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 48 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 megafan, 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’s palace previously off-limits to the public – I was intrigued, and hotfooted it to southwestern Tennessee.
