Elvisly Yours Shops

The biggest destroyer of businesses in the UK are the local councils who very quickly call the bailiffs when you are late with payment of the Rates (land taxes). Nothing has changed since the time of Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. You are given two chances to pay late instalments of rates (14 days) and then the Council will take you to Court and demand you pay the whole year's rate bill in advance. Unless you fight them they get a “Liability Order”. This means they can immediately go to your premises and either get full payment in cash or bankers draft or start to seize goods from your premises to sell at auction. They keep on coming back seizing goods until they get the money owed. I was at war with my local council, “Hackney” for five years.

The local area was famous for poor education, poor housing, crime, drug dealers, poverty and a small company called Elvisly Yours. My shop had been opened on Jan 8th 1983 by Jerry and Myrna Schilling and for the next 16 years Hackney Council only gave me grief. I had begged them for assistance for years as we were one of the few tourist attractions in the Borough. All they wanted to do was close me down. After being wiped out by the Russian Mafia when I had opened a western supermarket in St Petersburg, opened by Vladimir Putin, and robbed of $250,000.00 of all stock and assets it was a struggle paying the rates. The Council had demanded I pay a Rateable Value at £44,000.00 for the property and this was clearly wrong. I challenged this and got it down to £11,000.00.

We had a game of legal ping-pong for years with the Council demanding far too much and me objecting in Court Hearings that they got it wrong. Eventually, an agreement was struck and I adhered to this agreement. One day, I was told bailiffs were coming to seize my goods but they had made a mistake. Only the manager of the Rates Department could stop the bailiffs. I attempted to contact this bloody bureaucrat but he was in meetings for hours so I rushed to the Court that had issued the Liability Order to stop the bailiff’s action.

Apparently, even the local court cannot stop the action only the Council or the High Court. I was lucky that I had a sympathetic court official who phoned Hackney Council to prove they were wrong. Eventually, a junior clerk at the Council found their mistake and agreed to call off the bailiffs. I went to the Council offices demanding a written statement and apology. The Manager never showed his face but I got my letter. I then appealed to the Ombudsman to get compensation. In the UK the Ombudsman has no teeth and cannot demand damages, they just got the Council to refund the £480.00 bailiffs fee, that’s what they charge for turning up at your premises. It is legal robbery and when I retire I will use my time to fight this archaic system that forces small businesses to the wall. Councils give no help, show no understanding and the system is an evil throwback to the Middle Ages with Lords of the Manor and serfs. I had had enough of Hackney Council and wanted out of my warehouse and shop at Shoreditch. My next-door neighbour was a massage parlour and its owner knew the owner of the famous Trocadero in Piccadilly Circus. He arranged a meeting and we were on our way from the East End to the West End. The move was done in style. First when the building was put up for sale I had my dear friend, Elvis look-a-like Leyton Sommors, put up the For Sale signs (still got them) and TV and press were invited. The day of moving I had ETAs Kim Bridges and the Emerald Elvis driving through London on open top London buses singing Elvis songs. Elvisly Yours were now uptown, up market in the London Trocadero but I had a tenuous lease and knew I could not stay forever. In fact, we were there for 2 years when the then Management demanded I pay £17,000.00 in Service Charges for our small 440 sq. ft. unit, 4x the rate for large shops. I complained and they refused to budge and gave me 7 days notice to get out. They were so bloody- minded yet the shop remained empty for the next year. They were very strange landlords. They refused the world’s media access to my shop after I won the Appeal Court legal battle in March 1999. I had been asked by four TV News film crews and lots of photographers to do interviews and take photos at my shop at the Trocadero but they said “no” and lost £millions in free publicity. In fact, every time the media came to interview me at the shop they caused us problems. To be continued in the next Newsletter…

Old friends…

After running a story about my dear, old friend Jim Kingsley I got an email out of the blue from his twin brother’s wife, Lilly. Many fans did not know that Jim Kingsley had a twin brother John who had a Down Syndrome son. The son, Johnny is a Special Olympics Champion and an he does and excellent Elvis Tribute. He was recently in Ireland for a Special Olympics Event and when the Irish media heard he did an Elvis Tribute they followed him around Ireland throughout his stay and he became an Irish hero. He was also on TV on the famous "Oprah Show".

