Bob Mehrs, The Memphis/USA Today , KPNX 11:04 AM. MST January 08, 2017
The auction Saturday celebrating Elvis at the Guest House at Graceland raised $330,531. (Photo: Robert Williams)
MEMPHIS Clothes, credit cards, guns and jewelry all belonging to or given away by the King were up for sale Saturday.
The Auction at Graceland was part of Elvis Presley Enterprises annual Elvis birthday weekend festivities. The event was the sixth official sale from Graceland Auctions whose authentication service was launched in 2014 featuring Presley-owned and connected items from various personal collections and estates.
Held at the theater inside the Guest House at Graceland, the auction saw some 160 pieces of elvis memorabilia go under the hammer. Bidding which took place live and via telephone and Internet went for two-plus hours, generating a total of $330,531 in sales.
The bidding started with a 1953 Humes High School yearbook signed by Presley that sold for $4,000. But the focus was on a series of bigger ticket items, especially a collection of jewelry Presley gifted to his longtime friend and aide Charlie Hodge.
The big seller from Saturday"s Elvis Presley auction at Graceland was a gold and diamond lion"s head ring.(Photo: Submitted photo)
A gold and diamond Lion Head ring given to Hodge netted $37,5000, tripling its pre-auction estimate and become the top-grosser of the sale. Two other pieces owned by Hodge a gold and sapphire ring and a 1911 Indian Head gold coin ring each brought in $9,375. Another gold and diamond Pyramid Ring sold for $8,125.
Beyond jewelry, another favored gift of Presleys firearms figured in the days sale, with a Police Positive Special .32 caliber pistol, given to his bodyguard Richard Grob, doubling its pre-auction estimate with a final sale price of $10,625.
Images of Elvis were also a hot item on Saturday, with a selection of Terry Wood photos chronicling Presleys September 1956 concert in his hometown of Tupelo, Miss., earning $8,125.
Original 35mm negatives of a Presley jam session with guitarist Scotty Moore, who died last year, went for $6,250 on a pre-auction estimate of $2,000. A archive of photos from Trude Forsher Presleys and manger Colonel Tom Parkers personal secretary went for $6,250 on a $1,500 estimate.
Interest was also strong for a mix of items owned and used by Presley personally, including a diamond cluster cocktail ring ($13,750), a platinum album award for Aloha from Hawaii ($9,375), a blue suede jacket ($4,750), a 1970s Union 76 credit card ($3,375), and a card certifying him as a sixth-degree black belt in karate ($2,375).
On Aug. 16, 2017, we will celebrate 40 years since Elvis Presley died.
In 2016, however, we celebrate 40 years since the last time The King of Rock "n" Roll visited Syracuse.
Elvis, then 41, performed two sold-out concerts at the War Memorial in July 1976, giving 16,000 fans their final chances to see the legendary rocker in Syracuse. He sang many of his classics, including "Hound Dog," "All Shook Up," "I Got A Woman," "Can"t Help Falling in Love" and "Don"t Be Cruel."
The July 25 show went down in Syracuse history, thanks to a scathing review by Dale Rice, a 25-year-old education reporter for The Post-Standard.
Elvis Presley performs in concert at the Syracuse War Memorial on July 25, 1976. Clem Murray | The Post-Standard
"The s*x idol is dead!"
Printed under the headline "Fat, Puffy, Has-Been Elvis Is Outshone by His Costume," the concert review sparked what one editor later called a "firestorm of protest."
Rice opened the review with the line "The s*x idol is dead!" followed by withering jabs about Elvis" puffy cheeks, double chin and "mediocre" singing.
"The show lacked enthusiasm, and the only thing that sparkled was Elvis" costume," he wrote. "The suit featured a wide (very wide) belt that must have been designed to disguise the fact that Elvis is overweight. It didn"t help. Elvis is fat, and there"s no hiding it."
Rice was not a music critic. At the time, the newspaper didn"t employ a full-time music journalist, so various reporters from the public affairs department would be sent to cover major acts in Syracuse. Rice later said no education or city hall story ever brought him as much attention as his Elvis critique.
Fans of The King responded with outrage. Hundreds of furious letters and phone calls flooded The Post-Standard newsroom, calling Rice"s review "totally unfair," "uncalled for" and "completely wrong."
