Memphis, TN

Memphis - Wow! It has a little bit of everything.

As suggested by a friend, we splurged on a night at The Peabody Hotel. They are famous for their genuine hospitality, but we went for the ducks. Yes, ducks.



At 11am every morning, the Peabody ducks ride down the elevator from their Penthouse (Yes, ducks in a Penthouse!) to the hotel lobby where a fountain awaits them. It is quite a luxurious lifestyle... spending all day in the hotel's lobby - where there is a new flower arrangement daily, a mahogony bar, and comfortable chairs.

The ducks bathe all day in the fountain until 5pm when the Duck Master (wearing a red coat with gold embroidery on the sleeves) lines them up to walk the red carpet (Yes, a red carpet!) back to the elevator to their Penthouse.

It is quite the event. Read about the Peabody Ducks by clicking here.

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The Peabody Hotel offered a special called Elvis' Blue Suede Birthday. It not only included an Elvis Presley "Celebriduck," but tickets for 2 to Graceland. We couldn't pass it up.

We have good luck in beating or just missing the crowds. And we found ourselves very luck in our visit to Graceland - just a week after Elvis' birthday. Whew! He would have been 75 years old on Jan 8, 2010.

You can even buy a replica of one of Elvis' jumpsuits. Each suit comes with a "Certificate of Authenticity." This red Burning Love jumpsuit (with cape and belt) can be yours for $2,000.

It was a day of Elvis - in every nook and cranny, in every turn and corner! There are 14 specialty stores selling Elvis stuff - a deck of cards, ink pens, mugs, ties, shirts, cuff-links, frisbees - you name it - it was there! There are 3 Elvis themed restaurants, a wedding chapel, a Heartbreak Hotel, and a campground in Graceland. Talk about Elvis overload, but we enjoyed every minute of it.


From Private Presley...

• Drafted to the US Army, 1958-1960
• His assigned serial number: 53310761
• Assigned to the 2nd Armored Division at Fort Hood, TX

The Lisa Marie...

• Convair 880 Jet, formerly a Delta Airlines airplane
• Purchased in 1975 for $250,000
• Refurbished for over $600,000 and features a seating area, conference room, private bedroom and bathroom with gold faucets and a gold washbasin.

Do you know what the TCB on the airplane's tail stands for? The answer: "Taking Care of Business" which was the name of his band (formed after the '68 Comeback broadcast). There are various interpretations on the lightning bolt, but our audio tour mentioned it represented getting things done "lightning fast."

Elvis' automobile collection - 33 total, including a John Deere tractor and the 1955 pink Cadillac.


Priscilla and Elvis wedding attire (married May 1, 1967 in Las Vegas)


And Elvis' '68 Comeback Special.
Keep in mind that 1968 was quite a year for the United States... the Vietnam War, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. were assassinated, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum... and Elvis brought some stability with his first television special.


Below are photos from the Presley Mansion. It was built in 1939 and purchased by Elvis in 1957 for $100,000. It is a humble-looking home, unlike many celebrity homes we see today.

The official address: 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard. Graceland is the second most visited private home in America - after the White House.

The Dining Room

The Living Room with the Music Room in the back.
Notice the stained-glass peacocks. The 15-foot white couch is on the right.
Elvis' casket was placed in this room for the funeral.

The upstairs - closed to visitors.

I fell in love with this little monkey statue.

The Jungle Room (Yes - that is the waterfall)

He was always up to something, shooting off firecrackers or guns, running around, driving golfcarts and snowmobiles. He'd pull me in a sled and scare me to death. On that long, steep driveway that goes up to Graceland he'd be pulling me up and falling at the same time. He called me Buttonhead or Yisa. He'd never call me Lisa unless he was mad at me.
-Lisa Presley from a 1988 LIFE Magazine interview

The Farm

Some Elvis Facts:

• Sold over 1 billion "record units"
• Received 14 Grammy nominations, won 3
• Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36
• His Bloch Arena benefit concert in Hawaii raised over $65,000 towards construction of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor
• The Elvis stamp (released in 1993 and over 500 million printed) is the most widely publicized and top-selling commemorative stamp put out by the United State Post Office.
• Has had 68 Top 20 Billboard Singles
• And acted in 31 films
  

I could go on and on and on!

The Meditation Garden

Being at Graceland made me realize that everyone - no matter what age, race, or musical preference - knows about "The King of Rock 'N' Roll" - Elvis. Everybody. And just about everybody loves his music. He brought a new dimension to our lives.

