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{{Short description|Home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee, US}} | |||
{{Infobox_nrhp | name =Graceland | |||
{{Other uses}} | |||
| nrhp_type = | |||
{{Use American English|date=March 2024}} | |||
| image = Graceland front.jpg | |||
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}} | |||
| caption = | |||
{{Infobox NRHP | |||
| location= ] | |||
| |
| name = Graceland | ||
| |
| nrhp_type = nhl | ||
| image = Graceland Memphis Tennessee.jpg | |||
| architect= Furbringer & Ehrman | |||
| image_size = | |||
| architecture= Classical Revival | |||
| caption = Graceland Mansion | |||
| added = ], ] | |||
| location = 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard (Highway 51 South), ], U.S. | |||
| governing_body = Private | |||
| |
| area = {{convert|14|acre|ha}}<ref name="nrhpinv2">{{cite web |url={{NHLS url |id=91001585}} |title=National Historic Landmark Nomination: Graceland |date=May 27, 2004 |format=PDF |first1=Jody |last1=Cook |first2=Patty |last2=Henry |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=June 21, 2009}} and {{NHLS url|id=91001585|title=''Accompanying 12 photos, exterior and interior, from 2001''|photos=y}} {{small|(3.44 MB)}}</ref> | ||
| coordinates = {{Coord|35|2|45.4|N|90|1|22.6|W|region:US-TN_type:landmark|display=inline, title}} | |||
| mapframe = yes | |||
| mapframe-marker = building | |||
| mapframe-zoom = 12 | |||
| mapframe-caption = Interactive map showing Graceland's location | |||
| built = 1939 | |||
| architect = Furbringer and Ehrman | |||
| architecture = ]<ref>{{cite book |title=Tennessees Historic Landscapes: Travelers Guide |first=Carroll Van |last=West |year=1995 |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=978-0-87049-881-7 |page=32}}</ref> | |||
| customarchitect_title = Current owner | |||
| customarchitect = | |||
| designated_nrhp_type = March 27, 2006<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web |url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1146152923&ResourceType=Building |title=Graceland |access-date=October 4, 2008 |work=National Historic Landmark summary listing |publisher=National Park Service |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111230214217/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1146152923&ResourceType=Building |archive-date=December 30, 2011}}</ref> | |||
| added = November 7, 1991<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2007a}}</ref> | |||
| governing_body = | |||
| refnum = 91001585 | |||
}} | }} | ||
'''Graceland''' is a mansion on a {{convert|13.8|acre|ha|adj=on|abbr=off}} estate in ], United States, once owned by American singer ]. Presley is buried there, as are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson, and daughter. | |||
{{otheruses}} | |||
'''Graceland''' is the name of the large white-columned estate that once belonged to ], located at 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard in ], ], USA. It currently serves as a museum that was opened to the public in 1982, and was listed in the ] on ], ]. | |||
Graceland is located at 3764 ] in the ] neighborhood, about {{convert|9|mi|spell=in|abbr=off}} south of central Memphis and fewer than {{convert|4|mi|spell=in}} north of the ] border.<ref name="tepe">{{harvnb|Victor|2008|page=208}}</ref> It was opened to the public as a house museum on June 7, 1982, and attracts more than 650,000 visitors annually.<ref>{{cite web |title=Elvis Ancestors Wore Kilts |url=http://www.cbsnews.com/news/author-elvis-ancestors-wore-kilts/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161002031910/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/author-elvis-ancestors-wore-kilts/ |archive-date=October 2, 2016 |publisher=] |date=March 25, 2004 |access-date=September 28, 2016}}</ref> | |||
On ], ], ], ], designated Graceland a ]—joining the ], the ], ], ], and ]. | |||
Graceland was listed in the ] on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site recognized for significance related to rock music. It was declared a ] on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site. | |||
==Presley and his family at Graceland== | |||
Presley purchased Graceland in early 1957 after moving out of a Memphis house located at 1034 Audubon Drive because of privacy and security concerns. He lived there for some time together with his father ] and his mother Gladys. After his mother died in 1958, and Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, the couple lived there for a time. Wife-to-be ] also lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married. Presley had brought Priscilla, then a teen who had stayed for some time in Germany as the stepdaughter of a ] officer, back to the United States to live at Graceland, "ostensibly under the chaperoning protection of his father Vernon and his new wife Dee."<ref>See , '']'', August 11, 2002.</ref> After their marriage in Las Vegas on May 1, 1967, Priscilla lived in Graceland five more years until she separated from Elvis in late 1972. | |||
Elvis' father, Vernon, first inherited Graceland after Elvis' death on August 16, 1977. ] inherited Graceland after she turned 25 years old, according to a document which named Elvis's ex-wife, ], as trustee. Following Lisa Marie's death on January 12, 2023, her eldest daughter, ], became the sole trustee and owner.<ref name="Keough">{{cite magazine |date=August 8, 2023 |title=Riley Keough on Growing Up Presley, Losing Lisa Marie, and Inheriting Graceland |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/08/riley-keough-on-growing-up-presley-cover-story |magazine=Vanity Fair |language=en-US |access-date=August 11, 2023}}</ref> In May 2024, a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC claimed that Lisa Marie Presley failed to pay back a $3.8 million loan it had given her. A Tennessee court ruled that the mysterious company likely committed fraud through forged documents, and that neither Priscilla nor Riley authorized such foreclosure. | |||
According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Elvis "the home of the organization that was himself, was 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's favorite records" and that the singer himself "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television."<ref>Mark Crispin Miller, ''Boxed in: The Culture of TV'' (Northwestern University Press, 1988), p.192.</ref> | |||
== History == | |||
There was some discord between Elvis and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however, and ] 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 household's 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's estate."<ref>Elaine Dundy, ''Elvis and Gladys'' (2004), p.329-330.</ref> | |||
Graceland Farms was originally owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of ], the oldest commercial printing firm in Memphis. He worked previously as the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the '']''. The site (before the mansion was built in 1939) was named after Toof's daughter, Grace. She inherited the property from her father in 1894. After her death, the property passed to her niece Ruth Moore, a Memphis socialite. Together with her husband, Thomas Moore, Ruth Moore commissioned construction of a {{convert|10266|sqft|m2|adj=on}} ] style mansion in 1939.<ref>{{cite book |title=Graceland: Going Home With Elvis |first=Karal Ann |last=Marling |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-674-35889-8 |page= |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/gracelandgoingho00marl_0}}</ref> The house was designed by architects Furbringer and Ehrman.<ref name="nrhpdoc">{{cite web |url={{NRHP url |id=91001585}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Graceland |publisher=]|first=Jennifer M. |last=Tucker |date=September 1991 |access-date=January 19, 2020}} With {{NRHP url|id=91001585|photos=y|title=accompanying 41 photos}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
According to the singer's cousin ], Elvis got into bed with Smith and his wife Jo "many times at Graceland when we would spend the night there in Lisa's room, ... and at the trailer on the property at Graceland. ... 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. That happened a lot of times, and we thought nothing of it."<ref>.</ref> | |||
After ] began his musical career, he purchased a $40,000 home for himself and his family at ] in Memphis in 1956.<ref name="G29">{{Cite book |last=Flippo |first=Chet |title=Graceland: Living Legacy of Elvis Presley |year=1993 |publisher=Mitchell Beazley |isbn=978-1-85732-255-2 |page=29}}</ref><ref name="EPNews3">{{cite web |title=Elvis Presley's 1956 Home : 1034 Audubon Drive, Memphis, TN |url=http://graceland.elvis.com.au/1034-audubon-drive-memphis-tennessee.html |website=Elvis Presley News|access-date=October 27, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160527073913/http://graceland.elvis.com.au/1034-audubon-drive-memphis-tennessee.html|archive-date=May 27, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> As his success and fame grew, especially after his appearances on television, the number of fans who would congregate outside the house increased.<ref name="G29" /> Presley's neighbors, although happy to have a celebrity living nearby, concluded that the constant gathering of fans and journalists was a nuisance.<ref name="G29" /> | |||
In early 1957, Presley gave his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, a budget of $100,000 and asked them to find a "farmhouse"-like property to purchase, with buffer space around it.<ref name="Graceland">{{harvnb|Victor|2008|pages=205–209}}</ref> At the time, Graceland was located in southern Shelby County, several miles south of Memphis's main urban area.<ref name="Graceland" /> In later years, Memphis expanded with residential developments, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties.<ref name="Graceland" /> Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957, for a price of $102,500.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/elvis-presley-puts-a-downpayment-on-graceland |title=Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland |publisher=History |access-date=January 20, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150917002148/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/elvis-presley-puts-a-downpayment-on-graceland |archive-date=September 17, 2015 |url-status=dead}}</ref> | |||
On ], ], Elvis died on the toilet of his bathroom at Graceland allegedly of a heart attack. However, there are conflicting reports as to the cause of his death. According to ], "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 ] brought on by the ] pills he had gotten from his dentist."<ref>], ''Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley'' (1999), p.651-652.</ref> | |||
Later that year, Presley invited Richard Williams and singer ] to the house. Cason said: "We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out."<ref>], ''Living the Rock 'N' Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason'' (2004), p.47.</ref> Presley was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by ] of the Soviet Union, "to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good."<ref name="graceland2006">{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/mar/27/talkingaboutgraceland |first=John |last=Harris |title=Talking about Graceland |newspaper=The Guardian |date=March 27, 2006|access-date=November 20, 2019|archive-date=January 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200113165026/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2006/mar/27/talkingaboutgraceland|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
After initially being buried at Forrest Hill Cemetery, and following an attempt to rob his grave, Presley´s remains were moved to Graceland. The estate has become a pilgrimage for Elvis fans across the world. | |||
After Gladys died in 1958 aged 46, Presley's father Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, and the couple lived at Graceland for a time. There was some discord between Presley and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however. ], who wrote about Presley and his mother, said that | |||
==Songs and movies about Graceland== | |||
<blockquote>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 Presley, who still loved his late mother deeply. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's 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's estate.<ref>{{cite book|author-link=Elaine Dundy |first=Elaine |last=Dundy |title=Elvis and Gladys |date=2004 |pages=329–330}}</ref></blockquote> | |||
]'s 1986 song "Graceland" (see ]) presents Graceland as a holy place. Movies such as "Finding Graceland" have Presley as the central character and bear spiritual messages. | |||
