Mid January 2003
- Elvis at 69: Richer than ever
By Alanna Nash
(bankrate.com, posted January 8 2003, found December 18, 2004)
Alanna Nash has written biographies of Dolly Parton and Jessica Savitch and authored "Elvis Aaron Presley: Revelations of the Memphis Mafia," and "Elvis: From Memphis to Hollywood," with Presley confidante Alan Fortas. Her most recent work, "The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley," has gained critical acclaim as well as significant media and fan attention with its new revelations about the Colonel and insights into his psychological make-up. The following look at the finances of Presley, his estate and The Colonel was written for Bankrate.com.
Elvis Presley is far richer today under the direction of his ex-wife, Priscilla, than he ever would have been under the manipulative control of his Svengali-like manager, Colonel Tom Parker. For the third year in a row, according to "Forbes" magazine, Elvis is the top-earning dead celebrity. In 2003, all things Elvis raked in some $40 million, adding to the Presley estate's estimated worth of $250 million.
Graceland will celebrate the late rock 'n' roller's phenomenal career and still-surging popularity with four days of events, kicking off a year-long marketing campaign that will continue to position Presley as an international icon of seemingly limitless appeal.
2004: a big financial hit
"The year 2004 will be one of the five best years for Elvis since his death in 1977," says Bill E. Burk, publisher of "Elvis World" magazine and the author of 12 Presley books. "A year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Elvis' first record, 'That's All Right (Mama),' will bring thousands to Graceland's gates, both in January for the celebration of his birthday, and in August, the 27th anniversary of his death."
According to Burk, 600,000 visitors a year pay Graceland admission fees totaling $9.6 million just to view the house. Then they're turned loose in the Graceland gift shops, where sales are estimated to be upward of $12 million per year. It all adds up to a tourist dollar impact of $126 million on the city of Memphis annually, before adding in figures from hotels, restaurants, and rental cars. What's staggering, adds Burk, is that Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) says the income from the house and shops represent EPE's fourth biggest moneymaker -- behind music publishing, licensing, and tie-ins with major corporations such as Disney and Turner. "You're looking at a gross of $84 million a year coming through EPE's coffers."
That Presley is still so beloved is no surprise at EPE headquarters adjacent to Graceland. "Elvis is one of those kinds of comfort foods in tough economic times, with security concerns, stress, and war," says EPE merchandising director Danny Hiltenbrand. "Elvis hearkens people back to a simple, light-hearted time."
Mired in money troubles in '77
Yet, when Elvis left the building on August 16, 1977, he was mired in financial quagmires, and sometimes resorted to mortgaging Graceland to make his payroll. Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager, advanced the estate $1 million to make it look as if Elvis had some cash in his depleted checking account. In truth, the singer's years of gargantuan spending sprees (Cadillacs for strangers, houses for girlfriends, and an arsenal of guns for his cohorts) had left him strapped, as had his 1973 divorce from his wife, Priscilla.
But Presley's biggest financial liability was Parker himself, who systematically siphoned off far more than the usual 15 to 25 percent of his client's earnings. By the late '60s, Parker had forced Presley into a contracted 50/50 split. But through double dipping, the Colonel got his 50 percent and all but about 22 percent of Elvis' half, too.
Parker had always figured out a way to make more money than his client, whether through song publishing, souvenirs, or side deals with Presley's record company and movie studios. Then, when he formed Boxcar, a merchandising company, with Presley in the early '70s, he took 56 percent control, apart from his 50 percent commission. Some estimates have concluded that the Colonel wound up with nearly 78 percent of Elvis' name and likeness -- a highly valuable commodity, considering Presley's obviously failing health.
No wonder Mike Stoller, the co-writer of many Presley hits, says, "The Colonel's only interest was the Colonel's. Elvis was merely a vehicle for the Colonel's greed."
Reversing financial course
Just how Presley's blue moon turned to gold again is one of the most incredible of show business sagas. Two days after Presley's death, when the entertainer's body lay in a copper coffin at Graceland, Parker approached Vernon Presley, the singer's father and executor of the estate, and presented him with a document to sign. With Elvis dead, pirates and scam artists were sure to swarm, he told Vernon, who suffered from a serious heart condition, and was in no physical or emotional shape to deal with such things. And so, Parker induced the elder Presley to sign the paper, in which Vernon allegedly wrote, "I am deeply grateful that you have offered to carry on in the same old way, assisting me in any way possible with the many problems facing us." In other words, Parker continued taking 50 percent of the estate's income, even though he had no artist to manage.
In 1979, when Vernon died, Priscilla Presley became the new executor of the estate, along with co-executors Joe Hanks, who had been Elvis' certified public accountant, and the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis.
