Elvis, Tina, Justin & Aretha! Why are there giant cut-outs in Memphis? | Know Your 901

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What's up with those giant cut-outs of Elvis, Tina, Justin and Aretha?

In May of 2021, in the wake of the pandemic shutdown, towering painted images of Elvis Presley and Tina Turner appeared, more or less without warning, on the north side of Summer Avenue, immediately west of the empty shell of the former X-rated Paris Adult Theater.

Essentially billboard-sized plywood paper dolls, these cut-out representations captured each entertainment icon in a frozen moment of rock 'n' roll time: Elvis is in mid-swivel in a pair of blue suede shoes, in a pose taken from his epochal 1956 appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show"; Tina is in the red mini-dress that was a signature costume during the concert tours that followed her ascent to solo stardom on the heels of her 1984 "Private Dancer" LP.

A year later, like spaceships in the movie "Arrival," two more giant painted cut-outs of Memphis-connected music legends appeared without explanation, this time erected outside the historic Lowenstein House at Jefferson and Manassas. These figures were not only less leggy but entirely legless: The were represented from the waist up, as if emerging from the mansion lawn. The cut-outs depicted Memphis-born Justin Timberlake, crooning into a microphone, and Memphis-born Aretha Franklin, the "Queen of Soul," tickling a keyboard.

Created and installed by California artist John Cerney, the cut-outs were commissioned by Memphis/Los Angeles investor/developer William Townsend, owner of the Lowenstein House and the old auto shop at 2408 Summer where the Presley and Turner figures do something their real-life counterparts never did: share a stage. Elevated behind a chain-link fence, Elvis and Tina stand atop a long platform because "we wanted to put 'em on stage together for the first time ever," said Townsend, 63.

Townsend also owns the nearby former adult theater — which he is restoring to an approximation of its original 1940 glory, when it was a movie house known as the Luciann — as well as such other historic unused properties as a Victorian Village home and the Masonic Temple on Court Avenue. He says he has plans to restore and repurpose all these spaces; in the meantime, the monumental music-star cut-outs — which he installed with little fanfare, without scheduling press conferences or public unveilings — serve as declarations of what he describes as his dedication to Memphis.

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"During the pandemic, I got really frustrated because everybody was so down on Memphis," Townsend explained. "I said, 'You know what, at some point we need to stand up straight and say, 'We've got a great city. We are unique, we are authentic, and we are interesting.'"

Cerney, who turned 70 in October, said Elvis, Tina, Justin and Aretha represent only four of the 600 or so colossal flat figures he has created for display in 23 states, to date, since he moved from traditional wall murals to his signature cut-out style about 25 years ago.

“Painting on walls was the traditional way of doing public art,” said Cerney, in a telephone interview from his Salinas home/studio. “But when I did the cut-outs, I realized, ‘I don’t need a wall any more. I can put them up in a field, where the background changes every day. Where the light is different.'

“They are in between a mural painting and a sculpture. They’re right in the middle. They appear to be three-dimensional, but as soon as you start driving past ‘em it becomes clear they’re flat.”

Most of Cerney's cut-outs stand about 14 (like Justin and Aretha) to 18 (like Elvis and Tina) feet in height. They include (to name a very few) representations of James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor outside Marfa, Texas, where the actors' 1956 movie "Giant" was filmed; the Everly Brothers, near Shenandoah, Iowa, where Phil and Don spent their boyhood; Neil Armstrong in Wapakoneta, Ohio, where the astronaut was born; and a sequence of 12-foot popsicles for a beachfront in Palm Springs, California.

Memphians who have made the drive to Chicago may have seen Cerney's giant George Harrison alongside Interstate 57 at Benton, Illinois, the city where Harrison's sister, Louise Harrison, lived, after marrying a Scottish engineer who got a job in America. (Louise died just this past Jan. 29 at 91.) Surrounded by cut-outs of three adoring female fans, the rendition of the guitar-strumming moptop commemorates the fact that Harrison's 1963 visit to his sister in Benton — which preceded the Fab Four's appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" by five months — was the first time a Beatle had come to America.

Cerney said he enjoyed his Townsend commissions because “the idea of putting Elvis in Memphis, that’s too cool to pass up.” The assignment required a full figure, "because Elvis is doing his gyrating, you have to see that. And same with Tina, you don't want to cut off Tina Turner's legs."

Unlike such public monuments as the pyramids at Giza or the doughboy in Overton Park, however, Cerney's cut-outs — a Roswell flying saucer; a stupendous strawberry; Matthew McConaughey — are not intended to be immortal. Despite the artist's sealants and other precautions, deterioration is inevitable.

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“I warn everybody, it’s not going to last forever," Cerney said. "It’s like a shooting star, it’s going to look brilliant and bright but then it’s going to fade. Water’s going to get into the cracks of the plywood and start doing its damage. Just three weeks ago I shipped out a new head for one of the girls," he said, referring to the trio of screaming George Harrison fans.

Even so, Townsend hopes to hire the artist to do a series of cut-outs of Mid-South music greats.

“My long-term goal is I would like to do 10 of these all over the county, and maybe one in Arkansas and Mississippi, and make it like a scavenger hunt,” he said.

“The objective would be to keep tourists in town a little longer. Give them something to do and look for, so you’re increasing those tourist dollars. We’ve just got to figure out the right locations.”

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elvis to Justin Timberlake: Why Memphis has huge cut-outs of musicians