Bestler | Elvis impersonator, Gatlin Brothers, other Myrtle Beach memories

I've been out of the Myrtle Beach loop for more than 10 years now, but every once in a while something pulls me back -- in memories if not reality.

So it was the other day.

Driving down U.S. 17 I first saw a billboard for Eddie Miles, who is playing Saturday at Alabama Theatre.

Miles has made a good living as one of the best Elvis Presley impersonators around. He's a little cuter than Elvis, but most everything else is right on.

I interviewed Miles just before he opened a theater in North Myrtle Beach (it now houses a church) and attended his first show there. (Yes, Virginia, I actually did research back in the day, almost like a real journalist.)

I sat next to a woman from Tennessee who had come here just to see Eddie Miles. She was a fan in the best sense of the word “fanatic” and told me she had one room of her home dedicated to Elvis and another room to Eddie.

When she pointed out Eddie Miles' wife, I asked what she did, thinking maybe she was a singer, too.

She looked at me as if I had just stepped off Jupiter.

“She's the mother of his children,” she said indignantly.

A bit farther down the highway was a second billboard, advertising the Gatlin Brothers, who appeared this week at Alabama Theatre.

I actually had become friends with all the brothers -- Steve, Rudy and Larry. Played some golf with them, sometimes as part of a celebrity tournament they held every year to benefit kids.

One time I got a call to play with Steve and Rudy Gatlin and a guy who was coming into town for an appearance at the Dunes Golf & Beach Club, a guy by the name of Dan Quayle.

I never voted for Quayle, but I'm used to playing with and liking Republicans. And I really liked the former vice president, even as I called him Mr. Vice President throughout the round. (Yes, Virginia, we once respected presidents and vice presidents.)

My best memory occurred on the first hole at the Dunes Club, after everyone teed off.

As we approached our ball, Steve suggested we “roll 'em in the fairway,” meaning using a golf club to improve our lie. Rudy agreed. “Roll 'em in the fairway,” he said.

Then Quayle, a one-time college golfer who plays strictly by the rules, spoke up.

“Roll 'em in the fairway? We're not gonna roll 'em in the fairway. We're not playing Clinton golf.”

I loved it.

In 1998, after the Gatlins had left Myrtle Beach, where they had lived while playing at the Gatlin Brothers Theater, I got a call in the office from Larry Gatlin.

He said he was in his car, driving somewhere in Texas, and wanted to thank me for some of the stuff I had written about the Gatlin Brothers.

He also said he had written an autobiography, “All the Gold in California,” and had mentioned me in it.

I thanked him and, of course, mentioned his book in my next column. I wanted his Myrtle Beach fans to know about it. That's what friends do for friends, right?

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 1:55 PM with the headline "Bestler | Elvis impersonator, Gatlin Brothers, other Myrtle Beach memories."