Graceland Details


The front room


Gladys’ dresses, hanging in her closet


Dining room table


You really can’t say that the descriptions of The Jungle Room over-state the case.


Light switch by the basement stairway. It’s the details that get me.


In the TV room. Elvis, I’m terrified of that clown.


Elvis’ turntable and his Mario Lanza record. You can see the Statesmen album peeking out from behind, a gospel group Elvis loved.


Of all the rooms, I think the kitchen is my favorite. It’s so 1970s. It’s so normal.


Even the pepper-shaker is branded.


A glimpse into the Jungle Room from the kitchen, the far-end. Check out the green shag on the ceiling.


The TV room in the basement. Dr. Strangelove is one of the things playing on one of the TVs.


The fireplace in the TV room


Porcelain monkey in the TV room. Again: I’m terrified.


Decorations, TV room


The billiard room, a full view. The folded fabric on the walls and ceiling gives this room the weirdest aspect of all of the rooms. It’s BEAUTIFUL but CRAZY. Also, God help you if you light up a cigarette in here as you play pool. It’s a very small room, crammed with crazy decorations. I love it.


The corner of the billiard room


Shelf of knick-knacks in the billiard room.


The Jungle Room. Lisa loved that big round chair. The acoustics were so good in this room (shag carpeting on the ceiling helps) that Elvis recorded here at the end, when he was really too sick to leave the house. The Jungle Room Sessions are pretty extraordinary, considering how ill he was. Again: ghosts, everywhere. The walls have soaked up the sounds.


The couch in the Jungle Room. I mean, the mind boggles.


Allison and I were both obsessed by the absolutely-nothing-special hallway downstairs, coming out of the billiard room. It’s like a hallway in any house in the 1970s, with a cheap nautical print on one wall, wood paneling, and a couple of random doors. Jerry Schilling, when he lived at Graceland, lived in one of those rooms off this hallway. It would flood if there was too much rain, and Elvis would come in to chat and basically have to puddle-jump to get to Jerry. But I said to Allison: “There’s something about that downstairs hallway…” and bless Allison she said, “I know. It was my favorite part of the house.”


At the end of the nothing-special hallway is an open door, leading to a staircase up to the Jungle Room. Just glancing at the door makes you realize you are leaving the land of Nothing Special.


On a table in The Jungle Room


The Christmas greeting from Elvis on the front lawn

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7 Responses to Graceland Details

  1. Clementine Moriarty says:

    Sheila…….been to Graceland 4 times…..never noticed the fireplace in the TV room! The monkee scares me too………and the Billiards Room with it’s “one of a kind” ceiling clothed in fabric is “very European cool”!! I love it! Must tell you…….next time I am there……..I have to notice that “Hallway”!! Though the daughter of a police detective……(good points with Elvis!) I am the worlds worst at noticing!! ……..things!!

  2. Clementine Moriarty says:

    Sheila…….in honor of the 40th Anniversary of “Aloha from Hawaii”………..I bid you….Aloha from St. Louis!

  3. sheila says:

    Clementine – I don’t know what it is about that nothing-special hallway. Maybe because it is so NOTHING – in between the billiard room and the green shag – they just left it alone. Like I bet washers and driers were down there too.

    That billiard room, yeah, is so European bordello. Totally. There’s barely enough room in the room to stretch your pool stick out to make a shot!

  4. Kent says:

    What a great American home! Homey, yet mysterious and over the top. Fun, with couches and chairs that look like they will BITE you, like a Delta Cajun drive-in voodoo horror movie.

  5. sheila says:

    hahahaha Delta Cajun drive-in voodoo horror movie.

    PERFECT!

  6. Bill Roberts says:

    Shelia, as always, you slay me. Hazlitt and The King’s abode on the same day. Sublime insights.

    Oh, by the by, I also followed your entire Memphis trip, as if I were some sort of mild-mannered Albert Goldman, a.k.a., worst man alive (that is, dead), but in a swooning sort of way…

    • sheila says:

      // Hazlitt and The King’s abode on the same day. // hahaha I know. It’s a wonder I can keep up with myself.

      // mild-mannered Albert Goldman, a.k.a., worst man alive (that is, dead) // again: hahahahaha

      I miss Memphis. But I’ll be back. It was a great and productive trip!

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