How Graceland Works

how Grace Lam works, which makes sense right right. Can you do Elvis? No, not at all. I'm not even gonna 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? Uh? It rings a bell. He's a British radio producer, um who just happens to really like Elvis and uh 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 dress as Elvis. And he did. Um the problem and he's been everywhere he's been to, like Brazil he was there for a carnival. He. Um, he's been to Ireland, Hall in the US. I'm not entirely certain what cities he visited in the US as an impersonator. Yeah, and and not necessarily as an impersonator dressed as Elvis. It's

a tribute to the king. So he just travels as Elvis. Yeah. Um. And so I guess the reason I hesitate to call him in impersonators because he visited Australia, and I guess that's where they have like the biggest Elvis festival, Elvis fan fest in the world. Um, and he plays dead last out of god knows how many Elvis impersonators for

look like and sounded like contests. So I think you may you may have beaten Matt Hale had you had you been there, right, And I don't even have a jumpsuit, but you know you no, no, no, okay, So you know, Um, I'm not. I don't know that much about Elvis. So I've never been that big of 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, so you know much more about grace Land, Elvis than I do. Well, I wrote the article and

I've been there. Did were you did? Were you able to finagle a free trip to Graceland for you know, research the article? Now I've been there before though, so that helped a lot. My family, actually my mom's family is from Memphis, So yeah, I'm when to come there. Probably can't. There is a boy scout in the front lawn, right No, no, so alright, so Chuck, tell me tell the readers who haven't been to grace Land, like me, what is it like when you walk in that front door?

Is the is the is the spirit? Is the stink 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 like it might it might smack you know, those of us that are probably in our thirties or older, you know, have fond memories of their houses in the seventies and the shag carbon stuff like that, So it

kind of smacks of that. But two degrees that you can't even imagine, because of course it's Elvis and he was loaded, you know, for the time you a lot of money he could have or 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. I mean, how much money did that men spend on sequence?

I don't have that. I've got a lot of statistics, but I don't have that one throwing out at me. What's the best when you've got well, if we're talking grace Land. Uh, he bought the house for a total of a hundred and two thousand, five dollars and uh n seven and uh Originally it was already purchased by the y m c A. And he dribbled that number just to get the house. He edged him out, didn't he big time? I wonder what the y m c

A 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. What the house was already named grace Land 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 Yeah, that's not even his pomp's

name as well, it's Glad right. Uh yeah, it was the original owners, doctor and Mrs Thomas Moore. Um, I think it was the great aunt Grace two t O O. F is who it was named after. On the fourteen acres. They're just south of downtown Memphis. So so take us on a little mini tour. I knew, um just from pictures I've seen. Really the only extravagance that that I note 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 like the architectural styles what they call it. 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 that 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 knew he was due for stardom. I did not realize that. I always had the impression that he kind of stumbled uh uh bottom backwards. No, No, he knew he was he was destined for stardom. And he actually bought the house when he was twenty two, which is just crazy when you think about he was just a kid. Yeah, yeah, about the best house in memphisis

very impressive. So so you walk in, there's a foyer. Yeah, you walk into the foyer, and when you're in the fourier, you're actually directly beneath the bathroom where he where he passed away. And they don't tell you that on the tour, you know, because kind of a macab way to begin the tour exact right. And so you walk in and right in front of you are the steps that lead upstairs, and that's blocked off and was has always been blocked off. Why I mean, is there like some sort of you know,

secret love child that's chained 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. Those guys, don't you Yeah, man, they're awesome. Yeah, I

was gonna say something else. They're very cool, and uh they 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, you know, that's where he went to chill out and do his private elvis things. And uh so he didn't let people up there back then. There was just kind of understood no wing one up there. So 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 a deodorant that he was using that day and 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 it included that matter. I'm going to guess a thousand and one Arabian Nights. That's a that's a real good guests, thank you, bet. I think one of them was actually a book on religion and spirituality, if that matters. Uh. So you go

into the foyer. The fourier to your right is uh the one of the living rooms, the famous one with the fourteen foot couch. Yeah, the tin foot coft coffee table. That's a lot of coffee. It's a lot of coffee. And then beyond that is the the upstairs music room with like his piano and stuff, which we can you know would entertain people, right And you you had also said that, uh 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. Um, 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, defending on which way you want to look at to find Uh. Yeah, I think it was the

original man room. He Um. 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 always makes a note to say she was no part of the jungle room. And uh, you know, it's got it 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 that he had disconnected because of the leaks, and uh, it