There are over a thousand tribute songs to Elvis written prior and after his death. ] features Graceland quite prominently. | |||
According to ], Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was 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's favorite records", and that, he "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television".<ref>{{cite book |first=Mark Crispin |last=Miller |title=Boxed In: The Culture of TV |url=https://archive.org/details/boxedincultureof00mill|url-access=registration |publisher=Northwestern University Press |date=1988 |page=}}</ref> According to Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley slept 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."<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212080317/http://www.elvisinfonet.com/interview_billysmith_part2.html |date=February 12, 2015}}.</ref> | |||
==The museum== | |||
After Elvis Presley's death in ], ] served as executor of his estate. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis and Priscilla's daughter ]'s inheritance to $5 million. Priscilla examined other famous house/museums, and hired a CEO to turn Graceland into a moneymaker. She became the chairwoman and president of ]. After Graceland opened to the public in 1982, the enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million. Graceland is now statistically the second most visited private residence in the United States, behind the ]. | |||
] lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967.<ref>See {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172104/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/11/elvis25yearson.elvispresley3 |date=February 18, 2021}}, '']'', August 11, 2002.</ref> Their daughter ] was born on February 1, 1968, and lived the first years of her life on the estate. After her parents divorced in 1972, her mother moved with Lisa to California. Every year around Christmas, Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie often returned to Graceland for visits. | |||
An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. The largest gathering assembled on the twenty-fifth anniversary in 2002. One estimate was of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. | |||
When Elvis toured, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as 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 Jungle Room' was described as being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch."<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Ballantyne |chapter=The Nest and the Pillar of Fire |title=What Is Architecture? |date=2002 |page=24}}</ref> | |||
The biggest crowd in Memphis for an Elvis Week is generally regarded as the 20th Anniversary in 1997. 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's extensive auto collection. Recently ] 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, Elvis Presley After Dark and Elvis 56; these can be found on the plaza. | |||
On August 16, 1977, Presley died aged 42 in his bathroom at Graceland. According to the biographer ], he "had thrown up after being stricken, apparently while seated on the toilet. It looked to the medical investigator as if he had 'stumbled or crawled several feet before he died.'" Guralnick adds that "drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease."<ref>], ''Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley'' (1999), pp. 651-652.</ref> The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, although later toxicology reports strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; "fourteen drugs were found in Elvis's system, with several drugs such as codeine in significant quantities.<ref>{{harvnb|Guralnick|1999|pages=651–53}}</ref> Presley lay in repose in a {{convert|900|lb|adj=on}}, copper-lined coffin just inside the foyer; more than 3,500 of his mourning fans passed by to pay their respects. A private funeral with 200 mourners was held on August 18, 1977, in the house, with the casket placed in front of the stained glass doorway of the music room. Graceland continued to be occupied by members of the family until the death of Presley's aunt Delta in 1993, who had moved in at Elvis's invitation after her husband's death.<ref>Blanchard, Tamsin (August 11, 2002). {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927193832/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2002/aug/11/elvis25yearson.elvispresley5 |date=September 27, 2016}}. '']''.</ref> | |||
Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited the estate in 1993 when she turned 25.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080321014027/http://www.elvis.com/elvisology/history/elvis_estate.asp |date=March 21, 2008}}</ref> | |||
Presley's grave, along with those of his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and his grandson Benjamin Keough are located in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion. They can be visited during the mansion tours or for free before the mansion tours begin. A memorial gravestone for Presley's ] twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site. | |||
==Tourist destination== | |||
In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to ], an entertainment company that also owns ], creator of the '']'' TV show. | |||
In 2019, the owners of Graceland{{who|date=August 2023}} threatened to leave Memphis unless the city provided ]s. The Memphis City Council subsequently voted on a deal to help fund a $100 million expansion of Graceland.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bauerlein |first=Valerie {{!}} Photographs by Andrea Morales for The Wall Street|date=April 7, 2019|title=Memphis Offers to Pay to Keep Graceland|language=en-US|work=]|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/memphis-offers-to-pay-to-keep-graceland-11554638400|access-date=December 9, 2020|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172023/https://www.wsj.com/articles/memphis-offers-to-pay-to-keep-graceland-11554638400|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=July 3, 2019 |title=Memphis council backs part of Graceland expansion plan |url=https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/memphis-council-backs-part-of-graceland-expansion-plan-1.4493457?cache=yes%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue%3FclipId%3D375756%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue|access-date=December 9, 2020 |website=CTVNews |language=en|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172014/https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/memphis-council-backs-part-of-graceland-expansion-plan-1.4493457?cache=yes%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue%3FclipId%3D375756%3FautoPlay%3Dtrue|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
In February 2006, CKX Chairman Bob Sillerman announced plans to turn Graceland into an international tourist destination on par with the Disney or Universal theme parks, sprucing up the area mansion and double the 600,000 annual visitors. Sillerman’s goal is to enhance the "total fan experience" at Graceland to compel visitors to spend more time and money. The company is working with the Bob Weis Design Island Associates, based in ], ], to improve the tourist area around Graceland, which is located in an economically-depressed area of Memphis, while keeping intact the historic home. | |||
=== Attempted foreclosure === | |||
], hosted by President ], at Graceland on June 30, 2006]] | |||
The property was slated for a foreclosure sale in May 2024. A company alleged that Lisa Marie Presley put the home up as security on a $3.8{{nbsp}}million loan in 2018. Riley Keough claimed the documents underlying the foreclosure are fraudulent and sued to stop the sale. Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the rest of the Presley estate, concurred with Keough's claims.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Razek |first1=Raja |title=Elvis' granddaughter fights Graceland foreclosure sale and alleges fraud {{!}} CNN Business |url=https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/20/business/graceland-elvis-granddaughter-fights-foreclosure-sale/index.html |access-date=21 May 2024 |work=CNN |date=21 May 2024 |language=en}}</ref> In a hearing on May 22, JoeDae Jenkins of the Shelby County Chancery Court declared the lender's claims as invalid. No representative for the lender appeared at the hearing.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judge-delays-graceland-sale-suggests-elvis-granddaughter-riley-keough-rcna153472 |title=Judge delays Graceland sale, suggests Elvis' granddaughter Riley Keough could win fraud claims |last1=Kakouris-Solarana |first1=Carla |last2=Arcodia |first2=Juliette |last3=Li |first3=David K. |date=May 22, 2024 |work=] |access-date=May 22, 2024}}</ref> The lender subsequently dropped plans to go ahead with the foreclosure without addressing Chancellor Jenkins' allegations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wmbdradio.com/2024/05/22/company-drops-plan-to-auction-graceland-after-judge-blocks-sale-amid-fraud-claims/ |title=Company drops plan to auction Graceland after judge blocks sale amid fraud claims |last=Ax |first=Joseph |editor-last=Oatis |editor-first=Jonathan |date=May 22, 2024 |agency=] |via=]|access-date=May 22, 2024}}</ref> ] tried to find Naussany Investments & Private Lending and its representative, Gregory E. Naussany, in public records but was unable.<ref name=publicrecords>{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/company-center-battle-elvis-graceland-mystery-rcna153619 |title=The company at the center of a battle over Elvis' Graceland is a mystery |last1=Schuppe |first1=Jon |last2=Arcodia |first2=Juliette |last3=Antonshchuk |first3=Valeriya |last4=Li |first4=David K. |date=May 22, 2024 |work=NBC News |access-date=May 23, 2024}}</ref> A real estate professor at the ] has said, "f this had been someone else's inheritance, someone else's home, it would just be another example that the public never hears about."<ref name=publicrecords /> | |||
Sillerman, who has been speaking with investors and developers, said he will ask local governments to help improve some of the public spaces around Graceland. He wants to expand the visitor center and exhibit space to showcase thousands of pieces of Elvis memorabilia that have never been seen. A new hotel is a possibility, or an expansion to the nearby Heartbreak Hotel. | |||
A ring of ] based in Nigeria has claimed to be behind the scheme.<ref name=schemersrevealed>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/arts/music/graceland-fraud-identity-thief-emails.html |title=Who Plotted to Sell Graceland? An Identity Thief Raises His Hand. |last=Stevens |first=Matt |date=May 28, 2024 |work=] |access-date=June 12, 2024}}</ref> Speaking to the '']'' via email which was written in ], a ring leader of this group stated that the organization which he belonged to had a network of “worms” placed throughout the United States and would, among other things, prey on the dead.<ref name=schemersrevealed /> Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC would, in fact, file the legal claim which alleged Lisa Marie Presley owed them $2.8{{nbsp}}million in a California probate court in September 2023, eight months after her death.<ref name=schemersrevealed /> The ''Times'' would also concede that it was difficult to find evidence that Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC was even an existing company.<ref name=schemersrevealed /> | |||
On ], ], when US President ] hosted Japanese Prime Minister ] for a tour of the mansion, it became the only residence on American soil other than an Embassy, the White House, or any of the other Presidential retreats to have hosted a joint-visit by a sitting US president and a head of a foreign government. (Koizumi, who is the longest-lasting Prime Minister in Japanese history, is an avid Elvis Presley fan and even shares Presley's ] birthday.) | |||
On August 16, 2024, Missouri woman Lisa Jeanine Findley, who is also known by Lisa Holden and many other aliases, was arrested.<ref name=arrestmade /> The U.S. Department of Justice charged Findley with identity theft and mail fraud connected to the attempt to extort the Elvis Presley family into selling Graceland.<ref name=arrestmade>{{cite news|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/missouri-woman-charged-alleged-scheme-steal-graceland-extort-elvis-pre-rcna166915|title=Missouri woman charged in an alleged scheme to steal Graceland and extort Elvis Presley family|first1=Marlene|last1=Lenthang|first2=Brandy|last2=Zadronzy|publisher=NBC News|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> Findley would make an appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on August 16, 2024 in a hearing that lasted seven minutes.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://variety.com/2024/music/news/elvis-presley-graceland-scheme-defraud-millions-steal-ownership-woman-arrested-1236108929/|title= Lisa Jeanine Findley, who has also gone by the names Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams|first=Ellise|last=Shafer|publisher=Variety|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> During her arraignment, Findley waived her right to a preliminary hearing or detention hearing and agreed to have those hearings take place in the prosecuting court, the Western District of Tennessee.<ref name=arrestmade /> The U.S. government moved for detention, and Findley was ordered to be removed to the Western District of Tennessee.<ref name=arrestmade /> She remains in custody.<ref name=arrestmade /> | |||
