Why everyone should take an Elvis-themed trip across the Deep South
Should I kiss the wall of Elvis Presley’s bedroom? This was the burning question as I stood, keys still in hand, in the snug two-bed flat he once shared with his parents at apartment 328 Lauderdale Courts, Memphis.
The bronze sign on the wall was urging me to do so (“Kisses only please. No writing”), but the countless pink and purple lip stains surrounding it felt just a little, how do I put this… Fatal Attraction?
They were, nevertheless, the only reminder that I hadn’t actually travelled back to the early 1950s. Carefully reconstructed with vintage relics to look exactly as it once did, Elvis’s childhood apartment is available for nightly rental – and judging from the lipstick smears, it’s a popular pitstop.
But I was secretly pleased. What would an Elvis-themed road trip across the Deep South be without a little passion-filled wackiness along the way? Proof that 70 years since the release of his first single, That’s All Right, “Elvis the Pelvis” still gets people going.
At this point I should mention: I’m an Elvis mega-fan – but whether or not you are, too, the King remains an excellent lens through which to explore this part of America, his rise to fame so closely intertwined with the politics, religion and culture of the day, that you can’t learn about the legend without getting under the skin of the home he never left.
My first stop had been Shreveport-Bossier City, near the Louisiana-Texas border. It’s easily missed off the Elvis trail, but well-deserving of a place – home as it is to the Art Deco Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium, most famous for hosting the Louisiana Hayride, a weekly live country music show that helped catapult the likes of Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and Elvis to stardom.
“The Elvis lure here is just so incredibly deep,” local musician and music expert, Winston Hall, explained. “This is the original floor, the original wood,” he said, pointing to the stage floor where a fresh-faced, 19-year-old Elvis made his Hayride debut on Oct 16 1954.
Two years and 52 Hayride performances later, the King returned – after a rapid ascent to fame – to a room packed out with screaming teenage girls and had to make a dash for the exit after singing Hound Dog. It’s a scene that would later become famous for the host’s announcement to the crowd. “Elvis has left the building,” he said, in a futile attempt to pacify them.
From Shreveport-Bossier, I crossed into Mississippi and headed for Elvis’s birthplace, working-class Tupelo. Crossing an old railway track into town, I found the hardware store where Elvis got his first guitar for his 11th birthday (the story goes that he wanted a hunting rifle, but his mother, Gladys, urged him to try out an acoustic guitar instead), then down the road to the two-room, wooden-framed house where Elvis was born, built by his father, Vernon, in 1935. It sits next to Elvis’s childhood church, where he was first exposed to the Southern gospel music that so greatly influenced his sound.
From quiet Tupelo, I headed on to gritty Memphis, where blues and rock’n’roll blared out from low-lit bars along Beale Street all day and night. My first stop was Sun Studio – where the likes of Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis were discovered, and where great blues legends BB King and Howlin’ Wolf recorded while racial discrimination was rife – to stand in the room where the King recorded That’s All Right.
And then, at last, it was time for Graceland. The night before, I stayed across the road at The Guest House at Graceland, where peanut jelly sandwiches are available on tap from 9pm, and bedroom TVs are programmed with footage from your favourite Elvis era.
In the morning, I skipped across the road to Elvis Mecca. People talk about standing inside his treasured home as if it were a religious experience – and though that might sound far-fetched, to some extent, it is. Despite reports of its larger-than-life gaudiness, it still feels every inch the family home – smaller and more muted in its décor than I’d imagined, littered with personal details, a sanctuary rather than a theme park. Like the man himself, it seems Graceland’s legend has grown bigger than its bricks and mortar, but it remains a perfect tribute to the King – no lipstick required.
Essentials
To rent apartment 328 Lauderdale Courts, contact 001 901-523-8662; uptownsquareapts@alcomgt.com.
Hilton Garden Inn Shreveport Bossier City, Louisiana (001 888 649 3065; hilton.com) has doubles from £110 per night; Hotel Tupelo (00 1 662-362-6200; hoteltupelo.com) has doubles from £130 per night; the Guest House at Graceland (00 1 901.332.3322; guesthousegraceland.com) has doubles from £113 per night.
British Airways (ba.com) has flights from London to various cities within Louisiana and Tennessee from £900.
Robyn Wilson was a guest of Visit Louisiana, Visit Mississippi and Tennessee Tourism.
