We like to thank all of the Elvisfans for their support throughout the year 2009. With the premiere of "My Life With Elvis & The Colonel" by Charles Stone during the 100th anniversary of Colonel Parker's birthday party in Breda, The Netherlands, Praytome Publishing received great feedback.

The "Follow That Dream"-label released the 2CD Set "Dixieland Delight" this year in conjunction with "Bud Glass Productions" and "Praytome Publishing". The Multimedia Box set that goes along with that set and which has the focus on the 5 performances in Huntsville could not be completed in 2009. It's a huge project which will be released in 4 differenten stages and you can imagine that there is an enormous amount of work and with more than 20 interview partners. To co-ordinate and compile the material (footage, pictures and memorabilia) from the collections of additional contributors and collectors is not only a big task but we feel that we have to do it with great responsibility. We do understand that you are excited about this set, but we are, too! So with 2010 being the 35th anniversary of the Huntsville Shows we try our best to release this set and share it with the world.

To all of you and your family members: Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2010!

Bud Glass is known for his book & DVD series "Elvis - Behind The Image" as well as author of several other projects like "Elvis - Adrenaline", "Elvis - Born To Rock" or the upcoming "Dixieland Delight" Multimedia Box set.

Russ Howe is known for his huge collection of candid photos on Elvis, some of them can be seen on his website:
www.kingcandids.com

Bud Glass and Russ Howe have also a vast collection of items that belonged once to Elvis Presley. These items along with additional material from the collection of other Elvis-collectors are presented as "The King's Ransom Museum - Personal Treasures of Elvis Presley".

The museum toured not only the U.S. but was also on tour in major cities in Europe, e.g. in Berlin, Germany in August 2007.

On October 21, 2009 the museum will open its doors at the famous "Imperial Palace" Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

"My Years With Elvis & The Colonel" - Review

The latest issue of the ElvisMatters fanclub magazine covers the event "100 Years of Colonel Parker- 1000 times Elvis" which took place in June 2009 in Breda, The Netherlands.

During this event the latest release "My Years With Elvis & The Colonel" by Charles Stone was presented by members of the "Praytome Publishing" - team.

The magazine features a double-sided review in Dutch language. Unfortunately we don't have a translation yet, but we will keep you updated as soon as we get one.

In the CD / DVD Review section you find a summary about the FTD release of "Dixieland Delight".

Despite all rumours on the internet and messageboards the MultiMediaBox set by "Praytome Publishing" is not out yet.

Being back from Memphis where ElvisWeek 2009 took place we will have some great news for you with our next update. So stay tuned!

Peter Beines interviews Ed Bonja about the cover shot for the album "As Recorded at Madison Square Garden

On Saturday, September 5th, the event "Elvis-Classic" was held at the "Börse" in Wuppertal, Germany . Entertainer, "King Eddy", and his big band, "Vegas Connection", presented a rock ‘n roll concert of Elvis songs.

The highlight of the evening was having two original Elvis VIPs on hand. Glen D. Hardin, who worked for Elvis from 1970-75, accompanied more than 20 songs that evening and received big applause by the audience.

Ed Bonja, former tourmanager for Elvis and official photographer of the Elvis Presley Show from 1970-77, presented more than 30 different images of the king. Most of the 1970's album and single cover shots show Elvis photos taken by Ed Bonja.

During the intermission of the concert, there was a 20 minute interview with Glen D. Hardin and Ed Bonja.

Both Glen and Ed expressed surprise that more than 30 years after Elvis' passing, he is still making new fans. Back in 1977, they never thought that this could be possible one day.

As long as the fans are there and want to hear Elvis' music or have general interest in Elvis' life, Bonja and Hardin agreed, that they are happy to share their memories about Elvis and to keep on answering questions from the fans.

Ed Bonja, the official photographer and
tourmanager for Elvis Presley started working
for Praytome Publishing more than a year ago


"Elvis On Tour '72 - Covering The Nation"
is the working title for the first Ed
Bonja book by Praytome Publishing

"Praytome Publishing" has become famous for its world-wide book and DVD publications such as, “Behind The Image" (in co-operation with Bud Glass Productions) and "Elvis – Adrenaline".

In a very short time, this company has made an extremely positive name in the Elvis World. The expertise of the knowledgeable staff members is evident in the content of their publications.

Elvis fans are the lucky recipients of unpublished photographs, photographs which have been restored by their expert graphic artist and very rare Super 8 footage of Elvis, which has been expertly transferred and enhanced, using state-of-the-art procedures, so as to provide optimum quality to the fans.

