ELVIS MUSEUM
JIMMY VELVET ELVIS PRESLEY
Jimmy Velvet Elvis's friend of twenty two years and the original president and owner of the Elvis Presley Museum all those years ago.
Jimmy was known as "The Godfather of memorabilia" as quoted in Rolling Stone.
Jimmy first met Elvis in 1955 when Jimmy was just 15 and Elvis was 20 in Jacksonville Florida.
Jimmy's substitute English teacher was Mae Axton at Jimmy's school Paxton High, she went on to write Heartbreak Hotel, she was also a show promoter, she brought the Hank Snow Show to the Gator Bowl, that's where Jimmy first met Elvis in 1955.
Jimmy who was also very close to Vernon Presley and the Presley family. He was never on the payroll, just a true friend. After Elvis' passing Jimmy came up with the idea of his Elvis Presley Museum, Vernon thought it was a wonderful idea and gave Jimmy his blessing.
It all began on June 1st 1978
when Jimmy Velvet opened the Elvis Presley
Museum across the road from Graceland. The Elvis Presley Museum was the only museum licensed by
Elvis Presley Enterprises inc. and "Graceland" the estate of Elvis
Presley. Jimmy opened his museum four years before Graceland opened its
doors to the public.
Jimmy who owned and was
President of the Elvis Presley Museum had amassed the largest authentic
collection of artifacts owned by Elvis Presley in the world.
I will always be grateful to Jimmy for his love and kindness he has shown me, Jimmy has been like a father to me and has always treated me like a son. Jimmy is truly a great man, very humble, kind and i love him dearly.
I will also always be grateful to him for all his help in allowing me to obtain extremely rare, personal historical irreplaceable one of a kind items. Jimmy received many items directly from Elvis during their twenty two year friendship.
During that four year period after Elvis' passing around late 1977-1982 before Graceland opened its doors to the public so many historical, private and personal family items from Elvis' Graceland, Hillcrest and Monovale homes belonging to Elvis over his lifetime were sold to Jimmy from Elvis' close family and friends, by the time Graceland realised what was happening it was just too late, so many precious items were gone. Im just so grateful that i now own a large amount of them.
Very many people in that early period just did not think that there
would be that much interest in Elvis after a year or two of his death,
How very, very wrong they were.
Many years ago in one of the many letters Jimmy wrote to me, Jimmy wrote....."There's a time for every season and so i pass the baton to you Daniel." ...............I felt extremely humbled by these words.
Thank you
Enjoy the Museum
Sincerely
Daniel Johnson, President and CEO
Jimmy Velvet, Founder
ELVIS PRESLEY MUSEUM
http://www.elvispresleymuseum.com
Linda Thompson and Jimmy in Las Vegas 2010