Mid July 2003
- Bidders don't bite at Elvis tooth auction
(Go Memphis, July 21, 2003)
A tooth, said to have been pulled from Elvis Presley after an injury, failed to attract the minimum $100,000 selling price on ebay by the time a 10-day auction ended, officials said on Saturday. ... [As below}
- Bidders don't bite at Elvis tooth auction
(Economic Times / Reuters, July 21, 2003)
A tooth, said to have been pulled from Elvis Presley after an injury, failed to attract the minimum $100,000 selling price on ebay by the time a 10-day auction ended, officials said on Saturday. ... [As below}
- Bidders fail to bite at Elvis tooth auction
(Sydney Morning Herald / Reuters, July 21, 2003)
A tooth said to have been pulled from Elvis Presley after an injury failed to attract the minimum $US100,000 ($[A]153,500) selling price on the eBay website by the time a 10-day auction ended, officials said. Frenzied, but ultimately fraudulent, bidding briefly pushed the price above $US2 million before eBay required potential buyers to register if they wanted to place bids, said Anthony DeFontes, who represents the owner, hairdresser Flo Briggs of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The dental artefact, which was packaged with shorn strands of the crooner's hair, created an internet frenzy - 161,000 people viewed the webpage within 48 hours, Mr DeFontes said. But no legitimate bids remained when the auction ended shortly before midnight on Friday. Mr DeFontes said Ms Briggs would most likely break the tooth and hair into separate lots and place both back on eBay early this week. "We really had no idea of what these things were worth," Mr DeFontes said. "This was a first outing." The stalled auction ended a poor week for sales of memorabilia from American heroes.
- Vive Los Elvis
By James Shrimpton
(Canberra Times, July 20, 2003, Relax section, p. 10)
If the un-late Elvis Presley ever looks for a new hideout, he couldn't do better than Las Vegas. The world's gambling capital is chock-full of Elvis impersonators and the original could easily get lost in the crowd. The King may have officially died in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 16th 1977, at the age of 42 but many diehard fans can't, or don't want, to believe it. He's been spotted scores of times in the last quarter-century, living in seclusion and in a wide, wild range of occupations from a supermarket shelf-filler in western NSW to a missionary in Tanzania. Visitors to Las Vegas soon realise that Elvis, living or dead, is a favourite (adopted) son. There's a statue of him and his guitar in the lobby of the hotel where he performed, poker machines where three Elvises will win you a jackpot and a Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel where he himself performs the ceremony and sings his hit Hawaiian Wedding Song.
Perhaps, most of all, there's the Elvis-A-Rama Museum. Here under one roof decorated with a giant guitar and $6.7million worth of Elvis memorabilia, daily live rock 'n' roll shows by Elvis impersonators and nonstop video-clips. ...
- No bidders all shook up over Elvis Presley tooth
By HOLLY HICKMAN
(Sun Herald / Associated Press, July 19, 2003)
Bidding for the tooth - Return to sender: one Elvis Presley tooth. After 10 days on the eBay auction block, no one posted the minimum $100,000 bid for a purported Elvis tooth, lock of hair and gold record. So the South Florida owners say they plan to sell the collection in smaller, more affordable pieces, with the items likely to go to auction on eBay sometime this weekend. That came as a relief to die-hard fan Joni Mabe. She already owns an Elvis wart. And "maybe an Elvis toenail." ...
- 'Elvis tooth' pulled from auction failure
(Ananova, July 19, 2003)
A tooth, said to belong to Elvis, has failed to be sold on eBay. After 10 days no one posted the minimum £660,000 bid for it even though it came with a lock of hair and gold record. The South Florida owners now say they plan to sell the collection in pieces, with the items likely to be offered again on internet auction site. Bidding for the tooth - purportedly pulled by a dentist - started July 5 and ended Friday about an hour before midnight. Bids shot up to £1.3 million but eBay reset the auction, believing the bids were fraudulent, said Anthony DeFontes, curator and spokesman for the collection. It came as a relief to die-hard fan Joni Mabe 'the Elvis Babe' who already owns an Elvis wart, and "maybe an Elvis toenail". ...
