The King's heritage is being sold out, to the peasants Thursday, January 6, 2005 By Ed Bumgardner relish staff writer Caught in a trap. For those of you who care - and there are tens of thousands, and we all know who you are - Saturday is an extra-special Elvis day. It is the late Elvis Presley's birthday. The former King of Rock 'n' Roll turned Burger King turned Cash Cow would have been 70. Even by Dead Elvis standards, it has been an odd, some might say despicable, few weeks for the legacy of Presley, a bona-fide musical talent whose good name, life and myriad accomplishments have been mauled and mocked, malled and misused, since the moment of his death in 1977. Love him, hate him, Elvis is a hunka-hunka chunk of Americana, a true pop-culture icon. He is, literally, a (misguided) religion. Everyone, everywhere knows Elvis. As musician/maniac Mojo Nixon once said in song, "Elvis is everywhere." Few days go by in America in which a citizen is not reminded, in some way, of Elvis Presley. (This is not exaggeration; just pay attention.) Granted, the man, immortal in death, was queasily mortal in life. He habitually gobbled prescription narcotics in a manner befitting a child locked alone in a candy store. He surrounded himself with opportunistic sycophants. The once breathtakingly handsome Presley got ... husky toward the end of his pants-splitting career. And let's face it, dying while seated in the bathroom was not exactly a dignified exit, particularly given his cultural stature. It immediately made the late Presley easy comedic fodder and allowed the selling of Elvis to take a dark turn. Now it's gotten worse. Tchotchkes are no longer enough; Elvis Presley has been sold, the victim of a Judas kiss. Last month, his daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, sold Elvis Presley Enterprises for about $100 million dollars. The deal was reported to erase $25 million in debt, hand Lisa Marie $53 million in blood money and allow her to retain shares in the new company (CFX Inc.) worth an additional $20 million - or 15 percent of the company. She will oversee part of the company's operation. She retains structural ownership of Graceland, Elvis' beloved home-turned-tourist-trap, and its surrounding 13 acres. And she will claim ownership of certain undisclosed items from her father's personal effects. What she no longer owns: Her namesake jet or any of the other Presley aircraft on display; the Graceland shopping complex; the rights to her father's name and image; the right to profit from tours of Graceland; the publishing rights to her father's music and recordings; and the majority of the furnishings, automobiles and memorabilia shown to the public in or around Graceland. All of those things now belong to CFX Inc., which hopes to become a publicly traded company. That means you, too, can own a piece of the King. How ... Solomon-like. Legal mumbo-jumbo what it is, there needs to be clarification surrounding whether or not Lisa Marie literally owns her father. He is buried in the backyard of Graceland - once a hillbilly, always a hillbilly - and his plot and its contents are the main attraction of the Graceland tour. Presley's body certainly constitutes Presley's image, now owned by CFX. And although Lisa Marie owns the land, this does not include everything on the land, and may or may not include what is in the land. The sale of Elvis Presley Enterprises, and all that it implies, is weird, sad and wrong. Elvis doted on his daughter; Lisa Marie returned the favor by selling her family legacy into corporate slavery. Elvis' stature borders on mythology. His story belongs to the ages. Elvis belongs to everyone. Now he belongs, at least in part, to the empire of Clear Channel Communications. It takes a bit of investigation to the get to the root of this misdeed. Elvis Presley Enterprises was sold to Robert F.X. Sillerman. Sillerman founded SFX Entertainment, a showbiz promotion company, in 1977. He sold it to Clear Channel in 2000, remaining as a governing employee. Connect the dots. Clear Channel owns the majority of the major rock radio stations in the United States. It controls what gets played. Hate the state of modern radio? Blame Clear Channel. Clear Channel owns or controls many of the major concert-promotion firms and venues in the country. Tired of paying exorbitant ticket prices? Blame Clear Channel. It is a sure bet that all things Elvis will also rise in price, from tickets to tour Graceland to new, higher-priced repackaging of his music, to the official souvenirs sold in shops. Last month, Wade Jones, a resident of Belmont, auctioned 3 tablespoons of water taken from a cup that Presley drank from during a North Carolina concert in the 1970s. (A policeman had handed Jones the cup.) Jones had kept the water in deep freeze, then recently thawed it and sealed it in an airtight vial. He sold the water for $455 on the Internet garage sale known as eBay. Now, he has auctioned the one-time-only right to borrow the cup - a Holy Grail of sorts to Elvis fanatics. Nutballz, a company that makes cookies free of wheat or refined sugar, says that it placed the winning bid and plans to use the cup as a draw for a fund-raiser. It is not known whether the cup will be traveling first class. Jones should go to work for CFX. He would fit right in. Happy birthday, Elvis. So much for resting in peace. Caught in a trap.... ebumgardner@wsjournal.com home | new | the man | lisa marie | priscilla & others | fun | clothes | photos | records | movies | concerts | gifts | web | guide | e-cards | today | facts Click here for more info on the book The Girls' Guide to Elvis Click here to check out sister book The Girls' Guide to Country Click here to check out the latest sister book The Ultimate Guide to Chick Flicks