Editor’s note: The first bid came in at $100. I think that is extremely generous and unlikely to be beaten.
So, this auction is over. Thanks to all those who sent in bids.
You folks have really come through on the Elvis books I’ve been selling. Perhaps you’ve noticed I do research on Google and eBay to see what prices are out there I need to beat.
But I own an Elvis collectible that I can’t find on either one, or anywhere else on the internet. I did find a picture, but the item was no longer available and no price was shown. This is it:
About fifteen years ago, my sister-in-law gave “The King” to me. She secured it because her daughter worked at The New York Times and knew it was available at their Photo Archives department. Over the years, they had produced various commemorative book collections of their photos of celebrities, but this was different.
What they did was reprint every page of The New York Times that contained an Elvis article from 1956 to 2004. All sixty-eight of them.
To make it even cooler, they didn’t just print loose pages. They wove them together into two regular newspaper sections – Elvis’ life in one, and all the news he made after his death in the other. It will be easier to understand if I explain using the second one.
This is the reprint of the front page on the day after Elvis’ death. There are two articles, one by Molly Ivins, and the page where they were continued is on the backside. The next page is from August 18 and has three articles, two by Ivins, again with the continuations next. Another flip of the pages takes you to a September 1977 article about what Elvis left behind. And so on, for forty pages.
The cover of the first section was new creation, and it says at the top, “Commemorative Newspaper from The New York Times.” The cover article is written by Peter Guralnick, who wrote several Elvis books and the forward to Al Wertheimer’s huge book. The Times went out and got the best guy for the job.
The back side is the continuation of Guralnick’s essay. Then the fun starts on the next page with Entertainment Critic Jack Gould blasting Elvis’ performance on the Milton Berle Show. You read that one a few days ago with the pictures I added. That same post also mentioned The Times’ hatchet job on Elvis in Love Me Tender, and of course, that article is in this special section.
Just about every important event in Elvis’ life is covered in the subsequent pages. Here is an index:
I hope that makes it clear what we are talking about here. The first picture in this post is the front of the cardboard packaging the two sections fit into. Note that Elvis’ name does not appear on the box, but “The King” and the photo are all we need.
To me, the quality of the whole production is great, and I think the concept is brilliant. But it’s kind of a mystery why there is nothing about it on the internet. I tried about six different ways to find it on the New York Times website, but came up empty.
So, it seems that all copies of “The King” are in the hands of Elvis fans that do not want to part with them. Which brings us back to the title of this post. I have no idea what price to put on mine, so…
Let’s have an auction.
If you are interested, send your bid to philarnold@charter.net. I will update this post with the first bid and any subsequent higher ones. I will also send emails to all bidders when the top bid changes, so everybody will know where things stand.
I like the idea of trying something different, so this auction starts now.
Thanks in advance to you folks that send in bids.
Phil Arnold
POST # 999