- No Bidders Biting On Elvis Tooth Auction: Owner Asking $100K For Tooth, Hair, Gold Record
(channel4000.com / Associated Press, July 19, 2003)
The clock is ticking if you wish to own an unusual piece of Elvis Presley memorabilia: one of The King's teeth. The eBay auction that's originating in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is due to expire Friday night. Along with the tooth, the winning bidder will get a lock of Presley's hair and one of his gold records. The minimum bid for the items was set at $100,000. There have been no bids so far. The tooth was purportedly pulled from Presley's mouth at a dentist's office. The lock of hair was saved from his haircut upon joining the military. Collection curator Anthony DeFontes says the gold record is for Elvis' hit single "Love Me Tender." It's not known whether the items will be up for bids again if they fail to sell. At least one eBay user is trying to capitalize on the unique Elvis items. The user, who asked not to be identified on the site, is selling "exclusive" news articles about the Elvis tooth auction. Bids for those items start at $99.99. That auction runs through Sunday.
- Purported Elvis tooth fails to attract bidders
(Irish Examiner Entertainment, July 19, 2003)
After 10 days on the eBay auction block, no one posted the minimum $100,000 bid for a purported Elvis tooth, lock of hair and gold record. So the South Florida owners say they plan to sell the collection in pieces, with the items likely to be offered again on Internet auction site eBay sometime this weekend. That came as a relief to die-hard fan Joni Mabe. She already owns an Elvis wart, and "maybe an Elvis toenail". "I'd love to have the tooth," said the Georgia artist, who calls herself Joni Mabe the Elvis Babe. "Then the wart would have a friend and we could put the King back together in pieces," she said. Mabe, who also calls herself the "Queen of the King," recounted how she came across the toenail: "In '83 I toured Graceland and I was just feeling the carpet and walls to get the vibe of where he had walked. "I got down on my hands and knees in the jungle room and found the toenail clipping," said the sculptor, whose pieces often feature Elvis memorabilia. Bidding for the tooth - purportedly pulled by a dentist - started July 5 and ended Friday night about an hour before midnight. ... Neither Bobby Davis, a spokesman for Graceland, nor publicists for Priscilla and Lisa Marie Presley commented on the auction.
- No Bites Yet For Elvis Tooth
(CNN, July 18, 2003)
Elvis Presley fans have a chance to own a piece of The King himself - not just memorabilia, but his hair and a tooth. The items were being offered on the Internet auction site eBay. The minimum bid was set at $100,000, and there was an unknown reserve (minimum acceptable price) on the lot. Only bidders approved by the seller were allowed to participate in the auction. With half a day left, there were no takers.
According to the lot description, it included "a part of a tooth and a crown" from Presley's mouth, a lock of hair from Presley's famous haircut upon entering the Army in 1954, and a gold record presented for selling one million copies of "Love Me Tender." "There are always a wide and wacky bunch of items listed any time Elvis Presley items are placed on eBay," eBay spokesman Kevin Purseglove [said]. "Right now, there are probably 15- or 16-, maybe 20,000 different items associated with Elvis Presley listed on our site." These items, purported to be Elvis' own, have been on display in a Fort Lauderdale hair salon for about ten years. "It never ceases to amaze me what people have gathered in their collections over the years and what they sell on eBay," said Purseglove.
- It's bye bye Elvis, hello satire in rock period piece
(review)
By Jim Murphy
([Melbourne] Age, July 18, 2003)
Inspired by Elvis Presley's induction into the US Army, Bye Bye Birdie was the first musical to acknowledge the existence of rock 'n' roll as a movement in popular music, but used it as a target for satire, not as a musical form. It is very much a product of its time (1960), complete with pedal-pushers, teen obsession with "going steady" and gags about Ed Sullivan, Abbe Lane and Ingrid Bergman's scandalous marriage.
But you don't need to pick up on every topical allusion to appreciate the fun in Michael Stewart's breezy book and the tunefulness of the Charles Strouse and Lee Adams score, which, typical of its era, ranges over ballads, soft shoe, comic songs, dance numbers and choruses as well as its gentle parodies of the pop genre.
This lively production sets the seal on the emergence of Tamsin Carroll as one of our major musical theatre stars. ... Most of the fun surrounds the arrival of pelvis-twitching Birdie in the town of Sweet Apple, Ohio, causing a sensation among the female populace - teenage and otherwise - and causing Harry MacAfee, father of Kim, the lucky kissee, to fulminate over "What's the Matter with Kids Today".
Director-choreographer Ross Coleman has a particularly lively and talented group to work with in his deft, fast paced production, and puts his TV Bandstand background to good use in animating the chorus of squealing, bouncing teens, making them the linchpin of the show. ...
