AdelaideNow... Elvis memorabilia battleMarch 26, 2007 02:30pm
WHO owns the black bag that Dr Nick used to treat Elvis? Or the bottles of prescription pills dated the day before Presley died?
Or the glass nasal douche used to irrigate the King's nostrils before he took the stage?
This week a Delaware judge begins hearing a dispute over a multimillion-dollar collection of Elvis memorabilia once owned by one of rock-and-roll's most infamous physicians, George C Nichopoulos.
"It's a big, damned mess, man, just the craziest thing you've ever seen," says Bobby Freeman, a lounge-singer/music-historian and defendant in the case.
"What's going on in that court in Delaware is absolutely disgusting."
The "Dr Nick" collection – temporarily padlocked inside a Nevada airport hangar – includes a stuffed dog, a desk carved by Elvis' Uncle Vester, a .38 Smith & Wesson, the laryngeal scope used to examine the King's throat, and the official red strobe light issued to Dr Nick in case he needed to race to Graceland for an emergency.
"It's amazing," Freeman says. "It's about the roots of rock and roll. It's about America, man."
A lawyer for the millionaire Californian suing Freeman does not disagree.
"There are items of genuine interest to Elvis fans, such as a copy of the book The Prophet with Elvis' hand-written annotations," says lawyer David L Finger of Wilmington.
He represents Richard Long, a California, executive who last year joined Freeman to buy Dr Nick's collection.
Freeman and Long are not talking anymore.
Long alleges in his lawsuit that he put up $US1.2 million ($A1.49 million) to make the deal happen but that Freeman will not give him access to the collection for management and insurance purposes.
Freeman says Long failed to put up $US3 million ($A3.73 million) more he had pledged to the project, fumbled a big chance to do a show at the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas, and secretly intends to sell the collection overseas.
The issue for the Delaware Chancery Court, among the nation's most respected business courts, is whether the rift between Freeman and Long is now so severe that their Delaware limited liability company should be dissolved.
If that happens, the next step would be to determine who gets to keep the collection.
The stakes are high, Freeman insists.
"It's about you, your children and America," the entertainer says.
The best man suited to protect these treasures, Freeman says, is Freeman.
"See, I built this collection," he says from Las Vegas, explaining that he entered a 50-50 partnership with Nichopoulos to show it to casinos in 2000.
"We opened it at the Hollywood Casino in Tunica, 15 miles (24km) from Graceland, and it was held over three times, and I did entertainment shows opposite of it in the ballroom.
"I have a big production. I'm a writer, a producer, and I play 30 instruments.
" PBS did a special on my life. I've been awarded by 31 U.S. governors."
The four-casino tour was so successful that Freeman came with the idea up putting the collection inside tractor-trailers and touring it nationwide.
Dr Nick said OK.
It took three years to build a show, but by 2005, Freeman had installed it inside two custom-made 18-wheelers.
"It tells the story of an intimate relationship between Dr Nick and his patient," Freeman says, describing the truck interiors. "Everything is beautiful: There's carpeting everywhere - burgundy, two inches (5cm) high, the best you can buy - and every frame is carved gold.
"There's the nasal douche, the laryngeal scope, and drug bottles with the name `Elvis Presley'," he says.
"You might think that's tacky. Man, even I think it's morbid. But what right do I have to pull it out of there?"
Freeman plans to charge $US20 ($A25) a ticket. As a bonus, he says he'll put on a concert at the end.
"I rock the piano with my feet. I play that thing any way I can, man."
But for now, the show is dark. Until the legal dispute is resolved, the trucks are parked in a secure, undisclosed location – the hangar in Nevada.
"It's a shame," Freeman says.
- MCT