A cornucopia of Elvis items come up for auction at the MGM Grand

Lisa Ferguson

Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

Elvis Presley Auction preview

Elvis Presley auction

What would happen if Graceland had a garage sale?

We're about to find out.

A sort of house cleaning has taken place at the Memphis, Tenn., mansion that Elvis Presley built. About 5,000 items, most never before seen by the public, that once belonged to -- or are in some way related to the life of -- the late King of Rock 'n' Roll will be auctioned off.

The items, ranging from Presley's cars and his Army draft card to recording contracts and sunglasses, will hit the auction block Oct. 8 at the MGM Grand. The public can preview them free of charge Tuesday through Oct. 7 at the hotel.

All the King's stuff now belongs to his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, a 31-year-old a mother of two who is currently recording a music CD to be released next year. She became the sole heir to Presley's estate following his 1977 death (her inheritance was held in a trust until 1993).

Plenty of Presley's very personal possessions compose the auction lots: His set of keys to Graceland (with an estimated auction value between $8,000-$10,000); his Bible ($15,000-$20,000); and his trademark TCB lightning bolt necklace ($40,000-$50,000) among them.

Las Vegans will likely be drawn to items with a local connection, including a half-dozen documents from his 1956 performance at the New Frontier ($2,500-$3,500); telefaxes wishing Presley good luck on a 1970 Las Vegas performance from actor George Hamilton and crooner Tom Jones, among others ($1,200-$1,500); and the rehearsal schedules for his shows at the Las Vegas Hilton from August and September 1972 ($750-$800).

Among some of the more obscure offerings: The 1952 and '58 tax returns of Presley's parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley ($1,000-$1,500); a wooden coat hanger and box top from Lansky's of Memphis clothing shop and a check from Presley to the store ($4,000-$5,000); and a liability insurance application to cover Presley and bandmate Scotty Moore in a 1955 Cadillac and '56 Plymouth ($1,000-$2,000).

Who knew Presley was a pack rat?

The auction items were retrieved from Graceland's vast archives. Nothing that has been on display inside the mansion, which is now a tourist attraction, will be up for auction.

Proceeds from the sale of the items will fund the construction and operation of Presley Place, a subsidized housing development still in the planning stages, to be built in Memphis. Its first residents are expected to settle in by October 2000.

The cause is a fitting one given that Presley, along with his parents, lived in subsidized housing upon moving to Memphis from Mississippi when Presley was a teen.

"They, in other words, got a hand up at a time when it made all the difference in the world," explains Jack Soden, president and CEO of Elvis Presley Enterprises, which oversees all business functions relating to Presley's estate, as well as the philanthropic Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation.

"We know that Elvis never forgot ... his days in Lauderdale Court (housing project) and how important it was," he says.

Neither has Lisa Marie Presley, whom Soden describes as "particularly interested in the plight of children in poverty" residing in inner cities. "Her heart is in (the Presley Place project). The last thought in her head was, 'We can't sell my stuff' " to fund it.

Still, she and her actress-mother, Priscilla Presley, are not likely to attend the Las Vegas auction. "I think Lisa understands she might literally become a distraction, and she would," Soden says.

The company's goal is to raise at least the $1.4 million needed to construct Presley Place and take care of the operating expenses that it has committed to paying.

"We look at all of the potential needs and wants, all the wishes we have for the more good we can do" for children and homeless families, Soden says. "We think about archives filled with things that, in all likelihood, will spend the next hundred years packed away in the dark and you think, 'We could turn some of these things into changed lives.' To me, it's a no-brainer.

Presley Place will be one of four housing developments in Memphis subsidized by the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association. Like the other properties it will provide families with a year of rent-free housing, child care, job training and other life skill classes in an effort to help them escape poverty.

"It's a program for people who are really ready to be helped," Soden says. "A family has to be really ready to live a substance-free existence, to work, to function as a stable and nuclear family."

Soden says auction houses have for years been inquiring about organizing a sale of the contents of Graceland's archives. But the company has always declined, mostly to avoid dealing with speculation about motives and profits when their clearly was no reason to sell. That was until Elvis Presley Enterprises and the Presley family was inspired by the concept for Presley Place.

