Dr. Morrie Kricun, a University of Pennsylvania radiology professor who co-wrote an illustrated textbook a few years ago called ”Imaging the Pelvis,” has put together a new illustrated book, this time featuring Elvis Presley.
Kricun, in Chicago recently to lecture at an international radiology meeting, raised some eyebrows among colleagues as he showed off his coffee-table-size effort, ”Elvis 1956 Reflections.”
After his pelvis textbook was published, Kricun got the idea for an Elvis book. At the estate auction of free-lance photographer Ed Braslaff, Kricun, who says he has a ”deep love of music,” and his wife, Ginny, discovered dozens of negatives of a young Presley, many apparently never printed. Braslaff had taken the shots for fan magazines.
The Kricuns bought the negatives and set about making prints and researching Presley`s progress in 1956, the year the photos were taken. The result has garnered the Kricuns a few favorable reviews and even a postcard from Louisville thanking them for ”your efforts on my behalf” and signed simply ”E.”
Kricun said he doesn`t mind being dubbed a ”rock `n` roll radiologist,” but he has been surprised at the interest his Elvis book has generated, even among normally staid colleagues.
At a recent radiology meeting in Portugal where Kricun was to deliver a technical talk on magnetic resonance imaging, his host spoke Portuguese to introduce him.
”I don`t speak Portuguese,” Kricun said, ”so I didn`t recognize much of what was said. I recognized my name, `University of Pennsylvania` and
`Elvis.` ”
