BackinMemphis

Pretty cool early footage of Graceland with Joe Esposito and the other guy, you know the Elvis and Nixon joker. The footage is pretty cool.

According to Graceland.com , the Graceland mansion was once part of a 500-acre farm that was owned by the S.E. Toof family. The land had been part of the family for generations and was named after one of the female relatives, Grace. According to Graceland history, in 1939, Grace's niece, Ruth Brown Moore and her husband, Dr. Thomas Moore, built the mansion, which became well-known to the locals of Memphis. The Moore's daughter, Ruth Marie, was musically accomplished and became a harpist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Classical recitals in the front formal rooms were common, just as rock 'n' roll and gospel jam sessions would be after the next owner moved in. In the spring of 1957, when Elvis Presley was 22, he purchased the home and grounds for just over $100,000. The previous year had been a whirlwind - it was Elvis' first year of super-stardom including historic network television appearances, record-breaking live performances and armloads of gold...

This is fantastic! At about 3:29, the drone flies over Vernon Presley's home and gives an amazing look at the home as well as Elvis Presley's Graceland.  It is very sad to see Vernon's pool in such bad shape with all the overgrown grass. It sure looks like a hazard that needs to be dealt with ASAP! This home has been in such disrepair. I fear it will one day have to be torn down. My last visit to the home a few years ago, there was no A/C, the car port had to be torn down and there were roaches in the house. Now that was a few years ago, things could have changed? This is the second home of Vernon Presley and his second wife. The first was on Hermitage Road. Elvis for sure did not want the second wife living in the home he bought for his beloved mama, Gladys. As if we needed ANOTHER reason to love this man! LOYALTY! 💖 When Priscilla Presley first moved from Germany to be close to Elvis, this is where her parents were told she would live but that ended rathe...

“Graceland Presents Elvis” was a short-lived attraction inside the former International Hotel, an off-strip resort that hosted hundreds of performances by the legend. The exhibit opened in April of 2015, and closed the following February. The 28,000-square-foot exhibit offered visitors the chance to view 350 pieces of Elvis memorabilia, the largest collection outside of Graceland. The artifacts included stage outfits, jewelry, letters, guitars, and other relics that were loaned to the casino from his estate in Tennessee. But with the exhibit poorly attended, Elvis Presley Enterprises threatened to abandon its 10-year lease agreement less than a year after opening . Westgate, which claimed to have invested over $9 million in preparing the space for the spectacle, subsequently closed the attraction and locked the memorabilia as ransom.     Despite a lawsuit filed in March of 2016 that sought for the items to be returned, the Westgate has maintained their possession. ...

As he held a loaded .38 revolver on Elvis Presley, Alice Cooper recalls, “The little devil on my shoulder said, ‘Shoot him. What a great story. Don’t kill him, just shoot him.’” The king of shock shooting the king of rock 'n roll in 1971 would have, no doubt, made international headlines. But seconds later, Cooper said, he found himself on the floor in Elvis’ hotel suite kitchen, the gun knocked far away and Elvis saying, “That’s how you take a gun out of somebody’s hand.” Cooper recounted this first meeting with Elvis during an interview with The Clarion-Ledger . Cooper recalled pantomiming Elvis in front of a mirror years before he joined a rock band and says Presley was a musical and theatrical influence, as were the many Southern blues musicians who influenced other top rock acts of the 1960s and ‘70s. “I had a great relationship with Elvis,” Cooper said. “… In 1971, I was in Las Vegas, and I get a call: Elvis wants to meet you … I went to the Hilton, got in an el...

Video - If you forward to 5:38, you will see some amazing footage of the back of the home as it appeared just ONE WEEK before the fire. Pretty Cool! According to The Commercial Appeal , Saturday morning's fire caused "extensive" damage to the former home of Elvis Presley on Audubon Drive, but ongoing renovations meant no Presley artifacts were in the house at the time of the blaze. Memphis Fire Lt. Wayne Cooke said the department responded to the home just after 7:30 a.m. The fire was under control by 7:52, he said. Fire personnel were on scene for several hours. The cause was electrical, Cooke said, and started in the wall between the living room and dining room. The one-story home was unoccupied and undergoing renovations . Rhodes College is the steward of the house, now owned by music industry veteran and philanthropist Mike Curb. As an extension of the Curb Institute for Music at Rhodes, the home hosts small VIP events and private music concerts. John ...

Hundreds of Elvis Presley artifacts and memorabilia are still being held by a Las Vegas casino, a year after the King’s estate filed a lawsuit to get those valuables back from a short-lived exhibit. Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino’s chief operating officer Mark Waltrip said Wednesday that the items — including stage outfits, jewelry and letters, among other artifacts from the career, home and wedding of Elvis — remain locked up at the casino site where the now-shuttered “Graceland Presents Elvis” attraction once stood. The dispute stems from the 10-year leasing agreement that Westgate alleges the exhibit defaulted on when it vacated the off-Strip casino space. A judge ruled in May 2016 that Elvis Presley Enterprises, which runs the Graceland attraction in Memphis, Tennessee, could get them back by posting a $9 million bond while the leasing issue was pending. All parties instead agreed to take the case into arbitration. Waltrip said a judge’s decision is expected in the next ...