Elvis Presley's Graceland is opened to the public - June 7th, 1982

On this day in 1982, Elvis Presley’s Memphis home was opened to the public for tours. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that delivers a hunk a hunk of burning history
every day of the week. I'm Gabe Luesier, and in
this episode, we're looking at the day when the private
home of one of America's most beloved musicians became the
ultimate pilgrimage for rock and roll fans worldwide. The day

(00:36):
was June seventh, nineteen eighty two. Elvis Presley's Memphis home,
known as Graceland, was open to the public for tours.
The sprawling, twenty three room mansion was the primary residence
of the singer and his family for twenty years, right
up to his untimely death in nineteen seventy seven. As

(00:57):
a tribute to Elvis and as a way to pay
for the house's costly upkeep, Graceland was opened as a
museum slash tourist attraction five years after his passing. On
opening day, more than three thousand fans happily paid the
five dollars admission fee for a chance to visit the
home of the late great King of rock and roll.

(01:19):
In the four decades since then, more than twenty two
million visitors have done the same, though of course most
of them paid more than five dollars money honey. Elvis
Aaron Presley grew up dirt poor in Tupelo, Mississippi, but
he promised his parents, Vernon and Gladys that one day

(01:39):
he'd make enough money to buy the family a nice,
big house to share. At the time, the Presleys may
not have put much stock in their young son's big talk,
but in nineteen fifty seven, when Elvis was just twenty
two years old, he made good on his promise. After
three years in the spotlight, he was looking to find

(02:00):
a private retreat from the pressures of stardom, and his
search eventually led him to a fourteen acre estate in Memphis, Tennessee.
The property was a steel at just over one hundred
thousand dollars, and while that's more like a million dollars
in today's money, that would still be a bargain for
a house with eight bedrooms and bathrooms and more than

(02:21):
a dozen acres of land. Elvis made all sorts of
renovations and additions to graceland, including a pair of custom
entry gates made to look like sheet music. But one
thing he didn't add himself was the property's famous name.
The Colonial Revival style mansion had been built in nineteen

(02:41):
thirty nine by doctor Thomas Moore and his wife Ruth,
and they named it Graceland, after Ruth's aunt, Grace Toof.
The Toofs were the previous owners of the land on
which the mansion was built, having used it for farming,
so naming the property after Grace was a way to
honor that family history. Elvis liked the sound of the

(03:02):
name as well, and decided to keep it after moving
in when he wasn't on the road, The singer lived
at Graceland full time with his parents, his wife Priscilla,
and their daughter Lisa Marie. Plenty of other friends and
relatives called the mansion home as well, but just about
all of them moved out after Elvis's sudden death on

(03:22):
August sixteenth, nineteen seventy seven. The singer died of a
heart attack in the bathroom of his upstairs bedroom suite.
He was only forty two years old, but had abused
prescription drugs for years, an addiction that likely contributed to
his heart condition. By the time of his death, Elvis
and Priscilla had already gotten divorced, so when his father

(03:44):
passed away two years later, Lisa Marie became Elvis's sole
living heir. However, since she was only eleven years old
at the time, her mother became a Graceland trustee in
her stead until she came of age. Unfortunately, while Elvis
was hard to beat as an entertainer, his financial planning
skills left a lot to be desired, a fact that

(04:07):
his unscrupulous manager, Colonel Tom Parker, infamously used to his
own advantage. When Elvis passed away, he didn't leave behind
nearly as much wealth as you might expect, and as
a result, paying for the upkeep of Graceland quickly became
a burden on his estate.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
It was costing the family more than half a million
dollars a year in maintenance and taxes, and by the
nineteen eighties, the estate's accountants and bankers were recommending that
Priscilla sell the house to avoid bankruptcy. Instead, she and
the other two executors decided to open the house to tourists.
That way, they could continue funding the estate while also

(04:47):
keeping Elvis's memory alive in the public mind. In late
nineteen eighty one, the Estate hired Jack Soden, a Missouri
investment counselor who would later become the long running CEO
of Elvis Presley Enterprises. With Sodan's help, they secured a
five hundred thousand dollars investment and then began visiting other

(05:07):
tourist attractions for inspiration. The main focus was historical homes
that had been converted into museums, such as Hurst Castle
and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, but they also paid a visit
to the Disney World theme park for good measure. Most
of the planning was left to Jack Soden, but it
was Priscilla Presley's idea to keep everything in Graceland the

(05:29):
same as it was when Elvis was alive, including as
many fixtures, furnishings, and personal belongings as possible. The opening
of Graceland was set for the early summer of nineteen
eighty two, with tickets being sold in advance that spring
in order to pay for uniforms for the tour guides.
There were three thousand and thirty four tickets allotted for

(05:51):
the first day's tours, and every one of them sold
out well ahead of the June seventh opening. Demand remained
so strong in the coming weeks that the estate made
back its half million dollar investment in just a little
over a month. In a somewhat awkward twist, the Presley
family hadn't fully left the building when the public tours began.

(06:12):
Elvis's aunt, Delta May Presley Biggs, was still living at
Graceland with her dog Edmund. She was front and center
during the opening ceremony as well, cutting the blue ribbon
with a little help from Jack Soden. Aunt Delta's first
floor bedroom remained off limits to the public during her lifetime,
but it was added to the tour one year after

(06:33):
her death in nineteen ninety three. The same can't be
said for Elvis Presley's upstairs suite. To this day, that
part of the house remains closed to everyone but family
members and Graceland's staff. During the early years of operation,
the Graceland Mansion tour took guests through Elvis's living room,
music room, dining room, TV room, pool room, and a

(06:57):
trophy building where his many awards, costumes, gold records, and
other pieces of memorabilia were displayed. Another highlight was the
King's tiki themed den, appropriately nicknamed the Jungle room. The
tour would end with fans exiting onto the car port,
where Elvis's collection of luxury cars and motorcycles were lined

(07:18):
up for their viewing pleasure. In later years, a visitor
center with a cafe and gift shop would be added,
along with additional exhibits, including the singer's private plane. Visitors
can also visit Elvis's meditation garden and pay their respects
at his grave, as well as those of many of
his family members. In nineteen ninety three, Lisa Marie Presley

(07:40):
inherited her father's estate on her twenty fifth birthday, and
thanks to her mother's savvy stewardship, it was worth far
more than when Elvis died. Sadly, Lisa Marie Presley passed
away in January of twenty twenty three, though her estate,
including her three daughters, still own the Graceland mansion itself,
as well as all of the personal effects within it.

(08:04):
As for Jack Soden, he's still the president and CEO
of Graceland, and during his decade's long tenure, the house
has received some pretty impressive honors. For instance, in nineteen
ninety one, Graceland was added to the National Register of
Historic places, and in two thousand and six it was
designated a National Historic Landmark. Today, Graceland welcomes about six

(08:29):
hundred thousand visitors a year, making it one of the
five most visited homes in America. It's also the second
most recognizable, surpassed only by the White House. And considering
that Elvis was an actual royalty, being second to the President,
he too shabby. I'm Gabe Lucier and hopefully you now

(08:53):
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.
You can learn even more about history by fiollowing us
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if you have any feedback you'd like to share, feel
free to send it my way by writing to This
Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Chandler Mays and

(09:15):
Ben Hackett for producing the show, and thanks to you
for listening. I'll see you

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.