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Mildura’s Original Steam Driven Paddle Steamer.
Originally built for the Victorian Government as a work boat in 1912, the Melbourne was restored to a passenger carrying steamer in 1965.
I just posted the power gear on the Westside Lumber Shay engine and added a load of notes. I realized that I needed to add the shot of the gear on the tender and further explain a Shay's operation. As you can see, the drive shaft continues on to the tender for more power in the form of tractive effort. A Shay tender could consist of two of the trucks on the really large locos. This means up to 16 driven wheels, drivers; that's twice #346 and #844. This engine has 12 driven wheels having a smaller tender. Near the "No Aqua" water tank at "Delay Junction" at the Colorado Railroad Museum, the WestSide Lumber Company #12 Shay locomotive sits on the siding rails. I know a lot of folks have knowledge of the history and construction of the Shay locomotives. If I remember correctly, Ephraim Shay, born in 1839, soon ended up associated with the lumber industry in Michigan. He had a brain explosion and designed his Shay locomotive originally to run on pole (lumber) rails in the woods. His idea worked and the Lime Locomotive Works in Ohio was to manufacture this oddity. Needless to say, they were expected to operate in foul conditions and on absurd trackage. He hung vertical cylinders on the side of the boiler and spun a drive shaft along the side of the engine and tender. That is not entirely unlike your car. Usng a design of bevel gears and universal joints allowed the contraption to power bogie trucks that swivel. All the trucks: the front truck under the boiler, the truck under the cab and either one or two trucks under the tender provided for maximum tractive effort powered through extremely tight curves. The top speed was of course, very limited and CRRM volunteers told me that the enjoyment of a ride wore very short but not short enough. Fortunately, the light was on the correct side but horribly directional and harsh. Here it is anyway. I work hard to expand the shadows on this so I could read the lettering on the frame; OWNED BY LOCO LEASE II. I doubt it now. CRRM does not have a Heisler locomotive; donations anyone? I'm not sure if there was one in Colorado.
Eddie and I spaced the Christmas Steamup this year but he found there was a "Black on Track" costume event upcoming. He really wanted to see this steam up. We are REALLY waiting for the RSG #20 to return for a steamup. Donate generously at the CRRM.That day will be shoulder to shoulder at the Colorado Railroad Museum; keep an eye on upcoming events on their web site. Outlanders could target Colorado trips with the expectations of hitting an event here in Golden. Someone will have already been here from your home town and/or country. These are the takes everyone is foaming at the mouth to see.
Outrageous light here for the bold early steam, IMHO. Steam is a winner in winter but the wind made it a blustery day. Are you ready for some steam? The first excursion was not quite full but is building on this blustery Saturday morning runby. The re-enactors are busy putting on a show now that we took our ride..
A 48 H.P., chain driven 0-4-0 Diesel Mechanical, Class 48DS locomotive, built by Ruston & Hornsby Ltd, Lincoln, to Works No. 237928, in 1946 and fitted with Engine No.236343, and sold ex-works, 04/09/1946, to British Titan Products Ltd, Pyewipe Works, Grimsby. This locomotive was subsequently sold to ICI, Billingham Works, in 1958, or 1959, before being sold on to Yorkshire Tar Distillers Ltd in 1963. Seen here, stored out of use on 20/01/1973. Its current status and fate unknown.
COPYRIGHT RETAINED; N. JORDAN - I would ask that you please note that the copyright of this image is fully retained by N. Jordan. Should you wish to either copy this image, for anything other than for private research purposes, or you wish to reproduce and publish this image elsewhere, then I would be obliged, if you would be good enough to seek and secure my express written agreement beforehand.
This car seemed to be full of children, even the driver looked far too young to be driving (or am I just getting middle aged?)! The car is a four seater 1904 Darracq.
The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is for cars that were made in 1905 or before. It's run on the first Sunday in November each year (this year is its 80th running), and covers 60 miles of southern England.
Railroad : TX Logistik (Alpha Trains)
Locomotive Typ : Siemens Vectron MS
Locomotive Nr. : 91 80 6193 553-5 D-ATLU
Locomotive Name :
Location : Kufstein, Austria
Photo Date : 14.04.2018
Remarks : Responsibility Driven
driven by dr daniela korte sportwagenservice hamburg at spettacolo sportivo alfa romeo, circuitpark zandvoort, netherlands
I have driven past this spot numerous times to and from the Honister Pass,but until last weekend i had never given a thought to having a look around the place.Its a great little spot looking down Hause Gill towards the Borrowdale.Its just a shame that at the moment many of the streams/gills in the lakes seem to be running on empty,this was no exception.There was just a mere trickle of water yet you could see evidence that in full flow this would be a totally different proposition.
