Elvis "Tree OF Life"....

[franny]

This was on EIN...

franny

Original Elvis "Tree Of Life" for sale on EBay: Elvis' good friend Marty Lacker has put up the original drawing of Elvis' "Tree Of Life" for auction on Ebay. This is how he describes it:

"One night in December, '64, unable to sleep, I started to doodle on some paper and without any preconceived thought started drawing a tree that I dubbed The Tree Of Life. It made me think of the relationships that Elvis had with the original guys in the Memphis Mafia and how much our lives were intertwined with him. Him being the glue that held us all together.
Without thinking I wrote his name vertically down the trunk of the tree and then wrote the names of the guys on the branches, using a letter from his name to be part of each of the guy's names. It had great meaning to me and I felt it would to him to.
I included one of his favorite sayings about the truth setting you free and to designate the different heritages of the guys, I had it written in english, hebrew and latin.
The next day I showed it to Elvis and it moved him so much that he had slight tears in his eyes. That gave me an idea for his Christmas gift from the guys that as Foreman, it was my job to come up with from the guys. We all chipped in and bought Elvis a beautiful big white Bible that I took to a caligrapher who I had draw the Tree Of Life on the front page in gold leaf. We gave that to Elvis for Christmas '64 and he was thrilled with it. Then to make it even more personal I took the drawing to jeweler Harry Levitch and had him get an engraver to engrave the tree on a beautiful gold medallion that we gave to Elvis for his 30th birthday on Jan. 8, '65. He proudly wore that necklace every day for years.
The day after I showed my original drawing to Elvis, I made two xerox copies of it in case something happened to the original. The original drawing is no longer in existence and neither is one of the copies I made.
I have been saving the one existing copy of the original drawing in my photo album since '64 in plastic and I have decided to make it available to an Elvis fan by offering it here on ebay to the highest bidder. It will be accompanied by a Letter Of Authenticity that I will be happy to sign that will contain the information I have written above.
- Thank you, Marty Lacker.
Click here to check out this genuine artefact. Bidding ends Tuesday.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=260216106927

[cameron]

I saw that and thought it was neat.
I wouldn't want to buy anything from Marty though ,
even if I had the money. I know , I'm bad.

[Diane]

Now as I understand this, Marty and the other MM gave this drawing and medallion to Elvis so how did it come back into his possession to sell on eBay? Lots of people that were close to Elvis seem to come up with things to sell that belonged to him.

Diane

[KPM]

Now as I understand this, Marty and the other MM gave this drawing and medallion to Elvis so how did it come back into his possession to sell on eBay? Lots of people that were close to Elvis seem to come up with things to sell that belonged to him.

Diane

Good point.

[cameron]

THIS IS WHAT MARTY SAID.....

"We all chipped in and bought Elvis a beautiful big white Bible that I took to a caligrapher who I had draw the Tree Of Life on the front page in gold leaf. We gave that to Elvis for Christmas '64 and he was thrilled with it. Then to make it even more personal I took the drawing to jeweler Harry Levitch and had him get an engraver to engrave the tree on a beautiful gold medallion that we gave to Elvis for his 30th birthday on Jan. 8, '65. He proudly wore that necklace every day for years.
The day after I showed my original drawing to Elvis, I made two xerox copies of it in case something happened to the original. The original drawing is no longer in existence and neither is one of the copies I made.
I have been saving the one existing copy of the original drawing in my photo album since '64 in plastic and I have decided to make it available to an Elvis fan "

[franny]

THIS IS WHAT MARTY SAID.....

The day after I showed my original drawing to Elvis, I made two xerox copies of it in case something happened to the original. The original drawing is no longer in existence and neither is one of the copies I made.
I have been saving the one existing copy of the original drawing in my photo album since '64 in plastic and I have decided to make it available to an Elvis fan "

Good thinking on Marty's part!

franny

[Rover]

How come this stuff is not at Graceland...well, a (rich) fan will be very happy

[Andrew Hearn]

There is some confusion here. Marty is selling the DRAWING for the design, not the necklace itself. The original is now owned by collector Tom Salva in New Jersey. Tom is a friend of mine, and we spent most of Elvis Week 2007 together and he was actually wearing it the whole time. Before you say it, Tom is a huge guy, extremely athletic and quite capable of defending himself.
The reason this, and items like it, are not at Graceland is because Elvis liked to give such things as gifts. They ended up with other people, and have since been sold on to collectors, like Tom.
Andrew Hearn
www.essentialelvis.com

[utmom2008]

There is some confusion here. Marty is selling the DRAWING for the design, not the necklace itself. The original is now owned by collector Tom Salva in New Jersey. Tom is a friend of mine, and we spent most of Elvis Week 2007 together and he was actually wearing it the whole time. Before you say it, Tom is a huge guy, extremely athletic and quite capable of defending himself.
The reason this, and items like it, are not at Graceland is because Elvis liked to give such things as gifts. They ended up with other people, and have since been sold on to collectors, like Tom.
Andrew Hearn
www.essentialelvis.com

Thanks for the story Andrew, that was interesting to hear. Where did Tom buy it? I think it would be so neat to own something like that!

[Andrew Hearn]

I believe it came from Jimmy Velvet.

[Diane]

Gee, a lot of things came from Jimmy Velvet it seems. He must have hung around Elvis a lot or was conveniently around whoever was getting rid of something they got from Elvis.

Diane

[Andrew Hearn]

Yes, that is the case. Jimmy is actually a collector of all things from the music / film / entertainment world. He did know Elvis and the Presley family from the mid '50s onwards, and has always shown an interest in buying / trading / selling personally owned items from the rich and famous - not just Elvis.

[KPM]

Yes, that is the case. Jimmy is actually a collector of all things from the music / film / entertainment world. He did know Elvis and the Presley family from the mid '50s onwards, and has always shown an interest in buying / trading / selling personally owned items from the rich and famous - not just Elvis.

Did Jimmy claim he was related to ELvis at one point-or am I thinking of someone else?

[The King's Queen]

Oh noooooo Yet another classic example of a 'good friend' of Elvis' using any and every thing they have left to ca$h in on his legacy. Call me a sentimental ol' fool, if you wish, but I cannot imagine selling something like this...be it a copy, or the original.

[Diane]

I have a bad case of sentimentality too and this goes down hard with me also.


Diane