Customer Reviews

Elvis: The Official Auction Catalogue

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This book is a must have for a true Elvis fan. It is a beautiful book to be put on display in your home and will receive rave reviews from anyone who picks it up. The shiny, gold cover will catch everyones eye. Just knowing that all the items featured were TRULY a part of his life is awesome. Pages and pages of Elvis memorabilia with a description of the item and a short story about it. It will take you days maybe months to read all the detailed descriptions. Pictures galore and you will recognize many of the items from his movies. The person who ever thought to save everything and anything Elvis ever wrote, drew, read, wore, etc. was a true psychic who knew that one day Elvis memorabilia would be so treasured (some say it was the Colonel). This book was the only thing I purchased from the Elvis auction and it turned out to be enough. It truly gives you an idea of who the man was and what he was about. Failing geography but getting A's in music tells it all.

LAS VEGAS - December 1999: a 3-day ELVIS auction at the MGM Grand Hotel from the archives of Graceland and Colonel Tom Parker. Over 850 items, from a sigar to a car, were beeing auctioned.

Every auction has it's catalogue and so did this one, although you needed to buy this book to be allowed to attend the auction live. The catalogue is huge, softcover, over 300 pages with a foreword written by Jack Soden and Lisa Marie Presley. The book contains 3 parts: a 50s, 60s and 70s part. From most items a picture is included and the expected salesprofits are mentioned.

Items vary from huge amounts of official RCA documents, cards from JFK, Frank Sinatra and others, the Colonel's desk (rated between $30.000 and $40.000!), jumpsuits, jewelry, signed cheques, promtional material (posters etc.), a signed baseball, a horse saddle from Elvis' favorite horse ("Rising Sun") etc. etc. etc.

Although most items weren't and aren't affordable for the average Elvisfan, it sure is fun to see all these famous, interesing and sometimes weird items, once belonging to Elvis. For die-hard Elvisfans only.

Note: $1.5 million from the profits from this auction (over $5 million) went to a charity project called "Presley Place", a new to built centre for the homeless people.

I ordered this auction catalogue and was not disappointed. The lots are well described and there is a wealth of diversity including personal articles as well as business items. Very interesting information.

On one level, a completely fascinating paper/item trail leading through Elvis' entire career. But only the most devoted fans will not find themselves bored at some point and bogged down in listing after listing for appearance contracts, letters, and telegrams. Those not interested in the minutiae of his life and career will want to steer clear.

By all accounts, this should itself be a lovely collectible item, but the relentless typos ruin it for me. Being the official catalog for the 1999 auction, I expected better editing and more attention to detail. Things like "form" instead of "from," "American" instead of "America," and misspellings of names *within the same listing* (examples - in the listing for a letter from Elvis' grandfather, his name is at one point spelled "Jessie" and in the same listing "Jesse"; in a lot referring to Steve Allen, his name is spelled both "Allen" and "Allan"). Whoever wrote these listings was also very hit and miss in including important information. Some of the listings are fascinating, detailed, and make clear the significance of the item. Others fail to note important details like whose signature appears on the listed contract/letter/etc.

My other complaint is in regards to what items they chose to include photos of. Time and again, they include a photo of yet another letter or telegram instead of the far more unique item listed on the same page. For example, one listing includes an 8 1/2" Elvis statue - one of the very first merchandising items EVER. But rather than a photo of that lot, they show another paper lot, with two Western Union Telegrams. Another example - one of the listings is for a love seat (or seats - the typos make it unclear) from the TV Room at Graceland, but they don't use a photo of this unique item, they instead use photos of more lots consisting of letters/appearance contracts.

With better editing decisions and proofreading, this could have been a beautiful collectors item, even if (especially if!) you did not attend the auction. As it stands, it does have enough interesting items and a broad look at Elvis' life and career to make it a fun book to check out, but not as grand as I had hoped.

This was a nice delivery. If you want something to know of the mantion "Graceland"
you can find many things about Elvis's memorablity's in this catalogue. A must to have.