That leaning tree was my reason for pulling over and having a look,so i had to thank it by giving it centre stage in this shot.There will be a few more shots to follow in due course from this wonderful place.
(A RARE OUTING FOR THE SIGMA 10-20 WITH THIS ONE)
EXIF....F16....1.5 SECONDS....ISO 100....11MM....LEE 0.9S ND GRAD + KOOD ND4 + HOYA POLARIZER
APRIL 2007 -- WA, AUSTRALIA -- One exposure of our car. I used my SB-800 flash once on full under the bonnet, then diffused four times ouside, then twice inside. -- PHOTO BY SHAUN CENTA
Photographed @ the Goodguys PPG Nationals in Columbus, Ohio.
Playing Now: Going, Going, Gone - Lee Greenwood:
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: © 2019 Mark O'Grady Digital Studio\MOSpeed Images LLC. All photographs displayed with the Mark O'Grady Digital Studio/MOSpeed Images logo(s) are protected by Canadian, United States of America and International copyright laws unless stated otherwise. The photos on this website are not stock and may not be used for manipulations, references, blogs, journals, share sites, etc. They are intended for the private use of the viewer and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior consent of its owner Mark O’Grady/MOSpeed Images LLC.
England,
Horse drawn,
Steam driven,
Fire pump,
For my video; youtu.be/Zkuqey9xONY
Southward Car Museum, Paraparaumu, New Zealand
It all began with a steam-driven car: bulky, heavy, ugly and difficult to get moving. This set the tone for the future of Dampf Kraft Wagen, which excelled at not excelling. Famed (or rather notorious) for its lack of adventurous design and mediocre engines, DKW sought improvement in 1932 through a merger with Horch, Audi and Wanderer to create Auto-Union. It was the harsh economic reality of the times that forced the Germans to consider this huge conglomerate, although all four brands kept their name and their identity. For DKW this meant various (but not 50) shades of grey. Moreover, its vehicles were as bland as the company’s image. DKW built masses of small two-stroke cars that were mockingly known as ‘Duitse Kinder Wagens’ (German Children’s Cars). Things did not get appreciably better after the Second World War, with the company still producing new models that looked old before they were launched. The type 1000 was a typical example. It was the only saloon car that ever bore the name Auto-Union on its bodywork and the very first with the four interlocking rings on the shield on its grille. It was this run of the run-of-the-mill vehicle that the new owners, Daimler-Benz, tried to jazz up by launching the 1000 SP. The suffix stood for Spezial and not for Sport, because this coupé was anything but sporty. At a push, this last ever West German two-stroke model could generate 55 horsepower and reach a top speed of 140 kilometres per hour (with the wind behind it). No ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ yet. That being said, the 1000 SP at least had its looks going for it. Its sloping lines, tail fins, open-mouth radiator grille and smallish headlights gave it the appearance of a shark, albeit a sad one. This was another car with a mocking nickname: ‘Baby Thunderbird’, a reference to the more muscular Ford it attempted to resemble. DKW eventually had 5,004 units of the coupé version built by Baur in Stuttgart, a company that for many years had crafted top-class coachwork for BMW. Less than a thousand units of the later cabriolet version were made.
Mahy added this damaged shark dating from 1960 to his collection in 1977. It cost him peanuts, since at that time the SP 1000 was very definitely not in demand. Its production had been terminated abruptly in 1965, when Auto-Union was taken over by Volkswagen. The new owners had very different plans for the four rings.
981 cc
3 In-line 2-stroke
55 hp
Mahy - a Family of Cars
09/09/2021 - 31/10/2021
Vynckier Site
Nieuwevaart 51-53
Gent
Belgium
Another one for Beyond Driven gear and nutrition with professional bodybuilder Brian Ahlstrom.
Beauty Dish High and camera left. I believe for this shot that was the only light. We did a few different set-ups in a short amount of time...so even I have to look at the picture again to remember!
"Anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go,...you'll have it forever, real and eternal."
