Gates of Graceland - Hidden Graceland, Part 1 - Graceland Secrets

you hi everybody Tom Brown here with your latest installment of our video webseries the gates of Graceland now if you're like me you love coming to Memphis and you love taking the tour of Graceland and going through the house and wandering where Elvis wandered well you've seen only part of the story now anybody that knows anything about Elvis Week they know that when white gloves come out it can only mean one thing that Angie Marchesi Director of Archives is somewhere close and here we are downstairs at Graceland and look who's here Angie I thought my gloves hi there welcome to grace thank you very much it's so wonderful to be standing in here and we're here after hours because we have something very cool planned actually Angie has it planned and she hasn't shared it with me all she told me was it's going to be incredible so tell everybody what what's going on what we decided to do for this web series tonight is that we're going to show you things that you did not know existed kind of hidden Graceland things little gems of information and items that you might have never known we're actually here in the house so your guys are coming up on I think your 20 millionth visitor yes at Graceland they've all come through that room our front door that Elvis came through you know when I was growing up I never knew I would be able to be in Elvis's house and so far coming up 20 million of us have been able to go through Elvis's house we think we see everything every time I come through I see something I didn't see before but now you're going to show us the hidden Graceland in Graceland so you got your gloves I got my gloves let me get them on left goes on left right goes on right you'll find out that if you're with Angie and you want to see anything that's very cool that Elvis had Elvis didn't have to have these gloves but we do we do but that's fine I'll put them on proudly all right all right I'm ready you ready this first stop okay living room living room okay let's go all right we've moved into the living room we're on the white carpet but much like we have to wear white gloves we don't have on our shoes no shoes and no shoes on the white car no shoes on the white carpet was that a rule when Elvis was here is that just you know I don't think it was but it is it's been a rule for a year since we now preserve the white carpet the way that it was I can tell you as a kid growing up we had white carpet and we didn't get to go in the room so this is very cool but where we're in the living room on the other side we're looking back toward the front door that way and the unique thing about Graceland is that you can feel Elvis's presence here and you can picture him relaxing you know get a speed up on that coffee table god forbid we don't do that now but Elvis did you know the unique thing is that all of these things that you see in this cabinet most of these things actually date back to 57 and they're on the original decorating receipts when Elvis first decorated the house you don't really get a good view of them from the Terr Pass area but something that no one has ever seen in fact we discovered it when we first were cataloging the items in this room as we're cataloging this display so we start opening up the drawers to see what's in the drawers and then we get to this second drawer here and sitting here oh my goodness it's a samurai sword Wow you can still and it's still here I kept it in now I know that I think the rule is if you open it you have to draw blood so I don't even know if I'm not white carpet I don't know why carpet and take them into the living room oh my gosh so this do we know the story of this of where this came from if we have no idea of its origin or its history there's no makers mark on it there's no letter or and it's just sitting in this drawer and it's been sitting here as far as I know since 1977 Wow so we'll put it back so we never so when we come in on the tour and we're looking across the little velvet rope yeah now we know there's a samurai sword in the second drawer down in the cabinet put that back yeah we did someone may come back for it one day where you never know you won't be a really unique thing about when we catalogue the rooms if we found things like that in the drawers we'd left them where Elvis kept them which is kind of you know a really unique thing most people would think you take them out but it's like no it stays there well this what I love is you've been such attention to detail on things that we as fans can't even see but it's important to you as an archivist it's important to Lisa and her family that the stuff is in there exactly as Elvis left it it is and when we actually speaking of Lisa when we actually ask if we want if we can display things that like we're up in the office when we use have the replica of the office and we've displayed a couple things from his bedroom like the Jesus statue that sit next to his bed whenever it comes off display it goes right back where it was and that's just the way that it is so it doesn't have a home in the artifact building it goes right back upstairs by his bed okay Wow and it's also I will also add the unseen Graceland the cup their carpet is very soft thank you very