Latest news with #DannySullivan
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Suspicious minds should question story about Elvis and Danny Sullivan
Claim: Elvis Presley stopped a Sept. 15, 1975, performance to meet a dying 7-year-old boy. Rating: A rumor that circulated online in August 2025 claimed Elvis Presley once stopped a performance after hearing a woman in the audience yelling to him about her young dying son. According to the story, 7-year-old Danny Sullivan's parents took him to see Presley as a dying wish, with the rock 'n' roll crooner stopping everything to meet and sing to the boy. Further, the rumor purported that Danny sang a duet with his hero on stage and that meeting his hero helped him live six more months. The rumor spread on social media, particularly Facebook (archived, archived) and X (archived). One Facebook account called "Top Golden Oldies Song List" that posted the story received more than 4,000 reactions. The post displayed a collage of Elvis imagery, including one black and white photo where the singer appears to be onstage stage holding a young boy in his arms. The post began, "Elvis STOPPED entire concert for dying 7-year-old — what happened next left 18,000 in TEARS." Elvis STOPPED entire concert for dying 7-year-old — what happened next left 18,000 in TEARS Elvis Presley was halfway through Can't Help Falling in Love when a desperate mother's cry stopped him cold. On September 15, 1975, in front of 18,000 fans, the King of Rock and Roll learned that a 7-year-old boy in the audience had only hours to live—and his last wish was to see Elvis sing. What happened next became one of the most unforgettable moments in music history, leaving every person in the arena in tears and changing Elvis forever. Some posts featured links in top comments leading to articles hosted by WordPress blogs, such as one advertisement-filled story hosted on a website called "Oldies Goldies Oasis." The rumor appeared to originate with a YouTube video that received more than 1 million views and also featured the same alleged photograph of Presley with the boy. However, searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no credible media outlets reporting about Presley and a boy named Danny Sullivan in 1975. Given Presley's stature at the time, prominent news media outlets of the era would likely have widely reported on this rumor. Further, Presley's iconic pop culture status — particularly following his death in 1977 — would undoubtedly have resulted in such a tale being reported long before August 2025. Rather, the person or people who authored the story fabricated the entire account as one of hundreds of inspirational tales that depicted celebrities and athletes performing inspiring acts of kindness. The same YouTube channel, titled "Elvis Presley: The Untold Legacy," featured a variety of stories about Presley with titles such as "Elvis pulled random girl on stage — what she said made him CRY during concert" and "Elvis's LAST concert revealed the heartbreaking TRUTH — nobody was ready." They aimed to earn advertising revenue from YouTube, as well as websites linked from the aforementioned Facebook posts. The story about Presley amounted to fiction. First, the description of the YouTube video from which the rumor originated stated the video was made using "altered or synthetic content" and that "sound or visuals were significantly edited or digitally generated." For example, the picture from the YouTube video that was also shared in the social media posts featured visible signs of being generated by artificial intelligence, particularly the limbs of the cheering audience members in the bottom left of the image that appear distorted and blended together. Further, according to the exhaustive fan-created Elvis archive no Elvis performance took place on Sept. 15, 1975, let alone one specifically occurring at the Midsouth Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee. According to a comprehensive user-submitted history of concert dates, there was no performance at the Midsouth Coliseum on that date. The story about Presley and Danny Sullivan very much resembled glurge, which defined as "stories, often sent by email, that are supposed to be true and uplifting, but which are often fabricated and sentimental." For further reading about glurge, Snopes previously reported on claims that Paul McCartney visited Phil Collins in the hospital and sang "Hey Jude." Elvis Presley In Concert. Accessed 8 Aug. 2025. "Elvis Presley's Death: The Details Behind the King of Rock 'n' Roll's Passing." Accessed 8 Aug. 2025.
