LAS VEGAS – For decades, Las Vegas has loved Elvis Presley tender – and loved him true – but the King’s presence in modern day Sin City has lately been diminishing, one impersonator at a time.
“Vegas really is, ironically, a challenging market for Elvis,” said Jack Soden, CEO of ElvisPresley Enterprises, which runs the Graceland attraction in Memphis, Tennessee, and manages many of the official business deals on behalf of the estate.
The group had loaned hundreds of artifacts to a much-hyped, months-old Elvis attraction at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino. “Graceland Presents Elvis” closed in February after failing to draw in many visitors to the museum exhibit, wedding chapel and theater.
The off-Strip property is now holding the valuables against the will of the estate, as Westgate battles with the attraction’s third-party operator over a leasing dispute. The estate has since filed a lawsuit to get those items back.
The fallout at Westgate is not the first Elvis-related spectacle in Las Vegas to leave the building too soon. Low attendance numbers were also to blame when the Viva ElvisCirque du Soleil show at the Aria casino-hotel was canceled in 2012 after a two-year run. That’s a much shorter shelf life than most of its sister shows. The longest-running one, Myste’re, started on the Strip more than two decades ago.
It’s left the Strip’s largest casino operator, MGM Resorts International, without any Elvis-themed shows, attractions or weddings.
Rival Caesars Entertainment Corporation still hosts tribute acts and weddings, but a spokeswoman said few of those getting hitched ever choose the official Elvis packages.
Elvis played here more than anywhere else, selling out hundreds of shows, year after year. Cementing his ties to Sin City were his hits, the “Viva Las Vegas” song that gave the town its anthem, and the movie by the same name that showcased its glitzy persona.
This generational divide could be blamed for the apparent lull in interest in the iconic performer. Others say the market was oversaturated by Elvis impersonators for so long that the appeal burned itself out here, even as Elvis’ reach grows internationally.
The Elvis brand is one of the most active and successful entertainment estates. Forbes magazine, in its annual list of earnings by dead entertainers, said Presley’s estate earned $55 million for the year ending October 2014 – second to Michael Jackson. Graceland mansion in Memphis, where Elvis lived, sees a growing number of visitors and is expanding with a new Elvis-themed hotel nearby.
