Letter Written By Elvis To Be Auctioned

October 17, 2010

Heritage Auctions is holding a Music and Entertainment Auction in Beverly Hills, Ca. on November 12th & 13th, 2010. Included in this auction is the first known handwritten letter by Elvis Presley dated January 16,1956. This is truly a historical artifact. The on-line bidding is to begin approximately October 25th.

Elvis was doing his best to keep up with his ever-increasing fan mail in early 1956, but within two months, when “Heartbreak Hotel” debuted on the charts, that would become impossible. As noted Elvis expert Jerry Osborne notes, “Elvis wrote like he talked”.

That genuineness comes through in this handwritten letter, unusual for its length (examples of even an abbreviated note such as this are relatively rare) and content (not that many fan letter responses from this period have turned up).

Osborne’s Elvis - Word for Word (Osborne Enterprises, 1999) documents a similar letter from the soon-to-be King of Rock and Roll, dated January 17, 1956, one day after this offering, which includes a “P.S.” initialed by Elvis at the bottom.

Accompanying the letter is the original envelope to the fan with the Elvis Presley Fan Club return address stamped on the front. As a bonus, also included is Elvis’ first Sun recording, a 78 version of “That’s All Right” in a nice EX 7 grade (Side 2, “Blue Moon of Kentucky” is in VG-EX 6) A letter from the original fan, dated July 7, 2006 relating the background of the letter is included, as is a letter from the only other owner of this unique souvenir. Comes with a statement from Jerry Osborne who personally examined the Elvis-signed letter.

Source:

Elvis Information Network

Deke Rivers 6 wrote on October 18, 2010

Did he really write it ? doesn't look to much his hand writing ?

Peter @ ElvisMatters wrote on October 18, 2010

Interesting, but as fake as can be :)

al shookup wrote on October 18, 2010

If you compare this letter to the one Elvis wrote to President Nixon in December 1970 there are a lot of similarities in both letters and considering there was a lot of years between them I would accept the 1956 one as authentic.

samcra wrote on October 18, 2010

I agree with al shookup. The first thought I had was the letter to Nixon. Yes, very similar.

Alant15 wrote on October 18, 2010

The writing looks too neat for Elvis and also the words are too crowded. The line "keep writing in" seems something more like an employee would write in Elvis' pre superstar years. The signature looks wrong too. Most Elvis signatures are not genuine. Fake may be too harsh a description but it doesn't look like Elvis wrote it to me. I don't doubt that the original recipient thought it was genuine though as it undoubtedly came from the Elvis camp. However that doesn't mean Elvis wrote it or was even aware of it.