If Elvis Presley were alive today, he’d be blowing out 90 candles on his birthday cake; quite possibly of the peanut butter and jelly variety. It’s hard to believe that in the 47 years since The King permanently left the building, visitor numbers to his beloved Memphis home haven’t waned. Graceland still averages 600,000 tourists a year, making it the second most visited private home in America – beaten only by the White House.
As an Elvis mega-fan, over the past two decades I’ve helped contribute to Graceland’s visitor count, touring the maximalist mansion around 40 times. So familiar have I become with its treasure trove of indoor waterfalls, pouncing tiger ceramic statues and shagpile carpeting splashed lavishly across floors, walls and ceilings, that a visit now feels rather like calling in for tea at an eccentric aunt’s house. So, when I heard that Graceland had unveiled their ‘Presley for a Day’ experience – a behind-the-scenes tour that pulls back the velveteen curtain on corners of Elvis’ palace previously off-limits to the public – I was intrigued and hotfooted it to southwestern Tennessee.
Arriving at the wrought iron gates of Graceland, the white columned Colonial Revival-style house that Elvis bought at the tender age of 22 , I’m greeted by my personal guide for the day, Amanda Robichaud. At seven hours long, the Presley for a Day extravaganza is a marathon, not a sprint, but Amanda is on hand to sprinkle our time together with her gold-dust insider knowledge. “Everybody knows Elvis in his lame outfit or jumpsuits. But not everyone knows the Elvis who owned 247 sets of pyjamas; that’s the Elvis that we’ll discover today,” Amanda calls over her shoulder as we take the hidden side entrance and whizz around the 13.8-acre estate on a golf cart, just like Elvis and his buddies.
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First stop is the Graceland stables where Elvis housed a herd of horses, having developed a passion for all things equestrian while on Hollywood film sets. Horse riding was a therapy for Elvis, his ex-wife Priscilla explains via a video running in the barn. The superstar could often be spotted horsing around at Graceland, cantering down…
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