The morning the review published, angry fans managed to track down Rice"s home phone number. Rice woke up to several phone calls with "strings of expletives." He eventually unplugged his phone and went back to sleep.
Escape to Wyoming
On July 28, Rice struck back. A picture of Rice appeared on The Post-Standard editorial page with Rice"s reply to the angry fans.
"With a single review of an Elvis Presley concert I became infamous and notorious overnight. At least several hundred, maybe even several thousand, female fans (not to mention a handful of males) directed their fury at me...One phone call after another arrived at my home. They questioned. They shouted. And they swore...I don"t need a hearing aid. My vision is 20-20. I"m not jealous of Elvis, and I love my mother. I may have encroached on the fantasies many women have harbored for the last 20 years, but I still stand by my original review. I wrote it as I saw it, and the phone calls and letters have done nothing to change my mind."
Best of all, Rice ended the response by sharing his plans to escape: "If you want to get in touch with me now, forget it. I leave tomorrow for Wyoming. There, I will spend the next two weeks backpacking and mountain climbing where there"s no forwarding address."
The letters kept coming, and The Post-Standard even had to run an editorial on July 30, asking readers to "let the controversy die." The editorial promised readers all their angry letters would be saved for Rice to read when he returned from his Wyoming trip.
The War Memorial marquee tells the story - "Syracuse Loves Elvis" - as thousands of Central New Yorkers enter the second straight sellout performance by Elvis Presley on July 28, 1976. Clem Murray | The Post-Standard
Elvis leaves Syracuse on a good note
The Post-Standard sent Mike Holdridge, the newspaper"s sports editor (and avid Elvis fan), to review Presley"s second War Memorial show on July 28. Unsurprisingly, he wrote a rave.
"The "King" lives!" Holdridge wrote. "Presley was nothing less than dynamite as he crooned his way through a fine mixture of love songs and had "em rockin" in the aisles with the kind of tunes he does best."
Holdridge quoted Elvis" closing comments to the Syracuse fans: "You"ve been one of the finest audiences we"ve ever worked with." Elvis then said he"d be back "if you want me."
Elvis planned to make a return appearance at the War Memorial, Aug. 20, 1977, but never did. Presley died from a heart attack in Memphis on Aug. 16.
Dale Rice reflects, four decades later
Today, Rice works as the director of the journalism studies program at Texas A&M University. His 35-year career included jobs as a city hall reporter, education writer, capital bureau chief, business editor, features editor and restaurant critic.
"What I wrote was representative of an emphasis on journalism in the post-Watergate era," said Rice, now 65. "There was a real effort to tell what you saw as the truth, to write things the way you saw it. But I learned you can tread a bit more lightly when you are dealing with people"s heroes."
Rice stayed at The Post-Standard for six years. He saved a bundle of those angry Elvis letters and still hangs on to them, 40 years later.
"I thought someday I might write a piece that looks at fandom and the passion people carry," he said. "I can look back and really appreciate the position those fans took. I didn"t have any animosity to the people who hated me."
Today, Rice would tell those fans he "really respected their passion" for Elvis" music and dedication to him.
"They held Elvis up as someone very special, that represented more than just music," he said. "For so many of them, he represented their youth and a changing time in American society. He was an important part of their lives, and I certainly recognized that."
However, Rice still stands by his review.
"I still don"t think it was a great performance," he said. "I did not think it was a performance worthy of the audience."
Johnathan Croyle contributed to this report.
Katrina Tulloch writes music and culture stories for Syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Contact her: Email | Twitter | Facebook
Elvis Presleys influence was enormously important to both rock and country music, but the iconic singer suffered through a humiliation at the Grand Ole Opry early in his career.
Before Presley was considered the King of Rock and Roll, he was called the King of Western Bop. His early records drew a lot from rockabilly for their sound a style of music that was essentially a souped-up form of bluegrass fused with a more aggressive rhythm track.
Elvis took that style of music to the Opry on Oct. 2, 1954, but far from revolutionizing the music world with his hip-shaking performance and dynamic new sound, the King bombed so badly at his first Opry show that after hearing his rendition of Blue Moon of Kentucky, Opry talent manager Jim Denny reportedly told him he should go back to his day job as a truck driver.
Presley who would have turned 80 this week swore never to return. Two weeks later he appeared on the Oprys biggest competitor, the Louisiana Hayride, and signed on for 52 Saturday night appearances on the radio show, which launched his legendary career.
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