European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 23, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By Norm Zeigler travel outdoor writer Well we Are definitely grown up now. If Elvis is dead we can / be kids  Paul Simon 1977 it is no Mirage. Larger than death against flashing lights and purple spangles he beckons a swivel hipped musical colossus. A few Yards away Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi gaze in unblinking indifference across the canal. But there is no question who is the Star of this show. And it in t opera the jeans Clad crowd has queued up for amid the splendor the decaying elegance of Venice Italy s Lagoon City. Sliding and gliding his Way on ghostly Blue suede shoes the King has swept into the old world consciousness on a tide of Rock n Roll memories. The ancient Gateway to the East has welcomed the wettest of the West the old hound dog himself. The giant Garish sign at the Gate is just schlock enough to be a pop Chic visual Surprise. Like the posters in the streets around St. Mark s the pouting rebel with those sleepy eyes that look of wounded innocence that drove girls wild. The bold Type fairly leaps off the posters Elvis in  the question is Why is Elvis in Venice in t this worship of the dead Rock n Roll legend an american phenomenon endemic to neighbourhoods of imitation Ante Bellum mansions and fuelled by the whole sad crazy scene that surrounded the King during those last years at his own private Heartbreak hotel ? could the Graceland cult really take hold in a town of Marble palaces the City where Verdi composed Wagner died and Stravinski is buried it is unclear whether the King Ever actually went to Venice. But he is Here in spirit Courtesy of the Elvis Presley museum from Goteborg Sweden. During an 18-Day show at the italian Pavilion of the International exposition of modern Art the exhibit serves up memories Kitsch and musical classics for acolytes of the King. The setting is the elegant Public gardens Marble sculpture aquatic vistas through the Trees Lovely lanes lined with sycamores and Oaks. Museum director Bruno Tillander who travels with the exhibit part of the time says his is the Only Elvis exhibition outside North  Tillander a hard Core fan started in 1984 with a Small Elvis exhibition in Goteborg. Gradually it grew. He made several trips to Memphis tenn., to visit the shrine Graceland. Eventually he met friends and acquaintances of the King. Many of the items now on exhibit were obtained from two sources George Klein Elvis longtime Friend and or. George Necopolous his controversial personal physician. Hung up framed and glassed in for the Public Are a strutting Elvis looks Down on a passer by from a Garish sign at the exhibit Gate 8 stripes Magazine february 23, 1989