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Independent
Eric Shanks grew up an Indy 500 fanatic who vows to make race Fox Sports' biggest event of the year
As an Indiana native, Eric Shanks can't remember exactly when the rite of passage began of traveling to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His first Indianapolis 500 memory is of the 1985 race, Danny Sullivan's 'Spin and Win' 1985 victory, when Shanks was around 14 and had fully embraced the way his home state played such a role in American culture. 'I think everybody takes pride in there being a spotlight on this part of the country,' Shanks said. 'The Pacers are only in the playoffs when they are in the playoffs, the Colts aren't always in. But this is a guarantee every year.' When he became CEO of Fox Sports in 2010, Shanks had a wish list of events he wanted for the network. Always at the top was the Indianapolis 500, a property Fox Sports finally landed this year. The network is in its first year of a new broadcast deal with IndyCar and on Sunday televises its first Indy 500. Shanks from the start has vowed the production will be the biggest of the year for Fox Sports — a lofty promise for a network that also carries the Super Bowl and the World Series, among other major sporting events. 'We are going to blow the doors off of Indy. We're going to bring everything that Fox has to bear,' he said. He's been relentless in pursuing his promise and has spent the first five IndyCar races of the year working out early-season glitches that ranged from an unstable graphics package, issues delivering timing and scoring, a mid-race loss of transmission, and enough bumps to drive Shanks nuts as he strives for a perfect production. The work has gone on at the same time Fox Sports televised the first 16 races of the NASCAR season, a run that culminated last Sunday night with the All-Star race. Only four of the NASCAR races were on Fox, and even with the rain-effected season-opening Daytona 500, that quartet averaged 4,986,000 viewers. Fox promised IndyCar its entire 17-race slate will be aired on broadcast — including both days of last weekend's qualifying — but the numbers have been sporadic and unable to keep pace with NASCAR. The IndyCar ratings don't bother Shanks. 'I think you just want to be constantly showing growth in a lot of areas,' he said. 'You want to be showing growth in attendance. I'm happy to hear merchandise sales are up — you've got new sponsors coming in — you just want to show growth.' Fox Sports last week made several changes to races later this season (mainly start times) to ensure IndyCar and NASCAR do not go directly head-to-hear, something that happened several times earlier this year when the network juggled both racing series. But Shanks told The Associated Press he is not considering moving IndyCar off of Fox to Fox Sports or another property if the ratings don't improve over the next few weeks. Instead, his focus is on ensuring the glitches through the first five races don't happen during the 109th running of 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' or the rest of the season. 'In each race, it actually has been something different,' Shanks said. 'You fix one thing and then there's something else to fix. There's a lot of different systems talking to each other and we're on the receiving end of a lot of it. So we're figure it out and we're trying to do more.' New innovation Fox Sports is compensating through new innovation, including the image of a 'ghost car' graphic used in qualifying that showed how a car making a run tracked against the current leader. And he's bringing in major talent for Sunday, including Tom Brady for the ceremonial 'Fastest Seat in Sports' car, which will be driven by Jimmie Johnson; Michael Strahan, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart and Super Bowl-winning tight end Rob Gronkowski as the Snake Pit grand marshal. Fox Sports has a ton of material to work with, including a race-consuming cheating scandal involving Team Penske, the marquee team in IndyCar. It involves two-time defending winner Josef Newgarden, who is seeking to become the first driver in history to win three consecutive 500s. The first Israeli is in the field as Robert Shwartzman stunned 33 other drivers by becoming the first rookie since 1983 to win the pole. Kyle Larson is attempting to complete the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 for 1,100-miles of racing in one day. Two-time reigning series champion Alex Palou, who has won four of the first five races this season, is trying to finally add the 500 to his resume and Pato O'Ward, the most popular driver in the series, is trying to bounce back from last year's heartbreaking last-lap defeat. Shanks has used crossover since the start of the year — Fox produced three movie-production-quality commercials to introduce three IndyCar stars and all aired during the Super Bowl, one with a Brady cameo — and is using most of its network programming to promote Sunday's race. Gambling Added to Indy 500 He also achieved a goal in adding a gambling element to Sunday, something he's wanted to do for months. 