- Nashville to Mark Presley Anniversary
By John Hartge
(Gainsville Sun / Associated Press, July 18, 2003)
The anniversary of Elvis Presley's passing is approaching, and Nashville is doing its part to commemorate the somber occasion. The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will honor the king of Rock and Roll's legacy with a series of special events in August, including a Q&A session with Alanna Nash, author of the new book "The Colonel: The Extraordinary Story of Colonel Tom Parker and Elvis Presley." Also on the agenda are tours of the historic RCA Studio B, where Presley recorded many of his hits, including "It's Now or Never" and "Are You Lonesome Tonight." For those longing for a piece of Presley, an eBay auction for unusual memorabilia - including one of his teeth and a lock of his hair - recently took place. The spokesman for the collection says the reserve price for the items - the lowest price the seller is willing to accept - was set at $100,000. Elvis Week is Aug. 9-17, and will mark the 26th anniversary of Presley's death at age 42 on Aug. 16, 1977.
- Meet the man behind the legend (book review)
By Stephen Saunders
(Canberra Times, July 16, 2003, Panorama section p. 5a)
Elvis. By Bobbie Ann Mason. Weidenfeld & Nicholson. 200pp. $[A]35.
For earthlings, Peter Guralnick's monumental two-volume biography is the gold standard on Elvis. This abridged Elvis would serve if you only had an hour to explain the Elvis enigma to a Martian. ... [In interview] Mason ... talked about the North-South and city-rural divides that hide within the dream. She articulated overcoming the Southerner's inferiority complex. ... Elvis, on the bottom rungs of society, felt a closer affinity with black people than he did with most whites of a higher status ...The short, sharp thematic chapters are meant to decipher the major progressions in Elvis's life and career, particularly the psychological factors that turned his "American dream" into a nightmare. ...Mason's novel Feather Crowns was triggered by a famous 19th century case of quintuplets in her local region. With that background and acknowledging the literature on the physical and psychological effects of twin-loss, perhaps Elvis's stillborn twin Jesse Garon is made to carry excessive baggage. ... Mason acknowledges that Elvis's destructive behaviour was also the logical outcome of living as a child-adult whose every whim could be accommodated. This stunting of personal and artistic growth is compared with living in an Elvisland, or having an addiction to being Elvis. ... The best achievement of this Elvis book is what you would expect of a gifted writer of fiction. That is, she demonstrates to a fault the grave importance of the ghosts we cannot see - hopes, dreams, fears, fantasies, desires and beliefs in shaping our actual true-life destinies.
- Auburn puts on a shine for Rock-N-Wheels
By Tiffany L. Pruitt
([Michigan] Bay City Times, July 16, 2003)
The city of Auburn is taking a spin back to the '50s, '60s and '70s.
The 11th annual Rock-N-Wheels festival kicks off Thursday at Auburn City Park, at US-10 and Nine Mile Road. ... The festival's lineup includes a concert, dancing and a car show. More than 20,000 people are expected to roll into town to celebrate the good ol' days. ... Musical entertainment will be provided all three evenings by the Fabulous Hubcaps, an eight-member oldies band from Washington, D.C. The band will rock the crowd with classic tunes by Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Sonny and Cher and others. Darrin Hagel, an Elvis impersonator from Mount Clemens, will take the stage during the Hubcaps' breaks. "He's an awesome performer and a favorite among the ladies," [Butch] Waibel [festival chairman] said.
- Elvis's Aloof Manager, and a Killer as Well?
(book review)
By JANET MASLIN
(New York Times, July 15, 2003)
Alanna Nash begins her latest book at the funeral of Elvis Presley, offering voyeurs a peek at the corpse. But her real interest is in the master manipulator who showed up in a Hawaiian shirt and baseball cap, seeming weirdly unperturbed and refusing to look at the remains of his golden goose. "Elvis didn't die," that man, Col. Tom Parker, would tell the press. "The body did." From a business standpoint - the only one that ever mattered to him - he knew that Presley remained as valuable as ever. And "my attraction," as Parker, Presley's manager, enjoyed describing him, would now be easier to control. In macabre forms like the spectral video Elvis who still sells out "live" performances, history has proved him right.
The crassness of the ersatz colonel (actually a Dutchman named Andreas Cornelis van Kuijk) has long been the stuff of legend. "You don't have to be nice to people on the way up if you're not coming back down," he is supposed to have said. So is the enterprise: he liked to suggest that a check signed by his client was actually an autograph, and thus ought to be hung on a wall. When it came to straight-faced misanthropy and highway robbery, the colonel picked up where W. C. Fields left off. And he is generally credited with bringing carnival-style standards of decorum to the selling of popular culture, at a time when hawking Elvis lipstick in "Hound Dog orange" was an innovative concept. Asked if he actually commandeered half of Presley's income, he answered: "No, that's not true at all. He takes 50 percent of everything I earn."
