On Monday it
had stopped raining but the wind was still pretty brutal. From the RV Park we can walk to where we need
to get our tour tickets for Graceland.
We opted for the Elvis Experience Tour + Airplanes Tour. The cost for this was more than what we normally
pay for tours at just a little over $51.00 each for the senior ticket, plus
$5.00 for the airplane tour. Would I do
it again? Probably not, but I’m glad we
did it this time. They give everyone an IPad
and headphones for the audio guided tour.
Even though there was a neck strap for the IPad I found it burdensome
trying to take pictures, view the IPad and listen to the audio. You can pay considerably more for an Ultimate
VIP tour which includes a personal tour guide.
Hint: if you lag behind your group and get behind an Ultimate VIP group
you can still hear what the personal guide has to say. Greg didn’t want to stay behind them for the
entire tour because the guide had a really annoying nasal way of speaking that
was like nails grating on a blackboard to him.
I had never
even seen pictures of Graceland so I was a little amazed to find it to be more
of an upscale 60’s style home rather than what I think of as a “mansion” that the
music artists are likely to have now. It
looks like a real family home, except for maybe the mirrors all over and some
carpeting on the ceiling (more on that later).
Elvis bought
Graceland and the 13.8 acres on which it sits in March of 1957 for $103,500. It was named Graceland by the previous owners
who were given Graceland as a wedding present from their Aunt Grace. Elvis’ parents and his paternal grandmother
also lived at Graceland. The second
story of the home which was where Elvis’ personal quarters were located is not
a part of the tour. No flash photography
is allowed in the home.
The family
living room has an extra-long custom made white sofa in it, but my photography
of it failed.
This is his
parents’ bedroom. The bath just off of
this bedroom was done in pink poodle wallpaper.
A commentary
by Lisa Marie at this point of the tour indicted that every time Elvis came
down this stairway he was completely pulled together, including the “bling” chains
and rings.
In the
family dining room Elvis always sat at the far end of the table so he could
better view the television that was located next to the door to the room.
Naturally, I
couldn’t pick up a piece of this china to look at the name of the pattern but
it looks an awful lot like the china I picked out from Star China in Anderson
when I was a young bride in 1967.
With all of
the people that lived in this house and the band members and others who were
constant visitors this kitchen was kept busy.
Most of the stuff in here looks just like what most of us were using in
our homes in the 60’s except our kitchens weren’t quite so big.
The media
room with equipment provided by RCA is something we didn’t have in our
homes. There were three televisions
because Elvis liked to view all three news channels that were available then –
no recording them to view later. Most
every surface in this room was covered with mirrors – had to laugh at one tour
participant who found that “disgusting”.
I found the
pool room interesting. The walls and
ceiling are totally covered in gathered material, 350 yards of it.
In another
part of the tour a receipt for the pool table is on display. Elvis bought it reconditioned in 1960 for
$445.
The Jungle
Room was reportedly furnished by Elvis during a one day shopping spree –
obviously someone should have gone with him, it’s a little overboard.
The “jungle”
look was furthered by green carpeting everywhere including the ceiling. This did come in handy we are told for some
recording sessions, the acoustics were great.
I could get
a better photo of the back of the house than I could of the front.
Lisa Marie’s
swing set looks like any other little kids swing set.
Elvis’
father, Vernon, and two secretaries had an office in a separate building behind
the main house. In his prime Elvis
received over 5,000 pieces of mail a day.
Vernon and the secretaries took care of household bills and answering
the mail.
Another
separate building is now a trophy room.
While Elvis was alive he and his friends had a large slot car set up in
here instead of trophies.
The trophy
room also contains some of Elvis’ more personal items. This photo album was found in Elvis’ desk
drawer and contains pictures of his daughter Lisa. My kids’ baby pictures are in an album just
like this one. It came as part of a
package that included a set of encyclopedias, Meta Givens cookbooks (I don’t
even know who Meta Givens was but I used the cookbooks a lot) and a large white
bound family Bible.
This slot
car is the only one left from the set up that used to be in this building.
The Presley’s
wedding clothes are also on display here.
We were here on what would have been their 50th wedding
anniversary. They were married May 1,
1967 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On Lisa
Marie’s 4th birthday Elvis couldn’t think of anything she
needed. He finally asked a family friend
from Tupelo, MS, to write a poem he could give her. When the friend gave the poem to Elvis to
read he took it to his office and was brought to tears by the feelings it
brought to him. One of his tears stained
and smudged the paper. He took the paper
back downstairs and apologized to his friend and asked if she could redo the
poem because he had ruined this one. She
told him that no he hadn’t ruined it, it would be even more of a keepsake to
Lisa Marie in the future. This is a copy
of the poem, I’m sure Lisa Marie has the original some place safe.
Elvis had a
deep respect for law enforcement. He had
large collections of badges and guns. He
held the rank of captain in the Memphis and Denver police departments. Some of his cars had dashboard police
lights. He was known to have pulled over
a few people and warned them about safety infractions before signing some
autographs and letting them go.
This
portrait was the only one Elvis ever commissioned. While he was in Las Vegas in 1969 he paid
artist Ralph Cowan $18,000 to do this portrait.
It has hung in Graceland ever since.
In yet
another building behind the house in 1975 Elvis put $200,000 into a racquetball/fitness
center so he could indulge in his favorite sport. The second floor had a Jacuzzi and dressing
rooms.
This piano
in the sitting room area of the racquetball building was the center of many jam
sessions. During the last session before
he died Elvis played “Moody Blue” and “Unchained Melody” on this piano. “Unchained Melody” was the first song Greg and
I danced to and the one we danced to at our wedding reception.
The pool was
the first thing Elvis said needed to be installed after the purchase of
Graceland. By today’s standards it
really isn’t very big.
We finally
found Elvis and wished him peace, he died at 42 years of age, much too young.
The graves
of Elvis, his parents Vernon and Gladys and his paternal grandmother Minnie are
in the Meditation Garden on Graceland property.
A marker for his twin brother Jesse who was stillborn is also here. The caskets of Elvis and his mother were
moved by his father in October 1977 with special permission for security
purposes from the Forest Hills Cemetery where they were originally buried.
The wall of
the Meditation Garden has several stained glass inserts from Spain.
Our view of
the gates of Graceland as we were being transported back to our starting point
at the ticket building.
This was
only half of our day. We went on to
visit the new Elvis Presley’s Memphis exhibit.
I’ll write about that in the next blog.
I get tired of writing at about 1500 words. I told Greg the other day that writing these
entries is like writing a term paper every time – he said that’s why I do it
instead of him. By the time I sort the
pictures (usually there are 150-200 of them each time we go out), edit them,
decide which ones I want to use in our story and then write the story I have a
few hours in each of our posts.
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