Elvis Presley’s Graceland has been open for tours longer than the King was alive.
Since 1982, the public has been able to look inside famous rooms across the Memphis mansion, from the Jungle Room to the kitchen.
The upstairs may be off-limits to this day, yet there are some ground floor and basement spaces that fans don’t often get to visit.
Nevertheless, Daily Express previously took part in a virtual live tour of The King’s home, which entered some of these unseen rooms.
One of these was the bedroom in the basement, which often flooded and is located near the TV and pool rooms.
Interestingly, this space hasn’t been preserved in the same way as other spots in the mansion. Graceland archivist Angie Marchese was our tour guide and showed the live stream camera inside. It turns out this was a spot used by some of Elvis’ closest Memphis Mafia members.
The Elvis Presley expert said: “This is Jerry [Schilling]’s room. It was also used by Charlie Hodge when he lived here at Graceland. It has a full bath down here and this is where the guys stayed. For those of you who know Jerry Schilling, [he’s] talked about this room several times. He’s talked about the low ceilings [and] he’s talked about how it would flood because you’re down here in the basement.”
When this happened, the Memphis Mafia member – who famously accompanied Elvis to meet President Richard Nixon – would have to step across a wooden plank to get in and out of the room. Angie said: “He’s also talked about bringing girls back here, every now and then.” Jerry’s bedroom is now used as a storage space and mainly holds Graceland’s Christmas decorations.
The Elvis expert added: “It’s Christmas at Graceland here in Jerry’s room! This is the actual Christmas decor, this is what you’ll see lining the staircase.”
Angie pointed out the garland and poinsettias that line Graceland’s main staircase up to the mysterious off-limits upstairs. She said how they have real flowers at the bottom of the stairs but they use fake ones near the top as it gets really hot up there.
The Graceland archivist also pointed out the Christmas present decorations that go under the trees during the festive season. She added: “On the Christmas trees we do use Elvis’ original ornaments and for the one in the dining room, we actually use Elvis’ original tinsel.”