World View
Global Dispatches From ABC News Reporters
ABC News staff around the world report on what makes the news and what doesn't.
RECENT POSTS
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Elvis' Finger Prints, Hendrix's Guitar And More Go Under The Hammer
September 04, 2008 11:57 AM
By Stephen Webb, ABC News London
Would you like to own the only remaining set of Elvis’ fingerprints, or the first guitar that Jimi Hendrix set alight on stage? Perhaps the Beatles' first contract would look good on your mantelpiece? Then head on down to a star-studded auction in London tonight -- but you might need a few million dollars.
Hendrix’s Fender Stratocaster guitar is up for auction and is expected to go for around $1 million, according to the Fame Bureau, the specialist auctioneer selling the items.
It’s the same instrument the rock legend set on fire after dousing it in lighter fluid during a concert at London’s Astoria in March 1967. According to the Fame Bureau, the scorched guitar was passed along to multiple people until it ended up in the garage of a relative of one of Hendrix’s business associates. It was only found last year.
Also up for sale is the Beatles’ first-ever contract, signed in 1962 by John, Paul, George, Ringo and their manager, Brian Epstein. The document even bears the signatures of Richard Starkey, the real name of Ringo Starr. The signed, four-page contract is expected to sell for up to $1 million.
The only existing fingerprints of Elvis Presley will also be going under the hammer. The prints were left on a 1970 application for a concealed gun license. The starting bid has been set at $44,000.
Two hundred people have been invited to the auction, including “high-profile American and British” stars, according to the Fame Bureau, though the bureau refused to offer specific names.
Other items up for auction tonight are a previously unseen amateur video of Marilyn Monroe taken from the set of comedy movie “Some Like It Hot,” and the last music notebook owned by Jim Morrison, advertised as the last notebook of “musings, lyrics and poems written” before his death.
Photo Credit: The Fame Bureau
September 4, 2008 in Stephen Webb | Permalink | User Comments (0)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Post a comment