'I really want to turn the Indy 500 into more of a Kentucky Derby day from a wagering standpoint. It's hard to understand how to wager on motorsports,' he said. 'On Kentucky Derby day, even if you don't know anything about horse racing, you put down an exacta or a trifecta, you got win, place, show. How can we figure out how to get that type of broad attention around an event that honestly kind of feels a lot like horse racing that day?' The solution was a partnership with DraftKings, which will have 20 or more trifectas that people can pick from. Fox Sports analyst James Hinchcliffe will pick one trifecta that will be promoted by Fox. 'I think that's element to this event, and motorsports in general, that if we can start to kind of like add that layer of interest for people, I think it can only be helpful to viewership,' Shanks said." ___
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Associated Press
Eric Shanks grew up an Indy 500 fanatic who vows to make race Fox Sports' biggest event of the year
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — As an Indiana native, Eric Shanks can't remember exactly when the rite of passage began of traveling to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His first Indianapolis 500 memory is of the 1985 race, Danny Sullivan's 'Spin and Win' 1985 victory, when Shanks was around 14 and had fully embraced the way his home state played such a role in American culture. 'I think everybody takes pride in there being a spotlight on this part of the country,' Shanks said. 'The Pacers are only in the playoffs when they are in the playoffs, the Colts aren't always in. But this is a guarantee every year.' When he became CEO of Fox Sports in 2010, Shanks had a wish list of events he wanted for the network. Always at the top was the Indianapolis 500, a property Fox Sports finally landed this year. The network is in its first year of a new broadcast deal with IndyCar and on Sunday televises its first Indy 500. Shanks from the start has vowed the production will be the biggest of the year for Fox Sports — a lofty promise for a network that also carries the Super Bowl and the World Series, among other major sporting events. 'We are going to blow the doors off of Indy. We're going to bring everything that Fox has to bear,' he said. He's been relentless in pursuing his promise and has spent the first five IndyCar races of the year working out early-season glitches that ranged from an unstable graphics package, issues delivering timing and scoring, a mid-race loss of transmission, and enough bumps to drive Shanks nuts as he strives for a perfect production. The work has gone on at the same time Fox Sports televised the first 16 races of the NASCAR season, a run that culminated last Sunday night with the All-Star race. Only four of the NASCAR races were on Fox, and even with the rain-effected season-opening Daytona 500, that quartet averaged 4,986,000 viewers. Fox promised IndyCar its entire 17-race slate will be aired on broadcast — including both days of last weekend's qualifying — but the numbers have been sporadic and unable to keep pace with NASCAR. The IndyCar ratings don't bother Shanks. 'I think you just want to be constantly showing growth in a lot of areas,' he said. 'You want to be showing growth in attendance. I'm happy to hear merchandise sales are up — you've got new sponsors coming in — you just want to show growth.' Fox Sports last week made several changes to races later this season (mainly start times) to ensure IndyCar and NASCAR do not go directly head-to-hear, something that happened several times earlier this year when the network juggled both racing series. But Shanks told The Associated Press he is not considering moving IndyCar off of Fox to Fox Sports or another property if the ratings don't improve over the next few weeks. Instead, his focus is on ensuring the glitches through the first five races don't happen during the 109th running of 'The Greatest Spectacle in Racing' or the rest of the season. 'In each race, it actually has been something different,' Shanks said. 'You fix one thing and then there's something else to fix. There's a lot of different systems talking to each other and we're on the receiving end of a lot of it. So we're figure it out and we're trying to do more.' New innovation Fox Sports is compensating through new innovation, including the image of a 'ghost car' graphic used in qualifying that showed how a car making a run tracked against the current leader. And he's bringing in major talent for Sunday, including Tom Brady for the ceremonial 'Fastest Seat in Sports' car, which will be driven by Jimmie Johnson; Michael Strahan, Danica Patrick, Tony Stewart and Super Bowl-winning tight end Rob Gronkowski as the Snake Pit grand marshal. Fox Sports has a ton of material to work with, including a race-consuming cheating scandal involving Team Penske, the marquee team in IndyCar. It involves two-time defending winner Josef Newgarden, who is seeking to become the first driver in history to win three consecutive 500s. The first Israeli is in the field as Robert Shwartzman stunned 33 other drivers by becoming the first