While visitor numbers grew to around 700,000, by 2005, and partly due to the negative impact on US tourism of 9/11, visitor numbers at Graceland had reportedly declined to around 600,000. | |||
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, Findley "posed as three different individuals" affiliated with the "fictitious private lender" in order to falsely accuse the late Lisa Marie of borrowing $3.8 million from Naussany Investments in 2018.<ref name=findleyposes /> Findley also "allegedly fabricated loan documents" on which she "forged the signatures of Elvis Presley’s daughter and a Florida State notary public. Findley then allegedly filed a false creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, and a fake deed of trust with the Shelby County Register’s Office in Memphis" and was, in fact, the one who "allegedly published a fraudulent foreclosure notice."<ref name=findleyposes>{{cite news|url=https://people.com/missouri-woman-arrested-and-charged-in-scheme-to-sell-elvis-presley-graceland-8696560|title=Missouri Woman Arrested and Charged in Scheme to Sell Elvis Presley's Graceland|first=Njera|last=Perkins|publisher=People|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> Despite Findley's direct role, a Graceland official claimed to celebrity news site ''The Blast'' that Graceland did not believe Findley was the scam's mastermind, stating that "We think this is the first domino to fall, not the last. We do not believe this is the mastermind behind the scam."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://theblast.com/620835/woman-involved-in-elvis-presleys-graceland-fraud-arrested-and-charged/|title=Elvis Presley's Graceland Home Saved From Fraud|first=Afouda|last=Bamidele|publisher=The Blast|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> Prosecutors have also stated that the person responsible for the scheme was an identity thief based in Nigeria.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/graceland-fraud-missouri-woman-charged-scheme-sell-landmark-1235977100/|title=Graceland Fraud: Charges Brought in Multimillion-Dollar Scheme to Sell Presley Family Landmark|first=Winston|last=Cho|publisher=The Hollywood Reporter|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> At the time of Findley's arrest, it was acknowledged that Kimberly L. Philbrick, the Florida notary whose name Findley forged, had, in fact, sided with Riley Keough in her lawsuit against Naussany Investments.<ref name=pillbrickmakespublic /> In an affidavit, Philbrick stated that “I have never met Lisa Marie Presley, nor have I ever notarized a document signed by Lisa Marie Presley” and that “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.”<ref name=pillbrickmakespublic>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2024-08-16/missouri-woman-arrested-defraud-elvis-presley-estate-graceland|title=Missouri woman who tried to grab Graceland arrested for allegedly defrauding Presley estate|first=Angie Orellana|last=Hernandez|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> Findley was also confirmed to have had history of similar criminal cases in the state of Oklahoma, which led to numerous arrests and her serving prison time in both Oklahoma and a Texas federal prison.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.fox13memphis.com/news/woman-charged-with-trying-to-defraud-elvis-presleys-family-through-sale-of-iconic-graceland/article_8695daa4-5be5-11ef-b615-cff42e3b8471.html|title=Missouri woman accused of extorting Elvis Presley's family previously charged in Okla.|publisher=Fox23.com|date=August 16, 2024|access-date=August 17, 2024}}</ref> | |||
==Tours== | |||
] | |||
] of the ]s at Graceland are available, though no flash ] or ]s are allowed inside. The tour of the Graceland mansion is an audio tour, and the upper floor is not open to visitors. The upper floor, which contains Elvis' bedroom, has been untouched since the day Elvis died. The tour enters through the front door, and living areas and the ] are first on the tour. The tour continues through the ], where Elvis's media room with its three televisions can be viewed. A bar and ] room can also be found. The tour continues back upstairs, through the famous Jungle Room, then outside to Elvis's grave. | |||
== Architecture == | |||
A separate building houses a car collection and not far away his two planes ''Lisa Marie'' (a ]) and ''Hound Dog II'' (a ]) are on display. | |||
=== Exterior === | |||
Constructed at the top of a hill and surrounded by rolling pastures and a grove of oak trees, Graceland was designed by the Memphis architectural firm, Furbringer and Erhmanis. It's a two-story, five-bay residence in the Colonial Revival style, with a side-facing gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles, a central two-story projecting pedimented portico, and two one-story wings on the north and south sides. Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on the north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on the second floor. | |||
Flanked by two marble lions, four stone steps ascend from the driveway to the two-story central projecting pedimented portico. The pediment has dentils and a small, leaded oval window in the center while the portico contains four ] with capitals modeled after architect ]'s conjectural porticos for the "]" in ], Greece.<ref>Elevation and capital detail in Stuart, '']'', London 1762.</ref> The portico's cornered columns are matched by pilasters on the front facade. The doorway has a broken arched pediment, full entablature, and engaged columns while its transom and sidelights contain elaborate and colorful stained glass. And above the main entrance is another rectangular window, completed with a shallow iron balcony.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://graceland.elvis.com.au/ |title=Elvis Presley's Graceland : 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard |publisher=Elvis Australia|access-date=January 20, 2015|archive-date=March 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120321191745/http://graceland.elvis.com.au/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
One of the most impressive displays is the trophy room off the main house, displaying Elvis's huge collection of gold and platinum records and other awards, stage costumes, photographs and more. | |||
=== Interior === | |||
==== First floor ==== | |||
] | |||
Graceland is {{convert|17552|sqft|m2}} and has a total of 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. To the right of the Entrance Hall, through an elliptical-arched opening with classical details, is the Living Room. The Living Room contains a {{convert|15|ft|m|adj=mid|-long}} white couch against the wall overlooking the front yard. To the left are two white sofas, a china cabinet and a fireplace with a mirrored wall. The painting that hangs in the room was Elvis's last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, and also displayed are photographs of Elvis's parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. Behind an adjoined doorway is the Music Room, framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass and contains a black baby grand piano and a 1950s style TV. And the third adjacent room is a bedroom that was occupied by Elvis's parents. The walls, carpet, dresser, and queen size bed are bright white with the bed draped in a velvet-looking dark purple bedspread along with an en-suite full bathroom done in pink. | |||
To the left of the Entrance Hall, mirroring the Living Room, is the Dining Room, headlined by a massive crystal chandelier. It features six plush chairs in golden metal frames set around a marble table, all of which are placed on black marble flooring in the center with carpet around the perimeter. Connected to the Dining Room is the Kitchen, which was used by Elvis's aunt Delta until her death in 1993 before it was opened to the public two years later.<ref>Moore, June (November 6, 1998). "Graceland Mansion".</ref> | |||
==Trivia== | |||
In 1957, Presley invited ] and ] to visit the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis, where Graceland is located. They went there in ]'s '55 chevy "to get a close look at this mansion Elvis had told us about. ... We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out."<ref>], ''Living the Rock 'N' Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason'' (2004), p.47.</ref> | |||
]The original one-story wing on the north end of the residence includes a mechanical room, bedroom, and bath. In the mid-1960s, Presley enlarged the house to create a den known as the Jungle Room which features an indoor waterfall of cut field stone on the north wall. The room also contains items both related to and imported from the state of ] because, after starring in the tropical film "]" (1961), the musician wanted to bring some memorabilia from The Aloha State to his mansion, which gives visitors the same feeling. In 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where he recorded the bulk of his final two albums, '']'' (1976) and '']'' (1977); these were his final known recordings in a studio setting.<ref>Ernst Jorgensen, ''Elvis Presley: A Life in Music – The Complete Recording Sessions'' (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 394–402</ref> During the mid-1960s expansion of the house, Presley constructed a large wing on the south side of the main house that was a sidewalk, between the music room in the original one-story wing and the swimming pool area, that connected to the house by a small enclosed gallery. The new wing initially housed a ] track and to store his many items of appreciation, but was later remodeled to what is now known as the Trophy Building, which now features an exhibit about the Presley family, and includes Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis's wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and more.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |url=https://www.graceland.com/visit/experience/graceland_mansion.aspx |title=Graceland Mansion – Graceland Tours – Elvis Presley's Mansion |website=www.graceland.com |language=en-us|access-date=June 29, 2017|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172110/https://www.graceland.com/mansion|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
"In the late 50s, Elvis was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by ], 'to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good'. Had the old ]rior taken the trip and then lived to see the King's demise, he might have allowed himself a very Soviet laugh at that." (John Harris)<ref>John Harris, "Talking about Graceland". ''The Guardian'', March 27, 2006.</ref> | |||
==== Second floor ==== | |||
==Notes== | |||
The Entrance Hall contains a white staircase leading to the house's second floor with a wall of mirrors. However, the second 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. Still, it features Elvis's bedroom at the southwest corner that connects to his dressing room and bathroom in the northwest. His daughter Lisa Marie's bedroom is in the northeast corner, and in the southeast is a bedroom that served as a private personal office for the musician.<ref>{{harvnb|Guralnick|1999|pages=651–652}}</ref> The floor has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members.<ref>{{cite web |last=Bachor |first=Ken |url=http://www.spin.com/gallery/too-tough-die-exclusive-photos-johnny-ramones-memoir?image=6 |title=Johnny and Linda Visit the Jungle Room at Graceland – Too Tough to Die: Exclusive Photos From Johnny Ramone's Memoir | SPIN | Music News |publisher=SPIN |date=2012 |access-date=August 11, 2014 |archive-date=March 31, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331210851/http://www.spin.com/gallery/too-tough-die-exclusive-photos-johnny-ramones-memoir?image=6 |url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
<div class="references-2column"><references/></div> | |||
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==== Basement ==== | ||