- John12:25
A very good book: Purpose Driven Life
Driven by Mark Webber in 2004 F1 season
Chassis n° R5-01
Engine : Cosworth
V10
Jaguar Heritage Trust Collection
British Motor Museum
Gaydon
Warvick
England - United kingdom
November 2018
Joker: A driven madman who is both brilliant and insane and whose white skin and green hair are believed to be the result of exposure to toxic chemicals.
Doc Samson: A driven psychiatrist who is both brilliant and ambitious and whose enhanced strength and green hair are the result of exposing himself to gamma radiation.
If they had to fight, who would win?
#214 in the Duel 365 series.
AF Corse - Ferrari 488 GTE #71 driven by Davide Rigon (ITA) / Sam Bird (GBR)
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For many years I have driven past this rustic house located just at the top of the Niagara Escarpment in Grimsby, Ontario on Ridge Road and thought it might be a good subject under the right conditions. Yesterday I passed it again and noticed that the early morning sun at this time of year, late summer, managed to come in below the tree line out of the frame to the right and illuminate the now well overgrown, somewhat old-fashioned, flower garden at the foot of the porch. I resolved to come back the next day and try to get a photo of this before it is (yet again) too late. So I did. - JW
Date Taken: 2018-09-18
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D7100 fitted with and AF-P DX 70-300mm 1:4.5-6.3 lense set to 170mm, Auto WB, ISO100, Aperture priority mode, f/8.0, 1/60 sec with an EV+0.67 exposure bias (based on test shot histogram). PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to 9000x6000, leave exposure compensation at EV+0.0, increase contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, enable Shadows/Highlights and recover highlight details as well as slightly recover shadows, set colour temperature to 4900K (warmer than camera as-shot but much more like the lighting at the time), sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: set black-point to base of data, adjust tone curve to boost the brightest tones without blowing out the ‘white’ paint details and also slightly boost the lower/darkest 20% (approx) of the curve while holding the mid-tones at the default values, slightly boost contrast, adjust colour balance to slightly reduce the yellow tone, slightly decrease the yellow channel colour saturation, sharpen, save, scale image to 6000 wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 2048 wide for posting on-line, sharpen slightly, save.
The first days of my very first travels in Oman.
I had never driven a 4x4 in my life.
I had never camped before in my life.
I had never considered the dangers I might face.
Yet here I was, 66 years old and starting to travel ALONE throughout OMAN ; a country I had known nothing about before I crossed the border from the UAE into OMAN at Al Ain.
My wife and family, quite rightly, considered me completely and utterly mad.
In those first few days I made many mistakes and frightened myself on several occasions, but I had to learn quickly if I was to survive long enough to return to my family home in London UK.
I also belong to the British Omani Society in London.
My article and photography are published in their 2015 Review.
You can access it here :- www.britishomani.org/annual-review
Then go to the 2015 Review, press on it, go down, the article is on pages 12/15.
It’s very easy and safe, even I can do it!
Santa Ana Wind driven wildfire in Santa Clarita CA, Fire scorched 4,600 acres and destroyed 22 structures.
There are few sights more deeply driven in my mind than this – the languid straight shot of Brown Road, appearing to approach a dead end at the old Miller's store. It was buried in my memory from years before I held a camera, from some half-known history in my childhood mind. All roads lead to here, supposedly, though a closer look gives away the north/south cross of Mount Hanley Road. There stands the middle point between Bay Shore and Annapolis Valley. Once a more significant centre, upon a time. Store and schoolhouse, grist mill on Sheep Shearer Brook, small Baptist church up the way. All those buildings still stand save the mill, but somewhat less lively these days. My passage is carried by all ghost-like and dreaming, where black trees drift in dark silhouette. Sometimes a shadow of all that was and will be – often my heart held dearest by loneliness.
February 4, 2025
Mount Hanley, Nova Scotia
Year 18, Day 6295 of my daily journal.
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I've never seen so many squirrel fights as I have today. The bitter cold and snow have driven them crazy too. Poor critters.
We were driven from Stavanager to a small village where we caught the Lysefjord ferry. Our coach left the ferry at Lysebotn at the end fo the fjord and then drove up the mountain side on a road with 31 hair pin bends including two in a single land 5 km long tunnel. We then crossed the mountain tops for several hours before we came down into a valley near the village of Rysstad. from there we drove down to Kristiansand on the southern coast of Norway. A fantastic road and ferry trip.
