franny
09-16-2007, 03:30 PM
This was on EIN...
franny
Elvis still big business: Even from beyond the grave, Elvis Presley still generates big bucks. That was even truer on the anniversary of his death last month.
Fans from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America - and even from exotic locales like Kansas - spent their hard-earned money for T-shirts, coffee mugs, salt and pepper shakers, refrigerator magnets and other trinkets during the events commemorating his death 30 years ago.
Many made the 110-mile trek from Memphis, Tenn., where the King of Rock 'n' Roll enjoyed his fame and gaudy fortune in Graceland, to Tupelo, the northeast Mississippi city where Elvis came into the world on Jan. 8, 1935, in a tiny shotgun shack built by his father. They also filled hotel rooms as far away as northwest Mississippi's casino row in Tunica and spent money on meals, rental cars and gasoline, giving a significant, although difficult to quantify, boost to the area's economy.
Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation in Tupelo, estimated that fans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars there and at area hotels and stores this week, which is the busiest of the year for Elvis tourism.
The more lucrative earnings were in Memphis. Last year, Graceland took in $27 million in revenue, and the overall Elvis business brings in more than $40 million a year for CKX Inc., the New York-based company that controls most Elvis enterprises. ...
In Memphis on Aug. 15, thousands of Presley fans braved 105-degree heat as they wound down Graceland's driveway in a graveside procession in advance of the 30th anniversary of the singer's death Aug. 16.
The heat led to the death of a fan from New Jersey, a 67-year-old woman. The Memphis Fire Department said it also treated at least six people overcome by heat, including an 8-year-old boy who was hospitalized. (News/Sale of EPE, Source: AP/Presleys in the Press)
franny
Elvis still big business: Even from beyond the grave, Elvis Presley still generates big bucks. That was even truer on the anniversary of his death last month.
Fans from Europe, Asia, Australia, South America - and even from exotic locales like Kansas - spent their hard-earned money for T-shirts, coffee mugs, salt and pepper shakers, refrigerator magnets and other trinkets during the events commemorating his death 30 years ago.
Many made the 110-mile trek from Memphis, Tenn., where the King of Rock 'n' Roll enjoyed his fame and gaudy fortune in Graceland, to Tupelo, the northeast Mississippi city where Elvis came into the world on Jan. 8, 1935, in a tiny shotgun shack built by his father. They also filled hotel rooms as far away as northwest Mississippi's casino row in Tunica and spent money on meals, rental cars and gasoline, giving a significant, although difficult to quantify, boost to the area's economy.
Dick Guyton, executive director of the Elvis Presley Memorial Foundation in Tupelo, estimated that fans spent hundreds of thousands of dollars there and at area hotels and stores this week, which is the busiest of the year for Elvis tourism.
The more lucrative earnings were in Memphis. Last year, Graceland took in $27 million in revenue, and the overall Elvis business brings in more than $40 million a year for CKX Inc., the New York-based company that controls most Elvis enterprises. ...
In Memphis on Aug. 15, thousands of Presley fans braved 105-degree heat as they wound down Graceland's driveway in a graveside procession in advance of the 30th anniversary of the singer's death Aug. 16.
The heat led to the death of a fan from New Jersey, a 67-year-old woman. The Memphis Fire Department said it also treated at least six people overcome by heat, including an 8-year-old boy who was hospitalized. (News/Sale of EPE, Source: AP/Presleys in the Press)