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*Engel, Matthew. "Still stuck on Elvis, fans exalt the King". ''The Guardian'' (London), ], ], p. 1. | |||
Downstairs in the basement is the TV room, where Elvis often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a ].<ref>Brad Olsen, ''Sacred Places North America: 108 Destinations'', p.281.</ref> The three TV sets are built into the room's south wall and there's a stereo, and cabinets for Elvis's record collection. Painted on the west wall is The King's 1970s logo of a lightning bolt and cloud with the initials TCB, both of which represent 'taking care of business in a flash'. And the last room in the mansion opposite of the TV room is the billiard room; an avid billiards player, Elvis bought the pool table in 1960 and had the walls and ceiling covered with 350–400 yards of pleated cotton fabric after the two basement rooms were remodeled in 1974. The pool balls are arranged just the way they were in the musician's final days, along with a sign that says "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH, THANK YOU." And in one corner of the pool table, there's a rip in the green felt, which was caused by one of Elvis's friends in a failed attempt of a trick shot. | |||
*Harris, John. "Talking about Graceland". ''The Guardian'' (London), ], ]. | |||
== |
== Criticism == | ||
Critics such as ] write: "Though it cost a lot of money to fill up Graceland with the things that appealed to Elvis Presley, nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, ''Elvis'' (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. ] or the Countess ] might have contrived this plushy parlor for the entertainment of ]. The room is a gaudy mélange of red velour and gilded tassels, ] and porcelain bric-a-brac..." And he dismisses the interior as "bizarre," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag."<ref>Albert Goldman, ''Elvis'' (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 8.</ref> | |||
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* History of the building | |||
{{CoorHeader|35|2|46|N|90|1|23|W|type:landmark}} | |||
In similar terms, ] writes that people who visited the inside of Graceland—"people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music—have returned with one word to describe what they saw: ‘Tacky.’ Tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash."<ref>Greil Marcus, ''Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession'' (Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 71.</ref> | |||
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According to ], Graceland is "a Technicolor illusion. The façade is '']'' all the way. The den in the back is '']'' with a hint of '']''. Living in Graceland was like living on a Hollywood backlot, where patches of tropical scenery alternated with the blackened ruins of antebellum ]. It was like living in a Memphis movie theater... Diehard fans are sometimes disappointed by the formal rooms along the highway side of Graceland. They’re beautiful, in a chilly blue-and-white way, but remote and overarranged." The Jungle Room's "overt bad taste" lets nonbelievers "recoil in horror and imagine themselves a notch or two higher than Elvis on the class scale."<ref>Karal Ann Marling, ''Graceland: Going Home With Elvis'' (Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 196–197.</ref> | |||
== Estate == | |||
] | |||
{{more citations needed|section|date=June 2017}} | |||
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After purchasing the property Presley spent in excess of $500,000 carrying out extensive modifications to suit his needs including a pink Alabama ] wall surrounding the grounds that has several years' worth of graffiti (signatures and messages) from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall".<ref>Daniel Wright, ''Dear Elvis: Graffiti from Graceland'' (1996), p.16.</ref> Designed and built by Abe Sauer is the wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music, along with green colored musical notes and two mirrored silhouettes of Elvis playing his guitar. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar. There is a sunken sitting area with the ever-present stereo system found throughout Graceland, as well as the dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, ]'s "]" and "]". | |||
] | |||
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However, reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor-to-ceiling shatterproof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place there when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of the morning on which Elvis died, he played a game of racquetball with his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo before ending the game with the song on the piano before walking into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the two story court has been restored to the way it was when Elvis used the building.<ref name=":0" /> | |||
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Elsewhere on the estate is a small white building that served as an office for Vernon, along with an old smokehouse that housed a shooting range and a fully functional stable of horses. | |||
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One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier. It was used by the musician to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. It is also where his entire family is buried: himself (1935–1977), his parents Gladys (1912–1958) and Vernon (1916–1979), and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood (1890–1980) while a small stone memorializes his twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth thirty minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. In late 2020, Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough was laid to rest on the opposite end of the Meditation Garden after his death from suicide in July of that year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Beifuss |first1=John |title=Benjamin Keough, Elvis' grandson, interred at Graceland |url=https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2020/10/02/elvis-presley-grandson-benjamin-keough-buried-graceland-memphis-lisa-marie-presley/5894141002/ |access-date=July 20, 2022 |work=The Commercial Appeal |date=October 2, 2010}}</ref> Lisa Marie Presley died from sudden cardiac arrest in January 2023 and is buried next to her son.<ref name="latimes.com">{{Cite web |date=January 14, 2023 |title=Lisa Marie Presley leaves behind a lucrative Graceland — and a complicated financial legacy |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2023-01-14/lisa-marie-presley-graceland-financial-legacy-elvis |access-date=January 16, 2023 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US}}</ref> | |||
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== Tourist destination == | |||
{{more citations needed|section|date=June 2017}} | |||
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After Elvis Presley's death 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's only child, Lisa Marie, who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis's 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 doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of ], 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. | |||
An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. Known as Elvis Week, it includes a full schedule of speakers and events, including the only Elvis Mass at St. Paul's Church, the highlight for many Elvis fans of all faiths. The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had several hundred media groups from around the world that were present resulting in the event gaining its greatest media publicity. | |||
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One of the largest gatherings assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002 with one estimate of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. On the 38th anniversary of Elvis's death, an estimated 30,000 people attended the Candlelight Vigil during the night of August 15–16, 2015.<ref>{{cite web |title=Candlelight Vigil 2015 |website=Official Graceland Blog |url=https://www.graceland.com/blog/candlelight-vigil/|access-date=June 17, 2018|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172109/https://www.graceland.com/blog/posts/candlelight-vigil/|url-status=live}}</ref> On the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death, on August 15–16, 2017, at least 50,000 fans were expected to attend the Candlelight Vigil. No official figure seems to have been released, maybe because, for the first time, attendees had to pay at least the lowest tour fare, $28.75, to cover the extra security costs due to a larger than usual crowd.<ref>{{cite news |title=50,000 Elvis fans converge on Graceland for 40th anniversary of his death |website=WJHL |date=August 16, 2017 |url=http://www.wjhl.com/news/50000-elvis-fans-converge-on-graceland-for-40th-anniversary-of-his-death/871447852|access-date=June 17, 2018|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218171957/https://www.wjhl.com/news/50000-elvis-fans-converge-on-graceland-for-40th-anniversary-of-his-death/871447852/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Big crowds cause Graceland to change policy on Elvis Presley's candlelight vigil |website=commercialappeal.com |date=August 11, 2017 |url=https://eu.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/08/11/graceland-changes-policy-candlelight-vigil/560279001/|access-date=June 17, 2018|archive-date=February 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210218172009/https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2017/08/11/graceland-changes-policy-candlelight-vigil/560279001/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
] | |||
For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective.<ref name=Davidson>Davidson, James W.(1985). '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425045657/http://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/297/ |date=April 25, 2012}}'' (M.A. thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University</ref> They may plan for years to journey to the home of the 'King' of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis's life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is ], celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and a religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis's grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis's favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for Presley as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted.<ref>See Linda Kay Davidson and David Gitlitz ''Pilgrimage, from the Ganges to Graceland: an Encyclopedia'' (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002).</ref> | |||
], ''Lisa Marie'', named after his daughter]] | |||
The Graceland grounds include a new exhibit complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, which includes a new car museum, Presley Motors, which houses ]. The complex features new exhibits and museums, as well as a studio for ]'s all-Elvis Presley channel.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/people/elvis-presley/2017/03/02/graceland-today-unveils-elvis-presleys-memphis/98497616/ |title='It's a new era': Graceland unveils Elvis Presley's Memphis |work=The Commercial Appeal|access-date=June 29, 2017 |language=en|archive-date=March 7, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170307174638/http://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/people/elvis-presley/2017/03/02/graceland-today-unveils-elvis-presleys-memphis/98497616/|url-status=live}}</ref> The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Not far away on display are his two aircraft including ''Lisa Marie'' (a ] jetliner) and ''Hound Dog II'' (a ] business jet). The jets are owned by Graceland and are on permanent static display.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/despite-opposition-elvis-presleys-private-planes-will-remain-at-graceland-20150427 |title=Elvis' Custom-Designed Planes Will Remain at Graceland |magazine=Rolling Stone|access-date=June 29, 2017|archive-date=August 22, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170822142343/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/despite-opposition-elvis-presleys-private-planes-will-remain-at-graceland-20150427|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
In early August 2005, ] sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to ], an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sat) that also owns ], creator of the '']'' TV show. | |||
Graceland Holdings LLC, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, is the majority owner of EPE. Lisa Marie Presley's estate retains a 15% ownership in the company. | |||
