presley31
07-10-2008, 06:38 AM
In an attempt to boost "the inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and traveller children and young people", Lord Adonis, the schools minister, has approved the distribution in classrooms of 23,000 copies of a magazine which claims that Elvis was a gipsy, along with Charlie Chaplin and Rita Hayworth.
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine, which is part of an event funded by £70,000 of taxpayers' money, claims that the late singer's ancestors were Sinti, German gipsies who emigrated to America in the early 18th century.
It points out that his mother Gladys's maiden name was Smith, a surname used by many British Romanies.
Elvis, Chaplin and Hayworth are not the only famous figures to be claimed by the "travelling community". The magazine also suggests that Sir Henry Cooper was not the first man to floor Muhammad Ali when he was still Cassius Clay, but that Ali was also knocked down by a gipsy, John Frankham.
Actually, Ali never fought Frankham in the ring but hammed it up with him for a photograph in 1969, published in a gipsy newsletter four years later. Hence a legend was born.
"We can challenge myths, tackle prejudice and be in a position to offer a balanced debate about the issues," says Andrew Adonis, in support of the wider campaign to promote gipsy self-esteem, but David Altheer, the progenitor of the 2006 London International Gypsy Film Festival, considers "the promiscuous relabelling of various stars as gipsies rather ridiculous", pointing out that Elvis never claimed to be one,
He said Chaplin's boast of gipsy forebears was a spurious bid for exotic status, and Hayworth's parents were not Spanish gipsies, but Jews.
2008/07/09 by Tim Walker - www.telegraph.co.uk / www.epgold.com
Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month Magazine, which is part of an event funded by £70,000 of taxpayers' money, claims that the late singer's ancestors were Sinti, German gipsies who emigrated to America in the early 18th century.
It points out that his mother Gladys's maiden name was Smith, a surname used by many British Romanies.
Elvis, Chaplin and Hayworth are not the only famous figures to be claimed by the "travelling community". The magazine also suggests that Sir Henry Cooper was not the first man to floor Muhammad Ali when he was still Cassius Clay, but that Ali was also knocked down by a gipsy, John Frankham.
Actually, Ali never fought Frankham in the ring but hammed it up with him for a photograph in 1969, published in a gipsy newsletter four years later. Hence a legend was born.
"We can challenge myths, tackle prejudice and be in a position to offer a balanced debate about the issues," says Andrew Adonis, in support of the wider campaign to promote gipsy self-esteem, but David Altheer, the progenitor of the 2006 London International Gypsy Film Festival, considers "the promiscuous relabelling of various stars as gipsies rather ridiculous", pointing out that Elvis never claimed to be one,
He said Chaplin's boast of gipsy forebears was a spurious bid for exotic status, and Hayworth's parents were not Spanish gipsies, but Jews.
2008/07/09 by Tim Walker - www.telegraph.co.uk / www.epgold.com