What do “The King” and a fictional boy wizard have in common? Both are getting a lot of attention these days for being legends in their own rights.
Many loyal Elvis fans are just a few short weeks away from marking the 30th anniversary of the singer’s death, but that’s not why the singing legend is generating a buzz outside of Graceland. Fans waiting for their state-issued Elvis Presley license plate are getting a gift thanks to an anonymous donor in New Jersey who dug deep to show off her Elvis pride.
According to news reports, the Elvis plate (which benefits the Elvis Presley Memorial Trauma Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis) fell about 100 buyers shy of the state’s required number of completed pre-orders. That’s when the anonymous donor stepped in. The Elvis fan reportedly donated the $3,500 needed to cover the final 100 pre-ordered plates after hearing about the car tag’s troubles on an Elvis radio program hosted by longtime Presley friend George Klein.
Sources say the donor wanted to express her love of “The King” by illustrating some of the same charity the music legend was known for in his lifetime.
Meanwhile, a boy name Harry made literary history this weekend.
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the seventh and final volume of J.K. Rowling’s supernatural series, sold a record smashing 8.3 million copies in its first 24 hours on sale in the United States, according to the book’s publisher.
Executives at Scholastic, Inc. say no other book, not even any of the six previous Potters, has sold so quickly. Retailers say on average more than 5,000 “Deathly Hallows” books have sold per minute (that’s more than 300,000 copies per hour) since it was released. Some are even equating the Harry Potter hysteria to the excitement stirred when the Beatles first came to the United States.
The book’s publisher said by the end of Sunday more than 10 million copies of the book would be sold– thereby smashing all sales records. To put the numbers in perspective, earlier today Borders bookstore reported that “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” sold 1.2 million copies worldwide in its first day, the biggest single-day number ever for the chain. According to Borders’ execs, the previous Potter book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” sold 850,000 copies on its first day of release back in 2005.
Related Articles:
Teachers Use Harry Potter to Teach Science
Last Minute Harry Potter Party Costumes