From Deseret News archives:
Elvis' move takes shine from Salt Lake City
That's why Salt Lake City's footwear appears to be a little duller these days.
Elvis has moved. Who would have thought?
In downtown Salt Lake City, there are things you can count on: Lamb's grill, the Zions bank clock, panhandlers on Main, the Lion House and Elvis at Nordstrom.
For 25 years, five days a week, from 9 to 6, Elvis Mendez manned the shoeshine booth in Nordstrom, performing his artistry on Salt Lake City's shoes.
Then earlier this year, Nordstrom closed at Crossroads Mall to make way for the wrecking ball. Elvis packed up his booth and his cans of polish and his brushes and went two blocks down the street to the Marriott, which offered him a job. The only thing he didn't take with him was his customers. The move happened so fast that most of them don't know his new address.
His customers have fallen from 20 to 30 a day to seven or eight. He spends most of the day staring at CNN on a TV across the lobby.
Where is Imelda Marcos when you need her?
"I hope my customers can find me again," he said as he stared at CNN.
Elvis without shoes to shine? It's like Al Rounds without a canvas. He's so good at what he does that Nordstrom once planned to fly him to its stores around the United States to show the tricks of his craft to other shoe shiners (the trip fell through). Another company hired him to train a group of shoeshine women in its Salt Lake store. He was hired to train eight understudies — and outlasted them all.
Elvis is the Cal Ripken Jr. of the shoeshine world. He's shown up at the booth for a quarter century, polishing an average of about 6,500 pairs of shoes a year. He always inspired a certain loyalty. A businessman would stop by for a shine, and then next week he'd return with a friend. There were usually two shoe shiners at the booth, but often customers would say, "I'll wait for Elvis."
"I'll take shoes to Elvis, and they'll look better than when I bought them," says Charlie Evans, a political consultant and lobbyist. "I've taken brand-new shoes I've never worn, and he made them look better. He's an absolute artist."
Billionaire Jon Huntsman Sr. used to drop off a sack filled with shoes and leave them for Elvis before his wife took over the chore. Elvis has shined shoes that were being worn by Phil Jackson, Karl and Kay Malone, Chuck Daley, Hakeem Olajuwon, Wilford Brimley, pollster Dan Jones, plus state politicians and CEOs and LDS Church officials.
One day he received a phone call from a man in South Carolina. "Are you going to be there?" he asked. He was coming to town and wanted a shine. Last week a man left his shoes with Elvis and went to the hotel restaurant in his socks.
