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Date Posted: 20:51:03 08/18/07 Sat
Author: Ian
Author Host/IP: cpc1-ldry1-0-0-cust658.belf.cable.ntl.com / 81.96.114.147
Subject: I love Elvis. Was he a white black man or a black white man and does it really matter?


30 years later, the King is still making millions.
By Jeff Gammage
Inquirer Staff Writer


As fans view the King's gravestone at Graceland, his estate continues to collect about $40 million a yearin sales of records, movies and memorabilia and in various licensing arrangements.,
» More images
It's not surprising that he's still popular.
The hula hoop is still popular. So is Lawrence Welk.

What's surprising is that he still sells, and sells big.

Today, as fans around the world mark the 30th anniversary of his passing, Elvis Presley is proving there's no reason to let a little thing like death stand in the way of earning a good living.

"Elvis has been managed more skillfully in death than in life," said Bill Crandall, editor in chief of AOL Music.

From 2001 through 2006, Elvis earned an astounding $239 million - nearly a quarter of a billion dollars - through sales of records, movies and memorabilia, and the licensing of his image for T-shirts, posters and advertisements, according to Forbes magazine.

The managers of Elvis' afterlife have taken his merchandising to new and inventive extremes, selling the King's likeness to everyone from the Hershey Co. (specialty peanut butter and banana creme cups) to Harley Davidson (30th anniversary motorcycles) to Smith & Wesson (the "Taking Care of Business" .357 Magnum revolver).

For $149.95, fans can buy "Baby Elvis," a dark-haired baby doll dressed in a rhinestone jumpsuit, produced by Marie Osmond Dolls. If that's too pricey, the Talking Presidents company sells 12-inch Elvis action figures that speak in the singer's voice, using snippets culled from news-media interviews. One doll says, "I don't like to be called Elvis the Pelvis."

Presley long led Forbes' annual ranking of top-earning dead celebrities, falling to second last year behind Kurt Cobain. The Nirvana singer earned $50 million to Elvis' $42 million. By comparison, Marilyn Monroe earned $8 million and James Dean didn't even make the list.

"He's popular beyond popular," said Skip McGoun, a Bucknell University finance professor who has studied the Elvis phenomenon. "Three-year-old children in China know who Elvis is."

In Memphis, more than 50,000 fans have descended on the city to celebrate what locals call "Death Week." Budweiser was bringing the Clydesdales, to honor Elvis' love of horses, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. was to host a movie-and-music event at Graceland.

But for many celebrities, enduring popularity doesn't necessarily translate into continuing sales. And the Elvis marketing gurus don't have an easy task, promoting a singer who died before today's young music-buyers were born, who did his best work in the 1950s, and whose original fan base is old and aging.

Elvis was 42 when he succumbed to polypharmacy at Graceland on Aug. 16, 1977. In life he was never much of a money manager, earning millions while indulging his every extravagance, giving away houses, cars and diamonds. Upon his death, what officials expected to be the richest estate in the history of Tennessee turned out to be worth a paltry $5 million.

But for Elvis, death was an excellent career move. Today the flow of new products goes on unabated.

Warner Home Video and Paramount Home Entertainment are releasing deluxe editions of films like Viva Las Vegas and Jailhouse Rock. One of his Army shirts is up for auction on eBay - minimum bid $50,000. A fan in California has purchased a Spanish-style five-bedroom house once owned by Elvis, hoping to turn it into Graceland West.

Until 2005, Elvis Presley Enterprises was owned by Lisa Marie Presley, the singer's only child. She sold 85 percent of the company to CKX Inc., which now controls the worldwide marketing of Elvis.

CKX is reportedly planning to build an Elvis-themed attraction in Las Vegas, site of his record-breaking appearances. "You have places like Vegas that treat Elvis as if he is still alive and kicking," said Cynthia Salarizadeh, a Las Vegas publicist.

This month the first Elvis Cruise sets sail from Jacksonville, Fla., the nicest cabins renting for $2,499.

Why are people willing to pay that kind of money to forge a tenuous connection to a long-dead entertainer?

"The short answer is, he was cool," said Joseph Rigoli of the Davies Murphy Group, a public-relations firm in Burlington, Mass. "The more complicated answer is an experienced marketing team successfully created an idealized image that has endured and grown even more popular through the years."

Veteran Elvis impersonator Michael O'Connor says the credit goes mostly to, well, him. And to people like him.

"Elvis tribute artists have fueled this," said O'Connor, of Allentown, set to perform Saturday at the West Gate Mall in Bethlehem. "They've brought a lot of the younger fans into it. . . . When I perform, it's like Elvis never left."

McGoun examined Elvis' enduring sales as part of his research into marketing imagery. There's no single answer for why Elvis continues to sell, he said. But part of the explanation is that Elvis did so much for so long. His music ran the gamut from pop to rock to gospel to country, and in movies he portrayed everything from a cowboy to a race-car driver. Leather Elvis, Army Elvis, comeback Elvis, Hawaiian Elvis, fat Elvis - people can take their pick.

"He had something for everyone," McGoun said. "He's famous now with people who weren't even born when he was alive."

And that timing is another big reason for the King's earning power, he noted.

Elvis is, conveniently, dead. That means he's no longer incurring expenses, flying the Lisa Marie airliner off to Denver for gourmet peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches. And for the people running this estate, it means Elvis is who they say he is. He's not a faded, overweight rock star. He's eternally young, vibrant and beautiful.

One big advantage of marketing a dead celebrity is the assurance that "they're not going to do anything embarrassing," McGoun said. "They're not going to shave their head and go into rehab. There aren't going to be any nasty surprises in the morning paper."

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