Graceland–home of Elvis Presley–Memphis USA - Afftour

 

Graceland– home of Elvis Presley – Memphis USA - Afftour

Graceland is a large white-columned mansion and 13. 8- acre( 5. 6 ha) estate that was home to Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee. It is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the vast Whitehaven community about 9 miles( 14. 5 km) from Downtown and less than four miles( 6 km) north of the Mississippi border. It currently serves as a museum. It was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, and declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006. Graceland has become the second most- visited private home in America with over 600, 000 visitors a year; only the White House has more visitors per year.

Graceland–home of Elvis Presley

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Graceland

Elvis Presley died at the estate on August 16, 1977. Presley, his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother, are buried there in what is called the Meditation Garden. After Presley began his career he bought a$40, 000 home for himself and his family at Audubon Drive in Memphis. As his fame grew, especially after his television appearances, the number of fans that would congregate outside the home multiplied. Presley's neighbors, most of whom were happy to have a celebrity living nearby, soon came to find the constant gathering of fans and journalists a nuisance. After several complaints, Presley decided he needed to move to a property more suitable.

In early 1957, Presley gave his parents a$100, 000 budget, and asked them to find a“ farmhouse” type property to purchase. At the time, Graceland was located several miles beyond Memphis’s main urban area. In later years Memphis would expand with housing, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties. After Gladys died in 1958, and Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, the couple lived there for a time. Wife-to-be Priscilla Beaulieu also lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married. After their marriage in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967, Priscilla lived in Graceland for five more years until she separated from Elvis in late 1972.

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According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Elvis“ the home of the organization that was himself, tended by a large vague clan of Presleys and deputy Presleys, each squandering the vast gratuities which Elvis used to keep his whole world smiling.” The author adds that Presley’s father Vernon“ had a swimming pool in his bedroom”, that there“ was a jukebox next to the swimming pool, containing Elvis’ favorite records” and that the singer himself“ would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television.” Graceland was Lisa Marie Presley's first home after her birth on February 1 1968 and her childhood home, although her main state of residence was California where she lived with her mother after she divorced Elvis when Lisa was in elementary school. Every year at Christmas time Lisa Marie Presley and all her family go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie Presley often goes back to Graceland for visits. When she turned 25, Lisa Marie inherited the estate. In 2005 she sold 85 percent of it.

According to Brad Olsen,“ Some of the rooms at Graceland testify to the brilliance and quirkiness of Elvis Presley. The TV room in the basement is where he often watched three television sets at once and was within close reach of a wet bar.”

When he toured, staying in hotels,“ the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, to make the same configurations of space as he had at home– the Graceland mansion. His furniture would arrive, and he could unwind after his performances in surroundings which were completely familiar and comforting,” the room in question,‘ The Jungle Room’ being“ an example of particularly lurid kitsch.”

The Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier, has been noted as a preferred place of Elvis in the property, where he often went to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life.

According to the singer’s cousin Billy Smith, Elvis spent the night at Graceland with Smith and his wife Jo many times:“ We were all three there talking for hours about everything in the world! Sometimes he would have a bad dream and come looking for me to talk to, and he would actually fall asleep in our bed with us.”

There was some discord between Elvis and his stepmother, Dee, at Graceland, however, and Elaine Dundy said'' that Vernon had settled down with Dee where Gladys had once reigned, while Dee herself– when Elvis was away– had taken over the role of mistress of Graceland so thoroughly as to rearrange the furniture and replace the very curtains that Gladys had approved of.” This was too much for the singer who still loved his deceased mother. One afternoon,“ a van arrived… and all Dee’ s households goods, clothes,‘ improvements,’ and her own menagerie of pets, were loaded on… while Vernon, Dee, and her three children went by car to a nearby house on Hermitage until they finally settled into a house on Dolan Drive which ran alongside Elvis’ estate.”

The book Elvis by the Presleys reveals several details concerning the singer’s life at Graceland including his obsessions and passions when staying at home.

On August 16, 1977, Elvis died in his bathroom at Graceland allegedly of a heart attack. However, there are conflicting reports as to the cause of his death. According to the well-known Presley biographer, Peter Guralnick, the singer“ had thrown up after being stricken, apparently while seated on the toilet.” The author adds that“ drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease…no one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills he had gotten from his dentist.”

Visit Graceland

After Elvis Presley died in 1977, Vernon Presley served as executor of his estate. Upon his death in 1979, he chose Priscilla to serve as the estate executor for Elvis’ only child, Lisa Marie who was only 11. Graceland itself cost$500, 000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis’ and Priscilla s daughter Lisa Marie's inheritance to only$1 million. Taxes were due on the property, those and other expenses due came to over$500, 000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous houses/ museums, and hired a CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a moneymaker. Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla's gamble paid off, after only a month of opening Graceland’s s doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises, or EPE, stating at that time she would do so until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. The enterprise’s fortunes soared and eventually, the trust grew to be worth over$100 million.

While Graceland was open to tours from 1982, the last person to live in the house was Elvis’ aunt Delta, on Elvis’ invitation after her husband died. She died in 1993.

An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis’ grave is held on the anniversary of his death. The largest gathering was assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002. One estimate was of 40, 000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain.

The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had the biggest crowd in Memphis for an Elvis Week. At this time several hundred media groups from around the world were present and the event gained its greatest media publicity as an estimated 50, 000 fans visited the city.

The Graceland grounds include a museum containing many Elvis artifacts, like some of his famous Vegas jumpsuits, awards, gold records, the Lisa Marie jetliner, and Elvis’ extensive auto collection. Recently Sirius Satellite Radio installed an all- Elvis Presley channel on the grounds. The service’s subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Two new attractions have been added, Private Presley and the`68 Special exhibits; these can be found across the street on the plaza. The fieldstone wall that Presley installed is still there, and has several years’ worth of graffiti from visitors, who simply refer to it as“ the wall”.

Tours of the museums at Graceland are available, though no flash photography or video cameras are allowed inside. There is an audio tour of the Graceland mansion. The upper floor is not open to visitors out of respect for the Presley family and partially to avoid any improper focus on the bathroom which was the site of his death.[citation needed] The upper floor, which also contains Elvis’ bedroom, has been untouched since the day Elvis died. Visitors park across the street, boarding shuttle buses to begin the tour of Graceland. Attendants issue headphones and tourists are individually snapped by a souvenir photographer in front of a painted wall with Graceland’s famous music gates. Tour buses drive across Elvis Presley Blvd. through the smallish Music gates. The bus stops in front of stone lions that stand watch at the wide red brick front steps down the long winding drive. Behind these lions, over 3500 of Elvis’ mourning fans passed by to see his body in its casket. The house is much bigger than expected, photos being the main part only. A tour guide stands at the closed doors to give a brief history of Graceland starting with the woman( Grace) it was named for and concluding with the fact that Elvis bought Graceland when he was only 22 years old. Finally, the door opens to allow entry through the front door where, almost directly overhead, perhaps forever unseen by the public, is where Elvis died, on his bathroom floor.

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