Stuff You Should Know - How Graceland Works

Episode Date: September 25, 2008

Graceland attracts millions of visitors every year. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about Elvis and Graceland, which Elvis bought when he was only 22 years old. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. In 1968, five Black girls were picked up by police after running away from a reform school in Mt. Megs, Alabama. I'm writer and reporter Josie Deffie Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of Black children suffered

at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to unreformed on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. Here's Chuck Bryant. I'm here. Okay, Chuck, do your best Elvis impression. Mary and I will do that kind of thing. That was actually pretty good, Chuck. That's the last time I'm going to do that during this podcast.

Okay, that's fine. That's fine. I can really acknowledge this. This podcast, by the way, is How Grace Land Works, which makes sense, right? Right. Can you do Elvis? No, not at all. I'm not even going to try. And I'll tell you somebody else who can't do Elvis is a guy named Matt Hale. Have you heard of this guy? It rings a bell. He's a British radio producer who just happens to really like Elvis. And one day he was going through some second hand store, I guess in London, and found a white jumpsuit. And his next thought was, well, gee,

I guess I'll go spend the next year touring the world dressed as Elvis. And he did. Right. The problem, and he's been everywhere. He's been to like Brazil. He was there for Carnival. He's been to Ireland, Holland, the US. I'm not entirely certain what cities he visited in the US. As an impersonator. Yeah. And not necessarily as an impersonator, dressed as Elvis. It's a tribute to the king. So he just travels as Elvis.

Yeah. And so I guess the reason I hesitate to call him an impersonator is because he visited Australia. And I guess that's where they have like the biggest Elvis festival, Elvis Fan Fest in the world. And he placed dead last out of God knows how many Elvis impersonators for look-alike and sound-alike contests. So I think you may have beaten Matt Hale had you been there. Right. And I don't even have a jumpsuit. But you know, no, no. No. Okay. So, you know, I'm not, I don't know that much about Elvis. So I've never been that big a fan. I know it's kind of sacrilege to say that in certain quarters. But you know, hey, this is me. Take me as I am.

Right. Right. So you know much more about Graceland Elvis than I do. I did. Well, I wrote the article and I've been to Graceland. You've been there. Were you able to finagle a free trip to Graceland for, you know, research? No, the article. No, I'd been there before though. So that helped a lot. My family, actually, my mom's family is from Memphis. So, okay. So yeah, I'm sure you've been there. Probably camp. There is a Boy Scout in the front lawn. Right. No, no.

So, all right. So Chuck, tell me, tell the readers who haven't been to Graceland like me. What is it like when you walk in that front door? Is the, is the, is the spirit, is the stank still there? Well, the stank is still there. Yeah. It's, um, you know, it's unlike any other house that you've ever been to probably, and like it might, it might smack, you know, those of us that are probably in our 30s or older, you know, have fond memories of their houses in the 70s and the shag carpet and stuff like that. So it kind of smacks of that, but to degrees that you can't even imagine, because of course, it's Elvis and he was loaded, you know, for the time he had a lot of money.

Yeah. He could afford, you know, gold plated everything and, you know, shag carpet on the ceiling and on the walls and it's just, his taste is well documented. Right. Well, I mean, the jumpsuits alone kind of do it. Right. I mean, how much money did that men spend on sequence? Yeah. I don't have that. So I've got a lot of statistics, but I don't have that one. Throw one out at me. What's the best one you got? Well, if we're talking Graceland, uh, he bought the house for a total of 102,500 dollars. Yeah.

And, uh, 1957, and, uh, originally it was already purchased by the YMCA and he dribbled that number just to get the house. He edged them out, didn't he? Yeah. Big time. I wonder what the YMCA thinks of Elvis, at least the Memphis chapter. Yeah. I don't know. You know, because I mean, he just kind of stepped in and said, no, I'm taking it. Right. He's their favorite son though. So I imagine they were pretty cool with it.

They're cool with it. Yeah. The house was already named Graceland when he bought it, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. I think a lot of people probably think he named it Graceland, like after his mother, Grace. That's what I thought. Yeah. That's not even his mom's name. No, it's Gladys, right?

