March 24 - Graceland For Sale

ontract Graceland For Sale




Just weeks after successfully selling the original marriage certificate issued to Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 (for $70,800), Philip Weiss Auctions is offering yet another blockbusting piece of rock ‘n’ roll history: the original contract to purchase Graceland in Memphis, Tenn., in 1957, signed by Elvis Presley and both his parents.


The rare document – plus other property contracts signed by Elvis -- will be offered on the weekend of Apr. 23-25. The consignor of the Elvis documents is a gentleman who had worked at a law firm in Memphis that specialized in real estate. In 1987, the company was purging its old files and one file – marked “Elvis Presley” – was about to be thrown out when the gentleman retrieved it from the trash.

Also in the file (and to be offered Apr. 25) was the contract to acquire the home Elvis initially purchased in Memphis, at 1034 Audubon Road. That document is also signed by all three Presleys and details the price paid and the terms. Later, when Elvis purchased Graceland, part of the agreement had him turning the Audubon Road property over to Ruth Brown Moore.


Also sold will be the documents for Elvis’s purchase of the Circle G Ranch. The remarkable thing is that the documents are coming to auction at all; normally, they remain within a family or get loaned to a museum. Rarely do such items come up for bid.