Built and driven by Claude and Bernard Marreau, and hidden in a private collection for many years. This example was their first attempt to win the Dakar Rally, after some earlier attempts with a Renault 4 Sinpar. They would eventually do so in 1982 with a similar car, now in the collection of Renault Classic.
Exposition : Renault 120 Years
13/07/2018 - 02/09/2018
Autoworld
Brussels - Belgium
January 2018
Elvis Aaron Presley[a] (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often referred to mononymously as Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across color lines during a transformative era in race relations, led him to both great success and initial controversy.
Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, with his family when he was 13 years old. His music career began there in 1954, recording at Sun Records with producer Sam Phillips, who wanted to bring the sound of African-American music to a wider audience. Presley, on rhythm acoustic guitar, and accompanied by lead guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, was a pioneer of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. In 1955, drummer D. J. Fontana joined to complete the lineup of Presley's classic quartet and RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who would manage him for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA Victor single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. Within a year, RCA would sell ten million Presley singles. With a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll; though his performative style and promotion of the then-marginalized sound of African Americans[6] led to him being widely considered a threat to the moral well-being of the White American youth.
In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. Drafted into military service in 1958, Presley relaunched his recording career two years later with some of his most commercially successful work. He held few concerts, however, and guided by Parker, proceeded to devote much of the 1960s to making Hollywood films and soundtrack albums, most of them critically derided. Some of his most famous films included Jailhouse Rock (1957), Blue Hawaii (1961), and Viva Las Vegas (1964). In 1968, following a seven-year break from live performances, he returned to the stage in the acclaimed television comeback special Elvis, which led to an extended Las Vegas concert residency and a string of highly profitable tours. In 1973, Presley gave the first concert by a solo artist to be broadcast around the world, Aloha from Hawaii. Years of prescription drug abuse and unhealthy eating habits severely compromised his health, and he died suddenly in 1977 at his Graceland estate at the age of 42.
Having sold over 400 million records worldwide, Presley is recognized as the best-selling solo music artist of all time by Guinness World Records. He was commercially successful in many genres, including pop, country, rhythm & blues, adult contemporary, and gospel. Presley won three Grammy Awards, received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. He holds several records, including the most RIAA-certified gold and platinum albums, the most albums charted on the Billboard 200, the most number-one albums by a solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and the most number-one singles by any act on the UK Singles Chart. In 2018, Presley was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Vernon Elvis (April 10, 1916 – June 26, 1979) and Gladys Love (née Smith; April 25, 1912 – August 14, 1958) Presley in a two-room shotgun house that his father built for the occasion. Elvis's identical twin brother, Jesse Garon Presley, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn. Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God church, where he found his initial musical inspiration.
A photo of Elvis's parents at the Historic Blue Moon Museum in Verona, Mississippi
Presley's father Vernon was of German, Scottish and English origins. He was a descendant of the Harrison family of Virginia through his ancestor Tunis Hood. Presley's mother Gladys was Scots-Irish with some French Norman ancestry. His mother and the rest of the family believed that her great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was Cherokee. This belief was restated by Elvis's granddaughter Riley Keough in 2017. Elaine Dundy, in her biography, supports the belief.
Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, showing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of altering a check written by his landowner and sometime-employer. He was jailed for eight months, while Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives.
In September 1941, Presley entered first grade at East Tupelo Consolidated, where his teachers regarded him as "average". He was encouraged to enter a singing contest after impressing his schoolteacher with a rendition of Red Foley's country song "Old Shep" during morning prayers. The contest, held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, was his first public performance. The ten-year-old Presley stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth. A few months later, Presley received his first guitar for his birthday; he had hoped for something else—by different accounts, either a bicycle or a rifle. Over the following year, he received basic guitar lessons from two of his uncles and the new pastor at the family's church. Presley recalled, "I took the guitar, and I watched people, and I learned to play a little bit. But I would never sing in public. I was very shy about it."
In September 1946, Presley entered a new school, Milam, for sixth grade; he was regarded as a loner. The following year, he began bringing his guitar to school on a daily basis. He played and sang during lunchtime and was often teased as a "trashy" kid who played hillbilly music. By then, the family was living in a largely black neighborhood. Presley was a devotee of Mississippi Slim's show on the Tupelo radio station WELO. He was described as "crazy about music" by Slim's younger brother, who was one of Presley's classmates and often took him into the station. Slim supplemented Presley's guitar instruction by demonstrating chord techniques. When his protégé was 12 years old, Slim scheduled him for two on-air performances. Presley was overcome by stage fright the first time, but succeeded in performing the following week.