Yeah. It was the original owner's, uh, Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Moore. I think it was the great aunt, uh, Grace Toof, T-O-O-F, is who it was named after. I got you. On the 14 acres there, uh, just south of, uh, downtown Memphis. So, so take us on a little mini tour. I know, um, just from pictures I've seen, really the only extravagance that, that I know from the out, from an outdoor view are the gates. But if you look at the house, it looks like, you know, you'd expect to see an old retired farming couple living inside there.

Yeah. It's a classic revival as the official, as the architectural styles that they call it. Yeah. And, uh, yeah, from the outside it doesn't look like much, but at the time, you know, it's, this is late fifties. It was. It was the nicest house in Memphis at the time. Yeah. I mean, there may be some debate there, but he always told his parents he would buy them the nicest house in Memphis once he made it big. And he was saying this as a little kid.

Yeah. He, he, he knew he was due for stardom. I did not realize that. I always had the impression that he kind of stumbled, uh, um, bottom backwards into it. No, no. He knew he was, he was destined for stardom. And he actually bought the house when he was 22, which is just crazy when you think about, he was just a kid. Yeah. Oh yeah. And he bought the best house in Memphis is very impressive.

So, so you walk in, there's a foyer. Yeah. You walk in the foyer and when you're in the foyer, you're actually directly beneath the bathroom, uh, where he, where he passed away and they don't tell you that on the tour, you know, cause kind of a macabre way to begin the tour. Exactly. Look up. Right. That's where Elvis. And, uh, so you walk in and right in front of you are the, are the steps that lead upstairs and that's blocked off and was, has always been blocked off.

Yeah. Well, why? I mean, is there like some sort of, you know, secret love child that's chained to a radiator upstairs? Why would they keep it locked off? Well, when Elvis lived there, it was pretty much private area too. He always had, Grayson was always really busy and always had tons of guests and his Memphis mafia was what his entourage was called. Yeah. You love those guys, don't you? Yeah. Man, they're awesome.

Yeah. I was going to say something else. They're very cool. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most

influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life? Were the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed. He used to say, what are you looking at, dear?

You can't see you, only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in the dancers' experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And there was always just a lot of activity. People coming and going, guests in and out, people working there, obviously his staff. And so his upstairs was his retreat.

That's where he went to chill out and do his private Elvis things. And so he didn't let people up there back then either. It was just kind of understood no one went up there. Right. So it's always been kind of closed off. Yeah, keeping with those wishes. It's still closed off today. And apparently, this is really creepy.

I didn't know this till I studied this, untouched since he passed away. Apparently in his bathroom, there's like his toothbrush and the squeezed toothpaste and stick of deodorant that he was using that day. Wow. They didn't touch anything. Do you know what he was reading when he died? Even, sorry, including sweat stains on his pillow. What he was reading when he died, there's actually a little speculation.

I can't remember, but there are two different books in the bathroom, and they don't know which one he was reading. But you can find out on the Internet. I just didn't have that. I've included that in my article. I'm going to guess a thousand and one Arabian nights. That's a real good guess. Thank you.

I bet. I think one of them was actually a book on religion and spirituality, if that matters. Oh, OK. So you go into the foyer, the foyer. To your right is one of the living rooms, the famous one with the 14 foot couch. Yeah. The 10 foot coffee table. 10 foot coffee table.

That's a lot of coffee. That's a lot of coffee. And then beyond that is the upstairs music room with like his piano and stuff, which we can, you know, would entertain people. Right. And you had also said that you made a point that he may have inadvertently created the man cave. And he had like a couple of them. And these are the ones that I was familiar with, like the jungle room, the TV room.

And I think these are just totally beyond cool. Like to like start with the jungle room. This sounds just super awesome. Well, yeah, super awesome or super tacky, depending on which way you want to look at. Yeah. Yeah. It's a fine one. Yeah.