Ms. Nash has already written one volume of Presleyana, as well as "Golden Girl," about the television news broadcaster Jessica Savitch. She now suggests that the colonel's dark side may have been even worse than previously imagined; she thinks he may have killed someone in the Netherlands and spent the rest of his life fleeing the crime. The funny thing is, given what is actually well known about his activities, this doesn't seem much of a stretch.
"The Colonel" says Parker's story is "beneath the veil of secrecy, a tragedy, and very nearly the stuff of Shakespeare." (Ms. Nash also invokes the bloodstains of "Macbeth" and the connivings of Machiavelli.) Her book is at its most overwrought in describing the early years of the Colonel as von Kuijk. She writes about the demise of his father, "Death, which had quietly hidden in the sheets and blankets of his life for so many years, finally made a hushed leap and filled the room with silence." And could this young man be responsible for the murder of Anna van den Enden, a greengrocer's wife in his hometown, Breda? "Only Andre and Anna know that now, speaking the truth with no tongue, no mouth, and no throat, nestled in the cool, dark folds of death." More straightforwardly, the killer did have the Parker-like idea of sprinkling white pepper at the crime scene to outsmart bloodhounds.
When he fled the Netherlands, assumed a new identity and imbibed the carnival tactics that would serve him so well with Presley, the colonel also laid the groundwork for his own subsequent rise and fall. Ms. Nash points to the 1933 Army medical discharge document that describes his "Constitutional Psychopathic State" and "Emotional Instability." Both would be helpful in show business. And the anomaly of this tightwad's willingness to pay his income tax may have reflected his lifelong eagerness to avoid any examination of his past.
The aloof, arrogant tactics that initially worked so well in business would eventually backfire on both the colonel and his protege. And Ms. Nash uses a wealth of anecdotal evidence to show how self-destructive these methods became. The colonel knew how to demand $1 million (he liked the sound of it) arbitrarily for Presley's talents. What he didn't know, or apparently didn't care about, was whether those talents were being put to good use. "The Colonel" describes a man who very nearly allowed Presley's recording of "Suspicious Minds" to be erased because he didn't control publishing rights to the song.
Ms. Nash's version of this story may not be Shakespearean, but it achieves a powerful sense of futility and loss (just as her Savitch biography did). The colonel squeezed every possible penny out of Presley's career, only to gamble most of it away. (When he became infirm, he had assistants to pull the arms of one-armed bandits for him.) And as Elvis's admirers have long maintained, the colonel continued to push an obviously troubled, drug-abusing client well beyond a normal breaking point. "The Colonel" revels in sad, scatological images of the bloated Presley being propped up and sent out to perform.
But "The Colonel" joins Connie Bruck's "When Hollywood Had a King," about Lew Wasserman, as a look at brazen tactics that revolutionized the entertainment industry. Each book presents a chilly, distant man with phenomenal intuition about how to sell what was hot.
- Graceland to Celebrate Elvis Week 2003
By CAROL MYERS
(Business Wire, July 15, 2003)
Each year since Elvis' death in 1977, thousands of people from around the world have gathered at his home Graceland, in Memphis, to celebrate his life in a week of events now known around the globe as ELVIS WEEK. And, for the fourth year, fans from all over the world can participate in the largest activity, the Candlelight Vigil on August 15th, via the live VigilCast(TM) on AOL. ...
- Elvis Inc. can't stop novelist
By Neal Rubin
(Detroit News, July 15, 2003)
... A number of people wondered how Daniel Klein gets away with using Elvis Presley as a fictional detective, considering how grumpy Elvis Presley Enterprises tends to be about protecting the King's graven image. Klein, the author of "Viva Las Vengeance" and two other mysteries, signed copies of his books Saturday at the Michigan Elvisfest in Ypsilanti. This would be the same Elvisfest that the Elvisfolks nearly put out of business.
Elvis Inc., which slices 10 percent off the top from the few dozen nonprofit Elvis festivals scattered around the continent, decreed awhile back that the celebrations must cease employing Elvis impersonators or desist with using his name and likeness. Since an Elvis festival without Elvises is just a flea market with black velvet paintings, the Elvisfest was stuck between a hound dog and a fire hydrant. But the world doesn't like a bully, and the resultant bad publicity prompted Elvis Inc. to change its tune.
