47 years ago today ELVIS PRESLEY passed away at his Graceland home in Memphis, Tennessee. We have been fortunate to visit Graceland twice - in August 2019 and August 2022. Here we look back to our more enjoyable visit, the first of the two, when we took the Ultimate VIP Experience Tour!
Graceland, which was built in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1939 by a Dr Thomas Moore, was bought by Elvis in 1957 for $102,500, when he was only 22 years old - some 4 years older than the house he would call home for the rest of his life.
Graceland was named after the former owner's Aunt Grace and has become one of the most visited homes in the world with over 600,000 visitors a year.
The Graceland mansion has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and now forms a part of the 'Graceland the Home of Elvis Presley' visitor attraction where thousands of Elvis artifacts are on display and are complimented by visitor facilities including gift shops and restaurants.
We purchased tickets for the 'Ultimate VIP Experience Tour' for $174 online and had a printed confirmation sheet which we presented to the VIP desk in the ticket hall of the main visitor complex. This was across the road from our hotel, The Guesthouse at Graceland, and there was a complimentary shuttle but we were very happy to take the short walk over Elvis Presley Boulevard.
We were given a lentricular badge and lanyard as a keepsake, a dated wristband and meal voucher, then told to meet our guide back at the VIP desk for the 9:45am tour. This was one of the first tours of the day and we had specifically chosen this when we booked online to allow us to have plenty of time for exploring later.
Our guide, the very knowledgeable Brooke, led us in a group of 11 past a green screen where we were swiftly photographed and then guided onto a smart shuttle which whisked us over the road and through those gates into the hallowed grounds of the actual Graceland mansion.
We watched an informative video about Elvis' achievements in a small theatre housed in an extension at the rear of the house, which we were told had once been Vernon Presley's bedroom.
Before we were led around to the front of the house with its famous white pillars, we were given a headset which Brooke explained allowed us to hear her commentary. I did wonder about the need for this but later learned that it allowed our guide to talk softly around the house, helping to keep the atmosphere calm and revered while allowing our small group to hear every word she said.
The Graceland house was everything you could imagine it to be, plus everything you wouldn't - extravagance, advanced technology for the era, opulence and comfort - but it was smaller than you would expect though the complicated layout made it feel a lot bigger. One can only imagine the mischief a young Lisa Marie Presley got up to, indeed she must have been hard to find if she ever played hide and go seek!
We got to see the living room and the offshoot housing a piano, the dining room and its secret button for summoning the kitchen staff, the kitchen and nearby Jungle Room (or Den, as Elvis called it) which had been used for the recording of several albums owing to its carpeted walls. This room was full of self-confessed ugly furniture and its look represented Elvis' love for the luscious greenery of Hawaii.
We walked down the mirrored stairs into a cellar which housed several rooms including the TV room where Elvis had three TVs, plus a Games Room with a damaged pool table and walls covered in yards and yards of concertina-like fabric. There were also locked-off bathrooms down here which had been used by Presley family members who had remained in Graceland after the death of Elvis in 1977.
The upstairs of the property was out of limits but we did get to see the staircase and how the landing was curtailed off, allowing Elvis to peek downstairs before deciding whether to join any visitors he had. This was clearly a home and a workplace and once outside we got to see Vernon's office in an external building. Opposite was a modern looking squash court which had cost Elvis a whopping $200,000 to build - it had a piano and small bar inside, indicating Elvis' need to play music whenever the urge took him.
We passed the kidney-bean shaped swimming pool and wondered why it wasn't a lot bigger. We could hear running water and our attention was diverted not to the pool but to a decorative area nearby which was adorned with stained glass and a pretty fountain with tinkling water. This was a sacred area, the final resting place of Elvis (d.1977), his mom, Gladys (d.1958), his pop, Vernon (d.1979), grandmother Minnie Mae (d.1980) and a memorial to his late twin brother, Jesse, who was sadly stillborn in 1935. An eternal flame burned at the head of the memorial stones and visitors walked slowly and serenely by the graves, each paying their respects in their own way, in their own time. Many took photographs and selfies, with no disrespect meant as everyone was there with admiration (and love) for their Elvis.
