Tennessee, Memphis - Monday, May 1, 2017 - Elvis Presley's Memphis Tour

After our tour of Graceland on Monday we stopped for lunch.  Yes, I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich grilled with bacon grease – Elvis’ mom’s special sandwich.  No, it isn’t on our diet, but it was great!!

Gladys’s Diner is a 50’s style diner featuring classic American food – burgers, hot dogs, pizza and the peanut butter and banana sandwich.  The only problem with lunch is there was a musician playing and he was way too loud.

After lunch we walked through the Elvis Presley’s Memphis exhibits.  This opened this spring.  It’s over 200,000 square feet of Elvis and Rock and Roll history and of course lots of gift shops.

Lots of his cars are on display.  This 1971 De Tomaso Pantera was purchased used in 1974 for his then girlfriend, Linda Thompson for $2,400.  He once shot it because it wouldn’t start.  The holes in the steering wheel and floor pan were never fixed.

The 1955 pink Cadillac was his mother, Gladys’ favorite.

The “Mongrel T” was built for the movie “Easy Come, Easy Go” out of spare parts and a few surfboards.  After that movie the car went on to be the Jokermobile in the Batman TV series.

The 1960 MG is my favorite of the collection.  It was used in the movie “Blue Hawaii”.  Elvis gave this car to his secretary.  She later traded it in at a Memphis car lot (what was she thinking?).  A chef who had worked on Elvis’ movie “Spinout” knew about the car and purchased it for a wedding present for his daughter.

Although Elvis had a lot of big boy toys they don’t seem to be that extravagant.  He bought most of his cars used and this boat seems pretty common.

I was a little surprised to see this.  I think they said Elvis owned a farm in Missouri and one of his favorite things to do was to get out on this tractor.  It was restored by a group of high school students.

There is a lot of Elvis memorabilia on display but they don’t have the descriptions for what it is provided yet.  There has to be a good story behind this TV with what looks like a bullet hole in it.

Elvis was at the forefront of a revolution in American pop culture.  He crossed racial barriers by embracing the new sound of rock & roll, a mix of pop, country and gospel.  In June 1953, shortly after graduating from high school his journey to stardom began.  He took some time off work as a driver for Crown Electric Company to stop by Memphis Recording Studios home of Sun Records to record two songs as a birthday gift for his mother.

For the next year he stopped in every so often to Sun Records just to see what was going on.  In July 1954 Sam Phillips, the owner suggested he make a recording.  Sam picked Scotty Moore, a guitarist, and Bill Black, a bass player to accompany him.  It was pretty ho-hum until on break Elvis broke into a sped up version of a rhythm and blues tune, “That’s All Right”.  Scotty and Bill jumped in the fun.  Sam Phillips ran to hit the recorder and their first hit record was on its way.

After that the group would play at the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport on Saturdays.  That is where he met Colonel Parker who become his manager.

On November 15, 1955 he officially became and RCA Victor recording artist, signing his contract in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel.  He received a $5,000 sign on bonus, something no other artist had received at the time.

In January of 1956 he recorded his first single for RCA, “Heartbreak Hotel”, it went gold by April of that year.  In the early 70’s I worked at the RCA Record Club in Indianapolis.  Elvis visited there one day but I wasn’t able to go downstairs to be part of the visitation.  I worked as secretary to the Manager of Labor Relations and we were in negotiations with the union which took precedent over Elvis.

By August of 1956 Elvis was headed to Hollywood for his first of many movies, “Love Me Tender”.  He was so unsure about what the process would be that not only did he memorize his lines, he memorized the entire script.  Lots of movie memorabilia was on display.

Embellished jumpsuits became a signature outfit for Elvis when he was performing and many of them are on display.  I think this is my favorite.

We finished up our day by looking at the customized planes.  The larger one, Lisa Marie, includes a living room, a conference room, private bedroom and two baths.  One of the baths has a 24-karat gold-flecked sink.  The planes seem to lean more to the extravagant than anything else we’ve seen today.

Everything is covered in plastic so it’s kind of hard to envision what it really looked like when Elvis traveled on it.  In the dining room Elvis always sat in the green chair at the end of the table so he could watch TV.  The guide pointed out the gold-plated seatbelts and the leather covered table.

