The easy explanation for my recent Memphis trip was that I was celebrating my 50th birthday at Graceland.
But the truth is, I went to Memphis for Elvis. All of Elvis.
After all, most casual Elvis fans seem to segregate his career into two eras—young Elvis (à la Jailhouse Rock) and Vegas Elvis—and typically prefer the "earlier" one versus the "late" one. But my favorite Elvis era is a middle era: the '68 Comeback Special, when he was coming out of his Paramount movie career and getting back into performing live, right before he started his Las Vegas residency in 1969.
And I have much affection for the cape-wearing, lei-laden, karate-chopping Elvis of Aloha from Hawaii, That's the Way It Is, and his final album (a live-and-studio combo) Moody Blue.
I'd already chased all those Elvises around two states—like at the Honeymoon Hideaway and other sites around Palm Springs, and at the former International Hotel on the Vegas Strip. But now, it was time for me to finally experience what remains of The King in his longtime hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1954, Elvis first recorded "That's All Right" at Sun Studio for Sun Records and Sam Phillips, who's credited with essentially launching the young singer's career. The studio is now a museum—and on the tour, they allow photos to be taken of what they claim is the very same microphone Elvis sang into (above).
Could that be true? I'm not sure, but it seems pretty clear that this was the same exact room that Elvis posed with Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash (together, the "Million Dollar Quartet") during a now-infamous impromptu recording session. The sound panels on the walls are identical (and not new reproductions).
They say Elvis opened the door with this very knob.
Upstairs at Sun Studio, there's also the actual booth from radio station WHBQ, where disc jockey Dewey Phillips (no relation to Sam) played "That's All Right" on his popular show on July 8, 1954—making it an instant local hit (and Elvis an instant local star). The booth was rescued from its original location in the Hotel Chisca in 2013 and reassembled at Sun the following year.
Elvis hadn't even performed live professionally on stage—until he took the stage at Overton Park Shell on July 30, 1954.
Built in 1936 by the WPA as part of the New Deal, the bandshell is kind of a mini Hollywood Bowl in Memphis's Overton Park. It's provided a stage for gospel, blues, and rock and roll legends—as well as orchestras—to play under the twinkling stars of a dark Tennessee sky for nearly 90 years.
And its architect? None other than Memphis's own Max Furbringer, who also designed Graceland (as part of the firm Furbringer & Ehrman) for its original owner in 1938—later purchased by Elvis for his family in 1957.
Although first signed to Sun Records, Elvis got a new record deal when Sam Phillips sold his contract to RCA Victor on November 21, 1955—which, legend has it, occurred at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis. The receipt was typed out on Peabody letterhead, and Elvis's manager Colonel Parker was reportedly staying at the hotel at the time.
Today, The Peabody (which I've got a forthcoming photo essay on, too) embraces its Elvis legacy...
...especially now that the historic Beale Street clothier Lansky Bros. has relocated its flagship store to the hotel lobby.
Elvis infamously started shopping at the clothing store's original location as far back as 1952. And today, you can purchase reproductions of several suit jackets that Elvis wore on stage and in photographs (and even at his wedding to Priscilla).
You can even get a spritz of the cologne he (reportedly) wore, so you can smell like Elvis too.
One of Elvis's favorite restaurants (several claim that fame) is now Memphis's oldest cafe: the Arcade Restaurant, established in 1919.
They've got a booth devoted to their most famous regular customer dated 1953. After that, he probably would've been too famous to dine out unnoticed (and without an entourage)—but there aren't exact dates of his visits (or, as far as I can tell, a paper trail of receipts or photographs).
Across the street from the Arcade is the Central Station train station, which Elvis reportedly traveled both to and from on his rail trips in and out of Memphis.
It's difficult to verify any of those specific train trips, though Elvis was occasionally photographed on trains and was known to ride the rails between New York and Tennessee. The most famous story—documented with a photo—is Elvis getting off the train before Central Station, near the cemetery, and walking home from there.
But it was still cool to see the railroad hub—still an operating passenger terminal for Amtrak—be preserved and converted into the Central Station Hotel, which opened in 2019.
The former passenger waiting room now serves as a public gathering space, with a bar and lots of neon.
Fast forward a couple of decades, to 1974—after Elvis spent significant amounts of time in houses in Palm Springs and Beverly Hills and in his penthouse suite at the International Hotel in Vegas. When he was back in Memphis, living at Graceland, another of his favorite eateries opened, Marlowe's Ribs & Restaurant.
Located on Elvis Presley Boulevard, just about a mile away from Graceland, it's filled with Elvis memorabilia and even offers free pink limo rides back and forth between local hotels and the restaurant.
They say that "Elvis Ate Here"—and if you ask, they'll show you the corner of the bar area (which used to be the whole restaurant) where he sat. It's not the original booth or table, and it's otherwise nondescript compared to all the other seats in the restaurant, but it still felt like a must-visit. (To be honest, Elvis would've mostly ordered takeout/delivery at this point in his career and not gone out in public to eat.)
There is one restaurant that's got proof-positive of its encounter with the big E—and that's Coletta's Italian Restaurant on South Parkway East, founded by Italian immigrant Emil Coletta in 1923.
They've got a bona fide receipt autographed by Elvis framed on the wall, as well as a copy of (supposedly) the last autograph he ever signed (to a police officer in his driveway on the morning of the day he died in 1977).
They've even got a copy of the ticket from the fire department ambulance that transported Elvis from Graceland to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
Before Elvis died, Priscilla used to come in to carryout BBQ pizzas—and, the restaurant says, she still pops in when she's in town. Lisa Marie was also known to visit before her own death as well.
I'm sure there are plenty of other Elvis landmarks in Memphis that I missed—Beale Street clubs where he listened to music (or perhaps even performed), restaurants and shops he frequented. The memory of so many of those are likely lost to history, the locations themselves probably long gone. (I know that the Presleys lived in an apartment at Lauderdale Courts until 1953, but I didn't manage to get access to it, and we didn't swing by the exterior.)
But for a whirlwind trip of just three days, I think I did a pretty good job of covering my bases.
Stay tuned for more from Graceland and the Peabody Hotel!
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