In August 2018, Gladys Presley's headstone, which contained the Jewish star of David on one side and a cross on the other and was designed by Elvis himself, which become publicly displayed when it placed in Graceland's Mediation Garden after being stored for many years in the Graceland Archive.<ref name=gladysheadstone /><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/display-of-mothers-star-of-david-headstone-revives-talk-of-elviss-jewish-roots |title=Display of mother's Star of David headstone revives talk of Elvis's Jewish roots |first=Dan |last=Fellner |publisher=The Times of Israel |date=June 25, 2021 |access-date=February 17, 2024}}</ref> | |||
Lisa Marie Presley's estate, which is being held in trust for her daughters ] and Harper and Finley Lockwood, retain 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion itself and its over 13-acre original grounds as well as Elvis Presley's personal effects – including costumes, wardrobe, awards, furniture, cars, etc.<ref name="latimes.com" /> Prior to her death in 2023, Lisa Marie Presley had made the mansion property and her father's personal effects permanently available for tours of Graceland and for use in all of EPE's operations.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.graceland.com/about/ |title=About – Elvis Presley's Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises |website=www.graceland.com |language=en-us|access-date=June 29, 2017|archive-date=October 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018095705/https://www.graceland.com/about/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
== Notable visitors == | |||
According to Elvis Presley's Enterprises, staff at Graceland informally kept a list of celebrities who had visited in the first years following Elvis's death. This practice was not formalized for a decade. ], who was a friend of Elvis,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.boxingnews24.com/2023/04/muhammad-ali-talks-about-his-relationship-with-elvis/|title=Muhammad Ali Talks About His Relationship With Elvis!|publisher=Boxing News 24|date=2023-04-21|access-date=2024-04-08}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/blogs/inthemix/The-Greatest-and-King-Ali-and-Elvis.html|title=The Greatest and The King: Ali and Elvis|first=Don|last=DeLuca|publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer|date=June 6, 2016|access-date=April 8, 2024}}</ref> was an early celebrity visitor in 1978, as was singer ]. He toured Graceland in the early 80s and afterward wrote ]; it was the title track of his Grammy-winning album '']''. | |||
During the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, ] toured Graceland. The footage was filmed for the film ]. During the visit, drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., sat on Elvis Presley's motorcycle -- against the rules for Graceland visitors.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://tnmuseum.org/Stories/posts/when-love-came-to-town-u2-at-sun-studio |title=When Love Came to Town: U2 at Sun Studio}}</ref> | |||
On June 30, 2006, then US President ] hosted Japanese Prime Minister ] for a tour of the mansion. It was one of the few private residences on United States soil to have been the site of an official joint-visit by a sitting US president and a serving head of a foreign government. On August 6, 2010, ], Head of State of the Principality of Monaco, and his fiancée (now Princess of Monaco) ], toured Graceland while vacationing in the US.<ref name="Femfirst">{{cite web |title=Prince Albert's Elvis visit |url=http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/royal_family/Prince+Albert-53732.html |publisher=www.femalefirst.co.uk|access-date=August 7, 2010|archive-date=April 6, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110406022008/http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/royal_family/Prince+Albert-53732.html|url-status=live}}</ref> On May 26, 2013, ] of ] visited Graceland.<ref>{{cite news |last=Vincent |first=Alice |title=Paul McCartney pays respects to Elvis during Graceland visit |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/10084289/Paul-McCartney-pays-respects-to-Elvis-during-Graceland-visit.html |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=August 17, 2013 |date=May 28, 2013|archive-date=March 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313100829/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/the-beatles/10084289/Paul-McCartney-pays-respects-to-Elvis-during-Graceland-visit.html|url-status=live}}</ref> ] and ], while in Memphis for a friend's wedding, visited Graceland on May 2, 2014.<ref name=WillsHarry>{{cite web |title=Prince William, Prince Harry Visit Graceland to Pay Tribute to Elvis |url=http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/prince-william-prince-harry-visit-graceland-to-pay-tribute-to-elvis.shtml |website=Elvis Australia|access-date=June 7, 2014|archive-date=June 20, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140620025606/http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/prince-william-prince-harry-visit-graceland-to-pay-tribute-to-elvis.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
The home has also been visited by former US President ]; the late Duchess of Devonshire, the sitting ambassadors of India, France, China, Korea and Israel to the United States; as well as several US governors, members of the US Congress, and at least two Nobel Prize winners, namely singer-songwriter ], a Literature Prize laureate, and the former President of Costa Rica, ], a Peace Prize honoree, who visited it on October 10, 2001. | |||
In May 2016, Graceland welcomed a newlywed couple as its 20 millionth visitor.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://wreg.com/2016/05/03/newlywed-becomes-20-millionth-visitor-to-graceland/ |title=Newlywed becomes 20 millionth visitor to Graceland |date=May 4, 2016 |website=WREG.com|access-date=June 29, 2017|archive-date=September 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914225451/http://wreg.com/2016/05/03/newlywed-becomes-20-millionth-visitor-to-graceland/|url-status=live}}</ref> | |||
In June 2022, actors ] and ] visited the mansion and were interviewed virtually by the '']'' news program from the Jungle Room to talk about their biographical film '']''. | |||
== In popular culture == | |||
* ] named an album '']'', as well as its title track. The song won the ] in 1987. | |||
* On '']'', ] would visit Graceland on an annual basis. | |||
* The song "]" by ] mentions Graceland; in the second verse, he refers to the mansion and the Jungle Room. This song was later covered by ], ] and ], among others. | |||
* The film '']'' is about a group of criminals who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis week, disguised as ]. No scenes take place at or near the estate. | |||
* The film '']'' stars ] with ]. Keitel is an impersonator who claims to be the real Elvis after Schaech picks him up as a hitch-hiker. | |||
* In the rock music "mockumentary" '']'', band members gather around Presley's grave at Graceland and attempt to sing a verse of "]". | |||
* Pop punk group ] have a song called "Graceland" on their 1997 album ''Re-Animation Festival''. | |||
* In the movie '']'', the protagonists venture to Graceland in hopes of shelter during a zombie apocalypse, but are distressed to find it in a ruined state. | |||
* During the credits of '']'', there's a photograph of Lilo, Nani, David and Stitch visiting the front gates of Graceland. Almost 20 years later, the original painting of that shot was put on display as part of the traveling Walt Disney Archives exhibition at Graceland. | |||
* In the season three episode of '']'' “The Vacation Goo”, Steve Smith asks Stan Smith if they can go to Graceland for their next vacation and Stan says “Steve, if you want to pay your respects to a fat man who died on the toilet, we can visit your Aunt Mary’s grave.” | |||
* In the season four episode of '']'' "McMillan and Son", Mike, Samuel and Carl agree to visit Graceland during a trip to Memphis which involved visiting Carl's grandmother. Mike, who was at first more hesitant to do so, and Carl agree to do so near the end of the episode on the advice of Samuel, who openly expressed his desire to visit Graceland. | |||
* ] has a song "Graceland Too" on her second studio album ''Punisher''. | |||
* In the third episode of '']'', "Graceland Gambit," the main protagonist, Jess (portrayed by ]) is on a treasure hunt that leads her and her friends to Graceland. | |||
* ] reference Graceland and Elvis in their song "Morning Elvis" on their 2022 album '']''. | |||
* In the CBS special ''The Presleys: Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley'', Oprah Winfrey would interview Riley Keough at Graceland and also view some of Elvis' personal belongings. | |||
== Gallery == | |||
<gallery mode=packed> | |||
File:Graceland during Elvis Week 2011 008.jpg|Graceland stairwell | |||
File:Elvis Week 2013 Memphis TN 2013-08 012.jpg|Graceland dining area | |||
File:Graceland front room.JPG|Graceland front room | |||
File:Elvis Week 2013 Memphis TN 2013-08 014.jpg|Graceland music room | |||
File:Elvis kitchen 224.JPG|Graceland kitchen | |||
File:Yellow TV room 228.JPG|Graceland yellow TV room | |||
File:Graceland 2010-12-18 Memphis TN 17.jpg|Graceland back yard | |||
File:Graceland cross.jpg|Cross | |||
File:Elvis Week 2013 Memphis TN 2013-08 041.jpg|Graceland fountain | |||
File:ElvisPresleyburialsite.jpg|Elvis Presley burial site | |||
File:Graceland 2010-12-18 Memphis TN 47.jpg|Presley performance outfit | |||
File:Graceland 2010-12-18 Memphis TN 26.jpg|Presley's ] for "]" | |||
File:Elvis Pink Jeep 326.JPG|Elvis's Pink Jeep | |||
File:Graceland Memphis TN Floorplan 1st Floor.jpg|Floorplan, 1st floor | |||
File:Graceland Memphis TN Floorplan 2nd Floor.jpg|Floorplan, 2nd floor | |||
File:Graceland Memphis TN Floorplan Basement.jpg|Floorplan, Basement | |||
</gallery> | |||
== See also == | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ], including a special Graceland section, focused on the touristic aspects. | |||
== References == | |||
=== Citations === | |||
{{reflist}} | |||
=== Works cited === | |||
* {{cite book |first=Peter |last=Guralnick |title=Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780316332972|url-access=registration |date=1999 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-33297-2}} | |||
* {{cite book |last=Victor |first=Adam |title=The Elvis Encyclopedia Hardcover |year=2008 |publisher=Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd |isbn=978-0-7156-3816-3}} | |||
== Further reading == | |||
* Davidson, Linda Kay and David Gitlitz. ''Pilgrimage, from the Ganges to Graceland: An Encyclopedia'' (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002). | |||
* Engel, Matthew. "Still Stuck on Elvis, Fans Exalt the King". ''The Guardian'' (London), August 17, 2002, p. 1. | |||
* Marling, Karal Ann. ''Graceland: Going Home with Elvis''. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997. | |||
* Miksanek, Chris. ''From de Soto to Elvis: A Brief History of Graceland Farm''. Bamber Books, 2012. | |||
== External links == | |||
{{Commons category|Graceland}} | |||
* {{Official website|http://www.graceland.com/}} | |||
* | |||
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{{Elvis Presley}} | |||
{{Memphis, Tennessee}} | |||
{{National Register of Historic Places}} | |||
{{Authority control}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 18:31, 1 December 2024
Home of Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tennessee, US For other uses, see Graceland (disambiguation).United States historic place
Graceland | |
U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
U.S. National Historic Landmark | |
Graceland Mansion | |
Interactive map showing Graceland's location | |
Location | 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard (Highway 51 South), Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
---|---|
Coordinates | 35°2′45.4″N 90°1′22.6″W / 35.045944°N 90.022944°W / 35.045944; -90.022944 |
Area | 14 acres (5.7 ha) |
Built | 1939 |
Architect | Furbringer and Ehrman |
Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 91001585 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | November 7, 1991 |
Designated NHL | March 27, 2006 |
Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, once owned by American singer Elvis Presley. Presley is buried there, as are his parents, paternal grandmother, grandson, and daughter.
Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven neighborhood, about nine miles (14 kilometres) south of central Memphis and fewer than four miles (6.4 km) north of the Mississippi border. It was opened to the public as a house museum on June 7, 1982, and attracts more than 650,000 visitors annually.
