September 1979, Georgia, USA

In a packed high school auditorium in the music-loving city of Athens, hundreds gathered side by side waiting anxiously for the tall, black-haired singer sporting a half-buttoned down blue satin shirt with matching pants and a wide shiny gold belt.

As the rockabilly tunes of “Let’s Go Jukin’” filled the room, the singer grabbed the microphone, gyrated his hips, and screams of delight erupts from the women in the crowd.

The husky baritone enchanted men and women alike with warm, seductive lyrics delivered from behind a half-hidden face. His eyes framed by a satin sequined mask.

But it wasn’t his eyes that captured the crowd, or the mask. It was his voice.

Not only when he sang, but when he spoke, his voice bore an uncanny resemblance to none other than “The King” himself, Elvis Presley.

It had only been two years since the world learned the devastating news of the death of Elvis Aaron Presley. The man who through decades fundamentally changed American music and pop culture was found dead on the bathroom floor at his Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

And while millions of people worldwide still mourned the tragic loss of Tupelo’s famous son, this masked singer - a Lone Ranger of country music - sparked to life the myth that the King of Rock’n’roll may still be alive.

If not Elvis, who else could it be behind the mask?

The show in 1979 was the beginning of a “reality surpasses fiction” story of the masked singer Orion, who in many ways was the incarnation of both the splendour and the harrowing of a star on the rise. A story of opportunism, desolate fans and a man, who wanted nothing but to be recognized for his talent.

It is the also the story of the first of many attempts to resurrect Elvis.

And this saturday it’ll happen again in Jyske Bank Boxen, Herning, where the Czech National Symphony Orchestra will perform the liveshow “Elvis - The Wonder of You” featuring recordings of The King on the big screen.

Across the Deep South, radio stations were introduced to Orion in 1979. His first single “Ebony Eyes” was a cover of the Everly Brothers’ tear-jerking classic by the same name and left more than a bit of doubt as to who the voice on the record belonged to.

A note that came with the single had the following message:

“This one will cause talk, discussions, lies, speculations, arguments, tears, laughter, bets, winners, losers, love, hate, life, death.”
It was signed by Shelby Singleton, owner of Sun International Corp., the company that was known for the record label Sun Records, which kicked off Presley’s career.

At a time, where the hits of tomorrow first and foremost was played on the radio, it proved difficult to tell the difference between Orion and Elvis.

Orion performed all over the continental U.S., wearing flamboyant white embroidered and studded suits. With a charming southern drawl, the masked singer tirelessly answered the question:

Who are you and where did you come from?

The answer was usually:

- Orion Eckley Darnell, born in December 1931, grew up in the small town of Ribbonsville, Tennessee.

It didn’t take long for the lenses to zoom in on the mysterious singer. Magazines, newspapers and TV stations began speculating on the identity of Orion, and his debut album, titled “Reborn”, only fueled the attention.

The album was sent to radio stations in a surprising cover - a drawing of Orion standing by a coffin wearing a cape and his mask, a microphone in hand. His message was not subtle.

In the sleeve were newspaper clippings with headlines such as “Did Elvis stage his own death” and an advertisement for a book titled “Orion”.

The book, as it turns out, played a significant role in the story of Orion.

The album cover was not well received among many fans and station disc jockeys, so “Reborn” was later reissued with a picture of Orion instead.

In spite of the controversy Singleton still believed in the gimmick.

There was Sinatra of the 40s, Elvis of the 50s, The Beatles of the 60s, but there’s no one now. The public is looking for someone to fill that void. Orion is as electrifying as Elvis without being Elvis. I think he’ll be the superstar of the 80’s, said Singleton to the The Macon Telegraph in november 1979.

But neither the controversial cover nor the wild theories and speculations seemed to deter the growing popularity of Orion.

The lengths of the tours that placed him on the bill with country greats such as Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and the Oak Ridge Boys, increased and expanded across the Atlantic to several countries in Europe.

The guesswork continued while Orion avoided answering directly whether or not he was indeed the legend of rock ’n’ roll incarnated.

But no good question goes unanswered, and just as it is impossible to locate the fictional hometown of Ribbonsville on a map, there was of course no person named Orion Eckley Darnell.

At least not in real life.

Orion Eckley Darnell was the name of a literary character in the previous mentioned book “Orion - The Living Super Star of Song,” written by a Georgia housewife.

In the novel, a handsome but poor young southern man is transformed into a charismatic rock ’n’ roll star. But in order to escape the choking hold of fame, he stages his own death and drives off into the sunset.

And the masked man - this Lone Ranger of country music - who was well on his way to achieving stardom was the incarnation of the character in the book.

When asked, the singer repeated everything that was in the book.

Not only was he a young southern man with striking looks and pitch black hair, he also had a home called Dixieland and a three letter motto STC: Success Takes Courage.

