CELEBRITY AUCTIONSA Piece of Elvis: More than...
CELEBRITY AUCTIONS
A Piece of Elvis: More than 1,000 Elvis Presley items including automobiles, guitars, clothing, jewelry, historical documents and movie posters will be auctioned June 18-19 at the Las Vegas Hilton. Auctioneers Butterfield & Butterfield are billing the sale as the largest collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia ever offered. The collection comes from the Elvis Presley Museum, founded in Memphis in 1978 by 1950s recording artist Jimmy Velvet, a close friend of Presley. Velvet later opened additional museums in Nashville, Orlando and Honolulu, which have since broadened to include other performers. The lots will be previewed here May 4-8 at Butterfield & Butterfield’s Sunset Boulevard showroom.
* In Search Of . . .: Corona-based Odyssey Auctions is offering a “$50,000 reward” for the 1950 Pontiac Sedan Deluxe Coupe formerly owned by Marilyn Monroe. The company says it recently obtained Monroe’s California pink slip to the car, which bears the ID No. C8TH46948 and the license No. 19B2992. The company hopes to find the car before its upcoming Hollywood Memorabilia auction scheduled for May 14.
POP/ROCK
Floyd on Bright Side of Charts: Pink Floyd’s first album in seven years, “The Division Bell,” sold 455,000 copies last week and will enter the nation’s pop charts at No. 1. The group, which performs tonight at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium and Saturday and Sunday at the Rose Bowl, has also seen its 1973 album “Dark Side of the Moon” move to the No. 4 position on the list of all-time U.S. album sales with a total of 13 million.
TELEVISION
‘Chico’ Gets Latino Cast: Esai Morales, Sonia Braga, Edward James Olmos, Luis Guzman, Kamala Dawson and Tomas Milian have joined the virtually all-Latino cast of HBO’s upcoming movie “Chico,” about the martyred Brazilian labor leader Chico Mendes. Previously announced star Raul Julia will play the title role. Nigel Havers plays a British documentarian.
* Chevy Chase Marathon: Failed talk-show host Chevy Chase returns to glory on Sunday when cable’s Comedy Central holds a 10-hour tribute to his comedic talents. The marathon, which features some of Chase’s films, comedy clips and “Saturday Night Live” episodes hosted by Chase, starts at noon. . . . Speaking of Chase, the home of his ill-fated talk show, the Chevy Chase Theater (since renamed the Sunset Theater), gets a new tenant today when the Latino comedy trio Culture Clash begins taping new episodes of its self-titled Fox comedy series. The new shows begin airing April 23 on KTTV-TV Channel 11.
MOVIES
Rare Films Available: Washington’s Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution on Wednesday previewed a new joint collection of “rare silent films,” featuring such titles as D.W. Griffith’s 1912 film “The Narrow Road” and Lois Weber’s 1921 work “Too Wise Wives,” all accompanied by new piano scores. Also featured in the series, contained in six video volumes sold for $34.95 each, are Oscar Micheaux’s 1919 film “Within Our Gates,” the earliest surviving feature directed by an African American, and a collection of 21 animated shorts from 1900 to 1921.
ART
1994 Art Walk Set: An exhibition of “New Figures” by noted artist Robert Graham, a public art tour, docent-led visits to the downtown L.A. studios of such well-known artists as Gronk, George Herms and Daniel J. Martinez, and an exhibition of “New California Video” are among the special events highlighting the Venice Art Walk ‘94, the annual benefit for the Venice Family Clinic. This year’s event, introduced with a kick-off reception at 72 Market Street Tuesday evening, takes place May 15 with a self-guided tour of about 60 Venice artists’ studios, including those of Don Gummer, Pat Ward Williams, Charles Arnoldi, Christopher Hammerlein, Billy Al Bengston, Renee Petropoulos, Martha Alf, E.F. Kitchen and Laddie John Dill. Also featured are special exhibitions, a food fair and silent auction, and several pre-Walk events taking place May 13 and 14.
QUICK TAKES
Billy Joel, Clint Black and Trisha Yearwood are working on a musical salute to singer-writer Leonard Cohen. The album, being worked on in Nashville this week, is due out in September. . . . “Picket Fences” creator David Kelley is reportedly preparing a new doctor drama. New York magazine reports that stars of the CBS pilot, to be called “Chicago Hope,” include E.G. Marshall, Adam Arkin and Hector Elizondo. . . . Artist H.R. Giger, who won an Oscar for designing the other-worldly being in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” will conceive the title creature for MGM’s upcoming science-fiction thriller “Species,” about a genetically engineered being who is capable of assuming a human form. . . . Fox’s “The Simpsons” airs its 100th episode at 8 p.m. on April 28, followed at 8:30 by a repeat of the series’ first episode, “Bart the Genius,” which originally aired in January of 1990.
Quotable: “I’m not going to stand on the stage and be Tipper Gore. But there is such a thing as good taste.”--Film director Spike Lee, telling Massachusetts college students that some rap music glamorizes the mistreatment of women and encourages black men to do the wrong thing.