Ed Bonja wrote the foreword for Sue McCasland’s book, “World’s Best Kept Secret - Elvis live Del Webb’s Sahara Tahoe". Ed has since become a member of the Praytome Publishing team as a fulltime employee and technical advisor.

With his experiences, expertise and special inside knowledge about Elvis and the Elvis history, he can contribute in a unique way to the team’s productions. Additionally, in the context of his work, Ed had a very special, inside view of the world of Colonel Parker. It was the Colonel who invited Ed to bring his camera on tour to take photos of Elvis; so, Ed took nearly 10,000 photographs of Elvis, as well as of other events that took place during the tours.

With the current project, “Multimedia Box Set - Dixieland Delight," Ed has been acting as an advisor, and some of his photos will become part of the artwork for the box set.

Because the “Praytome Publishing" team works on several projects at the same time, the work on Ed Bonja’s own book has already started, with the working title "Elvis on Tour '72 - Covering The Nation".

Being a Praytome Publishing project, it is certain that the pictures will go through a complex restoration process and that the release will not be a regular picture book, but will contain never-before-told anecdotes by Ed, himself.

Because high-quality cameras and films were still very expensive for fans in the early 1970’s, we have few good live shots of Elvis from this period of his career. Because most fans used the then-popular Instamatic Cameras, Elvis can be seen, for the most part, as only a thumbnail or just a small, white mark on the print. Because photographers such as George Hill, Keith Alverson, Shean Shaver or the recently-deceased Harold Newton used 35mm cameras, fans were, for the first time, introduced to very good quality photos.

A rumor has persisted that “Praytome Publishing" has been working on a book with live shots from the year 1972. Today, we gladly put this rumor to rest with the announcement that we have, indeed, begun work on such a book: “Elvis Covering the Nation ’72.”

The work began several weeks ago with the photographs of Ed Bonja, the official Tour Manager and Photographer for the Elvis Presley Show during the 1970’s. Bonja’s photos are well known world-wide, because Colonel Tom Parker chose many of his photos as cover shots for Elvis’ LP Albums and Singles. Bonja met Elvis for the first time during the shooting of "Girl Happy" in 1964 and later worked with the king on tours during the 70's, as well as in Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe, where he took over 8,000 photos of Elvis and the tour happenings. Many of these photos remain unpublished even today.

As you can see, our team works on several projects at the same time, giving Elvis fans the highest possible quality, including perfectly restored negatives and transparencies and as much information as possible for the never before published pictures.

The team of Praytome Publishing can hardly wait to complete this project and present it to the world.

Charles Stone, former tourmanager of Elvis Presley and employee of Concerts West, has written a book about his years with Elvis and the Colonel. The latest book by Praytome Publishing premiered during the celebration of the Colonel's 100th birthday in Breda last month.

Charles has been visiting Graceland recently and was portrayed on the official EPE Website (see picture above). Was he wearing the same sunglasses than he did for the covershot of his book ? Who knows...

However, if you are going to Memphis this summer you will find Charles' book in the Graceland Shops. Probably Mr. Stone will be also in town and on this website you will find the announcement of his schedule for apperances and special book signings.

The book is available now and you can place your order online and email us your address so we can provide you payment instructions!

Last weekend, the 3rd German Elvis Festival in Rostock took place. The Open Air - event (www.remember-elvis.de) was well organized; and everyone there enjoyed the fun and laughter. All in all, the atmosphere was great! The main attractions for Elvisfans were the four original Elvis VIPs:

* Hollywood actrice, Cynthia Pepper, who worked with Elvis in his MGM motion picture "Kissin' Cousins"

* Ed Bonja, Tourmanager and official photographer for the Elvis Presley Show

* Dick Grob, chief of the security and member of the Memphis Mafia

* Sam Thompson, former police officer and bodyguard for Elvis Presley

According to the host, there were over 2120 visitors to the event; and all had the opportunity to buy the latest CD and book releases and souvenirs from the Elvis dealers.
There was a drawing in which everyone got a chance to win products that where sponsored by Praytome Publishing.
The Elvis VIPs were accessible to everyone and had a great time answering fans’ questions and fulfilling requests from autograph seekers. A lot of fans took the day to get their copy of the new Praytome Publishing release, “My Years With Elvis & The Colonel,” signed by Sam Thompson who contributed the foreword for the book.