Sounds familiar? Maybe this rings a bell: Elvis Aaron Presley’s motto consists of the letters TCB: Taking Care of Business and his home is called Graceland.

Behind Orion was a man who in the business had gained a reputation for his somewhat unorthodox ways of promoting artists.

In 1969, producer and label owner Shelby Singleton took over the legendary Sun Records, the hotbed for the glorious careers of not just Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis but the shiniest star of all: Elvis.

The legend’s untimely death transformed him into an icon, worshipped religiously, and anything in the proximity of this was all of a sudden a potential goldmine.

In Orion, Shelby Singleton saw an opportunity for Sun Records, that in the meantime was moved from Memphis to Nashville, the capital of country music.

The place where it all began is still there.

A white, inconspicuous building on Belmont Boulevard a short drive from downtown. But gone is the touch of musical magic from the studio that “Superstar of the 80’s” once called home.

The silver microphone stands, the guitar and the drums are long gone. From the floor up are shelves filled with mugs, keychains, pens, patches, stickers and shirts - all with the iconic yellow Sun logo.

Selling and distributing merchandise is an important part of the Sun Corporation, explains John Singleton, Shelby’s brother and longtime business partner.

The short, gray-haired man with black glasses and black T-shirt recalls how his brother came up with an idea to promote the unknown talent they came across in the early 70’s.

He never had a formal plan, he says, and he never imagined that they were able to promote Orion Eckley Darnell so successfully for that long.

Controversial? Perhaps. But really, it was just a matter of good timing, according to John Singleton.

Who was he then?

This man who catapulted to stardom knowingly giving up any personal recognition in order to step into the limelight as the enigmatic personality Orion Eckley Darnell.

Part of the answer is found in small town Orrville in South Alabama.

Raised on a farm Jimmy Ellis was taught how to train horses at an early age and was expected to take over the family business.

Not only did the young handsome Ellis have a knack for training horses, he was also a very talented ballplayer and spent his school years on the football and baseball field. He was even offered a chance to join a professional baseball team by the Milwaukee Braves.

But according to old friends more than anything Jimmy wanted to sing and seized every opportunity to do so.

So naturally, it was his love of music that triumphed and after several attempts to launch a career in the music business - a journey that took him from Florida to California - he set sail for Nashville.

Where a heavy blanket of penetrating sounds from a slide guitar covers the dusty main street, and words of heartbreak, pickup trucks and dirt roads flow from every opening there is.

This is where everyone with a guitar is just a fringe and a bootheel away from the big break.

So how do you stand out from the crowd in Music City?

You agree to wear a mask and hope that it’ll only be a short-term gimmick until you’ve captured the crowd.

This, at least, is the explanation from a man who claims to have been Orion’s best friend for 19 years.

Steve Kelley met his friend in 1979, when Jimmy Ellis performed under the name Orion.
Steve Kelley quickly ended up being his road manager.

He has agreed to meet in Hendersonville, near an exit off of Veterans’ Parkway, about 35 minutes north of Nashville. This is where the tour bus of the Oak Ridge Boys is parked.

Steve Kelley still puts thousands of miles behind him on the road, but his unkempt, gray locks are a testament to the fact that a lot of water has run under the bridge since the days touring with Orion.

He tells in great detail the story of Jimmy Ellis, a successful horse farmer who took over the family business in the small town of Orrville, Alabama. A man who for more than 10 years chased a career as a romantic southern crooner with a love of rockabilly and nostalgic love songs.

Meeting Shelby Singleton was the opportunity he so desperately had waited for, despite the fact that he did not appreciate the mask idea.

But his options were limited. He could take a chance and become the mysterious voice duplicate or spend another decade in the cul-de-sac of the Nashville music scene.

- I don’t think he thought that it would get to that. I think he thought that he would do a couple of shows, get the foot in the door, and then he could put his jeans back on and everybody would like him, says Steve Kelley.

To Shelby Singleton, it was imperative to keep Jimmy Ellis’ identity a secret. The mystery sold out shows and records. Besides the debut album, Reborn, Sun Records released another six albums before 1981, covering a variety of genres, including country, rockabilly, gospel and love ballads.

In retrospect it’s hard to imagine how anyone, even for a minute, could believe that this man was Elvis.

You would have to be more than a little eccentric to ignore the obvious - that Jimmy Ellis physically did not resemble Elvis Presley. For one, Ellis was 4-5 inches taller than Presley.

Maybe that didn’t really matter much. Because that voice was something else.

But a dark shadow was cast on the musical masquerade, and Jimmy Ellis was haunted by the Faust-like agreement he made.

Tired of the constant comparison, he would send his onstage clothes to the tailor because the collars were too big and “Elvis-like.”