rookie since 1983 to win the pole. Kyle Larson is attempting to complete the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600 for 1,100-miles of racing in one day. Two-time reigning series champion Alex Palou, who has won four of the first five races this season, is trying to finally add the 500 to his resume and Pato O'Ward, the most popular driver in the series, is trying to bounce back from last year's heartbreaking last-lap defeat. Shanks has used crossover since the start of the year — Fox produced three movie-production-quality commercials to introduce three IndyCar stars and all aired during the Super Bowl, one with a Brady cameo — and is using most of its network programming to promote Sunday's race. Gambling Added to Indy 500 He also achieved a goal in adding a gambling element to Sunday, something he's wanted to do for months. 'I really want to turn the Indy 500 into more of a Kentucky Derby day from a wagering standpoint. It's hard to understand how to wager on motorsports,' he said. 'On Kentucky Derby day, even if you don't know anything about horse racing, you put down an exacta or a trifecta, you got win, place, show. How can we figure out how to get that type of broad attention around an event that honestly kind of feels a lot like horse racing that day?' The solution was a partnership with DraftKings, which will have 20 or more trifectas that people can pick from. Fox Sports analyst James Hinchcliffe will pick one trifecta that will be promoted by Fox. 'I think that's element to this event, and motorsports in general, that if we can start to kind of like add that layer of interest for people, I think it can only be helpful to viewership,' Shanks said.' ___ AP auto racing:
Indianapolis Star
02-05-2025
- Automotive
- Indianapolis Star
Why has IndyCar had 1 caution? Drivers weigh in: Indy cars 'aren't fun to drive'
As the IndyCar paddock takes to the track at Barber Motorsports Park this weekend to kickoff the Month of May, the series finds itself on the brink of history, and a quirky piece of it at that. Not since the 1986 CART season has American open-wheel racing witnessed a three-race stretch without a single caution flag, whether it be for a stalled driver in a runoff, a mechanical failure in the middle of the track, an errant piece of debris or any sort of in-race contact. An 85-year-old Mario Andretti (Portland) and 75-year-old Danny Sullivan (Meadowlands and Cleveland) won those races, at a time when 25 of the 27 current full-time IndyCar drivers were not yet born, the fathers of Graham Rahal and Conor Daly were still racing and Roger Penske had only won five Indianapolis 500s. And if series veteran Will Power hadn't made an uncharacteristic mistake just a couple turns into Lap 1 of the season-opening race on the streets of St. Pete on March 2, we'd already be there. For the first time since 1970, this year's IndyCar campaign has opened with just a single caution through three races — one that lasted the first six laps of the season, followed by 249 consecutive green flag laps. Thermal and Long Beach's caution-free stretch marks both the first time in more than four years for a single race to run without a yellow flag and the first stretch of back-to-back events without one, too (both races in the Harvest Grand Prix doubleheader on the IMS road course in 2020 ran caution free). Before the start of this year, 13 races during IndyCar's DW12 era (dating back to 2012) had run caution-free, with just one other two-race stretch in 2012 (Edmonton and Mid-Ohio). As drivers reflect on the oddity, a streak likely to end this weekend at a track that saw four cautions a year ago along with four more spread over the three IndyCar races at the track prior, a slew of theories exist as to why the first three races of the year have been almost completely clean. Among them, the existence of hybrid, which allows for drivers who spin (like Marcus Ericsson at Thermal) or those who run long into a runoff at a street course, to refire their engines and not require assistance from the AMR safety team to be refired, requiring even a brief full-course caution seems plausible, as does drivers' insistence that the series' field is, frankly, more talented, wise and calculated in their driving styles. Some say, too, that this all amounts to a rather large 'coincidence.' I let diehard race fans ask me anything: These are my 5 favorite questions 'I didn't expect this,' points-leader and two-time defending series champ Alex Palou told reporters during last week's Indy 500 open test, regarding the run of caution-free racing of late. 