Graceland was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site recognized for significance related to rock music. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site.
Elvis' father, Vernon, first inherited Graceland after Elvis' death on August 16, 1977. Lisa Marie Presley inherited Graceland after she turned 25 years old, according to a document which named Elvis's ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, as trustee. Following Lisa Marie's death on January 12, 2023, her eldest daughter, Riley Keough, became the sole trustee and owner. In May 2024, a company called Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC claimed that Lisa Marie Presley failed to pay back a $3.8 million loan it had given her. A Tennessee court ruled that the mysterious company likely committed fraud through forged documents, and that neither Priscilla nor Riley authorized such foreclosure.
History
Graceland Farms was originally owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co., the oldest commercial printing firm in Memphis. He worked previously as the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The site (before the mansion was built in 1939) was named after Toof's daughter, Grace. She inherited the property from her father in 1894. After her death, the property passed to her niece Ruth Moore, a Memphis socialite. Together with her husband, Thomas Moore, Ruth Moore commissioned construction of a 10,266-square-foot (953.7 m) Colonial Revival style mansion in 1939. The house was designed by architects Furbringer and Ehrman.
After Elvis Presley began his musical career, he purchased a $40,000 home for himself and his family at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis in 1956. As his success and fame grew, especially after his appearances on television, the number of fans who would congregate outside the house increased. Presley's neighbors, although happy to have a celebrity living nearby, concluded that the constant gathering of fans and journalists was a nuisance.
In early 1957, Presley gave his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, a budget of $100,000 and asked them to find a "farmhouse"-like property to purchase, with buffer space around it. At the time, Graceland was located in southern Shelby County, several miles south of Memphis's main urban area. In later years, Memphis expanded with residential developments, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties. Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957, for a price of $102,500.
Later that year, Presley invited Richard Williams and singer Buzz Cason to the house. Cason said: "We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out." Presley was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, "to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good."
After Gladys died in 1958 aged 46, Presley's father Vernon married Dee Stanley in 1960, and the couple lived at Graceland for a time. There was some discord between Presley and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however. Elaine Dundy, who wrote about Presley and his mother, 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 Presley, who still loved his late mother deeply. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's 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's estate.
According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was 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's favorite records", and that, he "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television". According to Presley's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley slept 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."
Priscilla Presley lived at Graceland for five years before she and Elvis married in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967. Their daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, and lived the first years of her life on the estate. After her parents divorced in 1972, her mother moved with Lisa to California. Every year around Christmas, Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie often returned to Graceland for visits.
When Elvis toured, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as 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 Jungle Room' was described as being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch."
On August 16, 1977, Presley died aged 42 in his bathroom at Graceland. According to the biographer Peter Guralnick, he "had thrown up after being stricken, apparently while seated on the toilet. It looked to the medical investigator as if he had 'stumbled or crawled several feet before he died.'" Guralnick adds that "drug use was heavily implicated in this unanticipated death of a middle-aged man with no known history of heart disease." The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, although later toxicology reports strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; "fourteen drugs were found in Elvis's system, with several drugs such as codeine in significant quantities. Presley lay in repose in a 900-pound (410 kg), copper-lined coffin just inside the foyer; more than 3,500 of his mourning fans passed by to pay their respects. A private funeral with 200 mourners was held on August 18, 1977, in the house, with the casket placed in front of the stained glass doorway of the music room. Graceland continued to be occupied by members of the family until the death of Presley's aunt Delta in 1993, who had moved in at Elvis's invitation after her husband's death. Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited the estate in 1993 when she turned 25.
Presley's grave, along with those of his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, and his grandson Benjamin Keough are located in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion. They can be visited during the mansion tours or for free before the mansion tours begin. A memorial gravestone for Presley's stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site.
In 2019, the owners of Graceland threatened to leave Memphis unless the city provided tax incentives. The Memphis City Council subsequently voted on a deal to help fund a $100 million expansion of Graceland.
Attempted foreclosure
The property was slated for a foreclosure sale in May 2024. A company alleged that Lisa Marie Presley put the home up as security on a $3.8 million loan in 2018. Riley Keough claimed the documents underlying the foreclosure are fraudulent and sued to stop the sale. Elvis Presley Enterprises, which manages the rest of the Presley estate, concurred with Keough's claims. In a hearing on May 22, JoeDae Jenkins of the Shelby County Chancery Court declared the lender's claims as invalid. No representative for the lender appeared at the hearing. The lender subsequently dropped plans to go ahead with the foreclosure without addressing Chancellor Jenkins' allegations. NBC News tried to find Naussany Investments & Private Lending and its representative, Gregory E. Naussany, in public records but was unable. A real estate professor at the University of Memphis has said, "f this had been someone else's inheritance, someone else's home, it would just be another example that the public never hears about."
A ring of identity thieves based in Nigeria has claimed to be behind the scheme. Speaking to the New York Times via email which was written in Luganda, a ring leader of this group stated that the organization which he belonged to had a network of “worms” placed throughout the United States and would, among other things, prey on the dead. Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC would, in fact, file the legal claim which alleged Lisa Marie Presley owed them $2.8 million in a California probate court in September 2023, eight months after her death. The Times would also concede that it was difficult to find evidence that Naussany Investments & Private Lending LLC was even an existing company.
On August 16, 2024, Missouri woman Lisa Jeanine Findley, who is also known by Lisa Holden and many other aliases, was arrested. The U.S. Department of Justice charged Findley with identity theft and mail fraud connected to the attempt to extort the Elvis Presley family into selling Graceland. Findley would make an appearance in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri on August 16, 2024 in a hearing that lasted seven minutes. During her arraignment, Findley waived her right to a preliminary hearing or detention hearing and agreed to have those hearings take place in the prosecuting court, the Western District of Tennessee. The U.S. government moved for detention, and Findley was ordered to be removed to the Western District of Tennessee. She remains in custody.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Public Affairs, Findley "posed as three different individuals" affiliated with the "fictitious private lender" in order to falsely accuse the late Lisa Marie of borrowing $3.8 million from Naussany Investments in 2018. Findley also "allegedly fabricated loan documents" on which she "forged the signatures of Elvis Presley’s daughter and a Florida State notary public. Findley then allegedly filed a false creditor’s claim with the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles, and a fake deed of trust with the Shelby County Register’s Office in Memphis" and was, in fact, the one who "allegedly published a fraudulent foreclosure notice." Despite Findley's direct role, a Graceland official claimed to celebrity news site The Blast that Graceland did not believe Findley was the scam's mastermind, stating that "We think this is the first domino to fall, not the last. We do not believe this is the mastermind behind the scam." Prosecutors have also stated that the person responsible for the scheme was an identity thief based in Nigeria. At the time of Findley's arrest, it was acknowledged that Kimberly L. Philbrick, the Florida notary whose name Findley forged, had, in fact, sided with Riley Keough in her lawsuit against Naussany Investments. In an affidavit, Philbrick stated that “I have never met Lisa Marie Presley, nor have I ever notarized a document signed by Lisa Marie Presley” and that “I do not know why my signature appears on this document.” Findley was also confirmed to have had history of similar criminal cases in the state of Oklahoma, which led to numerous arrests and her serving prison time in both Oklahoma and a Texas federal prison.
Architecture
Exterior
Constructed at the top of a hill and surrounded by rolling pastures and a grove of oak trees, Graceland was designed by the Memphis architectural firm, Furbringer and Erhmanis. It's a two-story, five-bay residence in the Colonial Revival style, with a side-facing gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles, a central two-story projecting pedimented portico, and two one-story wings on the north and south sides. Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on the north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on the second floor.
Flanked by two marble lions, four stone steps ascend from the driveway to the two-story central projecting pedimented portico. The pediment has dentils and a small, leaded oval window in the center while the portico contains four Corinthian columns with capitals modeled after architect James Stuart's conjectural porticos for the "Tower of the Winds" in Athens, Greece. The portico's cornered columns are matched by pilasters on the front facade. The doorway has a broken arched pediment, full entablature, and engaged columns while its transom and sidelights contain elaborate and colorful stained glass. And above the main entrance is another rectangular window, completed with a shallow iron balcony.
Interior
First floor
Graceland is 17,552 square feet (1,630.6 m) and has a total of 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. To the right of the Entrance Hall, through an elliptical-arched opening with classical details, is the Living Room. The Living Room contains a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) white couch against the wall overlooking the front yard. To the left are two white sofas, a china cabinet and a fireplace with a mirrored wall. The painting that hangs in the room was Elvis's last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, and also displayed are photographs of Elvis's parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. Behind an adjoined doorway is the Music Room, framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass and contains a black baby grand piano and a 1950s style TV. And the third adjacent room is a bedroom that was occupied by Elvis's parents. The walls, carpet, dresser, and queen size bed are bright white with the bed draped in a velvet-looking dark purple bedspread along with an en-suite full bathroom done in pink.
To the left of the Entrance Hall, mirroring the Living Room, is the Dining Room, headlined by a massive crystal chandelier. It features six plush chairs in golden metal frames set around a marble table, all of which are placed on black marble flooring in the center with carpet around the perimeter. Connected to the Dining Room is the Kitchen, which was used by Elvis's aunt Delta until her death in 1993 before it was opened to the public two years later.
The original one-story wing on the north end of the residence includes a mechanical room, bedroom, and bath. In the mid-1960s, Presley enlarged the house to create a den known as the Jungle Room which features an indoor waterfall of cut field stone on the north wall. The room also contains items both related to and imported from the state of Hawaii because, after starring in the tropical film "Blue Hawaii" (1961), the musician wanted to bring some memorabilia from The Aloha State to his mansion, which gives visitors the same feeling. In 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where he recorded the bulk of his final two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977); these were his final known recordings in a studio setting. During the mid-1960s expansion of the house, Presley constructed a large wing on the south side of the main house that was a sidewalk, between the music room in the original one-story wing and the swimming pool area, that connected to the house by a small enclosed gallery. The new wing initially housed a slot car track and to store his many items of appreciation, but was later remodeled to what is now known as the Trophy Building, which now features an exhibit about the Presley family, and includes Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis's wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and more.
