Elvis Presley’s Estate Sues Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino
Elvis Presley’s estate has sued the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino in a dispute over the late singer’s memorabilia.
Elvis Presley Enterprises Inc is seeking to retrieve items including stage outfits, jewellery and the singer’s high school yearbook.
It says the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino is holding the items “hostage” as part of a dispute with the operators of an Elvis exhibition.
The Graceland Presents Elvis attraction closed abruptly earlier this month.
Billed as the largest exhibition of Elvis Presley memorabilia outside his Graceland home and museum, the attraction opened last April to great fanfare.
However, the doors closed at the beginning of March, with The Westgate claiming the show’s operators, Exhibit A Circle LLC, had defaulted on their 10-year lease.
Exhibit A claimed the Westgate violated the contract first, but declined to elaborate.
Elvis Presley’s estate responded by filing legal papers filed in Clark County District Court, Las Vegas, on March 9.
It claimed it had been denied access to a security camera that allowed it to monitor its items, and asked the court to order that the memorabilia be returned.
Elvis Presley Enterprises declined to comment further on the legal action, but previously said Westgate aggressively seized the valuables without a legitimate legal basis.
Westgate’s COO Mark Waltrip declined to discuss the case.
The dispute centers on the same casino where Elvis performed several hundred shows, in the days when it was known as the Las Vegas Hilton and The International.
The 28,000-square-foot exhibition featured the $1 million-a-year contract Elvis Presley signed on a tablecloth, agreeing to perform at the casino; and the single-button black suit he wore for his first performances there.
Meanwhile, it has been announced that Elvis & Nixon, a comedy about the 1970 meeting between the rock star and President Richard Nixon, will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York next month.
Elvis & Nixon stars Michael Shannon as Elvis Presley and Kevin Spacey as Richard Nixon.