Graceland Too, a strange landmark in Holly Springs, Miss., was sold at auction last weekend. Here's what happened to the late owner's "magnificent obsession."
There was always something overwhelming and unsettling about a visit to Paul MacLeod’s house, which he had transformed into an eerie and claustrophobic tribute to Elvis Presley. He called it Graceland Too.
Every inch of space was covered with images of Elvis. A narrow path led through a hoarder’s labyrinth of unknown treasures. Then there was the tour guide himself. Through loose dentures, MacLeod spewed a non-stop jumble of numbers and trivia.
He loved to say his collection was worth a million dollars or more.
But last Saturday’s estate sale took in considerably less.
The first thing to go was MacLeod’s red, 1987 Cadillac, for $2,500. Next was an old, hand-painted pink stretch limousine.
John Stuber pooled his money with a group of locals who bought it on a lark.
“Came up with this idea at a bar last night,” Stuber said. "It's an icon of Holly Springs. We thought it should stay here and have fun with it."
He says the group plans to use it for parties, parades, and to drive to sporting events.
After the two cars were sold, the bigger question was the contents of the house. MacLeod died last July, age 71, of natural causes, less than a day after shooting and killing an intruder. The shooting was ruled self-defense.
His estranged daughters in Michigan were left to deal with an unusual hoard.
Marie Underwood, from Peoria, Illinois, didn’t come to Holly Springs to buy trinkets from the Elvis collection.
"My collection, I know, is worth much more than Paul's," she said. "I came down here to get the stuff Paul made.”
It was that other, weird stuff that mattered to the true fans of Graceland Too -- fans like documentary filmmaker Jeffrey Jenson, who reached into a bin and fished out a tattered green photo album, every page a collage of minute slivers of paper, cut precisely from classified ads and articles. The words “Elvis Presley” appear over and over. “And to me, just in terms of the composition of this it is hypnotic and beautiful,” Jenson said.
It took three months for Spur K Auctions to organize the lots. Displayed outside, hundreds of storage bins surrounded the house.
“I don’t know how many feet long, but it’s an entire town block worth of stuff,” said Phillip Knecht, the estate's lawyer.
He planned to buy a few items for the Holly Springs museum, which may now finally become the town’s most popular attraction now that Graceland Too is gone.
But Knecht's mission wasn’t to be.
Auctioneer Greg Kinard hoped someone would buy all the contents at once.
After a few minutes, Macleod’s heir, Brenda Young, accepted $54,500 from an Internet bidder in Georgia. Kinard called it a good decision.
"She’s happy with the turnout, I’m happy with the turnout, it was a shorter day for us," Kinard said.
As the crowd of maybe 200 people departed sadly and empty-handed, fans like Underwood tried to make the best of it.
“To me, this is a wonderful thing… closure," she said. "I feel that whoever bought this, bought this to preserve. And I’m glad it’s over for me.”
Elsewhere, the new owners of MacLeod's pink Limousine, opened a bottle of champagne and celebrated a new beginning.
