Collectors are all shook up
over fake Elvis stuff
Thanks to hype
surrounding the 25th anniversary of the singer's death last August, the King of
Rock 'n' Roll is enjoying the biggest financial success of his posthumous
career. But all the attention is sending a torrent of fake concert posters,
alleged handwritten lyrics, stage outfits and other Elvis collectibles cascading
onto the estimated $250 million market for his memorabilia, experts say. Top
auctioneers including Sotheby's Holdings Inc. and Christie's International have
had to pull so-called Elvis items on the eve of sales or refund money to buyers
when the items were later shown to be fake; Christie's alone confirms that since
2000, it has refunded about $26,000 to buyers of questionable Elvis memorabilia.
The proliferation of fakes is so great that the San Francisco-based auction
house Butterfields says it has considerably curtailed its acceptance of Elvis
consignments. Butterfields pioneered the big-money Elvis market, holding the
first major auction of Elvis memorabilia ever in 1994, and two more later in the
decade, setting records like $63,000 for the King's old American Express card
and $26,480 for his sunglasses. "The problem is that rock memorabilia has gotten
so expensive that it's worth it to fake items," says Catherine Williamson, head
of entertainment memorabilia for Butterfields. ...
Fake items abound in
this world; hundreds of supposed John Lennon autographs actually postdate his
1980 death. But Elvis "is the worst," Mr. Luke says. Beyond the sheer volume and
variety of odd King collectibles -- a set of birthing forceps supposedly used to
deliver him sold on eBay this fall for $600 -- Elvis himself was generous,
giving away thousands of belongings during his lifetime. Complicating matters
further, his executors never comprehensively cataloged what he owned. When
Elvis, who would have turned 68 on Wednesday, died in 1977, entertainment
memorabilia was largely viewed as garage-sale flotsam. As a result, says a
spokesman for the estate, scores of items simply "wandered out" of the star's
home. ...
For its part,
Graceland, the Memphis headquarters of the Elvis Presley estate, says it's seen
a dramatic spike in requests from collectors to help determine what's real. But
rendering opinions on what's authentic and isn't, says Graceland lawyer William
R. Bradley, "would open us up to all kinds of liability." What's more, Graceland
trimmed its budget in 2002 due to a downturn in foreign tourists, leaving the
estate with a staff of three archivists, down from five. "We're overloaded," a
spokesman says.
source : Associated
Press
Elvis #2 on the 100 greatest rock and roll moments in
TV
The Beatles' live debut appearance on American
television in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan Show has topped a list of the 100 greatest
rock and roll moments in TV. In second place in VH-1's
100 Moments That Rocked TV is Elvis Presley's 1968 NBC TV Comeback Special and
in third place is the 1981 launch of MTV.
The
1985 broadcast of Live Aid is at 7 while the Who's performance on The Smothers
Brothers when Keith Moon set flash powder in his drum kit causing an explosion
is at 10. Elton John's performance of Candle in the
Wind at Princess Diana's funeral is at 12, and the Sex Pistols' swearing on Bill
Grundy's Today Show is at 26.
An estimated 73 million
Americans tuned in to watch the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles performed All
My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There and I
Want To Hold Your Hand.
The crime rate in US cities
reportedly dropped dramatically during the show's broadcast time.
The Beatles also appear at 23
for their performance of All You Need Is Love in the first global TV link up, at
36 for their concert at Shea Stadium and at 61 for the group's Anthology six
hour documentary.
The 100 Moments That Rocked TV
will begin airing on VH-1 on Monday, January 13.
Source:
Ananova
DVD Box-set from
Brazil
20th Century-Fox has
just released in Brazil a three DVD box-set titled " Rei-Elvis Filmes que balançam ". The movies are Love Me
Tender ( ame-me com ternura ), Wild In The Country ( Coração rebelde ) and
Flaming Star ( Estrela de fogo ).
Source: Sergio Luiz ( from Brazil )
Rock'n' Nassau & Sessions III Contests
We have decided to extend the contest on the book "
Rock'n' Nassau " until February 15th since it will be published after "
Sessions III " . As soon as we get the word from J.A.T. Publishing that "
Sessions III " is out we will announce the winner. You still have the
time to participate but don't wait too long!!! Make sure to participate as well
to the 10th Anniversary contest #1 of " For
Elvis CD Collectors Only ".
An Early Peek At The New Paramount DVD's
First the good news, All offer 1.85:1 widescreen prints
and 5.1 surround enhanced sound and restored English mono.
