Elvis died 29 years ago tomorrow, but he continues to appear in more movies each year than any of today's top box office draws.

Of course, most of these appearances are fleeting, cinematic shout-outs. Still, they indicate that Elvis Presley continues to loom large in the pop-culture consciousness.

If 29 isn't a particularly notable anniversary, how about this number: This story represents The Commercial Appeal's tenth annual survey of "Elvis Allusions in the Movies."

From Elvis Tribute Week 2005 to Elvis Tribute Week 2006, I took note of each Elvis reference I saw in a movie screened theatrically in Memphis. I counted 27 such allusions, although several occurred in local productions unlikely to be seen outside of the city.

As usual, Elvis took many forms. In "The King," his name had symbolic meaning; in "Walk the Line," he was an actual character in the movie; in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," he was a sight gag. In other words, Elvis, as always, means whatever you want him to mean.

Here's the list:

In the grim "The King," which opened Friday at Malco's Ridgeway Four (just in time to make this list), talented young Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal is an ex-sailor named Elvis (the movie's title also has a religious meaning).

Donny EdwardsDonny Edwards majored in computer science in college and was working as retail manager of a Target store in Texas when a lifelong love of Elvis Presley finally caught up with him, nudging him into what he once thought of as a joke for people who "lived in their own reality."

Edwards, 31, of Lake Jackson, Texas, became one of the top Elvis tribute artists in the country, making a full-time living as the '50s Elvis and the leather-clad Elvis of TV's 1968 "Comeback Special."

He joins two more of the country's best-known Elvis acts, Shawn Klush and Irv Cass, at 8 tonight in Graceland's first in-house production of Elvis tribute artists at Memphis Marriott East.

A feature event of Elvis Week 2006, commemorating the singer's death on Aug. 16, 1977, the show represents the first time Elvis Presley Enterprises is producing its own "Elvis Tribute Artist Showcase," entering an arena once considered taboo for the company that has always been the one true purveyor of the one and only Elvis.

"We represent the real thing, the genuine article," says Graceland spokesman Todd Morgan.

When Elvis Presley and Pat Boone met in 1955, it was an awkward backstage encounter at a sock hop in Cleveland, Ohio. Boone's cover of Fats Domino's "Ain't That A Shame" was a No. 1 hit record.

Elvis had recorded "That's All Right" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" for Sun Records in Memphis, but they were local hits with very little airplay outside the Mid-South. He was turning heads as an act on the Louisiana Hayride, but Elvis wasn't yet a star.

In Cleveland, he was an opening act for Boone, an encounter Boone will talk about Saturday as an Elvis tribute week panel member. Boone, who would become a friend and eventually a neighbor to Elvis, will share his memories as part of the Elvis Insiders Conference at 10 a.m. Saturday at Memphis Marriott East.

The conference is part of Elvis Week 2006, Elvis Presley Enterprises' annual observation of the singer's death on Aug. 16, 1977. Elvis' Graceland mansion on Elvis Presley Boulevard is the hub for a series of tribute activities Aug. 8 to 16. (See calendar this page.)

"I had heard 'That's All Right' and 'Blue Moon of Kentucky,' and I said, 'He's a hillbilly. Do you think he's going to do all right?' " Boone said in a recent telephone interview from California.

It wasn't fine china for President Bush and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on their visit Friday to the Rendezvous. They ate their lunch from paper plates and used plastic utensils just like regular customers.

Inside the homey, back-alley restaurant, Bush cleaned his plate of barbecue ribs and washed it down with a Diet Coke. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, who had the barbecue nachos and water, sat alongside Bush and belted out his favorite Elvis tune, "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" with The Dempseys.

As smoke steamed from the charcoal grill outside of the alley, patient onlookers stood in the summer heat and crowded along Union and Third. No one knew where or when the president would exit the restaurant, but they hoped for a quick glimpse.

Across the street, Memphis native Mark Logan and wife Darline peeked around a black Secret Service GMC for three hours, just to see the president.

"I've been playing detective all day trying to see this man," Darline Logan said as she wiped sweat from her forehead . "His protection is insane and really hard to get around."

Streets around the restaurant - Third, Second, Monroe and Union - were blocked off by more than 50 police officers while Bush and Koizumi enjoyed their meal.

The chemistry between President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has been the stuff of a warm and fuzzy, 1950s-era beach blanket flick.

Koizumi strutted and gyrated as if he had channeled Elvis while a bemused Bush looked on from Graceland's shrine-like confines on Friday.

However, beyond the pomp and pompadours, the Memphis visit was a carefully orchestrated symbol of thanks to an outgoing leader of the world's second largest economy for supporting Bush on issues like the war in Iraq and terrorism.

It's also a tactical move for Bush who, while cultivating close relationships with now-departing heads of state, finds himself besieged with criticism on domestic and international fronts.

Likewise, Koizumi's theatrical warbling of Elvis tunes and flirting with Lisa Marie Presley were more about maintaining his affable public persona as he hammed it up for the press pool.

"I don't think he's doing this because he likes ... music and he and Bush get along," said James Auer, director of Vanderbilt University's Center for U.S.-Japan Studies and Cooperation. "He's doing this because it's in Japan's best interests."

Ironically, both nations' mutual interests were strengthened just after the Sept. 11 attacks when Japan supported the United States by backing efforts in Afghanistan and sending 600 peacekeeping troops to Iraq.

Koizumi who, like Bush, had only been in office a few months, found a kindred spirit in the man he compares to Gary Cooper in "High Noon."

During their Memphis visit, the two goofed around in the mansion's famous Jungle Room and posed for pictures near Elvis' pink Cadillac.

"Their friendship has been buttressed by their common ground," said Yinan He, a professor of security studies at Seton Hall's Whitehead School of Diplomacy and International Relations in New Jersey.