12.05.2024
The unique thing about our business is. it is. such a family dominated type of business. of course there's kim who's actually the. other half of the business i call her. the bosses boss. it's pretty much a familyoriented. business butch started the business. basically on his own. and then i kind of jumped in with him. helping him out. making the costumes and taking over the. bookkeeping end of it. and then of course our son he's very. artistic so he. jumped in he started helping us on. weekends and in. evenings doing the stud work and things. like that. when i was a kid the way i got my. allowance was to help them. with the costumes they would have me. help them. to put the studs on and you know i would. get 15 20. something like that it was an easy. transition to go from that. to a fulltime job because you know. it just came naturally to me because i.
Was doing that when i was really small. and then as the business has gotten. bigger. my father started helping with the belt. buckle end of it. he has made our belt buckles and or the. hinge devices for the buckles for a. number. of years. even my niece works for us. she does a lot of the loading things for. us. then you've got people like joyce that. she does a lot of the eagle suits and. all. she's been with us she's from probably. 1990 on off and on she left us for a. little while. and went came back. then of course you've got rob the young. man. with the red hair that works for us he's. he was michael's. good friend and that's how we recruited. him and. bland who also does a lot of our macrame. work and. he we recruited him through michael. because he was a good friend to michael. but it hasn't been until the past few.
Years that. it's actually become as big a part of my. life as it is. michael's got pretty much hands on in a. lot of the business now he's. growing up and becoming a very. responsible young man and. taking an interest in all different. areas of the business. but i had no idea it would get this big. i don't think any of us had any idea it. would just keep growing like it has. you know or or evolve into this thing. with elvis presley enterprises that was. pretty much a surprise to us about two. or three years ago when we really. started. talking to them we started thinking. seriously that maybe at some time. we would get involved with them you know. in some serious. form but up until then. we had no idea that it would ever turn. into what it has turned into. a bk has done such a wonderful job with. replicating elvis costumes and.
Maintaining a stellar level of quality. and authenticity so really i i. think the sky's the limit there's just. an endless amount of ideas of things we. can do together. who knew we'd make stuff you know for. the president of the united states that. we'd be doing things for commercials and. movies and. rock stars and movie stars and things. we never dreamed we'd be doing things. like this all because he wanted an elvis. costume. you know we've got a lot to be thankful. for in this business after all these. years. we've met some of the greatest people. become like. family to a lot such as you guys. then of course you got gene and bill. bill has not been in the best health. which saddens us a great deal. but we adore bill he's a very special. man. and then of course jean which is like a. brother to me and kim. so you know it's become a real.
tightknit family with our business. at the end of the day you know it that's. what it's about it's about. family with us it's about friends. i've started to embrace it and i'm. looking forward to it becoming my. business because. i do plan for this to be my future. and i'm really looking forward. to turning this into a business that i. can be proud of not just. so that my dad can be proud but so that. i can feel the same sense of achievement. that he's felt. the biggest highlight of this business. in my life has been my relationship with. gene. he's been my biggest inspiration. creatively. and i don't know where i would be. without. his inspiration and you know his. love. do. you