But Steve Kelley recalls a conversation they had. Jimmy asked him how much he was actually like Elvis when he wasn’t on stage.
Having met Elvis, Kelley was able to ensure his friend that he was in fact nothing like Elvis. However, Jimmy Ellis was a spitting image of Elvis’ father, Vernon Presley.

- I haven’t met two people, personalities, that were more alike than those two, says Steve Kelley and continues.

- This was of course before I knew, that there could actually be a connection.

The contract with Sun Records was headed toward an unavoidable demise, and the obstinate Ellis more than once walked out in public without the mask.

Gone also were the studded suits, traded instead for jeans, shirts and sports coats, and he grew a beard.

There is some uncertainty as to when it happened exactly, but most people claim that it was at the end of 1981.

During a show in Ohio, Ellis finally tore off the mask and revealed his face.

The secret was out.

The contract with Sun Records expired in 1982, and Singleton and Jimmy Ellis parted ways.
But this was not the end of Orion or the condemned mask.

With a smile on his face, Jimmy Ellis later explained to television host Ralph Emery in an interview during Nashville Now in 1985:

- All this time I had the mask on, people told me to take it off. When I finally did, they wanted me to put it back on.

During the following years, Jimmy Ellis took his career in a different direction.

With different management, he still performed as Orion, but tried desperately to distance himself from the role as an Elvis impersonator. On different labels, he used different names: Ellis, Cadillac Man, Steven Silver and Ellis James.

Even though he no longer wore the mask, stepping out from the shadow of the legend who played such a big part in his success, proved to be hard. There was no getting away from the comparison, and Jimmy was sick of it, according to his son Jim.

The 46-year-old plumb, at times sullen man, who lives at the end of a long dusty road just off of highway 22 in Orrville, Alabama.

This was where the Ellis farm once was,. Where Jimmy Ellis learned all there is to know about training horses, where his parents Mary Kaye and Furniss lived and where his son Jim Ellis Jr. grew up.

When the farm burned down a few years back, Jim Ellis Jr. build a huge wooden house on the Ellis property. This is where he lives. All by himself.

Through his story of a father who his entire life fought the title of Elvis impersonator, it quite quickly becomes obvious that he thinks very little of the “corrupt world” that is the music business.

- How can he be an impersonator when it’s his natural voice, he asks several times, each time slightly more annoyed.

On the walls of the big house that resembles a luxurious ski lodge are pictures of the Ellis family - and their servants - and from both the kitchen counter and the massive recliner chair in the middle of the room is a perfect view of the giant flatscreen TV above the fireplace.

Jim Ellis doesn’t sit while he talks. He walks around, does the dishes, opens the fridge and grabs another beer while his use of profanities increases. The contracts his father signed were pacts with the devil, he says.

During the 80’s his father ended up embracing the image that he had spent years trying to get away from and finally performed Elvis’ songs at several tribute shows.

He even went on stage with Elvis’ former backing group, The Jordanaires.

He calls it a dog-eat-dog world, the music business.

That’s why he stays away from it, he explains, while telling the story of one of the big TV broadcasters that digitally matched his father to Elvis.

And, he adds, if you look at pictures of Vernon Presley and Jimmy Ellis, they’re identical.

So far Jim Ellis Jr. has shown little interest in exploring the family history, all though he won’t rule out any connection to the Presley family.

But now he says he at least wants a copy of his father’s birth certificate.

You can get it by filling out a simple application at the Vital Records office in Jackson MS. But Jim wants this to go through his attorney.

Enough people have knocked on his door wanting things from him, he says.

He says he does not want the attention. His gruff, at times testy manner makes that particular statement very believable.

Understandable as well.

He has received plenty of eccentric phone calls from people who tell him that his dad is Elvis or that Elvis is buried somewhere on his property.

Preposterous and unbelievable notions that more than anything bear witness to the adulation, the myth of Elvis generates.

Jimmy Ellis, however talented he was, will probably never inspire the same religious following as the King himself.

But a quick internet search reveals a surprisingly large and extremely devoted fan base, where the fans spend an enormous amount of time trading anecdotes and admiration for the man who existed in the shadows of the king - a man whose voice was both a blessing and a curse.

As the years went by, Jimmy Ellis wasn’t out on the road as much.

He never gave up on music, but spend increasingly more time in hometown Orrville where he had a bail bond business and a pawn shop.

One morning in december 1998, when Jimmy Ellis went to open up his pawn shop, he was shot and killed during a robbery.

He was 53 years old.

On 11. oktober 2000, 23 year- old Jeffrey Lee was sentenced to death for the murders of Jimmy Ellis and Jimmy’s ex-wife Elaine Thompson, who was working at the pawn shop during the robbery in 1998.

Today, Jeffrey Lee, is one of approx 155 inmates on death row in Holman Correctional Facility, close to Mobile in South Alabama. More than once, he has tried to get his sentence revised or overturned. He received his latest rejection earlier this year.