I think it was the original man room. He it was originally a screened in porch and he had it converted when he and Priscilla got divorced. So she wasn't a part of this. She's always makes a note to say she was no part of the jungle room. Yeah. And, you know, it's got like an African motif. It's got shag carpet on the walls and ceilings and floors. He had a working water fountain that leaked everywhere all the time.

Yeah. That he had disconnected because of the leaks. And it was actually provided soundproofing. So we ended up recording some music there in the jungle room. Yeah. You said he recorded one album and half of another went there. Yeah. Half of Moody Blues.

And I think live from Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee. Yeah. That's pretty cool. And what about the TV room, Chuck? Three TVs at once. Where'd he get that idea? Yeah. That's downstairs.

He got that idea from President Lyndon Johnson. He heard that he used to watch three newscasts at the same time to keep up with things. So Elvis got, you know, he had to have the best. So he had three TVs built into the wall and watched football apparently, not newscasts. I got you. I got you. And he had some like pretty cool toys. Like I understand he had two jets.

Yeah. He had two jets. He had one smaller private jet. And then he had a big honkin 747, I think, called the Lisa Marie. Yeah. Which was a... I actually know a story about that involves the Lisa Marie. Oh boy.

Yeah. So basically, I think it was, it was 76. Elvis was sitting around with a couple of his buddies in the Memphis Mafia, right? And like a couple of years earlier, they'd been playing a show in Denver and they went to eat at this restaurant called the Colorado Gold Mine Company. Right. And they had this sandwich called the Fool's Gold Sandwich. Have you ever had one of these?

No, but... One of my friends threw a birthday party for her husband and she called it a very partially hydrogenated birthday. And there was all this wonderful food like ham dogs, that kind of burger that you serve on a Krispy Kreme donut as a bun. Oh yeah. She also made the Fool's Gold Sandwich. So it's like heavily buttered bread, peanut butter, jelly and bacon.

Yeah. And then you like kind of grill it. It's the greatest thing you'll ever have in your life. So Elvis got his hands on one of these things. And the reason they were called Fool's Gold Sandwiches was because they were, they were on an entire loaf of Italian bread. Wow. And they were meant for like 20 people.

Right. Like the subway. Elvis ate them. Right, exactly. Elvis ate them apparently by himself, right? Right. So there's, there's no telling how many pounds of bacon or... Did he do like a cartoon?

He'd shove it all in his pocket one time. I feel like a duck, yeah. He just swallowed no biting whatsoever. I believe it. But they call it Fool's Gold because only a Fool would, would, would pay for. They're like $50 sandwiches. And this is in the mid-70s. Right.

So anyway, they're sitting around one night in February of 76. And one of the, one of the guys in his enrage says, you know, hey, I wish I had one of those sandwiches right now. So Elvis calls up the, calls up the restaurant in Denver, tells him that he wants, I think like 30 of them. And he says that they'll be there in a couple of hours. So they fire up... That's 180 feet of sandwich.

Yeah. They, well, they fire up the, the Lisa Marie, get in the jet, go to the restaurant. Actually, I don't even think they made it to the restaurant. For this special order, the, the restaurant tour and his wife showed up with the sandwiches, a case of champagne and some other stuff. And I think they ate them in the hanger. Wow. And just for the, just for the tab for the food was like three grand.

But when you factor in all of the added expense, there's one late night trip. This is that like one in the morning for these sandwiches came to like 16 grand or something like that. Yeah. And that today in today's order, that's probably... That's probably like 18 grand. At least, at least.

Well, you know, if he hadn't done things like that, he may have ended up living instead of dying in his bathroom. Yeah. But would he have lived as interesting a life as he did? Well, maybe not, but one of the reasons that, you know, it was well documented that he was on all these pills to keep them going all the time. And one of the reasons was he said he couldn't slow down because he had so many people he had to pay for.

He had a huge staff and he felt very beholden to them and didn't want to let them down. And he didn't want to lay people off. So he just had this killer, brutal schedule, you know, later in life when he was really badly out of shape and on uppers, on downers to do whatever he needed. And maybe if he had been a little more wise with his money early on, he wouldn't have felt the need to tour incessantly like that. But he was never at any point poor once he made it.

