, who claims he started singing in do-wop groups in Jersey City and Brooklyn while still a boy in the 1950s, came to portraying Elvis more by accident than out of an abiding devotion to the 29-years-dead rock legend.
"In 1970, we started doing '50s songs," he recalls." We came out in black leather jackets and rode motorcycles on stage. In 1975, we were doing a show in Fairview, N.J., and somebody said, "Elvis was part of the '50s. Why don't you do any Elvis songs?'
"I grabbed a waiter's jacket and flipped the collar up and sang "Wear My Ring Around Your Neck.' "
But it wasn't until he subsequently came across a photograph that he decided to plunge head-first into the Elvis-tribute business.
"I saw a picture of Elvis in the Army, with all his hair shaved off," he says, "and asked my wife, "Where'd you get a picture of me in the Army?' I was looking at that picture and said, "I think I can pass as an Elvis act' — even though I wasn't even an Elvis fan then.
"And when Elvis died in 1977, that's when it really took off."
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