was actually provided soundproofing. So he ended up recording some music there in the jungle room. Yeah, you said he recorded one album and half of another one there. Yeah, half of Moody Blues and I think Live from Elvis Pressy Boulevard and mitis Tennessee. Yeah, that's pretty cool. What about the TV room, Chuck, three TVs at once. Where do you get that idea? Yeah, that's downstairs. He got

that idea from President Lyndon Johnson. He heard that he Uh, 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 watch 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, and then he had a big honking seven seven I think

called the Lisa Marina. I actually know a story about that involves the Lisa Marie. Yeah, so basically, um, I think it was. It was seventy six. Elvis is sitting around with a couple of his buddies in the Memphis Mafia, right, and uh, like a couple of years earlier, they've been playing a show in Denver and they went to eat at this, uh this restaurant called the Colorado gold Mine Company, and they had the sandwich called the Fool's gold Sandwich.

Have you ever had one of these? One of my friends through 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, um, that that kind of burger that you serve on a crispy cream donut as a bun. And she also made the Fool's Gold sandwich. So it's like heavily buttered bread, uh, peanut butter, jelly and bacon and then you like kind of grill it. It's the greatest thing you'll ever have in your 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 run an entire loaf of Italian bread, and they were meant for like twenty people like Elvis ate them right exactly, Elvis ate them apparently by himself, right, So there's there's no telling how many pounds of bacon or I think like a duck. Yeah, he just swallowed, no biting whatsoever. But they call it full's gold because only a full would would would would pay for they

were like fifty dollar sandwiches. And this is in the mid seventies. So anyway, they're sitting around one night in February seventy six, and um, they're one one of the one of the guys in his entourage says, you know, hey, I wish I had one of those sandwich is right now. So Elvis calls up, the calls up the restaurant in Denver, tells him that he wants um, I think like thirty of them, and uh, he says that they'll be there

in a couple of hours. Swich. Yeah. They well, they fire up the Leisa Marine, get in the jet, go to the restaurant. Actually, I don't even think they made to the restaurant for this special order. The restaurant tour and his wife showed up with the sandwiches, um, a case of champagne and some other stuff, and they think they ate him in the hangar 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 sixteen grand or something like that. And that today and today, so that's that's probably like eighteen 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 what 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 uh, 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 I 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 uh and on uppers on downers to do whatever he needed. And uh, maybe if he had been a little more wise with his money early on, he wouldn't have felt that he need to tour incessantly like that. But he he was never at any point poor once he made it. No, no, no, he wasn't poor, but he uh, 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 you well, you know, speaking of pills, since you brought it up, I wasn't gonna bring it up, but yeah, you know, it's kind of tough to talk about older Elvis without the pills. Right. Did you know that he uh, he had that famous

meeting with Richard Nixon. Yeah, I've seen the picture. Yeah. 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 hippie is in 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. Um. And apparently Nixon was like, that's okay,

you know, thanks, I appreciate the gesture. And finally, um, 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 get that one trapes by um. And so they meet and Elvis uh apparently gets very very emotional, starts blaming the Beatles for you know, an

anti American sentiment. 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 cult forty five pistol and that was the famous photos that when that was taken. Yeah, yeah, that that famous me. He was wearing a cake too, Yeah, he wore those cakes. A lot didn't. Well, he's sort of a crime finer, I guess, I guess. So yeah,

it worked well. Yeah, a lot of people might think there's some irony there and 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. Absolutely was, I think, but he the Memphis Mafia guys in 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 he was a man doctor though, he all bet'll bet who who wouldn't? So chuck, you got anything else on Graceful And now, you know, I just encourage people to

go visit. You know, it's it's a site 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 Mr Chuck Bryant's How grace Land Works on how stuff Works dot com for making the pilgrimage, and stick around to find out which article reminds Chuck of his college years right after this, So thanks for sticking around, Chuck, which which article reminds you of your college years? While Josh article is called are there really Hallucinogenic Frogs? By Christen Konger staff writer? So you were

doing what exactly in college? Well? I had a frog collection. Oh yeah, that is not what I was expecting you to say, Chuck. Well, I don't know what you're thinking of, buddy, but at an extensive frog collection, and so this article is that just takes me back to the old days at you g a Well, I can I think I can hardly be blamed you got the goatee. It makes you look kind of shifty, like you might be Agian

criminal acts here and brother. Yeah. Well, you can check that article out and plenty of other odd frog and hallicinogen related articles on how stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the Reinvented two thousand twelve camre It's ready, are you