Graceland Piano Mystery

My brother-in-law expressed an interest in going to Graceland with me.  He’s been my brother-in-law for 37 years and I’ve been going to Graceland for 21 of those years.  The time for him to go was long overdue.  My wife and I planned to take his girlfriend and him to Graceland for his birthday in November.  Because of various trips and celebrations, our trip was delayed until February 19.  All my other visits to Graceland have been in August except for one in March of 2017.  Although this would be my first winter visit to Graceland, it was sunny and warm enough that I considered leaving home without a jacket.  A brisk breeze quickly let me know that the jacket was mandatory.  My first piece of advice for a winter trip to Graceland is take a coat or jacket.  You will be outside more than you might think.  This includes a walk from the parking lot to the visitors’ center, walking between the buildings behind the mansion, walking from the visitors center to the planes, standing at the grave site and waiting on shuttle buses going back and forth to the mansion.

Our tour was scheduled for 11:15 and we arrived right at 11. Soon we were on the tour.  While in the living room, this trip got its purpose.  Listening to the voice of John Stamos as the guide of our tour over headphones attached to an iPad, he mentioned the Story and Clark baby grand piano in the music room. On previous trips, this stood out to me because I had played a Story and Clark baby grand before and I had noticed their logo on the piano before.  But this time when I looked, I didn’t recognize the familiar logo.  I couldn’t make out what the logo said but it looked like something other that Story and Clark.  I used the camera on my phone to zoom in for a better look.  I still couldn’t make out what it said.  I snapped a picture so I could take a closer look later.  In addition to trying to find out more about the piano, I was also on a mission to take pictures of details in the house that I would normally overlook.  This included pictures of the microwave in the kitchen and a Shirelles album in the TV room.

Before I get to my piano research, I have to mention that the biggest change to the tour since the last time I was in the meditation garden with the addition of the graves of Lisa Marie and her son. These new tombs were getting as much attention as Elvis’ grave.  The loss of Lisa Marie hit me hard.  I thought about seeing her at a few candlelight vigils and noticing how uncomfortable she seemed to be with the whole situation. While she certainly appreciated the fans, she didn’t seem to know how to deal with their affection. She’s also close enough to my age for it to remind me of my own mortality. It was good to be able to reflect on here passing there.

My first step in trying to find out about the piano was to share my picture with a couple of my pianist friends to see if they could identify what it was.  Both were able to identify it as a brand called Knabe.  Next, I did a Google search for pictures of the Graceland music room.  I was surprised when pictures of two different pianos showed up.  In addition to the white piano that I had seen on the tour, there was a black piano.  There were also differences in the color scheme of the room with white curtains around the white piano and gold curtains around what I was able to confirm was a black Story and Clark piano.  While I speculated that the piano was swapped for the holidays, I was able to find the real story was more interesting.  This white piano is the same one that Elvis originally bought for that room when he bought Graceland in 1957.  Some of the pictures of the music room show Elvis at this piano in the music room from those early days at Graceland.  According to information on the Graceland website, This piano was in the music room until it was placed in storage in 1968.  In 1976, the piano was sold to Sturges Recording Studio in Memphis where it was used on as many as 50 recordings by various artists including Jerry Lee Lewis.  Lewis also played this piano when it was at Graceland.  The piano changed hands several times before returning to Graceland in December of 2017.  While I have been to Graceland several times since then, I had not toured the house since March of 2017.  This means while the exhibit changed in December of 2017, the narration for the tour has not.

While I enjoyed solving the mystery of this piano, I also found out there were even more interesting stories about it.  While it was built in 1917, it ended up as the house piano for Ellis Auditorium in Memphis in the early 1930’s.  Many important entertainers performed in the Auditorium’s North Hall including W. C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Cab Calloway. Elvis’ first sold-out shows Happened there in 1955.  The piano was at this venue until 1957 when Elvis bought it.  When I snapped that picture on the tour, I had no idea that this instrument would have so much history.  Now I need to start investigating the microwave.