Immediately after Vernon's death, June 26, 1979 - coincidentally Parker's 70rth birthday -- Parker approached Priscilla about carrying on his arrangement with the estate. And although she and the co-executors already had set about putting together an impressive board of directors to maximize income from one of the most famous names on the planet, only days after Vernon's death, the estate wrote Parker a letter directing him to continue as before. That year, the estate's income would amount to about $1.2 million, much of it from the 160 merchandising licenses the Colonel had arranged, making the estate worth about $3 million total.
"It was a shock to all of us" that Elvis had left so little money, Priscilla said years later. Still, all income was forwarded to Parker, who deducted his percentage, and returned the balance to the estate.
However, in 1980, a court appointed a guardian ad litem to look into Parker's business dealings on behalf of Elvis' young daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and two years later ordered the estate to challenge Parker's hold. Graceland was loath to do so, not only for the certain financial drain, but also because Parker was such a crafty character, and would likely make a legal battle long and difficult.
"Let's put it this way, it was very intimidating," says Priscilla. "He had definite ideas of how to run the quote-unquote business, and he was very fixed in his ideas. He was definitely a force to contend with."
The estate and Parker eventually came to an out-of-court settlement, which eliminated the Colonel's future share of Elvis' income, and prevented him from commercially exploiting the Presley name for five years. In June 1982, Priscilla opened the doors of Graceland to the public, and helped build Elvis Presley Enterprises into a $15 million-a-year business.
"Like Scarlett O'Hara," Priscilla says, "I had to save Tara. The Colonel's philosophy was to keep Elvis separated from his fans. My philosophy was to reach the most people possible. It's probably a woman's touch."
While Priscilla is often derided by Elvis fan clubs -- they hold a variety of grudges against her, from divorcing their idol to trying to regulate the fan club -- she deserves a lot of credit for where the Elvis industry is today, says Nigel Patterson, president of the Australia-based Elvis Information Network, and head of the coalition of Australian Elvis Fan Clubs.
Mixed stream of Elvis income
"Had she not had the foresight to open Graceland as a tourist attraction, the level of interest in Elvis would be less today. The integrated mix of tourism, new releases, a robust fan club network, and savvy marketing ... ensures Elvis Presley is 'alive' at a level higher than any other deceased celebrity, and of most celebrities still with us," Patterson says. Still, he insists EPE would not be as successful if not for the business acumen of Jack Soden, EPE's chief executive.
In the past two years, 35-year-old Lisa Marie, Presley's sole heir and chairman of the board of EPE, has become more involved in the decision-making process. "As a member of a younger generation, she injects more contemporary views and ideas into how to promote Elvis and maintain Graceland as a premier tourist attraction, with a spin-off effect of wider interest in Elvis," says Patterson. "The fact that not a single day goes by when you don't see a reference to Elvis- -- his name, image, likeness, or icon -- in the media or society, is testament to Elvis' incredible impact. Elvis literally is everywhere."
Keeping Elvis before a wider audience -- especially a younger one -- is paramount on EPE's priority list, since for the past three years, the estate has calculated that at least 53 percent of Elvis' fan base is 35 or younger. That's why EPE cooperated with the 2002 Disney movie "Lilo & Stitch," a huge hit with youngsters, and put their stamp of approval on the dance remix of last year's "A Little Less Conversation." Both projects served to keep Presley contemporary, even as his jumpsuits of the '70s
date him.
Skinny Elvis only, please
For that reason, and because the bloated Elvis of his latter years is an image EPE hopes everyone will someday forget, EPE has adopted a policy that "The King" may be depicted only in his pre-1973 form -- that is, trim and handsome, says Burk. "Elvis is a marketing product now, not so much a human being, and I don't say that harshly."
While Priscilla and the board of directors have gone a long way to license memorabilia in good taste -- doing away with such tacky items as vials of "Elvis Sweat" and grass allegedly plucked from the Graceland lawn -- the estate is beefing up the role of the gift shops in the overall EPE economy. "The estate is forever looking for new products to be sold in its shops," says Burk. "In addition, far more products that are licensed to sell to the general public never see those shelves."
At least some of those will doubtless be shipped overseas in 2004, when Memphis joins with the Beatles' hometown of Liverpool, England, in celebrating both the 50th anniversary of Elvis' first release and rock and roll in general. Dozens of projects are planned for the year, from a Thanksgiving television special, to books, to updated DVDs of Elvis' most celebrated TV performances, to a new compilation of Elvis' Sun Studio recordings. That's a big a hunka, hunka love for the man from Memphis. Even people who look like him will likely profit.
