ABSTRACT
The key in distinguishing fans from fanatics is simply the degree of commitment and emotional intensity. Fans exhibit an interest in Sunday afternoon sports and selectively purchase books, video tapes, and musical products. All Elvis Presley mavens feel a void, an emptiness caused by his death, or disappearance. Fanatics, especially, feel a sense of betrayal and vietimology. The couple has allegedly spent "hundreds of thousands" of dollars on Elvis memorabilia ranging from fanzines to videotapes. Newsletters by-and-large are the bonding communications tie in the underground network. The communications link or lifeblood of fan clubs, including the underground network, are the newsletters, or fanzines. Several decades ago, music critic and sometime record company publicist Greg Shaw offered a definition of a fanzine. Publicity people, private and corporate, employ newsletters and fanzines as inexpensive exposure adjuncts. The Special's longevity and Maria's semicelebrity status has allowed the publication to avoid some of the all-too-familiar trappings of most fanzines.