soft and it's very clean it's very clean yes okay next up music roar - all right now Angie when you come into Graceland you look over and that's the living room and then past the living room is the room we're in now which is the music room because the piano is here it's the room with the peacocks on the wall and from over at the velvet rope we look through and we see and really all we can see in this room is maybe the coffee table a little bit of the piano and this television hmm so what's actly what's hidden that we want to know about in this room the hidden thing in this room actually have to I want to tell you the first thing I'm going to tell you about is this mirror because this mirror actually is one of the only pieces here at Graceland came from Elvis's home on Audubon which is the home he had before Graceland there's a great photo of Elvis's mom at the Audubon house looking into this mirror adjusting a hat now when Elvis moves it into Graceland it finds its home here on the wall and then there's pictures of Elvis in this room with friends back with 57 and there's a picture of that the photographer took of the mirror and in the mirror you can see Elvis's reflection oh wow so it's still here and still here all these years and most recently we had a photo shoot here with Lisa and Priscilla and we actually had Lisa kind of looking in the mirror getting some photos of her looking in the mirror as Gladys did and as her dad did kind of a you know kind of a symbolic thing yeah and it's family it's it's about family and Graceland still is about family it's Lisa's childhood home you know and and that's what I think is so wonderful about what you guys and archives do that you that you catalog everything and you find the receipts for it but it stays where it was yes and that's the unique thing about I love this mirror I love the fact that Elvis hung it here and it hasn't moved it's been on this wall and that you know it just has like people say that you know if pictures could talk or these walls could talk it's like can you imagine what this mirror is seen yeah I'm gonna just want to make sure my reflection there yeah my reflections now been in that mirror and in that mirror as well that's very cool and something else that you might not have noticed is right behind me hmm actually it's here in the corner oh my god David Wow a giant bust of David yes there's all someone upstairs in Elvis's wardrobe room oh wow mm-hmm and what's the story where did it do we know we have no idea where it came from or why it's here like I said but there's two of them the home went upstairs and the one down here looks like it's taken a few shots to the nose could've so our next stop is the foyer for you all right where our way all right you know what that is that's the top of the stairs at Elvis's Graceland how many of us want to walk up those stairs and take that corner but that's never going to happen but what will happen is Angie is shown is something and now you're telling me there's a hidden Graceland here in the foyer but millions of us have come through here we've almost 20 million almost 20 million we can see a lot of what's in here so I don't know I understand what could be hidden what's hidden is there actually as a picture of Elvis holding the rim of a bicycle in this area well I see Elvis there and that is the rim of a bicycle you're kidding I thought it was a chair or something no this portrait was actually a photograph that was done in Texas when Elvis was in the Army a DJ from Tulsa Oklahoma had come up with this stunt that he was going to ride a bike from Tulsa to Fort Hood to interview Elvis of course Colonel and Elvis they all get wind of this so when the DJ arrives the DJ actually takes the rim of the bike and gives it to Elvis and there's a promotional shot where Elvis's hand is actually reaching out and shaking the hand of the DJ who is actually right here Oh someone has taken that portrait and that photograph cropped it and then blew it up and did it over in oil paints and it has been here since the 1960s so in that spot in that spot Wow so Elvis obviously knew that he must have liked that picture because it's right there where he would have walked past it every night every and we had upstairs home movie footage of Priscilla coming down the stairs and posing next to and it's right there yeah oh I remember that picture of the video person Elvis is holding a bike rim yeah but we never knew that did we now is it just an the the artist's interpretation of painting over that picture or is elvis have not black hair in that picture no that actually is Elvis's natural hair color or something else yes something else is kind of hidden is that Elvis actually dyed his hair black of course when he goes into the army he doesn't die his hair so by the time this event has happened the black has kind of worn away and you see Elvis's natural hair color he was more of a light sandy blond mm-hmm like I used to be yeah so we have Elvis's hair color and the by part of the bicycle room people are gonna have trivia questions now that they're gonna make so much money on there's a photo of I was holding a bicycle rim somewhere in Graceland where is it now now yeah you know now you're gonna know so hidden Graceland what's next the oh