Well, it’s one for the money …
Elvis Presley’s iconic blue suede shoes have sold at auction for $152,000, the top end of what auction house Henry Aldridge & Son Ltd. had expected to fetch for the lot.
The shoes were expected to command anywhere between $126,000 and $152,000 when bidding recently began. The auction ended on June 28 with the shoes going for the highest expected amount.
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Presley received the shoes not long after his version of Sun Records labelmate Carl Perkins’ “Blue Suede Shoes” appeared as the opening track on Presley’s self-titled debut album released in March 1956.
According to the auctioneers, “Elvis wore these iconic blue suede shoes during the 1950s on and off stage. … In 1958, the night before Elvis left for the Army he gave these shoes to close friend and entourage member, Alan Fortas. The heel of each shoe is stamped ‘Nunn-Bush’ and inside of each shoe is stamped 10-1/2 stating the shoe size. There is a lot of history wrapped up in these well-worn blue suede shoes which are synonymous with the name Elvis Presley.”
When Did Elvis Presley Wear Blue Suede Shoes?
Presley wore the blue suede shoes during public appearances throughout the ’50s, including, most famously, his promotional visit to The Steve Allen Show in July 1956, where he sang a reserved version of his hit “Hound Dog” to a basset hound. You can watch the clip below. After Presley entered the Army in March 1958, Fortas owned the shoes for a while before they were displayed in several museums over the decades.
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