Our group emerged from the garden, which is known as the Meditation Garden (as Elvis loved its peacefulness), and were allowed to take and pose for photographs outside the front door of Graceland.
Our mansion tour had concluded and we were shuttled back to the visitor complex some 3 hours after we had set off and collected our green screen photograph which now magically showed us standing in front of the famous Graceland gates ($35 + tax).
Hungry from our exertions, we called into the Vernon's Smokehouse restaurant which had not only been named after Elvis' father but after Vernon's actual smokehouse located in a brick building just out the back of the Graceland mansion and used by Elvis in later years as a shooting range (bullet holes, shell cases and meat hooks still in tact for us visitors to see).
We redeemed our decorative food vouchers but had hoped we could have kept them as souvenirs minus the stub, but alas that was not the case and we had to hand them over. We were entitled to one entree from the steam table or carving station, two sides, bread roll or cornbread, a choice of icecream or dessert and a drink.
We each chose:
Battered and fried catfish, hush puppies (deep fried savoury dough), mash potato and gravy, mac n cheese, cornbread, pecan pie, washed down with sweetened tea;
Southern fried chicken tenders, mash potato and gravy, Key Lime pie and a Fanta from the fountain; and
Six meaty barbecue ribs (you could also choose three but why have three when you can have six at no extra cost?!), barbecue baked beans, buttered corn on the cob, bread roll, vanilla cheesecake and a Fanta from the fountain.
Vernon's Smokehouse seemed cavernous and cold from the air conditioning, and like the rest of the attraction, was fairly quiet. As a result we had a huge choice of tables and managed to find one instantly where we shared and tasted each other's food. Portion sizes were very good and the food was hot and tasty. Many of the flavours were new to us, such as the cornbread which was sweet and yet to be eaten with savoury foods, others were quite familiar and were greatly enjoyed, however, such a large mix of food and flavours from our swapping wasn't necessarily a good idea and we left feeling very full and a tad uncomfortable.
We then took a slow walk around the Elvis exhibits that we'd only glanced at on our VIP Tour earlier in the day. We got to see the two jets - the huge Lisa Marie and its extravagant interior including a dressing room and bathroom, tables, chairs and a huge bed, plus the smaller Hound Dog II - and then the many exhibitions featuring Elvis' clothing, personal items and rare photographs. There were literally thousands of things to take in and our feet soon ached from all the walking.
This made us decide to put our VIP Pass to good use and we went on a second visit to the Graceland mansion! As we had been advised by the Graceland staff (who are all very friendly), we simply walked up to the departure point and were quickly guided onto the next tour bus - there was no joining the line with the many others! When we got to the house we were allowed to walk straight in past the assembled group and to tag along with those already inside. This allowed us to top up our already huge photo collection (no filming or audio recording allowed). We felt like real VIPs!
We quickly learned that the standard tour involved people wandering around in very large groups with iPads and headphones and no leader, unlike the VIP Tour with its personal guide. This made us very glad that we had gone VIP.
Despite the larger number people in the mansion, the journey through was still with ease and the atmosphere was still calm, quiet, friendly and respectful.
We once again paid our respects in the Meditation Garden around the Presley family graves before we took an empty bus back to the visitor centre and a last look at the exhibitions (we were fascinated by actual sets from a 2017 TV series about Elvis and Sun Records, plus an accurate recreation of the Graceland living room from the recently filmed 'Christmas at Graceland 2' for the Hallmark Channel) and in particular, Elvis' many costumes (decorative jumpsuits galore) and clothing.
We walked out of the Graceland attraction around 8 hours since we'd arrived. We were exhausted and moved from our experience and the last sign we saw on our way out said: "Thank you. Thank you, very much."
