As I sat watching "Orion: The Man Who Would Be King", I kept wondering if this film was a mockumentary...a fake documentary about a person that never actually existed. So I checked and it turns out he was definitely a real semi-celebrity and his albums are still available through Amazon! Funny...but I never heard about this guy before seeing this documentary.
This film is about a guy named Jimmy Ellis a guy who sounded remarkably like Elvis when he sang. Because of this and an obscure book about a singer named 'Orion", a sleazy promoter got a great idea to put a mask on Jimmy, have him grow his hair like Elvis and then let people THINK he was Elvis and Elvis had actually NOT died. Now they never, ever said he was Elvis...but they certainly did a lot to imply it and let people believe it because they wanted to. Now this never resulted in mega-stardom for Ellis (his highest charting song was #63) but he had a steady stream of super-devoted fans. The only trouble is, Jimmy didn't want to be a faux Elvis...he wanted folks to like him for himself. So what's next? Well, I won't say other than the story is pretty sad...and something you certainly don't NEED to see. Mildly interesting and not much more.
This film is about a guy named Jimmy Ellis a guy who sounded remarkably like Elvis when he sang. Because of this and an obscure book about a singer named 'Orion", a sleazy promoter got a great idea to put a mask on Jimmy, have him grow his hair like Elvis and then let people THINK he was Elvis and Elvis had actually NOT died. Now they never, ever said he was Elvis...but they certainly did a lot to imply it and let people believe it because they wanted to. Now this never resulted in mega-stardom for Ellis (his highest charting song was #63) but he had a steady stream of super-devoted fans. The only trouble is, Jimmy didn't want to be a faux Elvis...he wanted folks to like him for himself. So what's next? Well, I won't say other than the story is pretty sad...and something you certainly don't NEED to see. Mildly interesting and not much more.