Recalling 3 Visits to Graceland 4 Decades Ago

When my book Rocket Reporter was released earlier this year, I promised an Elvis Presley story for “later this summer”.  

Well, as we wind down the year, here’s that summer story. What can I say? It’s been a busy year.  

There is a timely “hook” to this story. December 3 marks the 55th anniversary of the Elvis Comeback Special.

That 1968 television show on NBC was the first small-screen appearance of Presley in seven years. It transformed Elvis from a poor-quality movie-making machine to a dynamic stage performer. Sadly, that transformation lasted only a few years before prescription drugs and a less-than-healthy lifestyle would take his life in 1977.

That program made an impact on a young grade school boy who watched with his parents on that cold December evening.

I became an Elvis fan that night. Little did I know I would connect to his legacy in my adult life on three occasions.

I visited Graceland three times during the two years I worked in Huntsville, Alabama (1980-1982). Memphis was about four hours away from Huntsville. Elvis had passed just a few years prior to this time. As a fan, I knew how important the singer was to the South.

I could not squander the opportunity.

In the years leading up to the spring of 1981, fans were allowed to walk onto the grounds of the mansion.

We could see the gravesites of Elvis and some family members. We did not know it then, but paid tours inside the house were just a year away.

That first visit was personal, but as a local television news reporter, I saw an opportunity to return to Memphis and do some stories for the sweeps period when stations were rated on how many viewers tuned in.

I proposed a three-part series on Elvis for the November ratings period.

My photographer and I would shoot and report the story during the August commemoration of Presley’s death.

We pick up the next part of the story with this excerpt from Rocket Reporter:

Fans were lined along the extended driveway from Elvis Presley Boulevard on up to the front of the mansion. People were everywhere. Across the street was a strip mall retail center with every store selling souvenirs of Memphis, Elvis, and Graceland.

   One of the advantages of being a television reporting team was the privilege to head to the front of the line. With camera and microphone in tow, my photographer Bill and I made our way to the guard gate shack. From there, we were escorted through a line of more visitors to the right side of the mansion.

   Back in 1981, the interior of the mansion was not open to the public. Visitors were directed along the right side of the property to where Elvis’ grave marker, along with the markers for his mother, father, twin brother (who died at birth), and grandmother were located.

   We had plenty of things to shoot on the grounds.

   We interviewed some of the visitors waiting their turn to enter the area where the grave markers were. I did a couple of stand-ups where the reporter talked on camera from the scene of a story. 

   One of the stand-ups was for the fourth-anniversary story. Another stand-up would be used in the three-part series to air later in the fall. We then went back out onto Elvis Presley Boulevard where I did another stand-up.  

There’s plenty more to share about the time we shot the Elvis story in Memphis. Included in the extensive chapter about Elvis in Rocket Reporter, is the story behind my chance encounter with Sam Phillips, the man who first recorded Elvis in the Sun Records studio in the mid-fifties.

I interviewed Phillips and asked him about that often quoted comment he made back in the fifties about finding a white artist who sounded like a black rhythm-and-blues singer.

He confirmed his comments and elaborated on exactly what he meant.

Our television story on the fourth anniversary of Elvis’ death aired the next night on the six o’clock news. The three-part special report called, The Elvis Influence aired over three nights in November. 

   I would visit Graceland one more time just one year later in the weeks before leaving the station. That story is in the book as well.

 Telling a small part of the story of Elvis Presley remains one of my personal career highlights from over forty years ago. It was topped, or maybe tied with the other big story I was privileged to report back then: the first three launches of the space shuttle program.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

Rocket Reporter is available online at lulu.com

Steve is indebted to the late Twila Stout, a local woman whom he met on a couple of occasions while speaking about his books before local civic groups. Twila was a fan of his books and a true community steward.