ELVIS ON MY MIND

With Elvis on our minds this week, I did some digging into Elvis tourism and learnt a few surprising things about his former home in Memphis, Tennessee, the Holy Grail for fans and a US national historic landmark. For starters, as a museum attracting more than 500,000 visitors each year, it is the secondmost visited “home” in the US — after the White House.

Elvis bought the property in 1957 when he was just 22, as a rural refuge from his overzealous fans, and died there aged just 42 in 1977. Interestingly, it already had its famous name when he bought it: the original owners had named it after an aunt.

On his death, the house — with 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms — and grounds were left to his daughter,

Lisa Marie, who was only nine at the time. It was to solve the tax burden of keeping the house that his widow, Priscilla Presley, agreed to turn the property into a tourist attraction in 1982.

Today, the 55.8ha estate boasts not only the mansion but also a four-star hotel; a car museum; a museum housing artefacts from Elvis’s career, such as gold and platinum records, jumpsuits, movie memorabilia; his two planes; and the broadcasting studio of an all-Elvis radio station.

Tickets cost from $77 (about R1,230) to the VIP $196 (R3,130), which includes queue-jumping privileges and exclusive photo ops.

The mansion tour includes the living room, his parents’ bedroom, the kitchen, TV room, pool room, and the famous Jungle Room. Visitors can also stop at his grave in the Meditation Garden, pictured here. The second floor, however, is off limits, mainly to avoid any macabre attention at the scene of his death — a bathroom.

While the estate attracts visitors throughout the year, it becomes a special pilgrimage in the week around the anniversary of his death. Held on August 917 each year, Elvis Week draws the most devout fans from around the world for special concerts, talks and other events to commemorate “The King of Rock and Roll”. The cornerstone of Elvis Week falls on the actual anniversary, August 16, when thousands gather for a night-long candlelight vigil to play Elvis songs, hug, and create their own mini-memorials on the street.

To stand a chance of winning R500, tell us the name of Elvis’s estate. E-mail your answer to travelquiz@sundaytimes.co.za before noon on Tuesday, June 28. Last week’s winner is Janice Russell of Randburg. The correct answer was the Spanish Steps.