I’ve had many people share with me their story about where they were when they found out that Elvis died. I’m sure that my story isn’t that much different from a lot of people who live relatively close to Memphis. Here’s my story.
I was walking back to the entertainment tent at Graceland when I saw 4 people from Brazil. I was in my Elvis Week element when I started talking to them and asking them about their visit. Only one of them had ever been to Graceland before. One of the men did most of the talking. He grabbed at the blue wristband on his arm and said, “I don’t like this.” I said I didn’t like it either. The wristband was a “Graceland Property Pass” that gave you access to various areas during Elvis Week. It was also the only way you could get to the Candlelight Vigil this year. The only way to get this pass was to purchase one of the tour packages. The minimum cost of one of these packages was nearly $30. This was a significant change for an event that has always been free. It didn’t affect us because we were already planning to tour the house and the new visitor’s center exhibits. But it was affecting our Brazilian friends because they were spending the week in Memphis for Elvis Week. They had done the tours and exhibits earlier in the week and had no reason to revisit them. Each of them purchased an additional $30 ticket just to do the candlelight vigil and they didn’t like it. These changes came up early in our conversations with most people and without me asking. Change has come to Graceland and the fans don’t like it.
I have made regular trips for several years to Graceland for Elvis Week in August. Graceland also has activities in January to celebrate Elvis’ birthday. I have never visited Graceland during his birthday celebration. They don’t have anything that goes on during his birthday celebration that compares to the Candlelight Vigil experience. It doesn’t attract as many people so it’s not an environment that seems to be as good for people watching. Still, many Elvis fans from around the world come to Memphis for his birthday. Several years ago, I had the opportunity to travel through Memphis on a Monday after Elvis’ birthday when it fell on a weekend.
The last of 3 stories about my April trip to Graceland.
We didn’t do the tour until Saturday after the conference was over. I was waiting on the back patio of the hotel while my wife was finishing up her last session. I talked to a man from Carbondale, Illinois who had gotten married at the Chapel at Graceland the day before. He was a big Elvis fan and it was his idea to do the wedding there. It sounds like they have a nice area on the grounds to conduct weddings and they give the newlyweds and their party a special tour. I had never met anyone that had been married at Graceland or at least no one that told me about it. Later when we did the tour, we ran into another couple that had gotten married on Friday at Graceland. When I mentioned meeting the other couple, they said they were the only two couples that were married that day at Graceland. This second couple was younger and the bride was the one who was the Elvis fan. They were doing the tour with both sets of parents and they were all in from Pennsylvania.
The second of 3 stories about my April trip to Graceland.
The autism conference started on a Thursday. I stayed with my wife while she checked into the conference so I would have an idea of her schedule and when we would try to check in to the hotel. After she checked in, I decided to go down to the mansion and scope out the visitor’s center to get a first look at the changes.
The first of 3 stories about my April trip to Graceland.
March 30, 2017, I made my first trip to Graceland at a time other than Elvis Week. My wife was attending an autism conference at the Guesthouse at Graceland and asked me to tag along with her. The Guesthouse is a new hotel run by Elvis Presley Enterprises and is located almost directly next to the mansion. The hotel opened in October. A new visitor’s center with new exhibits call Elvis Presley’s Memphis opened in early March. With an autism conference going on, the hotel being open for less than a year and the visitor’s center being less open for less than a month, this was going to be an interesting trip. This would also be the first time that my visit to Graceland involved an overnight stay.
The rain started falling on us as we got to the edge of Memphis. By the time we pulled into the parking lot at Graceland, the rain had stopped but there was rain and threats of rain all day. When we were getting out of the car, I suggested to Tina that we take the rain ponchos with us that I had purchased several years earlier for a previous Elvis Week. It was the right thing to do.
August 15, 1978 marked the eve of the first anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. This would be the first time I would visit Memphis on August 15 that I remember but this first trip was not to attend an Elvis Candlelight Vigil. I’m sure the Elvis fans gathered there that year just as they had a year before when he died on August 16. But I’m sure whatever observations that Elvis’ faithful fans had that year were probably hampered by a policeman’s strike in Memphis. There were already National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Memphis when the city’s firefighters joined the strike. Add to that the first ever mass influx of tourists to Memphis just to see Graceland. There were no official events planned and I’m sure any attempt at a candlelight vigil was probably not welcome by local officials who had declared a curfew starting at 8 PM to try and curb violence by angry police on the previous nights. It’s amazing that Elvis Week ever took off when its roots were in an environment like this.
“Excuse me, can I get a picture of your backsides?” I have to admit that this was an unusual request, even for Elvis week. You might expect that the reaction would be to call for the cops or at least a good slap in the face. But the four women to whom I made the request turned around to look at me and the turned to let be get a picture of the backs of their matching shirts.
The shirts matched in style but the backs identified which generation each member of this family of Elvis fans was from. A unique idea that I had never seen in my years at Graceland. After that, I asked if I could get a picture of the fronts of their shirts. While I was getting this picture, they told me there were two other women in their group somewhere. I said I would try to get a picture of them if I ran into them.
It has been almost two weeks since my latest visit to Graceland and less than a week since I posted the essay for this year’s trip. Earlier this week, I was going through the channel guide on my television and saw that the movie “This is Elvis” was on. This documentary was released in 1981. I remember going to see it in the theater. I remember seeing people crying in the parking lot after the movie. I also remember it being one of the first movies I ever saw on HBO. Back in 1981, I didn’t have any Elvis records and I felt like I needed some. I purchased the soundtrack album to this film because it had most of the songs I really cared to have.