the closet the closet yes let's go okay come with me right under the stairs yes so we made our way down the hall now okay and have you ever wondered what this is we're right outside of Gladys's bedroom here and we walk we go down those stairs to the TV room right and we walk right past this door and I think I've never seen it just the kind of blend I just yeah I just I don't think I've ever seen one every house what do you have in the front front of the house normally you have a hall closet now and it says usually packed with stuff yes and so there is stuff in this closet we use it for storage for cleaning supplies and things like that but the unique thing about the closet is that when Elvis first purchases Graceland Jiri decorates the whole house the front of the house especially the living room all the drapes are white and the walls are painted an electric blue color this closet has the only remnants of that original blue paint we're about whoa on the door on the door Wow so this I'm going to rien capsulate what you just said because I'm stunned this is the original blue color from pretty much all the living room and everywhere and it's it never got remained never got repainted so if you visited Elvis in 57 and walked into Graceland this is the color that would have greeted you in the living room in the dining room it was this electric blue color with white drapes with white drapes Wow do we know what color this is do we know the you know I don't know what color it is I the receipt just says an electric blue I mean it really doesn't look at electric to me it looks more like a powder blue you know but you can even still see evidence of when they redecorated in the 70s and they had the carpet squares on the front of the door on the squad the squares yeah you can see on the back where there's carpet squares for a tile oh the holes the holes where they attach them through the door yeah yeah and what I love - and you said it and it just went by but think about this they have the receipt for the paint yes I mean like they were going to take it back or something you know they have the receipt right everything there was a stickler for detail wasn't it yes he kept everything yeah and now it's just a matter of us putting the receipts with the items you know and it's really kind of cool to go through and look at the receipts and go oh look Elvis bought oh hey that's still in the mansion I know exactly where that is so if I came over to visit Elvis during the 60s or 70s my coat would have probably like this was like a coke just a minute how close it is right next to the bird room see it's just amazing the things you walk right past and never I never knew yeah yeah next are you ready I'm ready we're going to the dining room oh this gets our home more hidden Graceland here in the dining room Angie what what are we going to sing now this is truly hidden because when have you ever seen anything in the cabinets it's you can't see that when you're walk-in on behind the ropes usually and I'm looking at the place settings and I just see a giant wooden cabinet here well in this cabinet we have stored not only China from the table but we also have some really unique pieces of silver one piece in particular you might recognize and that's this piece here that does look familiar yeah in the video of Lisa's first Christmas this cabinet isn't here it's actually more of a beige color cabinet and sitting on the shelf in the cabinet is that candy does this candy dish Wow and you keep it everything here I'm looking there's no dust anywhere there's no this is silver this is it gets polished so you guys are just always it no one can even see it and you're still when we start cleaning it yes we actually clean the mansion three times a week and then we do deep cleanings on Tuesdays in the winter so we do our silver polishing and we like I was mentioning earlier about the toothbrush on the molding you know do you keep everything as clean as possible Wow Wow so we never these are kind of smoky glass doors but we there's no way we can see through there and see let's see what's in yeah Wow all that silver and trust me it's lots to follow it's beautiful all right next up kitchen ooh all right we're in the kitchen you I want to note or standing on stairs yes over me and this is the I always say I always call it the secret stairway it goes up to the landing yeah if you're down in the foyer and you look up the stairs that Elvis took there's a door at the landing on the left and that door is like Elvis's like secret way into the kitchen in case you didn't want to like go down the big stairs and have people see him in the living room this was like the secret way to come in that's exactly where we're at but the unique thing about this is that not many people have ever seen this beautiful light that is right around the corner here whoo because there's usually a rope right here we can't go round around we caught it I can't do that but yes taking the camera around and looking up at the top of the landing so it's right up these stairs Elvis would come down his secret way into the kitchen yeah and that light is has been there do we know how long it's been there it's been there since 74 at least Wow isn't that gorgeous it's beautiful and it's just in this