Elvis Presley fans who have been visiting his Graceland home for the last 40 years will know that the upstairs isn’t included on the tour. This was out of respect given it was his private area in life and where he died of a heart attack. Yet did you know there are a number of other secret rooms around the mansion not open to the public too?
Express.co.uk previously took part in a virtual tour led by archivist Angie Marchese, who directed a live stream camera into the unseen spaces like the laundry room and Aunt Delta’s bedroom.
One highlight downstairs by the Jungle Room is the Bird Room. Elvis loved animals and had all sorts of critters roaming around Graceland from Great Danes and peacocks to monkeys and horses. It was in this space where he kept his cheeky talking myna birds who would blurt out about The King at the maids.
Graceland archivist Angie said: “The myna birds here at Graceland would hear the maids talk a lot about Elvis not being at home. And so the myna birds would often repeat that. The funniest story I’ve ever heard about the myna birds is that when they would hear that Elvis wasn’t home, they would say, ‘Elvis isn’t home right now! Elvis isn’t home right now!’ But then when Elvis was home the myna birds would continue to tell people, ‘Elvis isn’t home right now! Elvis isn’t home right now!’ Even though he was home which was kind of funny.”
Today the Bird Room is used to store Graceland’s cleaning supplies and the stanchion barriers when photoshoots for the mansion take place. Although he was fond of birds, Elvis did end up banning peacocks from Graceland entirely, banishing them to Memphis Zoo after a frustrating incident.
READ MORE: Elvis Presley: Graceland’s unseen rooms – Inside Aunt Delta’s bedroom
Opening the door to the mysterious space, Angie said: “It’s not very fancy, but it’s a laundry room.” If anything, it’s mostly what you’d expect, from sinks, a dryer and a water heater to air and heating units. But also just behind the door is an electrical entertainment system that is used to this day.
On the entertainment unit, the archivist added: “So if you ever hear music at Graceland being played through the speaker system, this is how we play it. We do use Elvis’ original speaker system – that’s wired for sound with this system.”
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