Elvis Presley's Belt, ca. 1970
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GUEST:
My mother went to Las Vegas one year to visit my uncle and my aunt. When they were getting ready to leave, my uncle comes out with this belt and says it's Elvis's belt that Elvis gave to him at the Hilton Hotel years ago. And there you go.
APPRAISER:
All right, so your uncle Lucky was the bartender at the Las Vegas Hilton, is that right?
GUEST:
Yes, yes.
APPRAISER:
And then his son was the chef in the kitchen there.
GUEST:
Yeah, he worked in the kitchen.
APPRAISER:
Elvis actually lived in that hotel for eight years, and so I imagine after the act was over, he probably went down to the lounge late at night and wanted something to eat, right?
GUEST:
Yes, sir.
APPRAISER:
And so your uncle gave him drinks, and then your cousin provided him with food. What kind of food was Elvis eating?
GUEST:
He ate the banana sandwiches, just crazy sandwiches. And always wanted a piece of pie with a piece of cake on top of it.
APPRAISER:
Ooh, yum. In a way, when you're living in a hotel like that and you're an entertainer, I would think that your family would have been his family in a sense.
GUEST:
Exactly.
APPRAISER:
Well, it's a fabulous costume piece. It's all made out of bullion wire thread. These are rhinestones. And Elvis was the dancer, and so even in his '70s period he was probably out there gyrating and sending those fringes in all different directions. We have the tie to your family, which is good, so there's good provenance there. But no writing, no photos of him or anything. So I'm going to be conservative on the estimate. I'm going to say at auction, it would be $3,000 to $4,000.
GUEST:
That's... There's nothing wrong with that.
APPRAISER:
Nothing wrong with that.
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