Gene Doucette Popular Books
Gene Doucette Biography & Facts
William Lewis Belew (May 20, 1931 – January 7, 2008) was an American costume designer who created stage outfits worn, among others, by Elvis Presley, Ella Fitzgerald, The Band, Gladys Knight, Gloria Estefan, Josephine Baker, Brooke Shields, Joan Rivers, Dionne Warwick, the Osmonds, and the Jacksons. It was Josephine Baker who encouraged Belew to work as a costume designer. While he made costumes for plays, musicals, operas, ballets, TV specials and TV series, Belew is particularly famous for the stage outfits he made for Elvis. He created the tight-fitting black leather outfit that Elvis wore in the 1968 NBC Comeback Special, and the bell-bottomed jumpsuit outfits with high Napoleonic collars, pointed sleeve cuffs, wide belts and capes, decorated with gems, metal and rhinestone studding, sequins and embroidery. Belew also designed the suit Elvis is wearing on the famous photo of President Nixon and him in the Oval Office, a velveteen outfit originally designed for Elvis to use in his Las Vegas shows. Of the collars, Belew has explained that they were inspired by Napoleon's wardrobe and that he chose them because they would frame and draw attention to Presley's face. In an interview Belew explained why most of the jumpsuits were white: The lighting [in Las Vegas] was still in its early stages. And we found that the color that worked the best was white. It allowed them to change the colors on him, where as black would absorb all the color. And it was hard to highlight him. And we experimented with blue which was one of his favorite colors. Red. But it just ended up that white was the best thing and, of course, you know, you want the star to be the person, you know, and not the wardrobe. During the 1970s Belew designed Elvis' offstage wardrobe, as well. Among the most famous of Belew's Elvis jumpsuits are the American Eagle (created for the 1973 Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite) and the Peacock (first worn at the Forum in Los Angeles in 1974, and later seen on the cover to the 1975 album Promised Land). In 2008 the Peacock suit was sold at an online auction for $300,000. This made it then the most expensive piece of Elvis clothing sold at auction. Another of his creations, the so called the “Aqua Blue Vine” broke that record selling for US$325,000 at a 2016 Graceland organized auction. The elaborate embroidery, which was getting a more prominent role on the jumpsuits in 1974–1977, was the work of Gene Doucette. In the 1970's, Bill Belew was in big demand. He was busy doing television shows and movies, so he would give Gene the blank suits and Gene would design them himself. Gene designed most of the suits from 1972 until Elvis' death. He designed the more elaborate suits such as the Aloha, Peacock, Sundial, Tiger, and American Eagle. Belew died at the age of 76 from diabetes-related complications in Palm Springs, California. References. Discover the Gene Doucette popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Gene Doucette books.
Best Seller Gene Doucette Books of 2024
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Fixer
Gene DoucetteCorrigan Bain can see the future… but only about five seconds of it, and only what’s in front of him. He also can’t really control it, and on bad days is pretty positive he’s losin...
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Immortal at Sea
Gene Doucette"if you’ve been around for long enough, you’re bound to experience a few unpleasant things: fires, earthquakes, avalanches, volcanoes, sometimes all on the same afternoon. Boats, I...
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Immortal and the Island of Impossible Things
Gene DoucetteNew, from the bestselling author of The Spaceship Next Door! “I thought I’d miss the world.” Adam the immortal Adam is on vacation in an island paradise, with nothing to do and ple...
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The Immortal Chronicles, Vol 1 - 5
Gene DoucetteAdam has a lot of stories to tell, which is fair given he's been alive for over sixtythousand years. All of the stories are interesting, many involve alcohol, and five are collecte...
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Yuletide Immortal
Gene DoucetteChristmas comes but once a year. Adam wants another beer. The first time I met Santa was in a bar. I was occupying a barstool in the Village in lower Manhattan at the t...
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Two Suns at Sunset
Gene DoucetteWelcome to Dib! Dib is an Earthlike planet, only slightly smaller, with shorter days and longer years, in orbit around twin suns. On the continent of Geo, in the city of Velon in t...
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The Immortal Series
Gene DoucetteThe first three books in the Immortal Series, in one box set! Book one: Immortal Surviving sixty thousand years takes cunning and more than a little luck. But in the twentyfirst ce...
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The Frequency of Aliens
Gene DoucetteAnnie Collins is back! Becoming an overnight celebrity at age sixteen should have been a lot more fun. Yes, there were times when it was extremely cool, but when the newness of it ...
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Immortal and the Madman
Gene Doucette“I’m sorry I startled you last evening,” he said. “I get confused. It’s worse at the end of the day.” “That’s all right,” I said. He was reacting to my words before they came...
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Immortal
Gene DoucetteFrom the bestselling author of The Spaceship Next Door: “I don’t know how old I am.My earliest memory is something along the lines of fire good, ice bad, so I think I predate writt...
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Unfiction
Gene DoucetteWhen Oliver Naughton joins the Tenth Avenue Writers Underground, headed by literary wunderkind Wilson Knight, Oliver figures he’ll finally get some of his wild imaginings out of hi...
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Hard-Boiled Immortal
Gene DoucetteI knew she was bad news the minute she walked into the bar. She was a redhead. I always had a thing for redheads. One in particular, actually. She was dead, but that didn’t m...
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Immortal From Hell
Gene DoucetteNot all of Adam’s stories have happy endings “Paris is romantic and quests are cool. But the threat of a global pandemic kind of sours the whole thing. The good news was, if...
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Hellenic Immortal
Gene DoucetteFrom the bestselling author of The Spaceship Next Door: “Very occasionally, I will pop up in the historical record. Most of the time I’m not at all easy to spot, because most of th...
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Regency Immortal
Gene Doucette"Anna was beautiful and smart and just the right kind of dangerous to get me killed, which was often what I looked for in a woman, to be entirely honest. The interesting ones are s...
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Immortal at the Edge of the World
Gene DoucetteFrom the bestselling author of The Spaceship Next Door: “What I was currently doing with my time and money . . . didn’t really deserve anyone else’s attention. If I was feeling rom...
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Fixer Redux
Gene DoucetteSomeone’s altering the future, and it isn’t Corrigan Bain Corrigan Bain was retired. It wasn’t something he ever thought he’d be able to do. The problem was that the job he wanted ...