(309) ROD LAUREN RECORDS a COUPLE JIMMY BOWEN - WES BRYAN SONGS

ROD LAUREN was, like me promoted to be an actor as well as a singer. And the exploration of space continued to fascinate the American public, then as it does now. (Scientist Stephen Hawkings recently said that alien life is out there and we do not want to meet it!)

ROD LAUREN RECORDED TWO SONGS that JIMMY BOWEN and me wrote, "Tender Love" and "Why Can't I Win Your Love?"

He was on RCA and Steve Shoals, the same man who signed Elvis Presley to RCA in about 1955, was the producer on these two songs of ours.

ROD is one of the actors in this space romp meets the beach party!
(Christine here: I called Wes and said "I think I found a video - did Rod do a movie? Wes laughed and started yelling THE HAND THE HAND! - it's a cult classic!"

HENRY Z. JONES, Actor, Singer, and Genealogist, on ELVIS PRESLEY

This is from PSYCHIC ROOTS, Serendipity and Intuition in Genealogy, by Henry Z. Jones, C 1993, and published by Genealogical Publishing House in Baltimore.

This book is about how researchers sometimes find or get information needed during a roots quest through paranormal means, such as dreams, visions, hunches, odd coincidences, synchronicity, and serendipity.

Henry was an actor in Hollywood for some time - his first career - and was on Tennessee Ernie Ford's show. He says that he was an Elvis Fan and he and his partner tried to style their voices on Elvis for some time. They were signed by the same man who produced Elvis in his RCA Victor years, Steve Sholes. Henry got involved in intense research on the Palantine German's, Germans who went to Ireland and then the United States, and is now a Fellow of the American Genealogical Society. One of the families he research is the Pressler's, who are Elvis' ancestors (and the origin of his family name)! Henry says that several of Elvis' key band members played on their sessions and his very first role was on MGM's "Girl Happy," which starred Elvis. He was thrilled and Elvis "Couldn't have been nicer to me."

So here is what happened to Henry while he was watching - in grief - when CBS- Television showed the last filmed concert of Elvis', which had occurred October 3, 1977.

"As I sat back in my chair, stressed out but determined somehow to watch Elvis' final appearances, I felt an unknown energy almost an electricity, pulsing throughout my living room. It was so strong, I could almost touch it. Then, at the very mini second the show began, a large framed picture of my daughter, hanging on the wall opposite my chair, crashed to the floor with a gigantic boom. In all my years of living in that house no picture had ever fallen and none ever did again."