The Kingsley family are close friends of Becky Yancy and her family. Becky was Elvis secretary for many years and she published a book about her life with Elvis. The Kingsley family, Becky and her husband used to come to our hotel during my fan club tours and we would raise money for Memphis Special Olympics. One of the simple fund-raising ways that is perfect for any party is “Elvis Musical Chairs”. The chances are as a kid you played musical chairs but imagine what it is like with a roomful of devoted adult Elvis fans. Talk about “death or glory”. There are no prisoners when you play “Adult Elvis Musical Chairs”. Of course, you play the normal game but only using Elvis songs until you are down to just two participants, all the others are in a heap on the floor. The winner gets an Elvis prize and fans pay to enter the game. On one evening I believed we raised $700.00 for Special Olympics and it was always great fun.

Sherry Daniel

Over the years I have had hundreds of friends in the Elvis World who have been supportive and helpful, especially after my struggles with EPE. None of my American friends had actually given evidence on my behalf in the US Court Case but still supported me morally and remained friends although many cut me off for fear of imagined reprisals from EPE. I was very friendly with Julie Banhart of the Memphis Elvis fan club and Sue Wiegert, the Blue Hawaiians Fan Club (Los Angeles) and they were both friends of Sherry Daniel who lived in LA. Julie had helped raise money for our Appeal to in 1989 to get the Russian Fan to Graceland and Sue had always supported me as far back as 1979. Sherry was a prolific writer and I think she should have become a professional writer (or maybe she has since I lost contact). Of all the letters I have ever received Sherry’s has remained the most the most important to me. It wasn’t actually a letter, but a fantasy story and I think it was written with me in mind. Please read this wonderful fantasy and just think of Elvis, his multitude of fans, EPE and then me or maybe it is you…who will TCB. Just click on:

Setting the Eagle Free

A couple of years ago Sherry had written a critical email about me to the “Elvis Information Network” that I believe was completely unfounded. It was about my lack of support from American fans during my lawsuit. No Elvis fan, fan club, dealer, Elvis store, friend or family of Elvis gave evidence on my behalf when I was sued by EPE in US Federal Court, period. Of course, fans were supportive of me but my real need was to have the Elvis World behind me and no one came forward although I asked many to give an affidavit on my behalf, including Sherry. Sometime after losing in US Federal Court in 1991 I lost contact with Sherry and heard no more until that email to EIN. I never heard from her after I vigorously defended my position to EIN but it would be nice to hear from Sherry again.

I have published her story on my website and I hope it inspires other fans around the world, but particularly in America where EPE have had the most devastation and are most feared to TAKE CARE of BUSINESS for Elvis.

George Klein

After I had invited Charlie Hodge twice to Britain and then Dee Presley I started a campaign to invite Elvis’ family and friends to Britain and had several conventions a year. My next guest was George Klein in September 1982. I had met George through Bill Burk and George would always invite me to where he was appearing as a DJ in Memphis when I was in town. Through George I met many of Elvis' friends who became my friends: Alan Fortas, Richard Davis, Jim Kingsley and Jerry Schilling. Each time my fan club was in Memphis George and the guys would come along to meet the British fans. The parties were free for the fans and I was never asked to pay one cent to any of Elvis’ close friends when we were in Memphis, nor were any books or memorabilia offered for sale. My friends from the Memphis Mafia were only too pleased to share their memories of Elvis with the fans and we had some wonderful evenings. In Britain, George had a great time and he went over very well with the fans; he has such an interesting voice and is a great storyteller. You can see why he was Elvis' favourite DJ.

We invited George again and George helped give away a Sunshine Coach after we raised money during the 50th birthday year, a lot was raised from the sale of an Elvis jacket donated by Larry Geller for our convention to celebrate Elvis’ 50th Birthday. After I was sued by EPE in 1985, sadly George stop coming to our fan club parties in Memphis as he did the occasional job for EPE and I presumed did not want to upset the EPE megalomaniacs. Some years later, out of the blue, I got a call from George at my Memphis Hotel and he told me Richard Davis had a problem and needed to raise some money. Could my fan club, staying in Memphis, come to where he was performing on Beale Street and help with some fund-raising for Richard. I knew Richard well and had invited him to Britain for a fan club holiday Event and of course I said “yes”. The fans raised over $1,100.00 that night for Richard.

I have lost contact with George again and I hear he is working at a Casino in Mississippi. There was no one closer than George Klein and Richard Davis and I am sure George really misses Richard. I would not be surprised if they saw each other every day. They were like brothers.