Girls! Girls! Girls! has always
suffered from very poor video prints, the opening credits were especially bad
with too much contrast with Elvis looking like he is in the shade. I'm glad to
say the DVD improves the situation greatly. Fun In
Acapulco looks especially beautiful and for some reason stands out as the
best transfer. Both Paradise and Easy Come, Easy Go look particularly good too.
On the negative side we get no extra features not even the
trailers. Another disappointment is there are no chapter stops for the songs as
in the previous Paramount release. Not much care was given to these releases in
this respect, I'm sure they just wanted to get them out in time for Jan 8th.
Typical crappy artwork also, I'd much rather see reproductions of the original
movie posters on the covers. Each contains an insert that list the chapter stops
with some fotos ( nothing special ). Girls! Girls!
Girls! features a photo from Roustabout and Paradise one from Blue
Hawaii. Well, all in all worth getting for the beautful widescreen transfers
and 5.1 sound. We're all getting pretty used to not getting much extra
though.
This text was written by Johnny Tyronne of the
Elvis Busts
Worldwide.
The Rock'n'Roll Years - My Wish Came True
The famous Elvis author from Holland Ger Rijff and
Elvis Unlimited Production is now working on a new book about Elvis in the
1950's. It will be entitled "The Rock'n'Roll Years - My Wish Came True" The book
will mainly focus on the years 1954-58. The release is due for March 2003. There
will be a lot of un-published pictures in this book.
Source: Elvis Unlimited
Guinness Book Of Hit Singles
Elvis Presley, Elton John, and Madonna (news - web
sites) are among the top U.K. singles artists in the 50-year history of the
British chart, according to the latest edition of the Guinness Book Of Hit
Singles.
Presley ranks as the top male; Madonna is
the top female. Surprisingly, the Beatles only come in at Number Nine. The top
group honor goes to the Shadows, the band that often backed British singer Cliff
Richard (news), who lands just above them on the list in the Number Two spot.
The following are Guinness's Top 20 British single chart artists of all time:
1. Elvis Presley 2. Cliff Richard 3. The Shadows 4.
Elton John 5. Madonna 6. Diana Ross 7. Michael Jackson 8. Rod Stewart 9. Beatles
10. David Bowie 11. Frank Sinatra 12. Queen 13. Status Quo 14. Stevie Wonder 15.
Paul McCartney 16. Tom Jones 17. Rolling Stones 18. Bee Gees 19. Roy Orbison 20.
Everly Brothers
Source: Yahoo
Expiring copyrights in Europe worry U.S. record
labels
European copyright protection is expiring on a
collector's trove of 1950s jazz, opera and early rock 'n' roll albums, forcing
major American record companies to consider deals with bootleg labels and demand
new customs barriers.
Already reeling from a
stagnant economy and widespread downloading of copyrighted music from the
Internet, the recording companies will now face a perfectly legal influx of
European recordings of popular works.
Copyright protection lasts 50
years in European Union countries, compared with 95 years in the United States,
even if the recordings were originally made and released in America. So
recordings made in the early to mid-1950s -- by figures like Maria Callas, Elvis
Presley and Ella Fitzgerald -- are entering the public domain in Europe, opening
the way for any European recording company to release albums that had been owned
exclusively by particular labels.
Although the distribution of
such albums would be limited to Europe in theory, record chains and specialty
outlets in the United States routinely stock foreign imports.
Expiring copyrights could mean
much cheaper recordings for music lovers, but they do not bode well for major
record companies. (These copyrights apply to only the recordings, not the music
recorded.) The expected crush of material entering the public domain has already
sent one big company, EMI Classics, into a shotgun marriage with a label that it
had long tried to shut down to protect its lucrative Callas discography. The
influx also has the American record industry talking about erecting a customs
barrier.
Source: Macon
10th Anniversary
We would like to wish
our visitors a very healthy and Happy New Year 2003 ! It might be a surprise to
some of you that the " For Elvis CD Collector Only " website will be 10 years
old in January 2004. The number of visitors on this site has increased over the
years, and even more during the last 18 months or so. This past December only we
had 84 481 visitors which will translate in a little over 1,000,000 visitors on
a yearly basis. We are doing our best for making this site of interest to our
visitors, and obviously you seem to approve according to those impressive
figures.
