The Elvis Papers

FACT AND FICTION 

It is difficult to separate the facts from the rumors after so much time.  More than one person I spoke with said that there were millions printed.  There were not millions (of authorized papers) printed.  There was a rumor that they were printed for years.  They were not printed for years.  Many people told me that they were re-printed.  There was indeed an authorized reprinting in 1997 on the 20th anniversary of his death, but these had a band across the masthead announcing that it was a souvenir reprint.   These were only available for a limited time on a now defunct website.  I was told by more than one person (who were only guessing) that there were tens of thousands (even millions) of unauthorized re-prints.  That rumor alone is what makes the ones I found so unique.  According to the business manager of the The Memphis Publishing Company, "To meet the public's demand we printed 1.7 million of Elvis Presley Special Editions of the Commercial Appeal and Memphis Press-Scimitar beginning in August, 1977.  We stopped filling orders for those editions in March (of 1978)".