little stairwell that really was only Elvis's stairwell really yeah really only percent over what that lamp would have been Elvis yeah and it's so ornate and so you know isn't it so typical of what you would think would be in this staircase you know what it's so Elvis yes it's it's so it's a jumpsuit of lamps actually it does look kind of like it yeah it is yeah all right across from Elvis's little secret staircase we're in the kitchen and I'm actually on the other side of the velvet rope yes in my socks because you can't have shoes on on Elvis's carpet right and we're here and everybody that comes through on the tour this is one of the first things you see when you look into the kitchen is this massive oven unit that it's covered now you have it covered in plexiglass so nobody messes with it but this is where all of Elvis's meals were prepared and all the people that were here in the house when they would have big dinners all the foods prepared right here so what is hidden this just just this looks like amazing 70s technology and ovens and but can you imagine all the people all the different dishes that they were cooking for in here in the kitchen and behind us we only have a four-burner stove right yeah so there's got to be more hidden somewhere in here right yeah so speaking of Technology oh my gosh voila so now you can have eight things going at once it's like a magic trick and it still works you're kidding no it all still works does Lisa like when the family's here and they have dinner here at the house all this plexi comes off we go back and we flip the breakers the breakers are off right now so they don't come on but we flip the breakers on and they actually come and we'll have they have the catered food and things like that but when Pauline was still cooking for him they actually cooked right here in the kitchen using all of these burners this is truly hidden Graceland I mean this is like you said all coming up 20 million people through these hallways and first time any I've ever seen any coming I'm first of all the tapping company way to go this is this is some amazing technology here that you have an extra pretty much an extra stove like hidden away right here yep Wow all the food that's been prepared on those oh you think about that and I don't want to see you coming and showing everybody well yeah I want yeah now I just between us it's just between us it was funny million and yeah old Elvis fans yeah you can't go wrong alright we're walking now just behind the secret oven to the monitor Bank we've all paid attention to that before we've all seen the monitors and they're in the red in the Red Hat fashions and everything like that people stand here every day yep and nobody knows that in this drawer nobody knew there was a drawer besides having a 1993 phone book of some gloves look who oughta graft it oh my gosh oh my gosh what does that say as I'm reading it upside down Lisa's home Graceland oh my god so even Lisa left leaves her mark do we know how old she might have been when she did that my guess is she probably could have been from the handwriting looks yeah 9 or 10 mm-hmm maybe eight or so I mean and and probably as in all houses mm-hmm you have that drawer in the kitchen they catch all the rubber bands and paper clips and pins and phone books and archival clubs yes I'll end up it kind of all end up in there so at some point there's probably a pin in this drawer and and Lisa being Lisa yeah decided to leave and she's going to leave her name there how did you discover this literally opening up the drawer and pulling the stuff out that was in there and going oh wait look Lisa signed it Wow so and like like you said we're all drawn to the phones and the monitors okay and now we know there's a hidden there's a hidden knowledge or a hidden Lisa Marie autograph yes on that drawer mm-hmm with the 1993 film oh that was your Delta passed said that's why I clash so there's a reason for that there is the reason for everything family was still using the phonebook yes they were all right this has been amazing you know we've kind of discovered a lot of things downstairs here on the main floor at Graceland but they're not even halfway through the house not even halfway through the house so if you've ever been on the tour of Graceland you know that some cool rooms yet to see downstairs and also the room I'm looking into the the den off the kitchen yes that we call the jungle room so there's going to be more so you know we're going to do what we're going to come back with part two of hidden Graceland be sure to bring your white gloves and join us soon for part two of hidden Graceland on the gates of Graceland Angie thank you so much for all the hidden stuff there's so much now that people have to discover they have to come back to Graceland and maybe one of you is the 20 millionth visitor of Graceland well we'll we'll hope it's you and that you're watching right now we'll see you soon behind the gates of Graceland bye you

Channel: Graceland

Views: 1,468,332

Rating: 4.8144927 out of 5

Keywords: Elvis Presley's Graceland, Graceland Memphis, Graceland (Museum), Elvis Presley (Celebrity), graceland secrets

Id: ZhnExKsnkeE

Length: 21min 0sec (1260 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 13 2015