We thought we should
do something for thanking you of the constant fidelity over the years. Starting
today we will make a contest every month with three different prizes. Each
contest will start the first of each month up to January 2004, which will marked
the 10th Anniversary of " For Elvis CD Collectors Only " website. You can find here all the details for the
first one. The winners will be announced on our site on February 1st and the
second contest will start at the same time. The prizes will change every month
but it can happen some of them will show up a second time later this
year.
Many thanks for your
support and again all the best for 2003 from all the FECC Team !
FECC
1,000,000 Visitors A
Year Can't Be Wrong
Interview with Joseph A. Tunzi
For Elvis CD
Collector Only website will have an interview with Joe Tunzi about his
forthcoming book " Elvis - Sessions III " and on a few other topics as
well. This interview should be done in mid-January and published on the FECC
website. If you haven't participated yet to the " Sessions III contest
" and " Rock'n' Nassau contest " then make sure
you do it before it's over.
Source: Joe Tunzi /
FECC Team
Kylie shoots up Guinness hits list :
Elvis' position at the top has been
strengthened
Minogue has risen up the ranks of the biggest singles acts.
Australian pop star Kylie Minogue has established herself as one of the UK's
most popular chart acts of all time in a prestigious hits listing. She has moved
from 40th to 25th place in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles - which
documents who has spent the longest in the UK charts - overtaking stars such as
Whitney Houston and Prince. Minogue has risen up the list after spending 40
weeks in the top 75 this year with hits including Come Into My World and In Your
Eyes. The upper section, topped by Elvis Presley with 1,185 weeks in the charts,
barely changes each year as it is dominated by artists with big-selling hits
from earlier eras. Elvis' position at the top has been strengthened Presley's
lead was reinforced following the success of his remixed number one 2002 summer
hit A Little Less Conversation. The song, released 25 years after his death,
gave him an extra 12 weeks on the chart. His nearest rival, Sir Cliff Richard,
would have to spend another 30 weeks on the chart to close the gap.
Guinness Top 10 :1. Elvis Presley; 2. Sir Cliff Richard; 3.
The Shadows; 4. Sir Elton John; 5. Madonna; 6. Diana Ross; 7. Michael Jackson;
8. Rod Stewart; 9. The Beatles; 10. David Bowie.
The only change in the entire top
20 in the past year has been Status Quo overtaking Stevie Wonder, changing from
14th to 13th place.Oasis have risen from 29 to 21 following hits this year such
as The Hindu Times. The Manchester band have now passed the late Lonnie Donegan
and 1960s crooner Jim Reeves.Robbie Williams is at 66, up nine places from the
previous year.And New Order are the only new entry in the entire Top 100 acts of
all time, going in at 98.The band made the list more than 20 years after scoring
their first hit.
Source: BBC News
Elvis To Go Platinum Again On 68th Birthday
Graceland Mansion is planning four days of festivities
early next month to celebrate what would have been Elvis Presley's 68th
birthday.The party will center on an Elvis Presley Day proclamation ceremony at
Graceland Jan. 8, Elvis' birthday. The ceremony is to be held on Graceland's
front lawn, with city, county and Graceland officials taking part.
At
the ceremony the late singer will be awarded gold and platinum records from
BMG/RCA for last year's remix hit, "A little less conversation." An open house
at Presley Place is scheduled to follow. Other activities during the four-day
hullabaloo include a Gospel brunch at Elvis Presley's Memphis restaurant on Jan.
5 and an Elvis stamp 10th anniversary commemoration at the restaurant the
following day. Stan Perkins, son of singer Carl Perkins, will perform the night
before the birthday ceremony at Graceland.
All activities will be held at Graceland, Elvis Presley's
Memphis or the Peabody Hotel. Details are available at http://www.elvis.com.
Source : Memphis
Business Journal
Elvis sightings scheduled at libraries
Elvis Presley will be shaking up Metropolitan Library
System customers the week of Jan. 6-11 with a series of appearances at area
libraries. "It's hard to imagine that Elvis would have been 68 years old on Jan.
8, but our Elvis will be a lot younger than that," said Scott Carter, director
of public relations. "This is an Elvis you'll recognize."
Geoffrey Voss, a musical theater major at the University of
Oklahoma, will portray The King. Voss has appeared in more than a dozen live
productions and one independent film.
Carter said the library system
plans to put Elvis to work. Elvis is scheduled to appear at these Metro
Libraries:
Jan. 6 -- Del City and Midwest City / Jan. 7
-- Southern Oaks and Capital Hill. / Jan. 8 -- Ralph Ellison and Choctaw. / Jan.
