"Joe
Esposito's Home Videos of Elvis" update
We
received this message following our review
of this release on VCD:
Dear
Nigel, I am surprised you did not credit "Elvisly Yours" as
the ONLY source of Joe Esposito's Home Movies. When Joe was
sued in the USA I agreed a contract with him for distribution
rights for the Home Movies in Britain and Europe. In Memphis
I arranged an impromptu welcome party at the airport for Joe
during Elvis Week 1988 when Joe had to be in Memphis to give
a Deposition to EPE during the case.
By
distributing 1000 leaftets and word of mouth we had about
500 Elvis fans at the Airport. I arranged for all the passengers
from Joe's plane to disembark, leaving him onboard. Then,
as Joe appeared, 500 fans chanted "JOE, JOE, JOE...JOE" continuously
as two TV crews filmed the wonderful mayhem and press took
their photos.
Sadly,
I did not get video copy of the TV News for this momentous
occasion or even photos as I was busy arranging everything.
It was one of the highlights of my years running Elvisly Yours.
It was one of the rare examples of hard work creating "Elvis
Fan Power" when fans united to support a victim of EPE's tyranny.
If anyone has photos of that day or TV film I would love to
see it.
Joe
came over to Britain to launch the Home Movies in 1988 with
major TV and Press coverage. The videos were sold exclusively
through Elvisly Yours although the video was ripped off by
bootleggers but with much inferior quality. There was supposed
to be "Macrovision" on the video tape - a protection system
to stop copying. A high fee was paid for each tape but the
system could be broken and was copied by fans with better
video equipment.
The
video was sold to wholesalers, fan clubs, dealers and appeared
in major chain stores in the UK and by mail order from Elvisly
Yours. I had a one year contract and an option to automatically
renew after the first year. The contract was for Britain and
Europe and then Joe sold "WORLD" rights to EPE instead of
honouring our agreement. At the time I had potential buyers
who wanted to mass market the home movies in Europe at the
then discount price of ?9.99. I was forced to return the master
and instead of EPE marketing it around the world just a few
minutes appreared on other videos.
From
your article it seems this new Asian DVD version of Joe's
Home Movies is a rip-off and I expect EPE will soon be hunting
down the distributors.
Why
EPE haven't officially launched a DVD/video of the Home Movies
in its entirety God only knows...another lost opportunity
by EPE and another reason why they were $25 million in debt
when Sillerman bought out EPE,
Elvisly
Yours, Sid Shaw www.elvisly-yours.com
(News,
Source: Sid Shaw)
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