New Jersey Stage published its 25,000th story in December 2021. As the site approached the milestone, we posed the question on social media as how we should celebrate. One response was to highlight our favorite stories from over the years. We liked this idea, but could not narrow things down to just 25 favorites so we will present a favorite each day from different genres. Today we are featuring one of our favorite stories in art. It's a story about King for a Day, a book of photography featuring Elvis impersonators of all shapes and sizes.
The feature was published on July 21, 2016 and is available here. It tells the story of how photographer Erin Feinberg's jaw first dropped when she visited Memphis. Everywhere she looked she saw people dressed like Elvis Presley. She wondered if the city was saturated with Elvis impersonators. Actually, she happened to visit during Elvis Week — an annual celebration that leads up to the anniversary of the King’s death.
Feinberg, a photographer based in New York City, instantly made a mental note to learn more. In a city full of various competitions, she discovered that the biggest and most prestigious of them all - Images Of The King — was taking place at a nearby hotel.