9 -- Bethany and Warr Acres. / Jan. 10 -- Belle Isle and Downtown. / Jan. 11 --
The Village and Edmond.
Source: NewsOK
Superbit DVD's from Malaysia
In Malaysia two new
Elvis DVD's were released in Superbit format. The titles are 'King Creole' and
'Aloha From Hawaii' and both discs are picture discs. The DVD's are not packed
in the usual long-box version but is in the normal CD size jewel box.
The Superbit DVD's have a better
picture and sound by deleting unnecessary data from the disc to create space for
better sound and vision. These discs are encoded at a double bit rate in
comparrison to the usual DVD's.
Source: Elvis News
Elvis For Everyone Fan Club Promo CD
This interview CD was given away at the Dutch' Elvis For Everyone fan Club meeting.The front cover is
the same used on the import LP "Behind Closed Doors" and on their last magazine
( issue #25 picture above).
Track listing:
Press Conference 02-27-70, Houston Texas / Press Conference
06-09-72, New York, New York / Press Conference 09-05-72, Las Vegas Nevada /
Tony Prince talks with Elvis (summer 1973) / DJ Tony Prince Interview ('72 or
'73) / Elvis' suite Hilton Hotel (01-20-73) / "Singer" Presents Elvis LP
Commercial / Elvis's speech: Ten Outstanding Men of America (un-edited) -
Memphis, TN, 01-16-71) / Christmas message from Elvis / Christmas souvenir
announcement / Elvis' New Year speech & countdown (live on stage Pontiac
Michigan, New Years Eve 1975).
Win The King !
Despite having been dead for over 25 years, Elvis Presley has enjoyed one of his most successful
years in 2002. To mark the runaway success of The King's '30 #1 Hits', dotmusic
has got a host of prizes to giveaway, as a special Christmas bonanza to our
users. We've got ten copies of the album - which has sold almost 700,000 copies
in the UK alone and has been propelled by JXL overhaul of 'A Little Less
Conversation' - to giveaway. We've also got a T-Shirt, bearing the quote "We're
caught in a trap. I can't walk out" - from the masterful Elvis track 'Suspicious
Minds' and a very limited edition album sampler up-for-grabs. To enter the
competition, go to the site and click to "tell us which 2002 film the original
version of 'A Little Less Conversation' appeared in".
Source: Dotmusic.com
The Press Conferences vol.2
Elvis Unlimited will release a follow up to their double CD "The Press Conferences"
in January 2003. The second volume will contain the complete press conferences from Canada
(1957), Brooklyn, New York (1958) and Honolulu, Hawaii (November 1972). Some of those
have been released in parts before. Non of them have been released in their entire
playing time. "The Press Conferences, Vol. 2" will be a single CD in a beautiful
digi-pack.
Source: Elvis News / Elvis Unlimited
Pop Candy's 100 People of the Year!
At USA Today we found the top 100 people of the year,
and found Elvis at #40.
Elvis Presley. Twenty-five years
after his death, Elvis' A Little Less Conversation stormed up singles charts, a
greatest hits' CD competed with TRL starlets and his merchandise outsold every
other dead musician. Now when will jumpsuits come back into fashion?
Source: USA Today
"Lilo & Stitch'' and Elvis
Getting All Shook Up With On-line Trading Card Game
Walt Disney Home
Entertainment, in conjunction with Elvis Presley Enterprises, Inc., has released
a new online trading card game and sweepstakes including a trip for four to
Graceland(R) to celebrate the DVD and video release of the hit feature animated
comedy "Lilo & Stitch" which features Elvis throughout. Players can visit www.liloandstitch.com to collect and swap virtual
trading card tokens of their favorite moments from the movie. Players can log
into the game once every eight hours to auto-deposit trading card tokens into
their account.