Ergo, the Michigan Elvisfest went on as scheduled. And Klein took a break from writing his fourth Elvis novel to sell the first three, which he is free to do for the simple reason that Elvis Inc. can't stop him. "I'm protected by something or other," explains Klein, 64, betraying his lack of a law degree. Essentially, the courts have held that deceased historical figures are fair game for novelists. You want to put Henry Ford II in a conga line with Janis Joplin? Knock yourself out.
Living historical figures are trickier. When his publisher's lawyers inspect the manuscripts, "they're always real careful about Priscilla." But in the second book, "Blue Suede Clues," they let him recreate a well-documented visit the future Mrs. Presley paid to Elvis in Los Angeles after Ann-Margret informed the press that she was Elvis' fiancee.
Photos or drawings are a different story. Use a picture of Elvis in a profit-making venture and you have to render unto Graceland, so his visage is absent from the book jackets. Fortunately, Klein says, people have a pretty good idea what he looked like.
- Carroll County Fair opens Tuesday
By CAROL MYERS
([Philadelphia] Times Reporter, July 14, 2003)
Cows and clowns, a singer of country music parodies, an Elvis tribute as well as elephant ears, tractor pulls and tot-sized rides - all this and much more will be found at the 153rd annual Carroll County Fair Tuesday through Sunday. ... Saturday starts off with open class draft horse judging at 9 a.m. At 8 p.m., Carrollton High graduate Mike Albert's "Ultimate Tribute" show to the late Elvis Presley begins. ...
- Condemned apartments clear out
By Morgan Jarema
([Michigan] Grand Rapids Press, July 14, 2003)
By the time the volunteers were done in Rose Kelly's condemned apartment, the only belongings left in her living room were a ceramic bust of Elvis, a console TV and an electric Jesus lamp. ... nearly 30 people [were] forced out of 17 apartments at 235 S. Division Ave. and 10-16 Williams SW because of unsafe and unhealthy conditions. ...
- Celebrity Chatter: Elvis's Molar (3rd item)
By Michelle Solomon
(NBC10, July 14, 2003)
You have just a few days to put your bid in to own Elvis Presley's tooth and hair. Today's tooth update is that all bidders must now submit a credit card so that eBay can make sure your bid is legitimate. A bid of $2 million last Wednesday was deemed bogus. The latest bid is at $100,000. Ford Lauderdale hairdresser Flo Briggs has had the glass-encased molar on display in her Yellow Strawberry Salon on Las Olas Boulevard for years. Many speculate that if the molar is authentic, someone would like to get their hands on it for the King's DNA. "Wise men say only fools rush in ..."
- Carroll County Fair opens Tuesday
By CAROL MYERS
([Philadelphia] Times Reporter, July 14, 2003)
Cows and clowns, a singer of country music parodies, an Elvis tribute as well as elephant ears, tractor pulls and tot-sized rides - all this and much more will be found at the 153rd annual Carroll County Fair Tuesday through Sunday. ... Saturday starts off with open class draft horse judging at 9 a.m. At 8 p.m., Carrollton High graduate Mike Albert's "Ultimate Tribute" show to the late Elvis Presley begins. ...
- Letters to the editor: This is Elvis? The wonder of you [item 9]
(Seattle Times, July 13, 2003)
I was very sad to read "City all shook up over cabbie's attire" (Local News, July 6), on the Elvis cab driver in Seattle. It's very disappointing to see that he is getting fined for trying to bring some fun to his job, and it doesn't appear that his customers are complaining.
I understand policies. But he isn't just a cab driver, he is a Seattle icon. Couldn't he be an exception? If we can let the "duck" ride drive up and down our streets quacking obnoxiously, what is wrong with a little Elvis? I just got married. As my bachelorette party came to an end, my friends and I stumbled out of a dance club and waved down a cab. To our surprise, a minivan pulled up playing Elvis tunes, and sure enough ... an Elvis driver. We couldn't pass up this opportunity. He drove us to our hotel, he sang us old Elvis tunes. It was awesome! He was so incredibly nice, too. When he dropped us off, he pulled out a Polaroid camera and asked someone to take our group photo of him and his cab. We accidentally tipped him about $40. But it was worth it. I hope Elvis doesn't have to stop what he is doing. He sure makes a lot of people smile.
- Jessica Flores, Ballard
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