Elvis: Still creating a storm

New York, April 1: Elvis Presley’s vocal cords are probably the most famous in the history of rock ’’ roll. Now the medical instruments that helped keep them on song are at the centre of a court battle involving a multi-million pound array of Elvis memorabilia.

Among the disputed items collected by George Nichopoulos, the late star’s personal doctor, are the laryngeal scope with which he examined “the king’s” chronic sore throat and tonsils, and a device used to irrigate his nostrils before concerts.

The collection, amassed by “Dr Nick” — as the former physician is commonly known — in boxes in his garage, was “the greatest find since the Titanic”, said Las Vegas lounge singer Robert Gallagher, one of the men disputing its ownership.

Also at the heart of the legal fight are a stuffed toy dog that Presley once threw at Nick, the red strobe car roof light the doctor kept with him in case he needed to hurry to Graceland, the star’s Tennessee home, a prescription pill bottle dated August 15, 1977 — the day before Elvis died — and a Smith & Wesson pistol that Presley gave to him.

A wooden desk made by Presley’s uncle Vester, from which the singer conducted all his business at Graceland, and a gold watch engraved “from EP and Priscilla”, the singer’s ex-wife, are also in the collection.

The items are being stored in a locked Nevada airport hangar while a judge decides who has the right to control and exhibit them. Gallagher and his girlfriend are lined up against Richard Long, a Californian millionaire and their former partner in the company set up to exhibit the collection.

Nick, 80, who had earlier agreed to sell the items to Gallagher in a separate deal, is not involved in the legal dispute.

He was a fixture in Presley’s entourage for a decade but now works for the FedEx courier company after losing his licence in 1995 for bad professional conduct.

As Presley’s personal physician, he wrote out thousands of prescriptions for the amphetamines, barbiturates, tranquillisers, sleeping pills and laxatives to which Elvis became addicted as his health deteriorated and his body bloated. In 1981, however, he was acquitted of charges that he had prescribed too many drugs for Presley.