As I drove south on Elvis Presley Boulevard around 11:30 AM on August 15, I remembered the traffic moving slow when I was approaching Graceland back on my first trip in 2002. That year the traffic moved slow because of large crowds and vendors set up at the road selling old newspapers from 1977 when Elvis died. This year the traffic moved slowly mainly because of construction on the road. A much-needed southbound lane was being added. But they were also in the middle of a major repaving project. In year’s past, a project like that would have been completed before the crowds descended on Graceland. But today, there are fewer people traveling to Graceland, so the construction is not a major obstacle. I had my pick of prime spaces in the parking lot to park, further evidence that there will be a smaller crowd this year. Since my main objective each year is to experience the Elvis fans, I’m concerned that this will be a problem with fewer people here. There were virtually no lines in the ticketing area. I thought there might be fewer international Elvis fans because of the current political environment. My concerns were soon alleviated by the sight of a man posing in front of the cars in the car museum wearing an American Eagle style jumpsuit. While I never got a chance to talk to him, I did overhear him speaking to the lady who took his picture in a language other than English. They were international fans and they got bonus points for wearing a jumpsuit. Later in the day, I would see this guy wearing shorts and a tee shirt. He was committed but not that committed.
While I didn’t talk to jumpsuit guy, I soon ran into a group of women in a gift shop that were all wearing sequined jackets. Each of the 6 women were wearing a different color jacket. In my notes I referred to them as the “shiny ladies”. I struck up a conversation with a couple of them while they were obsessing over an Elvis bottle opener/lighter. Rose and Mary were there with their 2 sisters and 2 nieces. They were all from San Antonio. Mary was wearing a crown and celebrating her 70th birthday. This was their first trip to Graceland. They planned to spend more time in the museums and then go back to The Peabody to swim. They were not planning to come back for the vigil. Before the day was over, I would buy one of the bottle opener/lighters for my candle at the vigil ceremony.
After I talked to the shiny ladies, Mia and Georgina from England came up to me with questions about the candlelight vigil. They heard me telling the shiny ladies about the vigil and wanted more information since this was their first time here. They were wondering about how easy it was to get back to the parking lot if they left to get food off-site.
I went to a book signing in one of the gift shops by Peter Guralnick. He had a new book called The Colonel and The King released during Elvis Week. Guralnick has written two other Elvis biographies are considered the best books on Elvis. This signing was the second of three during the week. The line for the signing was extremely long when I arrived. My hour-long wait in the line provided me with an opportunity to get to know the people in line a little better.
The book signing took place in a gift shop located beside the Soundstage at Graceland, a concert venue that is used for celebrity panel discussions during Elvis Week. Peter Guralnick had been a panelist on a discussion that wrapped up right before the book signing, one reason for the long lines. A door between the Soundstage and the gift shop that is usually closed had been opened for the crowd to enter without having to go outside. The end of the line was just inside the Soundstage when I arrived. Carol from California was in line in front of me and attended the panel discussion. She was sitting in a chair she had taken from the Soundstage. The employees of the gift shop gave her a more portable chair, and I ended up helping her move her chair along as the line moved. She had bad knees even though she had surgery to replace both. Carol was a member of a California Elvis fan club. She had stories about encounters with Elvis and just about anyone in Elvis’ circle. When I mentioned I was from Jackson, TN, she started talking about meeting Carl Perkins and how her club supported his charity for the prevention of child abuse. She said she had been to Jackson several times to visit the charity offices, had met with Carl and his wife, and she was aware that the annual fundraising telethon was that weekend. She already sent them a check for that year.
The guy in line behind me was nice enough to let me back in front of him after I stepped out of line to buy my book. He had several Elvis stories since he had grown up in Memphis. He talked about riding with his father to the Mid-South Coliseum to buy tickets for Elvis’ concert scheduled for August 27th. On the way there, they heard a news report that said the concert was sold out. Almost as soon as they turned around to go home, they heard another announcement saying they had added a second show on the 28th. They went back and bought tickets for that show. Someone in line commented that those tickets are valuable now. He said his father took them back and got a refund because those were $15 tickets. He also talked about standing in line at Graceland on August 17th for the public viewing. He was the next person in line to go through the gates when they stopped letting people in.
His story was almost prophetic for us. As we got closer to the table where he was signing, the gift shop employees had already cut the line off behind us. They were assessing where to cut off the line more and I was the first person they approached to ask if I would be willing to come back for the book signing scheduled for the next day. I explained that I was just in town for that day and they let me stay in line.
They had a limit of 2 books that Guralnick would sign. Tina from Calgary, Canada was in line behind the Memphis guy. She had 3 books that she wanted to get signed, and I got one of them signed for her. This was her 17th year to come to Elvis Week. She normally attends several of the paid events like panel discussions and concerts. She talked about seeing Lisa Marie at a concert in Las Vegas and running into Jerry Schilling. She was like Carol and had several encounters with people in Elvis’ circle. She had an elaborate Elvis tattoo on one arm. The Memphis guy was impressed, in part because he is also an artist. He showed us several of his pencil drawings, including some of Elvis, on his Facebook page. I now follow his page.