The bed in the bedroom has a large seat belt across it.  I know this is FAA regulation but it does look really odd.

The smaller plane, Hound Dog II, is a Lockhead Jetstar.

The interior of it is much smaller than that of the Lisa Marie.

We extended our stay here because of bad weather ahead of us in Indiana but we aren’t doing any more sightseeing.  We went to get groceries this afternoon, worst Kroger store I have ever been in.  And, they don’t have Senior Day here in Memphis where seniors get 10% off the first Wednesday of the month!  We will be leaving here early Friday morning headed to St. Louis, hope they are over their flooding problems by then.  Our plan is to attend the Annual St. Louis Square Dance Jubilee which will be going on Friday night and all day Saturday.  We will rest on Sunday and head to Indiana on Monday.  Looking forward to visits with family and friends.

Tennessee, Memphis - Monday, May 1, 2017 - Graceland Tour

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 50^th wedding anniversary.   They were married May 1, 1967 at the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On Lisa Marie’s 4^th 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.

Tennessee, Memphis - Saturday, April 29, 2017 - Beale Street

On Saturday we spent most of the day on Beale Street, three blocks of nightclubs, restaurants and retail shops.  This is supposed to be where the Blues and Rock and Roll originated.

When we arrived before noon, the street was really quiet.  I think it is a lot like the French Quarter in New Orleans – quiet by day, loud and rowdy by night.

Lots of musicians had “notes” along the sidewalk.  This is one I recognize.

The buildings range from ones that look new…..

To those that look like they have been here forever.  Several of the nightclubs don’t open up until later in the day.  We talked about staying until it got dark so we could witness the lights and nightlife.  But, we wore ourselves out before that happened, we were back home before 6:00.

We went into town thinking that we would have lunch at the Blues City Café.  The menu online sounded good and it does look interesting. 

The Pig “pork with an attitude”.

Silky O’Sullivan’s looks a little precarious to me.  This is an Irish pub with dueling pianos for entertainment.  During the day the crowd seemed to gravitate to this area, guess they like living dangerously.

Wet Willies is supposed to have the best daiquiris, we decided it was a bit early for that (are we sounding like old people?).

As the day went on bands were popping up everywhere and you could hear them from inside all of the bars and restaurants since they all had their doors propped open.

We decided on BB King’s Blues Club for lunch.

The gumbo and grilled shrimp with Texas toast was great. 

We were seated in an upstairs room that would only accommodate 18 people.  We were the only ones there, when we headed up there we were a little afraid they were heading us out the back door.

Seems they leave room for a little dancing, Greg wasn’t interested.

As it turned out we had a prime spot for viewing and listening to the band.

After lunch we walked a few blocks down to the Beale Street Landing which is right on the Mississippi River.  It is a long raised (as in hill with grass on it going over the building) complex made up mainly of a riverfront café.  I couldn’t figure out how to take a good picture of it unless I was somewhere out in the middle of the Mississippi River.

This artwork is at the entrance to the area – looks to me like a couple of dueling praying mantis, but I like it.

The landing is where the steam boats come in to load passengers for tours.

The river is up because of all the rain they have had recently.  You can see that at least one tier of this boarding ramp is underwater.

The playground has a couple of water features for the kids to play in.

There is a nice view of the Memphis skyline from here.

The Bass Pro Shop has a unique store here shaped like a pyramid.  I know it has a restaurant in it and Greg thought it also had a hotel inside.  We didn’t go down to check it out.  I asked Greg if he wanted to walk down and see it, I won’t print his reply, let’s just say he declined since he estimated it was about 5 miles from where we were standing.

We walked back up to Beale Street and walked around the Gibson factory and peeked in the windows.  We didn’t go in for a tour.

The Peabody Hotel was our final destination for the day.  The Peabody was built by Colonel Robert C. Brinkley in 1869.  Originally to be called Brinkley House, the name was changed to honor Brinkley’s friend and philanthropist George Peabody who passed away just before the hotel opening.  Peabody endowed numerous museums and public libraries in the Northeast.  Peabody, Mass. Is named in his honor.  The original hotel was built a couple of blocks from the current hotel’s location, it stood until 1923.

