1960 Elvis Presley-signed Ice Cream Cone Display
GUEST: This is an ice cream cone that was displayed at my parents' Daisy Queen in Hayti, Missouri. They owned this, uh, drive-in restaurant from December of 1959 until May of 1982. And in the year of 1960, my dad was working, and some of the girls that worked for him noticed that a customer that had pulled up to the north window looked like Elvis Presley. He goes, "No, it can't be."(soft chuckle) So he walked up to the window and raised it and said, "Excuse me, sir, can you settle an argument? These girls think you're Elvis Presley. Would you tell them you're not?" He goes, "No, sir, I am Elvis Presley."
APPRAISER: (laughs)
GUEST: He pulled out his billfold, showed him his driver's license. It said "Elvis Presley. Memphis, Tennessee."
APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: He had flown from California to St. Louis and rented a Cadillac, him and his cousin Gene Smith. The reason they flew into St. Louis was to avoid the fans and media at the airport in Memphis. And they'd stopped for lunch at my parents' drive-in restaurant. While he was there, my dad got to talking to him. He said he was very polite and he asked for his autograph. And this was on display in the Daisy Queen. And Elvis signed it with a grease pencil that my dad had. And he looked at it, he said, "I don't really like the signature, can I do it again?" And my dad said, "Do it as many times as you want to."
APPRAISER: (aughs)
GUEST: So he signed it twice.
APPRAISER: Wow. (Laughs)
GUEST: And it was on display in our Daisy Queen for several years, probably eight or ten years. So the grease and the smoke from the food being cooked kind of discolored it. And through the years, people that worked for us, they also signed their names on there.
APPRAISER: Do you know exactly when it was in 1960?
GUEST: It was June 29 of 1960.
APPRAISER: Based on that date, 29 of June, Elvis had just finished filming G.I. Blues.
GUEST: G.I. Blues, yeah.
APPRAISER: So that came out around November 1960.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: He'd actually just come out of the army. This was his first movie after coming out of the army. So there was a lot of fuss about him. As you say, there are two signatures on here, which is very, very cool. Very unusual to have something signed with such a big, bold signature. And it's really nice because both of them are very, very visible. Did your father manage to ever get a photograph taken at the time with Elvis?
GUEST: While Elvis was there, uh, my dad says, "Would you stay a few more minutes? Let me run home, get a camera, and come back." And Elvis says, "As long as the crowds don't start forming, I'll wait a little bit longer." So my dad rushes home, he gets the camera, jumps back in his car, races back towards the Daisy Queen. Before he gets to the Daisy Queen on Highway 61, that Cadillac goes flying by towards Memphis. He said, estimated 80 miles an hour.
APPRAISER: So I guess the word got out pretty quick.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: The piece itself is quite a collectible piece as well. As you said, it's an advertising piece, and it probably dates to the late 1940s. It's painted wood pulp, and it is the safe-t cup. The safe-t cup was cone, which had a cut off bottom. Let's just say it didn't have the Elvis Presley signatures on it, even as just an advertising piece, even in this condition, which is, it's a little bit worn, I would say it's probably $800 to $1,200. But if you add in the two signatures at auction, a conservative estimate, I would say somewhere in the region of $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: Very collectible indeed.
GUEST: Yeah, that's great.
$3,000 - $5,000 Auction
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Understanding Our Appraisals
Executive producer Marsha Bemko shares her tips for getting the most out of ANTIQUES ROADSHOW.
Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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