Elvis Presley King Creole Movie Poster, ca. 1960
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APPRAISER:
Before we talk about your poster that you brought today, I gotta compliment you on your blue suede shoes.
GUEST:
(laughing): Thank you.
APPRAISER:
Very appropriate for today. Tell me about your poster.
GUEST:
So, my grandmother gave it to me, and she said that an ex-boyfriend gave it to her, and he had taken it off of a military base movie theater. So down at the bottom, it's got the military thing on it. And then she didn't like Elvis at the time very much. So she folded it up, put it under her bed, and then after I was born, she went back to her mom's house and found it, and then framed it and gave it to me for my birthday.
43:53
APPRAISER:
It's interesting, though, that you talked about how Elvis-- she didn't like Elvis at the time, because he wasn't received at the beginning of his career, and, in fact, when he played the Ryman Theater, he wasn't received, uh, in Nashville at the beginning of his career very well. And what's interesting about, the King, about King Creole, is that he indicated years later that it was his favorite role that he ever played. Elvis plays 19-year-old Danny Fisher, who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women. And the other interesting part about this era of his career is the fact that in this poster here, we see him dressed in his, in his military uniform. So the movie came out in 1958, and at this time, Elvis was about to go into the U.S. service. So a month before he was set to report to film the movie, he received his draft notice. He was granted a 60-day deferment for the military service, and they filmed King Creole. And then 14 days after they were done with the film, he reported for U.S. military service. The condition we see, of course, is that it was, has the fold lines-- it was mailed to the theater. We go back to what you talked about at first, how it was for military use only. So you mentioned that it's believed this was on a base. And we know from the family story this was on a base. So the difficulty in this poster is figuring out the exact year it was printed. So one of the things we do know is, it does say that it's a rerelease. So it was not printed in 1958. It also has him in his military uniform, which, we know he didn't report until March of 1958. What we don't have is a specific year, what particular year they would have shown the movie at the base theater. And what became difficult about this poster, even being a rerelease, is to really nail down the scarcity. And what we found is that we could not find another example of this poster, period.
GUEST:
Wow.
APPRAISER:
Have you ever been able to find one?
GUEST:
Nope.
APPRAISER:
It's got everything you like to see, it's got the two different images of him. And again, with this famous movie, with the fact that he's in uniform there, and it was right at the beginning of his military career, it's just such a scarce poster, it becomes a real collector piece. This poster, if it was the, a common rerelease one-sheet, you'd be looking at somewhere around $500 at auction.
GUEST:
Ok.
APPRAISER:
But this poster being, because of its scarcity, I'd put it at an estimated auction of at least $1,200 to $1,500.
GUEST:
Oh, wow, okay. Well, it's not going anywhere either way, so... (laughs)
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