the interior, riddled with royal red furnishings and leopard skin, as being “gaudy,” “garish,” and “phony.” Several years later, a 1994 Butterfield and Butterfield auction proved Goldman wrong, at least the monetary value. Elvis’ American Express Card, complete with signature on the back, sold in Vegas for $41,400.
Included in the tour of Graceland are some of the wildest areas, a bedroom with a swimming pool, the Jungle Room, the Meditation Gardens, the Trophy Room, and Elvis’ indoor shooting range. As the legend goes, any television in Graceland was an ad hoc shooting range. “As the story goes,” the AP’s Woody Baird writes, “entertainer Robert Goulet was performing on TV when Presley blasted the 25-inch RCA that’s part of the exhibit called “Elvis After Dark.”
The Graceland grounds also include a museum containing many Elvis artifacts, like some of his famous Vegas jumpsuits, awards, gold records, the Lisa Marie jetliner, and his extensive auto collection. Some of the crowd-pleasers in the Elvis car museum include his Pink Cadillac, Stutz Blackhawks, a 1956 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible, a 1975 Dino Ferrari, and the red MG from Blue Hawaii. Then there are his Harley Davidson Motorcycles, go-carts, dune buggies, motorized three- wheelers, and a pedal car.
Graceland has been visited by not only millions of Elvites, but a host of dignitaries from the political, arts, and industrial worlds. Political luminaries include George W. Bush, and former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
The upper floor is Graceland’s greatest source of mystery. Visitors feel like it’s something out of Edgar Allen Poe’s tale, “The Fall of the House of Usher.” Entrance to the death scene is forbidden to anyone, except for the guardian. “It is out of respect for the Presley family,” say officials. Others say it’s to avoid any lurid focus on the bathroom where he succumbed to death.
As of now, there has been no speculation whatsoever about the King’s toilet hitting the auction block, however, other celebrity toilets are making the news. John Lennon’s flowered John Hancock toilet just sold for $15,000 and “Catcher in the Rye” author, J.D. Salinger’s bowl is selling for a million. Speculation is rampant about the astronomical price that the King’s throne would fetch. Some claim that by the 40th anniversary of his death that his bathroom will be made public, on an appointment only basis, much like how the Statue of Liberty is now.
When Elvis passed on August 16, 1977, it was one of those rare days, much like the Kennedy assassination, where people remember where they were when they got the news.
Even though it’s been more than 30 years since his death, Elvis popularity hasn’t faded. Fresh evidence comes in the form of auction results of Elvis memorabilia.
Collectors rejoiced at the August storage space auction of ex-Governor Blagojevich, held in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Unfortunately for the embattled former governor, more people could fit in Elvis’ luxury bathroom than showed up for the auction at Boyer-Rosene Moving and Storage. Since he hadn’t made a