In November 1948, the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. After residing for nearly a year in rooming houses, they were granted a two-bedroom apartment in the public housing complex known as the Lauderdale Courts. Enrolled at L. C. Humes High School, Presley received only a C in music in eighth grade. When his music teacher told him that he had no aptitude for singing, he brought in his guitar the next day and sang a recent hit, "Keep Them Cold Icy Fingers Off Me", to prove otherwise. A classmate later recalled that the teacher "agreed that Elvis was right when he said that she didn't appreciate his kind of singing". He was usually too shy to perform openly and was occasionally bullied by classmates who viewed him as a "mama's boy".
In 1950, he began practicing guitar regularly under the tutelage of Lee Denson, a neighbor two and a half years his senior. They and three other boys—including two future rockabilly pioneers, brothers Dorsey and Johnny Burnette—formed a loose musical collective that played frequently around the Courts. That September, he began working as an usher at Loew's State Theater. Other jobs followed at Precision Tool, Loew's again, and MARL Metal Products. Presley also helped Jewish neighbors, the Fruchters, by being their shabbos goy.
During his junior year, Presley began to stand out more among his classmates, largely because of his appearance: he grew his sideburns and styled his hair with rose oil and Vaseline. In his free time, he would head down to Beale Street, the heart of Memphis's thriving blues scene, and gaze longingly at the wild, flashy clothes in the windows of Lansky Brothers. By his senior year, he was wearing those clothes. Overcoming his reticence about performing outside the Lauderdale Courts, he competed in Humes' Annual "Minstrel" show in April 1953. Singing and playing guitar, he opened with "Till I Waltz Again with You", a recent hit for Teresa Brewer. Presley recalled that the performance did much for his reputation: "I wasn't popular in school ... I failed music—only thing I ever failed. And then they entered me in this talent show ... when I came onstage I heard people kind of rumbling and whispering and so forth, 'cause nobody knew I even sang. It was amazing how popular I became in school after that."
Presley, who received no formal music training and could not read music, studied and played by ear. He also frequented record stores that provided jukeboxes and listening booths to customers. He knew all of Hank Snow's songs, and he loved records by other country singers such as Roy Acuff, Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis, and Bob Wills. The Southern gospel singer Jake Hess, one of his favorite performers, was a significant influence on his ballad-singing style. He was a regular audience member at the monthly All-Night Singings downtown, where many of the white gospel groups that performed reflected the influence of African-American spiritual music. He adored the music of black gospel singer Sister Rosetta Tharpe.
Like some of his peers, he may have attended blues venues—of necessity, in the segregated South—only on nights designated for exclusively white audiences. He certainly listened to the regional radio stations, such as WDIA-AM, that played "race records": spirituals, blues, and the modern, backbeat-heavy sound of rhythm and blues. Many of his future recordings were inspired by local African-American musicians such as Arthur Crudup and Rufus Thomas. B.B. King recalled that he had known Presley before he was popular when they both used to frequent Beale Street. By the time he graduated from high school in June 1953, Presley had already singled out music as his future.
Graceland is a mansion on a 13.8-acre (5.6-hectare) estate in Memphis, Tennessee, United States, which was once owned by the rock and roll singer Elvis Presley. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited Graceland after his death in 1977. Following Lisa Marie Presley's death in 2023, the mansion is to be inherited by her daughters. In addition to being the final resting place of Elvis Presley himself, the property contains the graves of his parents, paternal grandmother and grandson, and contains a memorial to Presley's stillborn twin brother. In addition, Lisa Marie Presley will be buried there.
Graceland is located at 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard in the Whitehaven neighborhood, about nine miles (14 kilometers) south of central Memphis and fewer than four miles (6.4 km) north of the Mississippi border.[5] It was opened to the public as a house museum on June 7, 1982. The site was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1991, becoming the first site recognized for significance related to rock music. Graceland was declared a National Historic Landmark on March 27, 2006, also a first for such a site. Graceland attracts more than 650,000 visitors annually.
Graceland Farms was originally owned by Stephen C. Toof, founder of S.C. Toof & Co., the oldest commercial printing firm in Memphis. He worked previously as the pressroom foreman of the Memphis newspaper, the Memphis Daily Appeal. The "grounds" (before the mansion was built in 1939) were named after Toof's daughter, Grace. She inherited the farm/property from her father in 1894. After her death, the property was passed to her niece Ruth Moore, a Memphis socialite. Together with her husband, Thomas Moore, Ruth Moore commissioned construction of a 10,266-square-foot (953.7 m2) Colonial Revival style mansion in 1939. The house was designed by architects Furbringer and Ehrman.
