September 05 - Elvis For Sale

A Palm Springs home once owned by Elvis Presley is back on the market for $3 million and could go up for public auction in October. The 1946 home originally asked for $4 million in February. An open house drew large crowds hoping for a glimpse of the rock icon’s former digs, but no successful buyer. The famous home at 845 W. Chino Canyon (picture) was quietly slipped back onto the market in early August. Palm Desert-based listing agent Jeff Egan said the home will go up for an on-site public auction in late October if it hasn’t been sold by then. An exact date has not been set.

The Palm Springs property has sat vacant for months. Court documents show that US Bank National Association bought the foreclosed property at a Sept. 17 public auction for $1.7 million. Elvis Presley bought the four-bedroom, seven-bathroom, home in 1970 for $105,000 and owned the property for seven years. The 5,040-square-foot house was one of the few Spanish colonial homes designed by famed architect Albert Frey, who is known much more for his modernist designs. After Presley died, Frankie Valli of The Four Seasons bought the expansive 1.75-acre estate and home.

Another Palm Springs property associated with The King is also on the market. In 1966, Presley leased a 1960 midcentury modern house at 1350 Ladera Circle for about a year for $21,000. He and then-wife Priscilla honeymooned at the hideaway after their May 1967 wedding in Las Vegas. The estate is now on the market for $9.5 million.

Elvis' 1967 Cadillac Coupe De Ville For Auction

The final Barrett-Jackson event of the year and what better way to kick it off than with a Cadillac? Not just any Cadillac, mind you, but the very one that Elvis and Priscilla Presley honeymooned in late in 1967.

Here is the description from the Barrett-Jackson docket:
“Elvis Presley's 1967 Cadillac Coupe De Ville has been a part of Mike L. Moon's private collection since 1979 and has been on display at the Elvis Presley Museums in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Niagara Falls, Canada ever since.
“This red Caddy purchased by Elvis on September 15, 1967 had become widely known as ‘The Honeymoon Cadillac’ as he and Priscilla were often seen driving it around Memphis and to his Circle G ranch shortly after they were married. (EIN notes, that is odd as they were married in back in May '67!) 

“Documentation includes copies of the original Bill of Sale and title as well as the original Protect-O-Plate showing the name Elvis Presley and listing the address of Graceland. Also included are newspaper clippings and a copy of the book ‘Hurry Home Elvis’ in which the Cadillac is mentioned on page 118."
The Barrett-Jackson Las Vegas auction takes place Sept. 25-27 in Sin City. 

Charts

• The compilation "Heart & Soul" dropped from #115 to #118 on the Billboard Album chart. The CD remained steady at #13 on the Top Catalog Album chart
• The set "Elvis – That’s The Way It Is" climbed 20 spots on the Flamish Album chart in Belgium, from #81 to #61. On the Wallonian Album chart in Belgium the set entered the charts at #96 .
• The compilation "The Real... Elvis" dropped off the Italian Album chart. 
• The DVD "Elvis – The King Of Rock ’n’ Roll" dropped off the Australian Music DVD chart. 

Follow Those Releases

The Follow That Dream releases "The Best Of British, Vol. 2 – The RCA Years 1957 - 1959" by Trevor Simpson, the double CD "Elvis For Everyone" re-issue in the "Classic Album Series" and the vinyl re-issue of the August 25, 1969 concert as "Hot August Night". 

Elvis For Sale

Whom would you prefer to live with, Elvis Presley or Marlon Brando? For $140 million, you might have them both! 

Two seminal paintings by Andy Warhol from the 1960s “Triple Elvis [Ferus Type]” from 1963 and “Four Marlons” from 1966, will be put up for sale at Christie’s Rockefeller Center auction house on Nov. 12. While Brett Gorvy, Christie’s worldwide chairman of postwar and contemporary art, is cautiously estimating the paintings could bring $140 million together, he added that each has the potential to top the $100 million mark, perhaps even outperforming Warhol’s “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster),” a two-panel painting from 1963, which brought $104.5 million at Sotheby’s in November.

Of the two, “Marlon speaks to a younger audience, because there is a very raw sexuality to the image,” Mr. Gorvy said. “He’s the person every young actor wants to be.”

For years, dealers and auction house experts have courted officials at WestSpiel, the German casino company that owned the paintings. Controlled by the German government, WestSpiel runs six casinos; the paintings had been hanging in its casino in Aachen since the late 1970s. “They were originally purchased for the décor of the casino,” Lothar Dunkel, WestSpiel’s managing director, said in a telephone interview.

Five years ago, when officials realized just how valuable the paintings were, they came down off the walls and were placed in storage for safekeeping.
“We have thought about this long and hard and believe now is the time to sell,” Mr. Dunkel said. The art market’s strength is one reason.

Thomas Ammann, a Swiss art dealer who died in 1993, sold both paintings to WestSpiel in the late ’70s. The company paid around $85,000 for the Presley and about $100,000 for the Brando, according to Mr. Gorvy.

The paintings have never been at auction before, but among Pop Art images, they are about as celebrated as any. “Four Marlons,” based on a film still from the 1953 movie “The Wild One,” shows Brando in a leather jacket leaning forward on his motorcycle looking cool and seductively composed.

“Triple Elvis [Ferus Type]” shows the singer in three overlapping images — Warhol’s way of creating the feeling of movement — taken from a publicity shot for his 1960 movie “Flaming Star,” with his legs apart, pointing a gun at the viewer. Nearly 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide, it was an impressive presence when first shown at Warhol’s 1963 solo show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles.

(Source: ElvisMatters / Elvis Information Network / The King's World / Elvis Information Network)