In the late 1950s, Elvis was the most famous entertainer in the world, but nowhere as popular as in his native South. In the later years of his career, his audience in other parts of the country centered on the original "fifties" fans whose youth was defined by Elvis. In the lower or working class, people who saw Elvis as a glamorous image of their own values. In the South, however, Elvis' popularity tends to transcend age barriers. Class lines that were themselves less recognizable in a region where almost no one is more than a generation or two from poverty, and where "class" in small communities might have more to do with family and status passed only with money. Among Southern youth, Elvis was not a relic of a musical past; he was still one of the driving forces of southern rock which, although now different from his own, still echoes the rhythms that his music had fused outside the region. His numerous concerts in the South could not exhaust the potential audience. When he died, prominent Southern politicians and ministers joined people in the streets to eulogize him. Local radio and television stations aired their specials in addition to syndicated or national programs. Halftime ceremonies at the Liberty Bowl honored him. When someone said on national television that the Presleys were “white trash,” it was a regional insult, not just a personal one. The white South expressed love, sorrow, and praise for Elvis from every age group and virtually every level of social, intellectual, and economic structures. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Some critics attribute the romantic myth of Elvis to the intelligence of Colonel Parker, his manager, and to the cooperation of Elvis himself. This would be oversimplifying a complex phenomenon and misinterpreting the pure myth-making of a generation as simply a clever “sales” campaign. For anyone less important than Elvis, the path advised by Colonel Parker, through stupid films and meaningless music, would have been the path to certain oblivion. The 1968 Black Leather special saved Elvis from this, but allegedly against the advice of Parker, who wanted the show to consist entirely of Christmas music. Elvis, pursued by the myth and under pressure to confirm it, remained discreet and never said anything to the public. The colonel was clever enough to promote the myth, but it was the genuine work of a society that needed a legend to justify the identification it felt with such a figure. After Elvis' death, the Brentwood, Tennessee, historical society even provided Presley's genealogy. The family was, of course, entirely respectable, producing "renowned professors, doctors, judges, ministers" in each generation until poverty crushed them during Reconstruction. Elvis created a beautiful illusion, a fantasy that excluded nothing. The opposite was true. The fascination was the reality that always manifested itself through illusion – the illusion of wealth and the psyche of poverty; the illusion of success and the pinch of ridicule; the illusion of invincibility and the tragedy of fragility; the illusion of total control and the reality of inner chaos.