24 Hour Church of Elvis: Encyclopedia - 24 Hour Church of Elvis

24 Hour Church of Elvis

The 24 Hour Church of Elvis was a museum and gift shop in Portland, Oregon, USA, run by artist Stephanie G. Pierce.

The original location (1109 SW Washington), which operated from 1985-1986, had a single coin-operated fortune-telling machine accessible from the street, elaborate window displays, and art available for purchase inside.

The second location (219 SW Ankeny, 1987-1994), the entire store front was itself a work of art, and included several custom-built coin-operated automated machines that would dispense (or not) various trinkets, pamphlets, fortunes, etc. for prices ranging from 25 cents to a dollar. Some machines ran on Apple II computers, and included crude graphics and speech synthesis. These machines were always accessible, hence the first part of the name. Other items by the artist were available inside the store when it was open. Also inside, one would often find the street performer called "Elvis" who would play a few songs in his sequined jumpsuit and thick, dark-rimmed glasses. This performer is still a regular fixture at Portland Saturday Market.

The third location (720 SW Washington, 1994-2002) was devoted primarily towards 1970s popular culture memorabilia. It was on the second floor and lacked any of the coin-operated machines of the older locations, although several cut-out holes in the first floor of the building hinted that they were intended to be installed at this location, but never were. The museum offered legal weddings for $25 and "cheap, not legal" weddings for $5. The fake weddings could be same sex and consisted of riding around the block in a wheeled "altar" known as the Loveseat Chariot, which was adorned with pieces of Barbie dolls and stickers featuring 1970s celebrities. Despite the name, The 24 Hour Church was not open 24 hours, as indicated by a sign on the door which read "24 Hour Church of Elvis: Usually open Noon to 5, 8 - 11 a lot. Call (503) 226-3671 for reassurance".

Extensive history and documentation can be found at the 24 Hour Church of Elvis website.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "24 Hour Church of Elvis", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki