♫ You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog (II), hidin' behind Lisa Marie all the time ♪
With us being so close to Graceland now, you can smell the 70's (and jelly donuts!), guess it was about time for an Elvis song reference. My first tour of Graceland (and admittedly, my only tour) was sometime back in the early 80's just prior to these planes being moved to this location. There's a smaller plane, "Hound Dog II", that can't be seen due to being on the other side of the larger "Lisa Marie" (much better photo of it at that link), hence the odd photo title/song reference in the first place. Once the new visitors center is open, I'd sure like to revisit this (tourist trap!) again though, just for a closer view of those planes, if nothing else.
As you might guess, moving those planes from the airport was a bit of an undertaking back in the 80's, though I couldn't find any old articles about it (I remember a full page photo in the paper however). Seems like I remember they were able to move Lisa Marie without removing her wings, but they had to temporarily move some utilities/traffic signals out of the way in some places in order for the move to take place.
In the satellite view (linked in the previous photo), the planes can be seen in the top portion, and that gable-roofed building (now being replaced with the one seen in my photo) was original to the site: in other words, here during the days of Elvis (built circa-early 1960's), prior to all the tourist stuff being built, and part of the original shopping center that once stood here. Sad to see the last of that go :(
If you don't mind a bit more Elvis music, (and a few B to C-grade CGI shots!), you can see an interesting drone flyover video of the planes here.
♫ You ain't nothin' but a Hound Dog (II), hidin' behind Lisa Marie all the time ♪
With us being so close to Graceland now, you can smell the 70's (and jelly donuts!), guess it was about time for an Elvis song reference. My first tour of Graceland (and admittedly, my only tour) was sometime back in the early 80's just prior to these planes being moved to this location. There's a smaller plane, "Hound Dog II", that can't be seen due to being on the other side of the larger "Lisa Marie" (much better photo of it at that link), hence the odd photo title/song reference in the first place. Once the new visitors center is open, I'd sure like to revisit this (tourist trap!) again though, just for a closer view of those planes, if nothing else.
As you might guess, moving those planes from the airport was a bit of an undertaking back in the 80's, though I couldn't find any old articles about it (I remember a full page photo in the paper however). Seems like I remember they were able to move Lisa Marie without removing her wings, but they had to temporarily move some utilities/traffic signals out of the way in some places in order for the move to take place.
In the satellite view (linked in the previous photo), the planes can be seen in the top portion, and that gable-roofed building (now being replaced with the one seen in my photo) was original to the site: in other words, here during the days of Elvis (built circa-early 1960's), prior to all the tourist stuff being built, and part of the original shopping center that once stood here. Sad to see the last of that go :(
If you don't mind a bit more Elvis music, (and a few B to C-grade CGI shots!), you can see an interesting drone flyover video of the planes here.