This article was originally published in The Dundee Courier on 21 November 2015.
Storyville:
Orion – The Man Who Would Be King: Monday,
BBC Four
The
Coroner: Monday to Friday,
BBC One
Paul
Whitelaw
Among
the many offbeat footnotes from the Elvis Presley saga, the
little-known tale of Jimmy Ellis is one of the saddest.
Two
years after The King's death in 1977, Ellis appeared in the mysterious guise of
Orion, an uncanny Elvis soundalike in a tacky Lone Ranger mask who
managed to convince some gullible fans that he was the genuine
article. And so the urban myth that Elvis faked his death was born.
That
was hardly Ellis' intention. On the contrary, he wanted to be taken
seriously as an artist in his own right. And yet he was unable to escape from
Elvis' shadow. His remarkable vocal resemblance was a curse.
After
several unsuccessful years in the business, he was desperate to
achieve stardom, and so allowed himself to become compromised by a
gimmick foisted upon him by opportunistic music biz sharks: a
Faustian pact in the dark heart of Nashville.
Although he enjoyed a brief flurry of cult novelty fame in the early '80s, by
the end of his life he was making a meagre living performing in high
schools, still wearing that ridiculous mask. A forgotten man, in 1996
he was shot dead during a botched pawnshop robbery. His story, in its
way, is as tragic as the rise and fall of Elvis himself.
Thankfully,
the extraordinary documentary, Orion: The Man Who Would Be King,
finally afforded him the dignity he was never granted in life. Despite
the bizarre truth-is-stranger-than-fiction nature of the tale, this
was a sensitive, sympathetic account of a troubled man in search of
his own identity. An adopted child, he never really knew who he was.
One
wonders if he ever truly appreciated the irony of trying to make his
name using the unmistakeable vocal style of one of the word's most
famous singers. The film couldn't clarify whether he consciously aped
Elvis' sound, or whether it was simply a strange coincidence. But it
did present Ellis as a mass of contradictions.
Friends
insist he would've been a star had Elvis never lived. But surely he
wouldn't have sounded like that were it not for the existence of Elvis?
He
was a hapless pawn, exploited by the unscrupulous owner of Sun
Records (yes, he was actually signed to Elvis' original label).
Contractually obliged to wear the mask in public, he was embarrassed
by the whole Orion charade. Yet still he went along with it in the
hope of finding fame. Sadly, it ruined his credibility.
During
an audio interview recorded towards the end of his life, he recalled
how people always told him that he'd never become a star by sounding
like Elvis. “It didn't do Elvis any harm,” was his stock reply.
The twisted logic of that statement encapsulates the mind-boggling
weirdness of the whole sad story. He even recorded a song called I'm
Not Trying To Be Like Elvis while sounding exactly like
Elvis.
Director
Jeanie Finlay, who also made the similarly fantastic The Great Hip
Hop Hoax, treated Ellis with the compassion he deserves. Steeped
in a vivid atmosphere of Deep South melancholy, it's one of the best
pop culture documentaries I've seen in some time.
A
new daytime drama, The Coroner
stars Claire Goose as the titular cadaver-poker and crime-solver.
Based in a picturesque Devonshire coastal town, squint and you could
mistake it for Broadchurch
on the cheap.
Goose
and Matt Bardock as her ex-partner turned local police sergeant are
fine, but the supporting cast overact wildly in that uniquely daytime
drama way. A serviceable pot-boiler, but nothing more.
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