Afterword
Bill Henderson

My questionable career as an Elvis impersonator took a quantum leap the day I met Patty Carroll, and I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling that way. Because Patty—visionary artist, consummate pro, holder of prestigious teaching positions in England and America--was our Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibowitz, or Richard Avedon. Those, of course, are not the terms impresario Doc Franklin used to describe her on the phone, when I called him in Memphis to explain a book project and beg for a pass into his Images of Elvis Contest, the granddaddy of all such events--and the World Series for Elvis impersonators.

“There’s a girl comes back here every year snapping pictures. I let her set up in a room behind the stage.” Strictly true, maybe. It was in fact a room behind the stage. But Patty and an assistant had transformed it into a fully functioning portrait studio, complete with lighting, a seamless white backdrop, and a variety of state-of-the-art portrait cameras. And you could hardly call what she did “snapping pictures.” Each Elvis got a full photo shoot the likes of which he probably never saw again. From behind her camera, Patty led each performer through his paces, with a confidence born of much experience in how to coax into being the essence of whatever she saw in a subject.  It’s through the photos that came out of my session that I first began (rightly or wrongly) to feel “authentic.” I’m sure there are a few excellent impersonators somewhere who have not been photographed by Patty, but the fact remains that her distinctive style made legitimate icons out of more than one run-of-the-mill Elvis.

To this day I look at my Patty Carroll portfolio (one of her photos became the cover of my book, I Elvis, Confessions of a Counterfeit King) to remind myself that yes, I once did this—and to judge from those pictures, it’s possible I wasn’t half bad. So thank you, Patty. I and several hundred other Elvis impersonators owe you a great debt. In this crazy world where everyone chases the image, you made us real.