Source : Yahoo / Walt
Disney Home Entertainment
Elvis Lives in Poland
The TV documentary 'Elvis Lives' will be broadcasted on
the Polish T.V. this weekend on Saturday - December 21, at 19.05 at TVP2
channel. More info can be found at www.elvisip.civ.pl
Source:
Tomek Michalczyk
Crazy - The Funny Side Of Elvis Presley
It’s Elvis Time is proud to present "Crazy - The Funny Side
of Elvis Presley", a remarkable 80-minute behind-the-scenes insight into the
real Elvis. Over the years, Elvis the man has become overshadowed by his
larger-than-life image, a fact which Presley himself hinted at during his New
York press-conference on June 9, 1972. With this release, we want to give the
listener an insight into the human being behind the legend, and we decided to
focus on one of his most memorable character traits: his wonderful sense of
humor. People from his inner circle remember him as someone who loved to laugh
and have a good time. The recordings on this CD were carefully selected from
hundreds of hours of Elvis on stage, during interviews, and in private with
friends. You will hear Elvis as he really was: joking about his image, his
career and even his health; having fun on stage with J.D. Sumner, Kathy
Westmoreland and the Sweet Inspirations; enjoying himself with friends at a
private party; and even imitating Bill Cosby and Peter Sellers. His friends
nicknamed him “Crazy”, and somehow it seemed appropriate to use this as the
title for our CD.
If you want to own only one ‘talking Elvis’ CD in your
collection, then make sure that it’s this one. Most talking CD’s are usually
just played once and then filed away forever, but thanks to its unusual theme,
the unique material and the clever editing, this CD is actually a lot of fun to
listen to. It’s eighty minutes of the real Elvis having a great time – a very
special way to remember the greatest entertainer of the 20th century. Packaged
in a beautiful deluxe multi-panel digipack featuring 16 amazing full color shots
from the Laurens van Houten collection, this remarkable CD is a wonderful
addition to any Elvis collection – and a great gift for your dearest
friends.
Collectors’ Notes:
- Contains rare and unreleased soundboard dialogue from
concerts 1969 – 1977.
- Contains ALL the unreleased dialogue that was edited from
the Memphis 1974 concert by RCA – it’s not even on the ‘Steamroller Blues’
bootleg! For many years, collectors discussed the possible existence of a false
start of ‘Help Me’ – well, it’s here! Not only that, but we’ve also included a
fragment that was edited out of the ‘I Got A Woman’ / ‘Amen’ medley! For this
release, we were able to work from a copy of the STEREO
mastertape.
- Segments from the original soundboard tape of the July
24th, 1976 concert in Charlotte, N.C. ( it should be Charleston, WA ) (and not
the horrible fifth generation copy that was used for the ‘Hurt’ bootleg ) in
terrific sound-quality.
-
Contains Elvis singing one-liners of a.o. ‘For Once In My Life’, ‘Happy
Birthday’ and ‘Hawaiian Wedding Song’.
- Special bonus: two rare interviews from
Hawaii.
Tracklisting: “Hey young man…” / Dressing Room Talk ; Elvis
Does Bill Cosby ; “A Stonecold Natural Freak!” ; Elvis Talks About His Liver
Biopsy… ; …And His Broken Finger ; Even Kings Do It… ; Joking With J.D. Sumner ;
Sound Bites ; On Top Of His Game ; A New Year’s Eve To Remember ; Sweets For My
Sweets ; Ode To A Robin ; Foolin’ Around With Kathy Westmoreland ; Memories Of
Getting Married In The Movies ; The Sick Aloha Eagle ; The Hermit Meets The King
; The Girl From ‘The Exorcist’ ; Memphis, March 20, 1974 – “outtakes” ; On The
Set Of “Blue Hawaii” 05/61 ; The Hilton Hawaiian Village Press Conference
11/20/72 ; Elvis ‘Clouseau’ signs off…
Source : EIN
China new DVD Wild in the country
Here we have the new DVD from Shanghai China - WILD IN
THE COUNTRY. It has a really beautiful Picture Disc (see Artwork) with Chinese
writings. Happy hunting!
Source: HT Long
"Best Patriotic Song" Award
This year, the American Veteran Awards, a project of
Veterans Foundation, Inc. has introduced a new award - the Elvis Presley "Best
Patriotic Song" Award - at their 8th annual awards banquet, which took place in
late November. It will be televised on the History Channel in February. The
first Elvis award was presented to country duo Brooks & Dunn for their song
Only in America.
The AVA contacted Graceland/EPE
earlier this year to make us aware of their plans to name the award in honor of
Elvis and ask our cooperation and assistance. Our thanks to the AVA for this
wonderful recognition for Elvis and our congratulations to Brooks & Dunn for
being the first recipient.
Brooks & Dunn could not be
at the actual awards banquet in November when the Elvis Award was presented.
They received their award on the set of CMT's Most Wanted Live program last
Saturday. We'll post awards show airdate information when we have it. In the
meantime, check out the American Veteran Awards web site.
Source: EPE