No, no, no. He wasn't poor, but he definitely had a decline later in his career on the Vegas circuit. He wasn't his album sales dropped. And basically the only way to make money was by playing just show after show after show. Gotcha. Gotcha. So, well, you know, speaking of pills, since you brought it up, I wasn't going to bring it up.

But yeah, you know, it's kind of tough to talk about older Elvis without the pills, right? Right. Did you know that he had that famous meeting with Richard Nixon? Yeah, I've seen the picture. You have? Oh, I got a hold of some letters, right, that he wrote to Nixon basically saying, you know, I've gotten in with the, I think the hippies and the, the weather underground and the Black Panthers, they trust me.

So why don't you make me an undercover federal bureau of narcotics agent? And I can start busting, you know, some hippie heads. Yeah. And apparently Nixon was like, you know, that's okay, you know, thanks. I appreciate the gesture. And finally Elvis starts just hounding him until Nixon finally agrees to meet with him. Like a hound dog?

Exactly. I was kind of hoping you'd let that one creeps by. And so they meet and Elvis apparently gets very, very emotional, starts blaming the Beatles for, you know, an anti-American sentiment. Right. He's just not very happy with the state of affairs in America, breaks down, weeps a little bit, hugs Nixon. And Nixon gives him an honorary badge and Elvis gives Nixon a commemorative Colt 45 pistol.

Right. That was the famous photo, is that when that was taken? Yeah. Yeah. That, that famous meeting. He was wearing a cape too. Yeah. He wore those capes a lot, didn't he?

Well, he's sort of a crime fighter, I guess. I guess so. Yeah, it worked well. Uh, yeah. It, a lot of people might think there's some irony there in that he was on massive amounts of prescription drugs. He actually looks like he was on, on something while he was meeting Nixon to become an undercover drug agent. Absolutely was. I think.

But, uh, he, uh, the Memphis Mafia guys and some, you know, candid interviews years later said that Elvis very much drew a line between the illegal drugs and prescription drugs and thought, I'm getting them from my doctor, so that makes it okay. Right. Right. And he hated, um, drug pushers, didn't he? Yeah. Like, yeah, he, he, he was a man.

He loved his doctor though. Yeah, I'll bet, I'll bet. Who, who wouldn't? So, uh, Chuck, you got anything else on, on Grace? No, you know, I just encourage people to go visit, you know, it's, it's a sight to be seen. It's, um, the tour is well worth it. It's a lot of fun.

And Elvis is buried in the back in the meditation garden, right? Yeah. Right in the, in the side yard there, he and his mother and father and grandmother are all buried there. They weren't, he and his mother were originally buried somewhere else, but there was a lot of security issues. So his father, before he passed away, had to moved over. Well, I would strongly recommend first reading, uh, Mr. Chuck Bryant's How Grace Land Works on HowStuffWorks.com for making the pilgrimage and stick around to find out which article

reminds Chuck of his college years right after this. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty, exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops, are they just, like, looting? Are they just, like, pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call, like, what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil asset fortune. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors,

we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like, he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life? Were the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed?

He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in the dancers' experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So thanks for sticking around, Chuck. Which which article reminds you of your college years?

Well, Josh's article is called Are There Really Hallucinogenic Frogs? by Kristen Conger, staff writer. So you were doing what exactly in college? Well, I had a frog collection. That is not what I was expecting you to say, Chuck. Well, I don't know what you're thinking of, buddy, but I had an extensive frog collection. And so this article just takes me back to the old days at UGA. Well, I think I can hardly be blamed.

You've got the goatee that makes you look kind of shifty, like you might mage in criminal acts here. You're not any brother. Yeah, well, you can check that article out. And plenty of other odd frog and a hallucinogen related articles on howstuffworks.com. After running away from a reform school in Mount Megs, Alabama, I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of black children suffered

at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children and how those five girls changed everything. Listen to unreformed on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders.

The detective agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot. Would claim he did it all for this CIA. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to Murder in Miami on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.