Tina from Canada was the one of the people that wanted to ask me about Pricilla, wondering if she would be there and if she was doing ok. During our conversation, she told a story about the last time Pricilla was at a Candlelight Vigil. Early in Pricilla’s comments she suddenly tried to get the crowd to join in with her to sing Happy Birthday. I’m sure I was there that year, but it was one of the years I was distancing from the crowd, and I don’t remember this happening. They thought she’s doing worse that what they want to let on and this is part of the reason she doesn’t show up during Elvis Week.
Because I spent so much time in the line at the book signing, I didn’t hang out very much in the “Elvis Tent” in the Graceland Exhibition Center. I think it was all for the better. The Elvis Tribute Artists (ETA) who grace this stage have their own followers and this seems to be as much for them as it is a tribute to Elvis. That said, I always try to catch part of the performance of superstar ETA, Dean Z. He mentioned that his first year at Elvis Week was 1993, 10 years before I started going. The guy that runs the Elvis Tent said that some of the ETAs get too big to show up at the tent, but he can count on Dean. Dean said he wished they would set up a real tent beside the road like they did back before the new visitor’s center was built. The atmosphere was different at that time with more people and activity that made it feel like a festival. It’s what I’m looking for when I go each year but that environment isn’t there anymore.
I got tired of being in the tent but went to the Jungle Room Lounge at the other end of the Graceland Exhibition Center to watch the karaoke. I stuck with my policy of not drinking during my Elvis Week trip although it might have helped tolerate some of these performances. A couple of newlyweds were spending their honeymoon at Elvis Week singing karaoke. The man was one of several guys in the lounge with Elvis sideburns and hair. I took a seat in the back corner of the lounge to be able to take in the performers and the whole audience. A group of 4 women from Michigan were seated near me and 3 of them got up to sing Poke Salad Annie. They were keeping the bar busy and were enjoying the karaoke enough that they wanted to keep it going. They talked me into going up to sing Blue Suede Shoes. I talked with Stacie from Michigan, and she told me that their group had come to Graceland as part of a graduation trip years ago and they were recreating that experience. They didn’t do the vigil on their previous trip, and she asked for tips. I told her about my experience from past years with people going to the gravesite throughout the night until the next morning. I told her about some people going to the vigil ceremony, going back to their hotel to rest, then returning to go to the gravesite later in the night. I also mentioned that some people said the crowds have been small enough in recent years that they closed the gates around 1 AM because there was no one left to go.
After I left the Jungle Room Lounge, I went to get in line for the vigil ceremony. They had already started letting people go through the security check, so I was afraid I had waited too late, but I was still able to get a good place in line. Behind me in the line were a brother and sister from Massachusetts named Ralph and Barbara Ann. Ralph had been to Graceland several times and knew a lot about Elvis, Graceland, and the surrounding neighborhood. He also talked about Pricilla singing Happy Birthday and wondered if she would be here this year. At some point, he asked if I liked wine. When I told him I did, he said that his last name was Gallo, and the Gallo Brothers were his uncles.
The song highlighted during the vigil ceremony was Welcome to My World. They talked about the Golden Rule and said, “being kind to each other honors Elvis legacy.” As usual, they also played If I Can Dream and Can’t Help Falling in Love. I couldn’t hear myself singing along with the crowd because I was directly in front of a speaker. In my notes from my trip I wrote they were “playing so loud, they could hear the music in Mississippi and Arkansas”.
It took only about an hour to get through the candlelight vigil procession. When I got back to the street, I looked to see how many people were in the queue line. In years past, the queue would still be full of people. This year, the line didn’t need the queue ropes anymore with the line of people only going about halfway up the wall in front of Graceland. They would easily clear the people from the line by 1 AM if not before.
There are no more bustling crowds of people in Memphis for Elvis Week. No more coverage from national news media. Not even the local channels have cameras there. The Incredible Shrinking Candlelight Vigil is no longer big news. Elvis Week is filled with concerts, special events and panel discussions that give the fans something to do that generates more revenue for Graceland. They have premium tours during the week with special celebrity guides like Linda Thompson and Jerry Shilling. Throughout the year they have premium tours that allow you to hold artifacts from the archive like his rings or belts. The Presley for a Day tours last 7 hours at a price of $6000 for a group of 4 but allow access to areas that other tours don’t give. These special tours and events are good ideas but aren’t bringing back the people often enough to make Graceland thrive. With an aging, smaller fan base, Graceland desperately needs something to energize its business like the ’68 Comeback Special energized Elvis’ career.
