Farewell to Gail Brewer-Giorgio: The Voice Behind ‘Is Elvis Alive?’
Gail Brewer-Giorgio has died: Prolific Elvis author, Gail Brewer Giorgio, has died, aged 85. She is best known for her 1988 million-copy selling book, The Most Incredible Elvis Presley Story Ever Told (HB) / Is Elvis Alive aka The Elvis Tape (softcover + cassette), which was a non-fiction adaptation of her 1978 novel, Orion: The Living Superstar of Song. The book generated a thriving group of "underground" organisations promoting and activating around the "faked death" theory....... not to forget the thousands of newspapers and magazines that covered the story for several decades. It also resulted in the arrival of the charismatic masked singer, Orion (Jimmy Ellis), who many believed to be Elvis.
Ms Brewer-Giorgio was also a key consultant for the two Bill Bixby hosted TV specials, The Elvis Files(1991) and The Elvis Conspiracy(1992). She alleged she was ripped off by the producers of the specials. Regardless of what you think about Gail Brewer-Giorgio, she has the distinction of being only one of a handful of authors who have released a million-copy selling book about Elvis, and a key figure in what was a large and intriguing community of Elvis fans who believed Elvis may have faked his death.
(News, Source: ElvisInfoNet)
“He was a king among men, a country boy with a golden voice, destined to captivate the hearts of millions. From his ramshackle beginnings in the backwoods of Tennessee to the blinding lights of sold-out concert arenas … soon millions had made him their king, their idol—their prisoner. He needed to escape the merciless clutches of fame—before it squeezed every last drop of life from him!” (From the book “ORION” by Gail Brewer-Giorgio).
“Orion is the novel that began the explosive worldwide Elvis controversy and launched my bestselling book—IS ELVIS ALIVE? ORION is the book that started it all, a book which travelled a bizarre and amazing journey, a book which may have come too close to a startling reality: Did a superstar rock singer hoax his own death? … ORION—the fiction that may be too close to the truth.” (Gail Brewer Giorgio) A woman named Gail-Brewer-Giorgio wrote a book in 54 days about a singer of fiction, named OrionDarnell, who faked his own death. This started a conspiracy theory: That Elvis Presley did not die on 16 August 1977, but went into a protection programme by the US government, for not being only a key witness to a financial scam, directly related to the Mob … To which he was not on only a victim, but crucial to the punishment for those involved. His life was in danger, as was the one of fictional Orion. Gail Brewer-Giorgio was seen on Oprah Winfrey, Larry King, David Letterman, USA Today, NBC, ABC, and written about in virtually every newspaper of the USA. But it had started a little earlier: It was 16 August 1977, so the day, on which the world was about to learn about the death of the “King of Rock and Roll”
Elvis Presley. A member of the “Atlanta Journal Constitution” began writing her novel. A novel, about the fictionalised character Orion Darnell. The outstanding part of it, was that the hero of fiction, faked his own death, to escape the limelight and danger. Gail Brewer-Giorgio said she was “inspired by the death” of Elvis Presley to come up with such an idea, plus her intuition told her, this could have been something Elvis Presley might have had done. In 1978, her intuition seemed to sound true, in more than one way: SUN International Records, owned by Shelby Singleton released the LP “Duets” by Jerry Lee Lewis and Friends. On two songs Jerry Lee Lewis clearly duetted with Charlie Rich, but on the remaining ten it seemed he was having the duets of his life with none less than Elvis Presley. The American columnist James Bacon, tried to find an answer to whose voice, other than the voices of the afore mentioned Charlie Rich and Jerry Lee Lewis belonged to. James Bacon made mention of letters concerning a column about Elvis Presley, released earlier, would not stop. In the column the voice on the album “Duets” was credited to Elvis Presley. James Bacon, also had word from Memphis Mafia and one of Elvis Presley’s closest associated Red West, that it was indeed Elvis on this recordings, who gave a hand to an old friend—Jerry Lee Lewis. Sometimes in the 1960s, at the end of one of the songs, you can hear Jerry Lee Lewis also clearly asking “Man, you’re ready for tonight, Elvis?” Jerry Lee
Lewis did not comment on the release of “Duets”. One letter received, stated that the voice belonged to an impersonator or soundalike named Jimmy Ellis who would soon make some more news. But James Bacon refused to believe, that anyone else except Elvis could sing that way. Plus, he insisted that Jerry Lee Lewis did not need Publicity gags like this. Most likely, Jerry Lee Lewis was not even asked of the enhanced re-release of some of his vintage SUN recording output. Some letters also wrote that it was recorded after 16 August 1977, that Elvis might have faked his death … In 1979, Gail Brewer-Giorgio which was just awaiting publication of her novel “Orion”, received a mysterious phone call. The voice seemed to belong to Elvis Presley, but the man introduced himself as Orion. When Gail insisted that Orion was a work of fiction, the reply on the other line insisted: “I know that I’m Orion, I was born today.” The call had come from Shelby Singleton’s offices at SUN Studios in Nashville/Tennessee. It did not belong to a character of fiction, which came to life, but to the mysterious singer on “Duets” whom so many had believed to be Elvis Presley—his name was Jimmy Ellis.
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