Tour of Elvis' Graceland Mansion

Day 1 started out with driving to a Target store to buy a small electric heater for the camper. Heat at last. One of those things you take for granted until you can't get it for more than 3 weeks. My camping skills were tested!

Then decided to walk next door to take the tour of Graceland. There was a handy opening in the chain link fence that separated the RV Park from the Graceland entertainment complex. So, I took a couple of photos, bought my ticket, and got on the bus to drive us across the street to the mansion. You cannot drive up to the mansion; the only vehicles allowed in the musical note gates are the buses.

We entered the mansion and followed along with the audio tape at our own pace. It was decorated for Christmas, which was a bonus. The famous peacock stained glass windows in the living room were created by Lauxhuff Designs of Memphis. They also made the stained glass light fixtures above the billiard table. Elvis was apparently a fan of billiards. There is a tear in the table fabric and no one seems to know the guilty party. There are a few bizarre rooms there, including a TV viewing room with 3 television sets. Reportedly, Elvis heard that Pres. Lyndon Johnson had 3 television sets so he could watch all three major news networks at once. Elvis used his to watch football on all three major networks. The upstairs is off limits, but the curators have brought his entire home office down into the tunnel below the mansion (called the Trophy Building) and recreated it behind glass. The collection was surprisingly well curated.

The last photo is Elvis' grave (along with those of his two parents and grandmother) in what he called his Meditation Garden, fashioned after an ancient Greek garden complete with an Italian statue. It was built by Bernard Grenadier in the mid-60s at Elvis' request. The brick wall behind the Grecian columns is inlaid with primitive, hand-made Spanish stained glass from the 1800s.

I took the bus back across the street to the Elvis Presley Enterprises museum. This huge auditorium style building houses all his career artifacts: records, musical instruments, costumes, posters, etc. His daughter Lisa Marie Presley only owns 15% of Elvis Presley Enterprises, but she is the sole owner of Graceland mansion itself. The photo mashup up below shows (clockwise) (1) a poster of photos from Sun Records, the Memphis recording company that produced most of Elvis' recordings, (2) his favorite acoustic guitar, (3) his wall of records, (4) the logo on the door - I just like the simplicity of it, and (5) his gold and platinum records. I was prepared to be underwhelmed by this museum, but actually found it really interesting. I especially enjoyed the European posters. Of course, they had about 5 shops full of memorabilia for tourists with too much cash in their pockets.

Since I didn't get a very good sleep - see cold night in the camper in previous post - I decided to skip Beale Street the first night and head over there the following evening. I went to sleep early and my new, tiny electric heater kept me toasty warm.