"Aside from the official Elvis industry, there is a thriving impersonator business and a bourgeoning underground Elvis market," reports Patterson. "Not bad for a man who has been dead for more than a quarter of a century."
- BMG shakin' with DVD-Audio format
By Chris Marlowe
(Yahoo! News / Hollywood Reporter, January 7, 2003)
Following its market trial of Elvis Presley's "Elvis 30 #1 Hits" in DVD-Audio, BMG has announced its support for the format. The global music division of Bertelsmann AG is planning to release 12 or more DVD-A titles this year and ramp up production after that.
- Elvis Presley fans drawn to Los Fresnos
(Corpus Christie Caller Times / Associated Press, January 7, 2003)
Near a scaled-down replica of Elvis Presley's childhood home, hundreds of Elvis fans gathered to celebrate the anniversary of his birth. Five Elvis impersonators helped entertain the crowd over the weekend around "Little Graceland," Simon Vega's home and personal museum to the king of rock 'n' roll. Vega built the small version of Presley's Tupelo, Miss., birthplace in his yard. The January festival was started about six years ago. Vega said it was started for Winter Texans. "There are so many people my age who grew up with Elvis and travel here in the winter, so it's nice to give them something to see," he said.
- [Photo]
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
(Yahoo! News / Associated Press, January 7, 2003)
Elvis impersonators play basketball at the United Center in Chicago Monday, Jan. 6, 2003 during the halftime break in a game between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz. Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2003, is Elvis Presley's birthday.
- Blue Moon Group Inc. Acquires Elvis' Grand Piano; Deal Also Includes Other Memorabilia and Memphis Music
(Yahoo! Finance / PRNewswire, January 7, 2003)
The Blue Moon Group Inc. based in Howard Beach, NY. has announced they have acquired Elvis Presley's White Knabe Grand Piano and matching bench along with other collectible mint condition musical assets including: Presley's 1966 Gibson Red SC electric guitar, his red shirt from the movie "Spinout", RCA portable tube radio given to Elvis by RCA (circa 1955), white mat gold record for "In The Ghetto", Bo Diddley's Thunderbird guitar and Stevie Ray Vaughan's stratocaster guitar. The acquisition represents Blue Moon music group's company image and enhances their corporate value in a unique fashion.
- Fans to Celebrate Elvis' Birthday
(top40-charts.com, January 7, 2003)
Elvis Presley fans will celebrate his Jan. 8 birthday by remembering the King of Rock 'n' Roll as both a singer and soldier. Presley served a two-year hitch in the Army and was discharged in 1960 with the rank of sergeant. Following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the focus on Presley's military service seem appropriate, said Todd Morgan, a spokesman for Graceland. "Elvis was a patriot,'' Morgan said. Several hundred admirers - most of them fan club officers - planned to be in Memphis this weekend for the 67th anniversary of Presley's birth. Presley died at age 42 in 1977. A dance Tuesday night is dubbed "GI, Red, White and Blues'' and Presley's film "GI Blues'' will play on a big screen in a hotel ballroom.
- Same old song, different meaning for P2P
By John Borland
(CNET News.com, January 7, 2003)
A difference between American and European copyright law threatens to carve out a free-swapping zone for popular decades-old music, hampering record companies' antipiracy efforts online. European and Canadian copyright protections for sound recordings last just 50 years, compared with 95 years in the United States. As reported earlier in The New York Times, that means that a boomlet in sales of bootlegs of 1950s artists, ranging from Miles Davis to Elvis Presley, is becoming perfectly legal. And it also means new headaches for record companies trying to shut down file-swapping services. As those popular older songs fall into the public domain overseas, people there are free to offer them on services such as Kazaa or Gnutella. Although it's still illegal to download the songs from the United States, it's much harder for copyright holders to find people who are downloading, as opposed to uploading, specific files online.
- An Exhibition That Borrows Brazenly
By CHRIS NELSON
(New York Times, January 7, 2003)
It sounds like a plan for drawing hordes of screaming lawyers to your door: create compilation CD's with sampled music from the likes of the Beatles, James Brown and Johnny Cash, not to mention the voice of Dan Rather; include as many songs as possible that have already sparked legal battles; do it all without getting permission from the copyright owners; and distribute the CD's at a nationally touring art exhibition. Oh yeah, and give the music away online for the millions of people around the globe who can't make it to the show.