Second floor
The Entrance Hall contains a white staircase leading to the house's second floor with a wall of mirrors. However, the second 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. Still, it features Elvis's bedroom at the southwest corner that connects to his dressing room and bathroom in the northwest. His daughter Lisa Marie's bedroom is in the northeast corner, and in the southeast is a bedroom that served as a private personal office for the musician. The floor has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members.
Basement
Downstairs in the basement is the TV room, where Elvis often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a wet bar. The three TV sets are built into the room's south wall and there's a stereo, and cabinets for Elvis's record collection. Painted on the west wall is The King's 1970s logo of a lightning bolt and cloud with the initials TCB, both of which represent 'taking care of business in a flash'. And the last room in the mansion opposite of the TV room is the billiard room; an avid billiards player, Elvis bought the pool table in 1960 and had the walls and ceiling covered with 350–400 yards of pleated cotton fabric after the two basement rooms were remodeled in 1974. The pool balls are arranged just the way they were in the musician's final days, along with a sign that says "PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH, THANK YOU." And in one corner of the pool table, there's a rip in the green felt, which was caused by one of Elvis's friends in a failed attempt of a trick shot.
Criticism
Critics such as Albert Goldman write: "Though it cost a lot of money to fill up Graceland with the things that appealed to Elvis Presley, nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, Elvis (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Lulu White or the Countess Willie Piazza might have contrived this plushy parlor for the entertainment of Gyp the Blood. The room is a gaudy mélange of red velour and gilded tassels, Louis XV furniture and porcelain bric-a-brac..." And he dismisses the interior as "bizarre," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag."
In similar terms, Greil Marcus writes that people who visited the inside of Graceland—"people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music—have returned with one word to describe what they saw: ‘Tacky.’ Tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash."
According to Karal Ann Marling, Graceland is "a Technicolor illusion. The façade is Gone With the Wind all the way. The den in the back is Mogambo with a hint of Blue Hawaii. Living in Graceland was like living on a Hollywood backlot, where patches of tropical scenery alternated with the blackened ruins of antebellum Atlanta. It was like living in a Memphis movie theater... Diehard fans are sometimes disappointed by the formal rooms along the highway side of Graceland. They’re beautiful, in a chilly blue-and-white way, but remote and overarranged." The Jungle Room's "overt bad taste" lets nonbelievers "recoil in horror and imagine themselves a notch or two higher than Elvis on the class scale."
Estate
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After purchasing the property Presley spent in excess of $500,000 carrying out extensive modifications to suit his needs including a pink Alabama fieldstone wall surrounding the grounds that has several years' worth of graffiti (signatures and messages) from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall". Designed and built by Abe Sauer is the wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music, along with green colored musical notes and two mirrored silhouettes of Elvis playing his guitar. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar. There is a sunken sitting area with the ever-present stereo system found throughout Graceland, as well as the dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "Unchained Melody".
However, reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor-to-ceiling shatterproof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place there when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of the morning on which Elvis died, he played a game of racquetball with his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo before ending the game with the song on the piano before walking into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the two story court has been restored to the way it was when Elvis used the building.
Elsewhere on the estate is a small white building that served as an office for Vernon, along with an old smokehouse that housed a shooting range and a fully functional stable of horses.
One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier. It was used by the musician to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. It is also where his entire family is buried: himself (1935–1977), his parents Gladys (1912–1958) and Vernon (1916–1979), and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood (1890–1980) while a small stone memorializes his twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth thirty minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. In late 2020, Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough was laid to rest on the opposite end of the Meditation Garden after his death from suicide in July of that year. Lisa Marie Presley died from sudden cardiac arrest in January 2023 and is buried next to her son.
Tourist destination
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After Elvis Presley's death 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's only child, Lisa Marie, who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis's 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 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.
An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. Known as Elvis Week, it includes a full schedule of speakers and events, including the only Elvis Mass at St. Paul's Church, the highlight for many Elvis fans of all faiths. The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had several hundred media groups from around the world that were present resulting in the event gaining its greatest media publicity.
One of the largest gatherings assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002 with one estimate of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. On the 38th anniversary of Elvis's death, an estimated 30,000 people attended the Candlelight Vigil during the night of August 15–16, 2015. On the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death, on August 15–16, 2017, at least 50,000 fans were expected to attend the Candlelight Vigil. No official figure seems to have been released, maybe because, for the first time, attendees had to pay at least the lowest tour fare, $28.75, to cover the extra security costs due to a larger than usual crowd.
For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective. They may plan for years to journey to the home of the 'King' of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis's life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is hagiographic, celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and a religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis's grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis's favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for Presley as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted.
The Graceland grounds include a new exhibit complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, which includes a new car museum, Presley Motors, which houses Elvis's Pink Cadillac. The complex features new exhibits and museums, as well as a studio for Sirius Satellite Radio's all-Elvis Presley channel. The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Not far away on display are his two aircraft including Lisa Marie (a Convair 880 jetliner) and Hound Dog II (a Lockheed JetStar business jet). The jets are owned by Graceland and are on permanent static display.
In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to CKX, Inc., an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sat) that also owns 19 Entertainment, creator of the American Idol TV show.
Graceland Holdings LLC, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, is the majority owner of EPE. Lisa Marie Presley's estate retains a 15% ownership in the company.
In August 2018, Gladys Presley's headstone, which contained the Jewish star of David on one side and a cross on the other and was designed by Elvis himself, which become publicly displayed when it placed in Graceland's Mediation Garden after being stored for many years in the Graceland Archive.
Lisa Marie Presley's estate, which is being held in trust for her daughters Riley Keough and Harper and Finley Lockwood, retain 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion itself and its over 13-acre original grounds as well as Elvis Presley's personal effects – including costumes, wardrobe, awards, furniture, cars, etc. Prior to her death in 2023, Lisa Marie Presley had made the mansion property and her father's personal effects permanently available for tours of Graceland and for use in all of EPE's operations.
Notable visitors
According to Elvis Presley's Enterprises, staff at Graceland informally kept a list of celebrities who had visited in the first years following Elvis's death. This practice was not formalized for a decade. Muhammad Ali, who was a friend of Elvis, was an early celebrity visitor in 1978, as was singer Paul Simon. He toured Graceland in the early 80s and afterward wrote a song of the same name; it was the title track of his Grammy-winning album Graceland.
During the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, U2 toured Graceland. The footage was filmed for the film Rattle & Hum. During the visit, drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., sat on Elvis Presley's motorcycle -- against the rules for Graceland visitors.
On June 30, 2006, then US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion. It was one of the few private residences on United States soil to have been the site of an official joint-visit by a sitting US president and a serving head of a foreign government. On August 6, 2010, Prince Albert II, Head of State of the Principality of Monaco, and his fiancée (now Princess of Monaco) Charlene Wittstock, toured Graceland while vacationing in the US. On May 26, 2013, Paul McCartney of The Beatles visited Graceland. Prince William and Prince Harry, while in Memphis for a friend's wedding, visited Graceland on May 2, 2014.
The home has also been visited by former US President Jimmy Carter; the late Duchess of Devonshire, the sitting ambassadors of India, France, China, Korea and Israel to the United States; as well as several US governors, members of the US Congress, and at least two Nobel Prize winners, namely singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, a Literature Prize laureate, and the former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, a Peace Prize honoree, who visited it on October 10, 2001.
In May 2016, Graceland welcomed a newlywed couple as its 20 millionth visitor.
In June 2022, actors Austin Butler and Tom Hanks visited the mansion and were interviewed virtually by the Good Morning America news program from the Jungle Room to talk about their biographical film Elvis.
In popular culture
- Paul Simon named an album Graceland, as well as its title track. The song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1987.
- On Cheers, Carla Tortelli would visit Graceland on an annual basis.
- The song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn mentions Graceland; in the second verse, he refers to the mansion and the Jungle Room. This song was later covered by Cher, Richie Furay and Lonestar, among others.
- The film 3000 Miles to Graceland is about a group of criminals who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis week, disguised as Elvis impersonators. No scenes take place at or near the estate.
- The film Finding Graceland stars Harvey Keitel with Johnathon Schaech. Keitel is an impersonator who claims to be the real Elvis after Schaech picks him up as a hitch-hiker.
- In the rock music "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap, band members gather around Presley's grave at Graceland and attempt to sing a verse of "Heartbreak Hotel".
- Pop punk group Groovie Ghoulies have a song called "Graceland" on their 1997 album Re-Animation Festival.
- In the movie Zombieland: Double Tap, the protagonists venture to Graceland in hopes of shelter during a zombie apocalypse, but are distressed to find it in a ruined state.
- During the credits of Lilo & Stitch, there's a photograph of Lilo, Nani, David and Stitch visiting the front gates of Graceland. Almost 20 years later, the original painting of that shot was put on display as part of the traveling Walt Disney Archives exhibition at Graceland.
- In the season three episode of American Dad “The Vacation Goo”, Steve Smith asks Stan Smith if they can go to Graceland for their next vacation and Stan says “Steve, if you want to pay your respects to a fat man who died on the toilet, we can visit your Aunt Mary’s grave.”
- In the season four episode of Mike and Molly "McMillan and Son", Mike, Samuel and Carl agree to visit Graceland during a trip to Memphis which involved visiting Carl's grandmother. Mike, who was at first more hesitant to do so, and Carl agree to do so near the end of the episode on the advice of Samuel, who openly expressed his desire to visit Graceland.
- Phoebe Bridgers has a song "Graceland Too" on her second studio album Punisher.
- In the third episode of National Treasure: Edge of History, "Graceland Gambit," the main protagonist, Jess (portrayed by Lisette Olivera) is on a treasure hunt that leads her and her friends to Graceland.
- Florence + The Machine reference Graceland and Elvis in their song "Morning Elvis" on their 2022 album Dance Fever.
- In the CBS special The Presleys: Elvis, Lisa Marie and Riley, Oprah Winfrey would interview Riley Keough at Graceland and also view some of Elvis' personal belongings.
