Graceland: Take a live virtual tour of Elvis' Memphis home
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Graceland opened to the public 40 years, just five years after Elvis Presley’s untimely death at 42-years-old. Yet it wasn’t until the pandemic happened that virtual tours were offered during lockdown. For the first time, fans could witness unseen spaces from Aunt Delta’s room behind the kitchen to The King’s other private bathroom upstairs in the racquetball court.
Elvis had his racquetball court erected behind the Memphis mansion in September 1975 for $250,000 – well over the $102,500 Elvis paid for the whole property in 1957.
Fans can walk through the sports building on the tour, including its lounge area which houses the last piano The King played on the morning of his death. However, the first floor isn’t accessible to the public.
Nevertheless, Express.co.uk took part in one Graceland virtual tour that was led by archivist Angie Marchese, who venture up there. On the first floor landing was a viewing area for watching games but also an iPod that plays Elvis singing Unchained Melody throughout the building. That’s the song that Ginger Alden and his cousin Billy Smith remember him singing at the piano in his last ever performance hours before he died.
Behind the first door on the left, there is a guest changing room with a couple of showers, a toilet area and gold-plated fixtures in the duel sinks. Also, built into the wall are some shelves for storing towels, shoes and other clothes.
Further along the corridor and there the other door leads to what is the entrance to Elvis’ secret private bathroom.
Directly inside is a greeting or resting area with a couple of leather chairs that Memphis Mafia members would have reclined in. The large space also has a walk-in closet for clothes, towels and even a built-in jacuzzi covered in gold-plated fixtures.
The King’s private sink is cased in the precious metal just like those on his private jet, the Lisa Marie. However, the most impressive part of the bathroom lies further inside this exclusive room.
At the back of the bathroom is Elvis’ private walk-in wet room with a bench and no less than five gold-plated showerheads to fire water at every inch of his body.
If this is how lavish his sports washroom was, just imagine what his ensuite upstairs inside the Graceland mansion must have been like. Whatever the case, the latter has been perfectly preserved just as The King left it in 1977 at the request of his daughter Lisa Marie.
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Only Lisa, her mother Priscilla Presley and special members of the archivist team like Angie are allowed up there. Preservation comes down to the smallest detail like a styrofoam cup remaining on a bookshelf.
There’s even the last record Elvis played still sitting on the record player which is a recording of JD Sumner and the Stamps. Even the bed is made 45 years on from Elvis’ untimely death in the ensuite bathroom on August 16, 1977 of a heart attack.
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