So far this operation has not sparked even a lawyer's angry voice mail, said Carrie McLaren, curator of the exhibition, "Illegal Art: Freedom of Expression in the Corporate Age," where the potentially inflammatory CD is available free, and of its Web site, illegal-art.org. "They know it'd be like a minefield," said Ms. McLaren, who contends that the music, visual art and video pieces in the installation are protected by the "fair use" provision in copyright law that allows for parody and commentary. The exhibition, she says, takes the potentially illegal and makes it untouchable. Maybe she should talk with Paul McCartney. Sir Paul's spokesman, Paul Freundlich, is examining the apparently unauthorized use of the Beatles' song "Tomorrow Never Knows" on the "Illegal Art" track "Psycho of Greed" by the rap group Public Enemy. Both Public Enemy and Ms. McLaren are violating the law by distributing copyrighted work without permission, Mr. Freundlich said. "The people that are actually doing this exhibit are just as guilty as anybody else who's pirating anybody's artwork," he said.
If true, Ms. McLaren argues, that proves her point: American copyright laws are overly restrictive and outdated. "Illegal Art," which had its debut at CBGB's 313 Gallery in New York in November, moves to Chicago later this month. The show's video section includes Brian Boyce's "State of the Union," which juxtaposes images borrowed from C-Span and the children's show "Teletubbies" to depict President Bush as an evil sun god destroying bunnies to make way for oil wells. Todd Haynes's "Superstar" dramatizes Karen Carpenter's anorexia using Barbie dolls. The visual section, meanwhile, includes Ray Beldner's re-creations of famous paintings made using United States currency and Wally Wood's notorious drawing of a Disney character orgy.
All of the pieces either have run afoul of copyright owners in the past or could be expected to in the future. Jane C. Ginsburg, professor of literary and artistic property law at Columbia Law School, disagrees with the view that copyright laws have become more restrictive for artists. "The irony is that most of the stuff that I see on the Web site wouldn't be considered illegal," she said.
But Edward Samuels, a New York Law School professor and author of "The Illustrated Story of Copyright," estimates that half the exhibition is in violation.
Giving away entire songs on a CD and online - including the Verve's hit "Bittersweet Symphony" and Corporal Blossom's "White Christmas," which interweaves versions of that song by Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra and others - is a clear infringement, Mr. Samuels said.
The songs in the exhibition are controversial precisely because copyright owners have claimed that other artists are stealing their work by sampling it, Ms. McLaren said. "In order to really understand the song you need to hear the whole thing," she said.
Though copyright law can make for arcane discussion, popular culture has brimmed with the subject of late. Before the current term ends in June, the United States Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998. That law stretched copyright ownership by 20 years - to 95 years after the author's life for work created before 1978 - allowing, for instance, the Walt Disney Company to maintain control of characters from the 1920's like Mickey Mouse.
- Elvis's top hits release is 'his biggest selling album'
(Ananova, January 7, 2003)
Elvis Presley's greatest hits collection has become his biggest selling album. On the eve of what would have been The King's 68th birthday, record firm BMG said Elv1s: 30 No1 hits had beaten his previous best, the Elvis Christmas Album. His number one hits package has sold more than nine million copies around the world. The Christmas release - first issued in 1957 and re-released in 1973 - has not yet topped the eight million level.
Darren Henderson of BMG said: "This rounds up a phenomenal year for Elvis Presley proving that his music is indeed timeless. "A new generation has discovered Elvis Presley and we look forward to continue supporting the influential role that Presley plays in music and culture." Last year marked the 25th anniversary of Presley's death and saw him notch up a posthumous number one with A Little Less Conversation. It was his 18th number one, edging him ahead of The Beatles' 17.
- Migraine pain eclipses the ordinary headache
By KAREN SHIDELER
(Miami Herald / Knight Ridder, January 6, 2003)
... Migraines are caused by an abnormality in the biochemistry of the brain, Walling said. "You're born with it." But migraines aren't an excuse for "living a lousy life," Walling said. Those who suffer from migraines are in good company. "Everybody who was anybody" in history had migraines. Sufferers are said to include Thomas Jefferson, Claude Monet, Lewis Carroll and Elvis Presley.
- Lisa Marie Presley's Debut Album Due In April
By Jason Gelman
(Launch, January 6, 2003)
Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley is following in her father's footsteps: Her debut solo album is due out April 8 via Capitol Records, according to her official website - lisapresley.com. The 34-year-old singer penned all of the songs on the collection. The project has been in the works for several years. Producer and label head Glen Ballard told us nearly three years ago that Presley's debut would be a diverse offering: "I think that it's a pop record, but it also has elements of blues, funk, country, R&B, hip-hop -- it's sort of the confluence of whatever modern-day Memphis is right now." He added, "It has a lot of influences, and it continues to grow and evolve. It sort of grew up in the soil from which she sprang."
In August of 2002, Presley was a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards, where she and Canadian singer Avril Lavigne presented the honor for best female video to Pink.
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