Memphis Travel
Memphis
The cotton-trading capital of the Delta, MEMPHIS , perched above the Mississippi two hundred miles west of Nashville and three hundred south of St Louis, is one of the great destinations of the South. Visitors come from all over the world to celebrate the city that virtually invented blues, soul and rock 'n' roll, as well as to chow down in the unrivaled barbecue capital of the nation. A visit to Memphis, the home of the Sun and Stax record labels, with its frequent festivals and vigorous nightlife, feels like an invitation to share in a genuine and enduring local culture.
Culturally and geographically, Memphis has more in common with the deltalands of Mississippi and Arkansas than with the rest of Tennessee. Founded in 1819 and named for Egypt's ancient Nile capital, its fortunes rose and fell with cotton . The Confederate defeat that ended the war briefly plunged it into economic chaos, and severe yellow fever epidemics didn't help, but thanks to its potential for river and rail transportation Memphis soon bounced back. The nation's second largest inland port became a major stopping-off point for migrants escaping the poverty of the Delta, and many stayed, significantly shaping the city's identity.
For a couple of decades after the 1968 assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Memphis tottered on the brink of decline. In the past decade, however, the city has regenerated itself yet again, its new self-confidence typified by the extraordinary 321ft stainless steel Pyramid that now dominates the riverfront skyline. The famous blues corridor of Beale Street is booming once more, perhaps a little ersatz but always entertaining, while Elvis Presley's Graceland a refreshing change from the usual "gracious southern home" provides an intimate and exuberant glimpse of Memphis's most famous son.
Sun Studio
At Sun Studio , ten minutes' walk east of Beale Street at 706 Union Ave (10am6pm daily), every hour on the half-hour, twenty-minute "tours" of its single room, measuring just eighteen feet by thirty feet and focusing around Elvis's original mike stand, plus a drum kit and stand-up bass, feature tapes of the legendary recording sessions. Sun Records moved out in 1959, and although the building was briefly a scuba-diving store not surprisingly, a commercial failure all its soundproofing remained in place when it was restored as a studio in 1987. One room of the building, which Elvis knew as Mrs Taylor's Caf , still functions as an atmospheric diner, selling burgers and peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches, and there's a well-stocked giftshop upstairs.
Graceland
In itself, Elvis Presley's Graceland was a surprisingly modest home for the world's most successful entertainer. It's certainly not the "mansion" you may have been led to expect, and while Elvis was clearly a man who indulged his tastes to the full, there's none of the pomposity that characterizes so many other showpiece Southern residences. Visits, run under the auspices of his widow Priscilla, are affectionate celebrations of the man; never exactly tongue in cheek, but not cloyingly reverential either.
Elvis was just 22 when he paid $100,000 for Graceland in 1957. It was then considered one of the most desirable properties in Memphis, though now the neighborhood is distinctly less exclusive, its main thoroughfare Elvis Presley Boulevard lined with motels, fast-food joints and surprisingly few Elvis-related souvenir shops. Tours start opposite the house in Graceland Plaza ; excited visitors, kitted out with audio-cassette players, are ferried across the road in minibuses, which depart every few minutes and sweep through the musical gate in the " Wall of Love ," scrawled with tens of thousands of messages from fans.
The audio tours, peppered with spoken memories from Priscilla and rousing choruses from the King, allow you to spend as long as you wish and press the rewind button as many times as you like but it's not easy to get an accurate sense of the house's size and layout, as the upstairs rooms are out of bounds to visitors. The interior is a frozen tribute to the taste of the Seventies; choice moments include the Hawaiian-themed Jungle Room , with its waterfall and green shag-carpeted ceiling, where he recorded Moody Blue and other gems from his declining years, and the navy and lemon TV Room , mirrored and fitted with three screens that now show 1970s talk shows. In the separate Trophy Room , you parade past Elvis's platinum, gold and silver records, stage costumes, outfits from many of his 31 films, and his extensive gun collection; the tour of the interior ends with the racquetball court where he played on the morning he died. Strewn with flowers and soft toys sent daily from fans, Elvis (Jan 8, 1935 to Aug 16, 1977), his mother Gladys, his father Vernon and his grandmother are buried beside the swimming pool in the Meditation Garden outside; Elvis's body was moved here two months after his death, when the security problems inherent in keeping it in the local cemetery became obvious, though there have been recent reports that his family want to move it to a private retreat away from Graceland.
The Plaza itself, resounding with nonstop Elvis hits and lined with giftshops selling velvet Elvises and heart-shaped Love Me Tender "dream pillows," holds several enjoyable related attractions: don't miss the wittily edited free film Walk a Mile in My Shoes , the " Sincerely Elvis " collection of personal belongings which features a TV punctured by a bullet fired by Elvis himself (he also shot his fridge, his stereo and even Lisa Marie's slide), as well as the King's Hai Karate and Brut aftershave and Elvis's personal airplanes , including the Lisa Marie , customized with 24-carat gold washroom and a blue suede bathroom. End your tour with a sit-down in the Elvis Presley Automobile Museum , which, quite apart from a Harley Davidson golf cart and powder pink Cadillac, has a reconstructed drive-in showing clips from his movies.
National Civil Rights Museum
The National Civil Rights Museum , a few blocks south of Beale Street at 450 Mulberry St (MonSat 9am5pm, Sun 15pm, JuneAug 9am6pm; $8.50), has been built around the remains of the Lorraine Motel , specifically the room where Dr Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. In increasingly hardline speeches, Dr King had explicitly linked black poverty with military spending in Vietnam. He was killed by a single bullet the evening before he was due to lead a march in Memphis in support of a strike by black sanitation workers.
The struggle for civil rights is traced from A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who originally called for a march on Washington in 1941, through to the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers. Great resources have been devoted to an impressive exposition of the movement's history, along with a few effective exhibits sitting on the front seat of a reconstructed Montgomery bus that triggers a recorded message instructing you to move to the back. However, for such an emotional subject, it's hardly surprising that the museum has drawn its detractors, who argue that Memphis's role in Dr King's death should be a source of shame rather than a tourist attraction, and that his memory would have been better served by investment in social programs.