Gallery
- Graceland stairwell
- Graceland dining area
- Graceland front room
- Graceland music room
- Graceland kitchen
- Graceland yellow TV room
- Graceland back yard
- Cross
- Graceland fountain
- Elvis Presley burial site
- Presley performance outfit
- Presley's gold record for "Jailhouse Rock"
- Elvis's Pink Jeep
- Floorplan, 1st floor
- Floorplan, 2nd floor
- Floorplan, Basement
See also
- Graceland Too
- List of museums in Tennessee
- List of music museums
- List of National Historic Landmarks in Tennessee
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Shelby County, Tennessee
- Tourism in Memphis, Tennessee, including a special Graceland section, focused on the touristic aspects.
References
Citations
- Cook, Jody; Henry, Patty (May 27, 2004). "National Historic Landmark Nomination: Graceland" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved June 21, 2009. and Accompanying 12 photos, exterior and interior, from 2001 (3.44 MB)
- West, Carroll Van (1995). Tennessees Historic Landscapes: Travelers Guide. University of Tennessee Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-87049-881-7.
- "Graceland". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on December 30, 2011. Retrieved October 4, 2008.
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- Victor 2008, p. 208
- "Elvis Ancestors Wore Kilts". CBS News. March 25, 2004. Archived from the original on October 2, 2016. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
- "Riley Keough on Growing Up Presley, Losing Lisa Marie, and Inheriting Graceland". Vanity Fair. August 8, 2023. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
- Marling, Karal Ann (1996). Graceland: Going Home With Elvis. Harvard University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0-674-35889-8.
- Tucker, Jennifer M. (September 1991). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Graceland". National Park Service. Retrieved January 19, 2020. With accompanying 41 photos
- ^ Flippo, Chet (1993). Graceland: Living Legacy of Elvis Presley. Mitchell Beazley. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-85732-255-2.
- "Elvis Presley's 1956 Home : 1034 Audubon Drive, Memphis, TN". Elvis Presley News. Archived from the original on May 27, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2016.
- ^ Victor 2008, pp. 205–209
- "Elvis Presley puts a down payment on Graceland". History. Archived from the original on September 17, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Buzz Cason, Living the Rock 'N' Roll Dream: The Adventures of Buzz Cason (2004), p.47.
- Harris, John (March 27, 2006). "Talking about Graceland". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 13, 2020. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
- Dundy, Elaine (2004). Elvis and Gladys. pp. 329–330.
- Miller, Mark Crispin (1988). Boxed In: The Culture of TV. Northwestern University Press. p. 192.
- Billy Smith interview Part Two." Elvis Information Network Archived February 12, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.
- See Tracy McVeigh, "Love me tender" Archived February 18, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, The Observer, August 11, 2002.
- Ballantyne, Andrew (2002). "The Nest and the Pillar of Fire". What Is Architecture?. p. 24.
- Peter Guralnick, Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (1999), pp. 651-652.
- Guralnick 1999, pp. 651–53
- Blanchard, Tamsin (August 11, 2002). Elvis has left the building Archived September 27, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. The Guardian.
- The Estate of Elvis Presley/The Elvis Presley Trust: EPE History and Structure: All About Elvis Archived March 21, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- Bauerlein, Valerie | Photographs by Andrea Morales for The Wall Street (April 7, 2019). "Memphis Offers to Pay to Keep Graceland". The Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- "Memphis council backs part of Graceland expansion plan". CTVNews. July 3, 2019. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
- Razek, Raja (May 21, 2024). "Elvis' granddaughter fights Graceland foreclosure sale and alleges fraud | CNN Business". CNN. Retrieved May 21, 2024.
- Kakouris-Solarana, Carla; Arcodia, Juliette; Li, David K. (May 22, 2024). "Judge delays Graceland sale, suggests Elvis' granddaughter Riley Keough could win fraud claims". NBC News. Retrieved May 22, 2024.
- Ax, Joseph (May 22, 2024). Oatis, Jonathan (ed.). "Company drops plan to auction Graceland after judge blocks sale amid fraud claims". Reuters. Retrieved May 22, 2024 – via WMBD.
- ^ Schuppe, Jon; Arcodia, Juliette; Antonshchuk, Valeriya; Li, David K. (May 22, 2024). "The company at the center of a battle over Elvis' Graceland is a mystery". NBC News. Retrieved May 23, 2024.
- ^ Stevens, Matt (May 28, 2024). "Who Plotted to Sell Graceland? An Identity Thief Raises His Hand". The New York Times. Retrieved June 12, 2024.
- ^ Lenthang, Marlene; Zadronzy, Brandy (August 16, 2024). "Missouri woman charged in an alleged scheme to steal Graceland and extort Elvis Presley family". NBC News. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- Shafer, Ellise (August 16, 2024). "Lisa Jeanine Findley, who has also gone by the names Lisa Holden, Lisa Howell, Gregory Naussany, Kurt Naussany, Lisa Jeanine Sullins and Carolyn Williams". Variety. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- ^ Perkins, Njera (August 16, 2024). "Missouri Woman Arrested and Charged in Scheme to Sell Elvis Presley's Graceland". People. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- Bamidele, Afouda (August 16, 2024). "Elvis Presley's Graceland Home Saved From Fraud". The Blast. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- Cho, Winston (August 16, 2024). "Graceland Fraud: Charges Brought in Multimillion-Dollar Scheme to Sell Presley Family Landmark". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- ^ Hernandez, Angie Orellana (August 16, 2024). "Missouri woman who tried to grab Graceland arrested for allegedly defrauding Presley estate". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 16, 2024.
- "Missouri woman accused of extorting Elvis Presley's family previously charged in Okla". Fox23.com. August 16, 2024. Retrieved August 17, 2024.
- Elevation and capital detail in Stuart, The Antiquities of Athens, London 1762.
- "Elvis Presley's Graceland : 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard". Elvis Australia. Archived from the original on March 21, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
- Moore, June (November 6, 1998). "Graceland Mansion".
- Ernst Jorgensen, Elvis Presley: A Life in Music – The Complete Recording Sessions (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 394–402
- ^ "Graceland Mansion – Graceland Tours – Elvis Presley's Mansion". www.graceland.com. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
- Guralnick 1999, pp. 651–652
- Bachor, Ken (2012). "Johnny and Linda Visit the Jungle Room at Graceland – Too Tough to Die: Exclusive Photos From Johnny Ramone's Memoir | SPIN | Music News". SPIN. Archived from the original on March 31, 2012. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
- Brad Olsen, Sacred Places North America: 108 Destinations, p.281.
- Albert Goldman, Elvis (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981), p. 8.
- Greil Marcus, Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession (Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 71.
- Karal Ann Marling, Graceland: Going Home With Elvis (Harvard University Press, 1996), pp. 196–197.
- Daniel Wright, Dear Elvis: Graffiti from Graceland (1996), p.16.
- Beifuss, John (October 2, 2010). "Benjamin Keough, Elvis' grandson, interred at Graceland". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved July 20, 2022.
- ^ "Lisa Marie Presley leaves behind a lucrative Graceland — and a complicated financial legacy". Los Angeles Times. January 14, 2023. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
- "Candlelight Vigil 2015". Official Graceland Blog. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- "50,000 Elvis fans converge on Graceland for 40th anniversary of his death". WJHL. August 16, 2017. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- "Big crowds cause Graceland to change policy on Elvis Presley's candlelight vigil". commercialappeal.com. August 11, 2017. Archived from the original on February 18, 2021. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- ^ "Gladys Presley's Headstone Added to Meditation Garden". Graceland. August 14, 2018. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- Beifuss, John (August 15, 2018). "Gladys Presley's Elvis-designed tombstone returns to Graceland". Commercial Appeal. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- Davidson, James W.(1985). The pilgrimage to Elvis Presley's Graceland: A study of the meanings of place Archived April 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (M.A. thesis) Wilfrid Laurier University
- See Linda Kay Davidson and David Gitlitz Pilgrimage, from the Ganges to Graceland: an Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002).
- "'It's a new era': Graceland unveils Elvis Presley's Memphis". The Commercial Appeal. Archived from the original on March 7, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
- "Elvis' Custom-Designed Planes Will Remain at Graceland". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on August 22, 2017. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
- Fellner, Dan (June 25, 2021). "Display of mother's Star of David headstone revives talk of Elvis's Jewish roots". The Times of Israel. Retrieved February 17, 2024.
- "About – Elvis Presley's Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises". www.graceland.com. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
- "Muhammad Ali Talks About His Relationship With Elvis!". Boxing News 24. April 21, 2023. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- DeLuca, Don (June 6, 2016). "The Greatest and The King: Ali and Elvis". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- "When Love Came to Town: U2 at Sun Studio".
- "Prince Albert's Elvis visit". www.femalefirst.co.uk. Archived from the original on April 6, 2011. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
- Vincent, Alice (May 28, 2013). "Paul McCartney pays respects to Elvis during Graceland visit". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved August 17, 2013.
- "Prince William, Prince Harry Visit Graceland to Pay Tribute to Elvis". Elvis Australia. Archived from the original on June 20, 2014. Retrieved June 7, 2014.
- "Newlywed becomes 20 millionth visitor to Graceland". WREG.com. May 4, 2016. Archived from the original on September 14, 2016. Retrieved June 29, 2017.
Works cited
- Guralnick, Peter (1999). Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-33297-2.
- Victor, Adam (2008). The Elvis Encyclopedia Hardcover. Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7156-3816-3.
Further reading
- Davidson, Linda Kay and David Gitlitz. Pilgrimage, from the Ganges to Graceland: An Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002).
- Engel, Matthew. "Still Stuck on Elvis, Fans Exalt the King". The Guardian (London), August 17, 2002, p. 1.
- Marling, Karal Ann. Graceland: Going Home with Elvis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997.
- Miksanek, Chris. From de Soto to Elvis: A Brief History of Graceland Farm. Bamber Books, 2012.
External links
- Official website
- List of celebrities who visited Graceland
- History of Graceland With Home Movies and Pictures
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