In 1925 the current hotel opened.  In the 1970’s the Memphis economy took a huge downturn, the hotel closed.  The hotel was then purchased and sold by a couple of hotel chains and ultimately put up for auction and sold for $400,000.  After a 25 million dollar renovation it was reopened in 1981 by the Belz family and stands as the center of the downtown Memphis revitalization today.  It is truly a beautiful historic hotel.

The lobby bar is a popular spot.

We checked out Lansky Brothers Men’s Shop, one of the retail shops in the hotel.  The Lanskys are known as the clothier to the king (Elvis Presley)

If Greg only had a place to wear this jacket (just kidding).  As you can imagine we didn’t have any salesmen approach us thinking they would make a sale, our shorts and tee shirts just weren’t giving off that vibe that we could afford what they were offering.

He passed on the blue suede shoes too.

Everything in the shop next door was duck related.  I don’t think these would last too long in the RV.

The fountain where the Peabody Ducks spend their day is the center of attraction.  Ever take a selfie with a duck? Lots of that was happening today.

The ducks have been a popular feature of the Peabody since 1933 when Frank Schutt, General Manager of the Peabody and some friends returned from a week long duck hunting trip to Arkansas.  The men had a little too much Tennessee sippin’ whiskey and thought it would be funny to put some of their live duck decoys (which were legal at the time) in the beautiful Peabody fountain.  They figured they would wake up in the morning and ducks would be flying around the lobby.  Instead the ducks were swimming around the fountain being admired by the guests.

Today the mallards, one male and four females, are raised by a local farmer and friend of the hotel.  The ducks live at the Peabody until they are full grown.  They are then retired and returned to the wild.  We didn’t talk to anyone to get details on this but these ducks are so pampered I’m not sure they could make it “in the wild”.

When they aren’t swimming in the fountain the ducks live in a $200,000 Duck Palace on the roof of the Peabody.  They march to the fountain at 11:00 a.m. every day, swim until 5:00 p.m. and then march back into the elevator to go up to their penthouse.

The tourist information on the duck march says to arrive about half an hour ahead of time.  I would advise getting there before that if you want to sit anywhere you might be able to see them.  We were tired of walking around and the temperature was in the 80’s so we got there way ahead of time to just hang out in the cooler lobby and have a glass of wine.  Come prepared to pay dearly for a drink, these are $13 glasses of moscato.  It was good and we sipped it slowly, we were 3 hours early!

This duck march is a real crowd attraction.  It took security a while to get everyone seated and back behind barriers.  Since we were so early we snagged a prime spot in the mezzanine overlooking the area where the ducks would march out.

There is a lot of hoopla involved in the half hour just before the march.  The Duckmaster brings out the carpeted steps and red carpet.  He gives a history of the Peabody and the Duck March.  He introduces the honorary Duckmaster of the day.  In case you are interested you can be an honorary Duckmaster by purchasing a Ducky Day family package which starts at $379 (which includes your room and some other amenities).

The current Duckmaster is Jimmy Ogle, a Memphis historian.  He is only the sixth Duckmaster since 1940 when a Peabody hotel bellman Edward Pembrooke took over the duties.  Pembrooke was a former animal trainer for the Barnum and Baily Circus.  He convinced the manager of the hotel that he could train the ducks which were then only swimming in the fountain to march to and from the fountain.  He held the Duckmaster position for 50 years.  Needless to say, the Peabody Duckmaster position is one of a kind.  A couple of things I read online indicated that the salary was at least $85,000 a year.  The Duckmaster does more than just care for and present the ducks, he represents the hotel at many functions.

The ducks got “all in a row” and marched out to John Phillip Sousa’s Cotton King March.  It lasted all of ten seconds before they were out of view.  I was so nervous knowing I had one, maybe two shots I could get before they were gone.  If I blew it we had waited three hours for no pictures.  These are a little fuzzy but they were shaking off water the whole way out.  Now we have an answer for when we are asked “what is the craziest thing you have done in your travels”.  Sitting three hours waiting on five ducks to make a 10 second march probably qualifies, but we are glad we did it.

As we left Beale Street just after 5:00 the crowd was picking up.

As I sit here writing this Sunday morning, it is pouring down rain with strong winds.  Our plan was to visit Graceland today and leave on Monday morning.  Instead we are extending our stay here until next Friday.  Because of the extended rains they have had in Indiana we think it would be better to wait to arrive there until the ground has settled so we don’t get stuck going into our summer spot.