After Elvis Presley began his musical career, he purchased a $40,000 home for himself and his family at 1034 Audubon Drive in Memphis. As his success and fame grew, especially after his appearances on television, the number of fans who would congregate outside the house multiplied. Presley's neighbors, although happy to have a celebrity living nearby, soon concluded that the constant gathering of fans and journalists was a nuisance.
In early 1957, Presley gave his parents, Vernon and Gladys Presley, a budget of $100,000 and asked them to find a "farmhouse"-like property to purchase, with buffer space around it. At the time, Graceland was located in southern Shelby County, several miles south of Memphis' main urban area. In later years, Memphis would expand with residential developments, resulting in Graceland being surrounded by other properties. Presley purchased Graceland on March 19, 1957, for the amount of $102,500.
Later that year, Presley invited Richard Williams and singer Buzz Cason to the house. Cason said: "We proceeded to clown around on the front porch, striking our best rock 'n' roll poses and snapping pictures with the little camera. We peeked in the not-yet-curtained windows and got a kick out of the pastel colored walls in the front rooms with shades of bright reds and purples that Elvis most certainly had picked out." Presley was fond of claiming that the US government had mooted a visit to Graceland by Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union, "to see how in America a fellow can start out with nothing and, you know, make good."
After Gladys died in 1958 aged 46, Presley's father Vernon remarried to Dee Stanley in 1960, and the couple lived at Graceland for a time. There was some discord between Presley and his stepmother Dee at Graceland, however. Elaine Dundy, who wrote about Presley and his mother, said that
"Vernon had settled down with Dee where Gladys had once reigned, while Dee herself – when Elvis was away – had taken over the role of mistress of Graceland so thoroughly as to rearrange the furniture and replace the very curtains that Gladys had approved of." This was too much for the singer, who still loved his late mother deeply. One afternoon, "a van arrived ... and all Dee's household's goods, clothes, 'improvements,' and her own menagerie of pets, were loaded on ... while Vernon, Dee and her three children went by car to a nearby house on Hermitage until they finally settled into a house on Dolan Drive which ran alongside Elvis' estate."
According to Mark Crispin Miller, Graceland became for Presley "the home of the organization that was himself, was tended by a large vague clan of Presleys and deputy Presleys, each squandering the vast gratuities which Elvis used to keep his whole world smiling." The author adds that Presley's father Vernon "had a swimming pool in his bedroom", that there "was a jukebox next to the swimming pool, containing Elvis' favorite records", and that the singer himself "would spend hours in his bedroom, watching his property on a closed-circuit television." According to the singer's cousin, Billy Smith, Presley spent the night at Graceland with Smith and his wife Jo many times: "we were all three there talking for hours about everything in the world! Sometimes he would have a bad dream and come looking for me to talk to, and he would actually fall asleep in our bed with us."
Priscilla Beaulieu lived at Graceland for five years before she and Presley wed in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1967. Their daughter Lisa Marie Presley was born on February 1, 1968, and spent the first years of her life on the estate. After her parents divorced in 1972, her mother moved with the girl to California. Every year around Christmas, Lisa Marie Presley and all her family would go to Graceland to celebrate Christmas together. Lisa Marie often returned to Graceland for visits.
When Elvis would tour, staying in hotels, "the rooms would be remodeled in advance of his arrival, so as to make the same configurations of space as he had at home – the Graceland mansion. His furniture would arrive, and he could unwind after his performances in surroundings which were completely familiar and comforting." 'The Jungle Room' was described as being "an example of particularly lurid kitsch."[
On August 16, 1977, Presley died aged 42 at Graceland. The official cause of death was cardiac arrhythmia, although later toxicology reports strongly suggested that polypharmacy was the primary cause of death; "fourteen drugs were found in Elvis' system, with several drugs such as codeine in significant quantities. Presley lay in repose in a 900-pound (410 kg), copper-lined coffin just inside the foyer; more than 3,500 of his mourning fans passed by to pay their respects. A private funeral with 200 mourners was held on August 18, 1977, in the house, with the casket placed in front of the stained glass doorway of the music room. Graceland continued to be occupied by members of the family until the death of Presley's aunt Delta in 1993, who had moved in at Elvis's invitation after her husband's death. Elvis's daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, inherited the estate in 1993 when she turned 25.
