Elvis was this kid's first glimpse of America

This Italian Elvis impersonator will be part of Youngstown and Canfield First Nights.
By KATIE LIBECCO
VINDY.COM CORRESPONDENT
POLAND -- His performances as Elvis aren't Ronnie Navarra's side job, they're his passion.
In a typical year, he performs about 30-40 shows.
Two of those this year will be at First Nights, in Youngstown and Canfield. At First Night Youngstown, he'll perform in the Ford Family Recital Hall at 6 and 7 p.m.
According to the First Night Canfield Web site, he'll perform there at the United Methodist Church, 27 S. Broad St., at 9 and 10 p.m.
Navarra said it's important to him to include the audience in his show and for them to have a good time.
"I want them to think they're really seeing Elvis," he said. "I try to get the audience involved. It makes them feel special."
"He just wants to please the people," said his wife, Lillian Navarra.
Her husband's Elvis roots trace back to childhood.
"When I came here, I didn't know much English," Navarra said, a native of Rome, Italy. "The first thing I saw on television was Elvis, when he was on 'The Ed Sullivan Show.' I was 9."
He bought a guitar when he was 11. "I wanted a guitar because I wanted to be just like Elvis," he said.
Later in life, Navarra said he was in easy listening bands that let him perform "a few Elvis songs at the end of the gig."
But he never planned on actually becoming an Elvis impersonator, and credited his wife for getting him started. Lillian was talking to a friend who was throwing a graduation party in 1997 and needed entertainment.
"I forced him to do it," Lillian said.
She rented the costume, found the music and set everything up for him.
"She's the reason I got started," Navarra said of his wife.
Now, his shows last more than two hours and include more than 40 songs. He knows about 70 of the songs Elvis recorded, he said.
He never had any trouble learning how to perform the songs, he said.
"A lot of people ask me if I have any classical training. I just always had it in me. I have no training," Navarra said. "I learned to sing on my own."
He learned by watching Elvis throughout the years, though he never got to see him perform live.
"It came natural to me," Navarra said.
And the singing is important to Navarra, who said he enjoys performing songs Elvis performed in the 1970s."That's really when he sounded the best," Navarra said.
He prefers the songs from 1968 until Elvis' death and thinks the singing sensation looked best in 1973 when he performed the "Aloha, Hawaii" concert.
"Appearance, presentation are part of it, but the voice is very important," Navarra said. "If you sound like Elvis, you have [the audience] in the palm of your hand."
Getting into costume takes about a half-hour, with the help of his wife and a friend, Debby Orndoff.
"The hair and sideburns take the longest," Lillian Navarra, said. "He's very particular about the sideburns."
And now, Navarra owns seven different Elvis-like jumpsuits, all but one made by a local seamstress in Leetonia. The other -- the one similar to the suit Elvis wore in "Aloha, Hawaii" -- was made by a seamstress in Pigeon Forge, Ky.
Navarra said he has fun performing as Elvis, but takes it seriously.
"I'm harder on myself than anyone else," he said. "I'm not as good as some of the Elvises, but if I can make someone happy, then it's worth it."
Navarra said Elvis is in his heart every day, but he tries to keep his personality as Elvis separate from his own.
"It's me first, Elvis second. I have to live my real life," Navarra said. "I wouldn't want to be Elvis every day."
Navarra said he has worked as a sales representative for Youngstown Wholesale Grocery for six years. He also teaches martial arts in his home.
klibecco@vindy.com
Photo by Katie Libecco