THE KING & I Impersonator from Rockport recalls Elvis on the 30th anniversary of the singer’s death

ROCKPORT – Thirty years after the death of Elvis Presley, Elvis impersonator Al Gardner still has fans asking him to dig out his jumpsuit, put together a band and take the stage.

Gardner has heard the cheers and shed many tears since he first saw a flickering image of the king of rock and roll on television a half-century ago. He started mimicking Elvis from an early age and is weighing the possibility of doing it again.

“People have asked me. I think it’s because of the anniversary,” Gardner said.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis, and Gardner can remember that mournful time as clearly as if it were yesterday. Elvis was scheduled to perform in Portland that night, and Gardner planned to be in the audience. In fact, he hoped that he finally would get to meet his idol.

Gardner had struck up a friendship with Charlie Hodge, the man who was positioned offstage to supply Elvis with the silk scarves that he would drench with sweat and toss to women in his audience. Hodge had laid the groundwork for Gardner to meet Elvis that night.

“He told me ‘It’s all up to you, man.’ Oh, I was ready, I had met the Beatles, but meeting him would have been the crown. Elvis was the king,” he said “It was a rare day. I was absolutely shocked. I was going to the concert, and I thought I was going to meet Elvis.”

Gardner said that although Presley died in the early morning, he was working and didn’t find out until a few hours before the scheduled show. He said he was stunned by the news and called a Portland radio station to express his pain and find out whether there was any chance the ticket holders could gather at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Presley’s memory.

“Well, the DJ put me right on the air, and I guess the word got out because they opened the civic center doors and there was a big, big crowd there,” Gardner recalled. “Of course, we were all pretty upset. There was a lot of crying. It was a very emotional thing. I’ve lost a lot of people pretty close to the family, but losing Elvis? Man, that was pretty emotional.”

The 64-year-old Gardner said he first heard and saw Elvis in 1955 and, like millions of other fans, was swept away by his unique sound and hip-swiveling moves.

“The first time I saw him, there was just something about what he did, the way he looked, that just grabbed me,” Gardner said. “Right there I became a fan of Elvis. I was just struck by him. I saw all the movies, bought all the records. My mother probably thought she would go crazy listening to all those songs. Bless her soul, she probably knew all the words just from hearing me sing them all the time.”

It wasn’t long before the then 12-year-old was pantomiming Elvis songs being played on the jukebox in between caddying jobs at the old Samoset Hotel in Rockport. The golfers and vacationers got a kick out of it and Gardner got his share of tips.

The gigs continued during his high school years and through his eight years in the Air Force. He would put a band together – “It was never any trouble, guys always loved to play his stuff” – and do his Elvis impersonations at private parties or in rented halls. He even did a few shows overseas while stationed at an air base in Scotland.

Scotland was where Gardner met the Beatles. Posing as an American newspaper reporter, Gardner crashed a 1962 Beatles press conference and went right to the front of the room. When the conference was over, Gardner noticed that Ringo Starr had left his cigarettes and jewel-encrusted cigarette lighter on the table and quickly snatched them up.

“I went to their dressing room and told Ringo I would give him back his lighter if they posed for a picture with me. Well, Ringo got his lighter and I got my picture. They thought I was crazy. When Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager, came in the room they told him, ‘This is some nut. Nut, meet our manager.'”

Gardner said when the Beatles heard his Maine accent, they thought he was from England.

“‘You’re a bloke,’ George kept saying to me. They didn’t believe I was an American. When George signed his autograph he wrote ‘you’re a fake’ next to it.”

Gardner said that within hours of Presley’s death friends and musicians started pressing him to put together a tribute. One year later, on the anniversary of Presley’s death, hundreds of screaming fans filled the Rockland Recreation Center for the performance. Gardner said he and the band had rehearsed for months and had the material from Elvis’ “Aloha from Hawaii” album down pat.

The night of the show, Gardner and his entourage arrived in a motorcade of Cadillacs and when he hit the stage he was wearing a green sequined jumpsuit with a large silver belt. He started out with “Burning Love” and began tossing scarves to the crowd while doing Elvis moves across the stage.

“That show was a hoot. We did all the big hits. When I got off stage, the band kept playing,” he said. “I was already in the car and halfway to Rockport by the time the announcer said, ‘Elvis has left the building.'”

With the 30th anniversary of Elvis’ death, friends again are asking Gardner to give it another go. Gardner said he had ballooned up to the same weight Presley was when he died but has since shed most of it. And he still has the suit.

“I can get into the suit now, but I can’t move. Any karate-kicking would be out of the question,” he said with a chuckle. “There’s been a lot of interest about another show, so it’s possible. I’m not going to say it’s going to happen, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I’m amazed that people still ask about it. Maybe it’s just a novelty, maybe not. I don’t have a clue.”