

"The Man", Eddie Miles
showing Janet Tegle's exquisite jumpsuites.
Janet Tegels has been a costume maker
and in show business for over 40 years.
Her high quality customer
service has satisfied over 900 Elvis Tribute Artists on 5
continents.
With the help of her partner in Canada and Eddie Miles
(#1 Tribute Artist in the United States),
Janet and her team have
spent hundreds of hours researching the archives
to assure that
every nail head pattern is accurately executed.
Read Janet's comments below:
I totally agree with you about Eddie being the best ETA in the
business.
I met Eddie 20 years ago when I first came to Pigeon
Forge, Tn.
I had just put my sign out in front of my house
"Professional Costumers"
and was working on some Rodeo costumes out
on my front porch.
The sign had my telephone number on it.
I looked
up and saw Elvis in a Cadillac convertible driving very slowly past
my house.
Thought, OMG, he is alive and he just drove past my
house!!
Then the
phone rang 15 minutes later and it was Eddie
asking me if I could go
to Memories Theater that night and meet with him.
He also asked me
if I was familiar with Elvis and his wardrobe.
I always liked
Elvis's music but really didn't pay much attention to his costumes.
I was a huge Beatles fan actually and I found out later that Eddie
was also a Beatles fan.
Eddie loves all kinds of music.
That
night I met with Eddie and looked at what he wanted me to make for
him.
He didn't know anything about me or what my background was and
I didn't tell him.
When he showed me his jumpsuits, I kept thinking,
it was not a big chore
and the costume was smaller then an Elephant
blanket.
(My background was in the circus business and I'm a
certified tailor.)
The next week I put together an exact replica (no
nail heads)
of a jumpsuit for him and it fit him to a tee.
A few
months later I started to put the nail head designs on the suits
with a lot of help from Eddie.
We spent hours together creating the
exact jumpsuit designs.
OMG, we used to have huge fights about the
placement and the size of the nail heads!!!
At first he would make
the belts himself,
would come to my shop late at night after his
show at Memories.
When I woke up the next morning I could tell he
had been there
because he never cleaned his mess up. I used to
laugh; he's just a typical man.
We have
become very close over the last twenty years;
he's more like a kid
brother to me.
Our children grew up together and went to the same
schools,
plus he and my husband have become very close, have lots of
the same interests.
Show business, music, farming, hunting, gun
collections etc.
Over the years I have gone to a lot of tribute shows
and have watched so many video's that my customers send me,
either they have a good voice or they look good in their costumes.
They never seem to have both qualities,
doesn't matter if they have a full band and all the dancing girls,
they don't seem to have what it takes to make it all happen.
Even the better ones can't do a show like Eddie does;
he's the best in the business, and a really wonderful entertainer!!!
--------- Janet Tegels--Professional costumer
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