75th Birthday celebration flowers flooded the Meditation Garden and gravesites. And a sign from the estate said:

Our policy is to accept these floral remembrances whether they are fresh, silk or plastic. Arrangements of real flowers are sometimes placed in the racquetball building so they will last longer, but most are placed here in the garden, and remain until they wilt. Silk and plastic arrangements remain until they begin to show the effects of weather.

It was great to see the hundreds of mementos and arrangements for Elvis.

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Sun Studios was next - "Birthplace of Rock-N-Roll"

Some famous names got their start here. Let's see if you recognize any of them: Elvis Presley, BB King, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, the Howlin' Wolf, Roy Orbison, and Charlie Rich. The tradition lives on with today's artists recording in this historic studio.



A quick fact: Elvis was 18 years old when he walked into Sun Studios for the first time. His first recording - "That's All Right."

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The National Civil Rights Museum was built around the former Lorraine Motel.

What is the significance of the Lorraine Motel?
It is where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. (Note: The motel stayed open until it foreclosed in 1982.)



Some facts about the Lorraine Motel (from civilrightsmuseum.org):

• Originally named the Windsor Hotel c. 1925
• Renamed Marquette Hotel in 1945 and offered for sale
• Purchased by Walter Bailey in 1945 and renamed the Lorraine, after his wife Loree and a song titled “Sweet Lorraine.” At the time of purchase the Lorraine included 16 rooms, a café, and living quarters for the Baileys.
• The Lorraine became one of only a few hotels to which African American travelers could enjoy overnight accommodations while traveling during this segregated period leading up to the late 1960s in America.
• Under the Bailey’s ownership there were at least two major additions to the hotel. The first addition added a second floor and 12 rooms to the hotel while the next addition created even more guest rooms and drive up access. This change converted the Lorraine Hotel into a motel.
• Guests of the Lorraine, both black and white, returned time and again for its upscale atmosphere, home cooked meals, including bar-b-que, affordable prices, and its reputation as a clean and safe environment.
• Song writers and musicians working with the Stax Records Company were frequent residents of the Lorraine. Recording stars Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Aretha Franklin, Ethel Waters, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers and Wilson Picket were among the many that stayed in the Lorraine during the heyday of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at the Lorraine Motel numerous times. He was a guest of the Lorraine when he came to Memphis in 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers.
• The Lorraine Motel is designated an historic site by the Tennessee Historical Commission.

The National Civil Rrights Museum Mission:

The National Civil Rights Museum located at the Lorraine Motel, the assassination site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., chronicles key episodes of the American civil rights movement and the legacy of this movement to inspire participation in civil and human rights efforts globally, through our collections, exhibitions and educational programs.

The museum not only tells the story of the struggle for African American civil rights in the United States, but it also does an incredible job of representing people's national and international struggle for basic human and civil rights.


The marker in front of the balcony where MLK was shot reads:

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
JAN. 15, 1929 - APR. 4, 1968
FOUNDING PRESIDENT
SOUTHERN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE
THEY SAID ONE TO ANOTHER,
BEHOLD , HERE COMETH THE DREAMER...
LET US SLAY HIM...
AND WE SHALL SEE WHAT WILL BECOME OF HIS DREAM
-GENESIS 37, 19-20

So what happened on April 4, 1968? Dr. King spent the day at the Lorraine Motel working and meeting with local leaders on his plans for the Poor People's March on Washington (planned for late April). At 6pm, as he exited his hotel room, King was shot with one round from a rifle. He was declared dead just an hour later at St. Joseph's hospital.

The former rooming house (across the street from the Lorraine Motel)
where the shots were fired that killed MLK.

We were surprised to see a protester outside of the NCRM.

Her name is Jacqueline Smith, and it turns out that she was a resident and worked as a housekeeper at the motel since 1973. She was evicted from the motel for the museum project, but barricaded herself in her room and had to be forcibly evicted.

The neighborhood surrounding the Lorraine Motel was a lower-income, predominately black area. Rent was cheap, but a downtown renovation demolished old homes and replaced them with new and expensive apartments and condos.

Smith stated that the Lorraine Motel "should be put to better uses, such as housing, job training, free college, clinic, or other services for the poor...the area surrounding the Lorraine should be rejuvenated and made decent and kept affordable, not gentrified with expensive condominiums that price the people out of their community."

She has also stated that Dr. King would not have wanted $9 million spent on a building for him, and would not have wanted Lorraine Motel residents to be evicted.

She is following Dr. King's peaceful protest ways and has been across the street from the NCRM for over 22 years. The NCRM states that she has never been inside the museum.

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And what is a visit to Memphis without some BBQ?!?!?

With TUMS in hand, we tried 3 different BBQ hot spots. And we've met our BBQ quota for the next 3 years!

Before

After