It's Elvis Week in Memphis: thousands of pilgrims, buffs, fanatics, impersonators and approximators from around the world are there to commemorate the 31st anniversary of the King's death.

Among them: Tom Brown, vice president of original programming at Turner Classic Movies, and unabashed Presley aficionado.

Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc. (ENLARGE)

Tom Brown has been attending Elvis Week in Memphis for 10 years, and hosting a conference for five.

Turner Classic Movies (ENLARGE)

Elvis Presley starred with Ann-Margret in 1964's 'Viva Las Vegas,' one of more than 30 films in which Presley appeared.

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Brown's Elvis thing is well-known around Turner: A huge poster of Presley on tour hangs in his Atlanta office, while the Elvis room in his Social Circle house has been downsized to an Elvis hallway.

This is Brown's 10th year attending the big week, his fifth as host at the Elvis Insiders Conference. We caught up with Brown, 48, as he stood in Graceland Plaza, across the street from Presley's celebrated mansion.

Q: You're a smart, successful guy. What's with the Elvis pathology — I mean, interest?

A: I'm from Tupelo and was exposed to it at an early age. I grew up a couple streets behind his birthplace, going to Lawhon and Milam, the schools Elvis went to 20 or 30 years before. I remember growing up in a small Mississippi town thinking you can do anything you want in the world because Elvis did. It was an inspiring thing. To me and my friends, he was someone who made it out of the town. You thought if this guy made it, you can, too.

I found a 45, when I was 6 or 7, in my mother's record collection, of "Return to Sender." And I said, "Who is THAT?" And she said, "That's the guy born in the house down the street."

Q: Has Elvis Week changed during the 10 years you've attended?

A: I don't know if I'm getting older, but they're getting younger. There were 3,000 people in the audience [for the Insiders conference] last year and over half were under 30. They're discovering something. I don't know if it's the movies or the music or the photograph in their grandmother's album somewhere. But somehow they're latching on to this.

Q: There are a lot of great dead singers. Why does Elvis still draw a crowd?

A: You can't put your finger on it. If you asked a thousand people here, you'd get that many reasons. A guy I knew at Graceland had a saying that explains it all: To an Elvis fan, no explanation is necessary. To someone who's not an Elvis fan, no explanation is possible. You either are or you aren't.

Q: Is it possible to grow up in Tupelo and not feel connected to Elvis?

A: In any town that has someone famous from there, people rebel against that. The amazing thing is being out in the world, when people ask where you're from and you say Tupelo, people who can't speak English say, "Elvis Presley!"

He represents in the rest of the world the American story. To countries and people who don't have much in their lives, they look at his rags-to-riches story and there's inspiration there.

There's life lessons in Elvis. Maybe you don't want to get what you wish for. One of the things that appeals to people about Elvis is there was one life, but so many different eras. There's the '50s Elvis, when he was young and the world was waiting in front of him. He was inventing things as he went along. He wrote the text on the good and bad of what happens to a rock star.

Q: Is it possible to grow up in the South and not feel connected?

A: When you grow up in the South you often don't appreciate Faulkner, or Elvis, or the Grand Ole Opry. Then you get out and realize you grew up in the middle of something other people seek.

Q: What's the tackiest Elvis memorabilia you own?

A: Years ago I came here and someone was selling a vial of dirt from Graceland. So I have a vial of dirt from Graceland. I put it away when a friend brought a vial of dirt from Normandy beach.

Q: Coolest memorabilia?

A: One day in the early '70s, Ms. McComb [family friend who knew Elvis] walked into our house to visit my mother. She knew what a big Elvis fan I was and said, "I got something for you." She handed me a picture of Elvis and it was signed, "To Tommy, From Elvis Presley." That's pretty cool.

Q: Your favorite Elvis movie?

A: "Girl Happy." To me, the perfect Elvis movie.

Q: Song?

A: One recorded in the '70s in the Jungle Room — it was not called the Jungle Room when he was alive — called "Moody Blue."

Q: Graceland room?

A: The Jungle Room. You look at it and think, "Who thought of putting carpet on the ceiling?" Somebody did, and somebody installed it.

It was just a home a 20-year-old guy bought for his mother.