'I think it's a little bit of a coincidence rather than what it's going to be like (long-term). I think we're going to save a lot of caution laps because of the hybrid restart, and I really think it's a coincidence that there hasn't been yellows for multiple (races) in a row. I think we have that coming.' Added Andretti Global's Marcus Ericsson: 'I think the hybrid will change the way the racing goes forward, but I still think it's been a little extreme, because usually you have people hitting the walls and each other, and we haven't gotten that, so I don't know. I think everyone's been responsible this year, but we need some more action, maybe.' Alexander Rossi, Ed Carpenter Racing's 10-year IndyCar veteran, has a bit more frank, complex theory that he believes, or at least hopes, won't be triggered in IndyCar's next two races, both on permanent road courses, but one he expects to rear its ugly head again at the remaining two street course races at Detroit and Toronto. Insider: 3 IndyCar races in, 3 things we learned and 3 questions remaining as season hits high gear As he sometimes is, Rossi was frank on a recent episode of his weekly podcast he co-hosts with Fox IndyCar analyst and former IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe and their goofy, off-the-wall friend and podcast producer Tim Durham: "I really don't like this version of IndyCar …" Rossi said April 17 on "Off Track with Hinch and Rossi," leading into a lengthy, honest, educational rant on the current state of IndyCar's technology and its effect on the on-track product. 'Aside from Will's rare mistake at the start in St. Pete, why there's been no yellows is because no one's driving at 100% anymore. 'Everyone's driving around at 85 to 90 percent, trying to kinda conserve tires but also to hit a fuel number because the alternate tire doesn't last long enough to do anything. This version of IndyCar sucks. It's not interesting. I'm sorry. It's not fun to drive or enjoyable to race. And I'm not saying there can't be good shows or that the race Sunday (at Long Beach) was bad, but the fact of the matter is, there are no yellows because no one's trying, and it's wild to me.' As Rossi, and at times Hinchcliffe, would go on to explain, the state of IndyCar's on-track product when it comes to street courses (as well as uber abrasive, street course-like surfaces like Thermal), boils down to the added weight of the hybrid dating back to last summer (adding a net gain of roughly 100 pounds to an already heavy car) and the wishes IndyCar brass gave to Firestone, the series' longtime exclusive tire supplier over the offseason. That offseason directive from IndyCar, Rossi said, was for Firestone to deliver sets of primary and alternate tire compounds with a much larger difference in their life and grip levels, which in a perfect world, would create comers and goers throughout stints of races where you ideally not only have drivers on differing strategies and different compounds during the meat of a race, but you also have high-action moments where drivers begin to struggle to make their alternates last, as they degrade mid-stint, allowing for potential passing opportunities either from drivers better able to manage their tires or ones on primaries that inherently last longer. Additionally, the series added laps to six races, including five at Long Beach (90 laps) and Toronto (90) and 10 at Mid-Ohio (90) in an attempt to curb teams' attempts at targeting massive fuel saves rather than making one additional stop and running the entire race all-out. 'Using it is really critical': How IndyCar drivers say hybrid could affect 2025 Indy 500 In reality, a car that's become nearly unwieldly to drive due to its weight and that can't, Rossi said, even be driven all out on primary tires without the risk of tires severely degrading before the end of a stint, combined with alternate tires on street courses that cannot last a full, normal length under any circumstance, has left teams back again eyeing fuel-save scenarios with some street races now a few laps longer, to boot. And as drivers tip-toe around the track, making fewer mistakes and causing fewer (or no) cautions, those fuel-saves get more extreme. The alternative, then, is cars running full-bore and requiring an additional stop than those running more conservatively due to tire wear, not knowing if a timely caution will fall and allow them to take that extra stop without losing a gap to their competitors they otherwise can't overcome. 'There's not even a physicality to it anymore,' Rossi said. 'You're just driving around in Zone 2, heart rate-wise, because you can't exert yourself to challenge the car because a) you don't have the fuel to do it, and b) even your primary tire doesn't have unlimited grip, it's good, it's durable, but you can't just drive like an (expletive), because with the extra weight of the car and the demand on the rear tire with the hybrid deploy, you can blow up the (primary tires) as well. 'Ultimately, throughout the entire weekend, you get three laps (during qualifying) where you get to drive the car at 100%, and it does a pretty respectable lap time, and it's nice and fun to drive … For very small glimpses, it's nice and exciting, but it's such a rarity now over the weekend that on the whole, the cars aren't fun to drive.' Who'll win the IndyCar race at Barber?: Schedule, TV coverage, expert prediction, streaming As a road course where tire compounds largely haven't changed from 2024, Rossi said this dynamic from the first three races of the year theoretically shouldn't be as extreme this weekend at Barber, and perhaps IndyCar's caution-free stint will be snapped — 'Lord hope so, for all of us,' he said last week.
