from his schooldays to the mid-1970s, elis devoted a vast amount of time to politics. he ran as plaid cymru's candidate in montgomeryshire in the 1959 and 1964 general elections and in a 1962 byelection. the so-called "elvis rock" graffito beside the a44 road in ceredigion was originally written with the word "elis" by two of his supporters in the 1962 by-election, and subsequently altered to read "elvis".