Presley's tombstone, along with those of his parents Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother Minnie Mae Presley, are installed in the Meditation Garden next to the mansion. They can be visited during the mansion tours or for free before the mansion tours begin. A memorial gravestone for Presley's stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, is also at the site.
In 2019, the owners of Graceland threatened to leave Memphis unless the city provided tax incentives. The Memphis City Council subsequently voted on a deal to help fund a $100 million expansion of Graceland.
Constructed at the top of a hill and surrounded by rolling pastures and a grove of oak trees, Graceland is designed by the Memphis architectural firm, Furbringer and Erhmanis. It's a two-story, five-bay residence in the Colonial Revival style, with a side-facing gabled roof covered in asphalt shingles, a central two-story projecting pedimented portico, and two one-story wings on the north and south sides. Attached to the wing is an additional one-story stuccoed wing, which was originally a garage that houses up to four cars. The mansion has two chimneys; one on the north side's exterior wall, the second rising through the south side's roof ridge. The central block's front and side facades are veneered with tan Tishomingo limestone from Mississippi and its rear wall is stuccoed, as are the one-story wings. The front facade fenestration on the first floor includes 9x9 double-hung windows set in arched openings with wooden panels above, and 6x6 double-hung windows on the second floor.
Flanked by two marble lions, four stone steps ascend from the driveway to the two-story central projecting pedimented portico. The pediment has dentils and a small, leaded oval window in the center while the portico contains four Corinthian columns with capitals modeled after architect James Stuart's conjectural porticos for the "Tower of the Winds" in Athens, Greece. The portico's cornered columns are matched by pilasters on the front facade. The doorway has a broken arched pediment, full entablature, and engaged columns while its transom and sidelights contain elaborate and colorful stained glass. And above the main entrance is another rectangular window, completed with a shallow iron balcony.
Graceland is 17,552 square feet (1,630.6 m2) and has a total of 23 rooms, including eight bedrooms and bathrooms. To the right of the Entrance Hall, through an elliptical-arched opening with classical details, is the Living Room. The Living Room contains a 15-foot-long (4.6 m) white couch against the wall overlooking the front yard. To the left are two white sofas, a china cabinet and a fireplace with a mirrored wall. The painting that hangs in the room was Elvis' last Christmas present from his father, Vernon, and also displayed are photographs of Elvis' parents Vernon and Gladys, Elvis and Lisa Marie. Behind an adjoined doorway is the Music Room, framed by vivid large peacocks set in stained glass and contains a black baby grand piano and a 1950s style TV. And the third adjacent room is a bedroom that was occupied by Elvis' parents. The walls, carpet, dresser, and queen size bed are bright white with the bed draped in a velvet-looking dark purple bedspread along with an en-suite full bathroom done in pink.
To the left of the Entrance Hall, mirroring the Living Room, is the Dining Room, headlined by a massive crystal chandelier. It features six plush chairs in golden metal frames set around a marble table, all of which are placed on black marble flooring in the center with carpet around the perimeter. Connected to the Dining Room is the Kitchen, which was used by Elvis' aunt Delta until her death in 1993 before it was opened to the public two years later.
The original one-story wing on the north end of the residence includes a mechanical room, bedroom, and bath. In the mid-1960s, Presley enlarged the house to create a den known as the Jungle Room which features an indoor waterfall of cut field stone on the north wall. The room also contains items both related to and imported from the state of Hawaii because, after starring in the tropical film "Blue Hawaii" (1961), the musician wanted to bring some memorabilia from The Aloha State to his mansion, which gives visitors the same feeling. In 1976, the Jungle Room was converted into a recording studio, where he recorded the bulk of his final two albums, From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976) and Moody Blue (1977); these were his final known recordings in a studio setting.[27] During the mid-1960s expansion of the house, Presley constructed a large wing on the south side of the main house that was a sidewalk, between the music room in the original one-story wing and the swimming pool area, that connected to the house by a small enclosed gallery. The new wing initially housed a slot car track and to store his many items of appreciation, but was later remodeled to what is now known as the Trophy Building, which now features an exhibit about the Presley family, and includes Priscilla's wedding dress, Elvis' wedding tuxedo, Lisa Marie's toy chest and baby clothes and more.
