Elvis still generating big bucks.........and "Diamond Joe" slams the authors of "Elvis, What Happened?: ELVIS Presley's best mate Joe Esposito talks about the man, the money and the memories in an exclusive look at the extraordinary value of Elvis the asset. Even in death, Elvis Presley can't stop making money. The business of Elvis - Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE) - last year turned over almost $100 million.

EPE is majority-owned by New York Stock Exchange listed company CKX and is growing even when the US economy is faltering. CKX bought 85 per cent of EPE in 2004 for $US100 million (now about $150 million). The Presley family retains 15 per cent.


CKX owns all of EPE's business activities except the music - Graceland and its tour operations, the Heartbreak Hotel across the street from Graceland, the trademark licenses for Elvis' likeness, songs and name. CKX also has a similar stake in the name, image, likeness and intellectual property of Muhammad Ali. In addition, it owns the American Idol TV show.

The opening of the Elvis-themed cabaret show in Las Vegas this year which will follow in the lines of the successful ‘Love'’ show based on the Beatles will undoubtedly generate more substantial income for CKX.

CKX also plans to demolish the 128-room Heartbreak Hotel, opposite Graceland on Elvis Presley Boulevard, to build two 400-room hotels, restaurants, an amphitheatre and shops.

In the 2007 calendar year, CKX reported income of $US12.1 million on sales of $266.8 million - a 32 per cent jump on the previous year. But it's not just the big companies who live on Elvis.

Elvis's long-time friend Joe Esposito - in Australia this week as a consultant to Gold Coast-based beverage distributor Global Beverage Marketers-Daiquiri Group - makes a living off touring the world talking about Elvis.

“It's amazing. He's been dead for 31 years and he's still a big part of my life,'' Mr Esposito said from yesterday from the Gold Coast. “I have come from England and Ireland and now I'm in Australia, and then I'm in Sweden and France - I love it. I have a lot of answers and people just want to talk about Elvis.''

Mr Esposito (71) retired in December after working as a casino host in Las Vegas. He first met Elvis in the late 1950’s after they were both drafted in the US Army for duty in Germany.

“I was an office clerk in Chicago and was drafted when I was 20. Most of the guys, including Elvis, were 23. I though getting drafted would change my whole world. It did,” he said. “I met Elvis, we struck up a friendship and before I left the Army in March 1960, he asked me to come and work for him. “At my discharge from the Army I was told I had flat feet and a bad ankle. I was also too young. I shouldn't have been in the Army in the first place, yet it was fate. I met Elvis and he changed my life.''

He worked for Elvis for 17 years, was the best man at Elvis' 1968 wedding, was a pallbearer at Elvis' 1977 funeral and went on to manage the Bee Gee's, Michael Jackson and John Denver. He was sacked five times by Elvis - usually an overnight event because it was forgotten the next morning - and endured the bitterness that came with a tell-all 1976 book “Elvis - What Happened?'' written by former Elvis bodyguards.

“That book crushed him,'' he said. “It was all he talked about - `why did they say those things?' he would say. It hurt him tremendously. “The book, with all its negativity, depressed Elvis. He took pills and more pills. I think that 50 per cent of the cause of Elvis' death was that book.''

“I don't care for those people (who wrote the book). They're not Elvis' friends.''

The US has an estimated 30,000 Elvis impersonators, each with a business of unpublished worth and Mr Esposito believes Elvis wouldn't have minded being represented in that way.

“They're doing something they enjoy and I'm sure Elvis wouldn't have been upset with that,'' he said.

Mr Esposito is now charged with helping promote GBM's push to distribute beverages - primarily the German premium beer Krombacher - into the US casino and hospitality sector. Incidentally, Krombacher was the beer Mr Esposito drank while on duty with the Army in Germany in 1959. (News, Source: Neil Dowling, Perth Now)