Elvis memorabilia museum

Press, 31 October 1985, Page 32

Elvis memorabilia museum

By

STEVE JAMES,

of Reuters

(through NZPA) Wobdbridge, Virginia Beyond the Donut Shoppe and the Taco Bell restaurant, in a shopping mall by a busy road, the king of rock ’n’ roll is enshrined. The memory of Elvis lives — for $U53.95 ($6.30) a shot, in the newly opened, officially licensed Elvis Presley Museum. Visitors to the museum in the Virginia suburbs 32km south of Washington can see the singing legend’s white limousine (a Lincoln he coveted after seeing it in the film "Shaft”), or his underpants (size 32 early on but of undetermined size as his stature, and girth, grew). There is a dollar bill Elvis put in a church collection qfate in 1951 and signed

to say it was the first he earned. An accompanying letter authenticates the signature.

There are even two pairs of women’s silk panties (one orange, the other white with a red heart on the crotch) thrown at Elvis by adoring fans during a concert. Eight years after his death at his Graceland mansion home near Memphis, interest in Presley memorabilia remains so great that the owners of this, the first “official” Elvis museum outside Graceland, have hopes it might spawn a chain of shrines to “the King”. “This display barely amounts to a third of what is available ... we have eight cars,” said Shelley Husta, who put together the museum from items acquired by an avid Presley fan-

“If this is a success, Elvis’s estate and I will decide whether to open more museums,” she said. Ms Husta, a designer who has established several other museums of trivia in the United States and Canada, was granted a licence to use Elvis’s name by Graceland officials. “We want to give people a look at Elvis the man and how he lived,” she said. Hence, the displays of his aftershave (he favoured a moderately priced brand); his gold bracelet (with two extra links added when he put on weight); X-rays taken when he broke his hand; a green velvet sofa from his Hollywood home; and a fur coat he designed himself.

You can also find Elvis’s jogging suit, his .88 Special Smith and Wesson revolver (with real bullets) and a note he wrote to his wife,

Priscilla, on a Hilton hotel note pad. Then there is his ouija board. Presley was superstitious. Visitors learn that his lucky number was 2001 and that he died on the sixteenth day of the eighth month of 1977, numbers that add up to 2001.

Trivia is the museum speciality. Where else could one learn that Elvis had a nervous twitch in his leg that resulted in his wearing a bare spot in the carpet in the rear of his car?

The question arises why the Elvis Presley Museum was established at this particular locale, an obscure strip of shopping arcades and fast-food places straddling an old highway. Ms Husta says Woodbridge is typical of “middle America” where the hardcore Presley fan lives, yet is still close enough to Wash-

ington to attract some of the millions of tourists who visit the capital. “We want to give a better insight into somepne who is an American legend,” Ms Husta said. She admitted she herself was never a Presley fan but adds: “My mother is, and I have come to appreciate Elvis the man.”

Faithful to the singer’s credo of “TCB” (Taking Care of Business) the museum’s manager, Dale Estabrook, presides over a souvenir counter that greets the visitor at the end of the tour.

On sale are such items as Presley belt buckles, nailclippers and plastic replicas of his “1-ELVIS” Tennessee car licence plate. “It’s a nostalgic trip down memory lane,” said Mr Estabrook, “and no-one’s asked for his money back yet.”