The object of this auction, Soden says, is to convert archived items "into genuinely useful facilities and programs for people ... without diminishing our ability to tell the story and preserve the history of Elvis Presley and this popular culture and rock 'n' roll music."

Any other revenue generated by the auction, Soden says, will likely go toward paying capital gains taxes from the sale and to further fund Graceland's archives budget.

The auction, the first to be "webcast" live on the Internet (at www.icollector.com, where many of the items can be previewed), will attract bidders not only in person: Bids will also taken by telephone and through the mail, as well as via e-mail (through Oct. 7, although it will not be possible to bid online simultaneously with the auction).

It is being orchestrated and conducted by Guernsey's, the New York auction house which also oversaw an auction of John F. Kennedy's possessions and the recent sale of Mark McGuire's history-making 70th home run baseball for $3 million.

For the Presley auction, Guernsey's published a 300-page catalog featuring 500 pictures of the items and lengthy descriptions. The $40 book serves as the admission ticket into the actual auction arena.

Collectors looking for top-quality, authentic memorabilia are in for a treat, according to Guernsey's President Arlan Ettinger. The items, he says, have been extremely well-preserved.

Expect to see an item "in the same condition it was in when it was part of Elvis' life," Ettinger says. As for Graceland's "protective nature," he describes the place as "two notches above Fort Knox. World War III could occur and there won't be a building standing except for the vaults of Graceland."

Among the factors that make the Presley auction items so collectible, he says, is that due to the fascination with pop culture artifacts, "Many things that are supposedly from this person or that person and (of) such a nature are very questionable in terms of their authenticity. ... There are an awful lot of Elvis things out there (in the market) that are not Elvis things.

"When you get material from the source ... you can rest assured that it is genuine. These items have never left Graceland."

Which auction items are likely to stir up the most interest? That depends, Ettinger says.

Presley's 1956 Lincoln Continental Mark II, which he drove while dating the late actress Natalie Wood, is "a big deal." And it carries a big price tag: an estimated value of $500,000.

And there's his red "Burning Love" cape, featuring gold studs in a "starburst" pattern ($50,000-$70,000). It's one of several capes, as well as his old army fatigues, a pillowcase and black satin pajamas ($14,000-$16,000), that are in the market for a new home.

"But then you get into other areas that may not physically be as sexy" as the clothing, Ettinger says. Case in point: a 1956 address book, featuring the name of actress Piper Laurie, among others, written in Presley's own handwriting ($20,000-$30,000).

How about the first contract Presley signed with RCA Records on Nov. 15, 1955? That piece of paper, which could fetch between $100,000 and $150,000, "effectively made him an international recording artist," Ettinger explains.

"There are hundreds of documents in this sale that go to the very root of Elvis' career and, in a way, to the root of our current popular culture," he says.

Because the auction is unreserved, meaning there are no preset minimum bids, even collectors with modest amounts to spend can potentially go home with a piece of memorabilia.

"That person may not come away with the '56 Lincoln Continental" Ettinger says, "but the person who has been saving in piggy banks and has $1,000 of disposable income to spend on a once-in-a-lifetime acquisition ... they have a fair shot."

That's good news for Jerry Osborne. The Washington state resident has authored 15 books about Presley, most regarding collectibles and memorabilia, including his 1998 offering, "The Official Price Guide to Elvis Presley Records and Memorabilia" (House of Collectibles).

Also a fan of the late Dean Martin, Osborne plans to bid on a telegram Presley sent to the late Rat Packer that's estimated to be worth $500 to $600.

"I would definitely be willing to bid in that range. I don't know how far beyond it," Osborne says.

A seasoned collector -- he already owns a love letter Presley penned to a former girlfriend, and a signed library card from a book he checked out during junior high school -- Osborne says he favors items that Presley "either created or had a hand in creating as opposed to an item that he bought at a store ... and then he owned for a period of time.

"If you have a letter he wrote, that will just continue to increase in value beyond our lifetime," he says. "It would be as though you have a handwritten letter from Abraham Lincoln. ... Anything that was executed by someone important is going to be a solid investment."

Of the auction, Osborne says, "Here you have thousands of items, any one of which could be the focal point of auctions we have known in the past.

"Not everything in this auction is a killer (item) or something that would turn the world upside-down, but everything is something that ... people would normally not have been able to find by scrounging around on their own."

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