The Entrance Hall contains a white staircase leading to the house's second floor with a wall of mirrors. However, the second floor is not open to visitors, out of respect for the Presley family, and partially to avoid any improper focus on the bathroom which was the site of his death. Still, it features Elvis' bedroom at the southwest corner that connects to his dressing room and bathroom in the northwest. His daughter Lisa Marie's bedroom is in the northeast corner, and in the southeast is a bedroom that served as a private personal office for the musician. The floor has been untouched since the day Elvis died and is rarely seen by non-family members.
Downstairs in the basement is the TV room, where Elvis often watched three television sets at once, and was within close reach of a wet bar. The three TV sets are built into the room's south wall and there's a stereo, and cabinets for Elvis' record collection. And painted on the west wall is The King's 1970s logo of a lightning bolt and cloud with the initials TCB, both of which represent 'taking care of business in a flash'. And the last room in the mansion opposite of the TV room is the billiard room; an avid billiards player, Elvis bought the pool table in 1960 and had the walls and ceiling covered with 350–400 yards of pleated cotton fabric after the two basement rooms were remodeled in 1974. The pool balls are arranged just the way they were in the musician's final days along with a strict warning sign to visitors that says "Please Do Not Touch! Thank You!" in capital letters. And in one corner of the pool table, there's a rip in the green felt, which was caused by one of Elvis' friends in a failed attempt of a trick shot.
Critics such as Albert Goldman write: "Though it cost a lot of money to fill up Graceland with the things that appealed to Elvis Presley, nothing in the house is worth a dime." In chapter 1 of his book, Elvis (1981), the author describes Graceland as looking like a brothel: "it appears to have been lifted from some turn-of-the-century bordello down in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Lulu White or the Countess Willie Piazza might have contrived this plushy parlor for the entertainment of Gyp the Blood. The room is a gaudy mélange of red velour and gilded tassels, Louis XV furniture and porcelain bric-a-brac..." And he dismisses the interior as "bizarre," "garish" and "phony," adding that "King Elvis's obsession with royal red reaches an intensity that makes you gag."
In similar terms, Greil Marcus writes that people who visited the inside of Graceland—"people who to a real degree shared Elvis Presley’s class background, and whose lives were formed by his music—have returned with one word to describe what they saw: ‘Tacky.’ Tacky, garish, tasteless—words others translated as white trash."
According to Karal Ann Marling, Graceland is "a Technicolor illusion. The façade is Gone With the Wind all the way. The den in the back is Mogambo with a hint of Blue Hawaii. Living in Graceland was like living on a Hollywood backlot, where patches of tropical scenery alternated with the blackened ruins of antebellum Atlanta. It was like living in a Memphis movie theater... Diehard fans are sometimes disappointed by the formal rooms along the highway side of Graceland. They’re beautiful, in a chilly blue-and-white way, but remote and overarranged." The Jungle Room's "overt bad taste" lets nonbelievers "recoil in horror and imagine themselves a notch or two higher than Elvis on the class scale."
After purchasing the property Presley spent in excess of $500,000 carrying out extensive modifications to suit his needs including a pink Alabama fieldstone wall surrounding the grounds that has several years' worth of graffiti (signatures and messages) from visitors, who simply refer to it as "the wall". Designed and built by Abe Sauer is the wrought-iron front gate shaped like a book of sheet music, along with green colored musical notes and two mirrored silhouettes of Elvis playing his guitar. Sauer also installed a kidney shaped swimming pool and a racquetball court, which is reminiscent of an old country club, furnished in dark leather and a functional bar. There is a sunken sitting area with the ever-present stereo system found throughout Graceland, as well as the dark brown upright piano upon which Elvis played for what were to be his last songs, Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" and "Unchained Melody".
However, reports conflict about which one was the last song. The sitting area has a floor-to-ceiling shatterproof window designed to watch the many racquetball games that took place there when Elvis was alive. In the early hours of the morning on which Elvis died, he played a game of racquetball with his girlfriend Ginger Alden, his first cousin Billy Smith and Billy's wife Jo before ending the game with the song on the piano before walking into the main house to wash his hair and go to bed. Today the two story court has been restored to the way it was when Elvis used the building.
Elsewhere on the estate is a small white building that served as an office for Vernon, along with an old smokehouse that housed a shooting range and a fully functional stable of horses.
One of Presley's better known modifications was the addition of the Meditation Garden, designed and built by architect Bernard Grenadier. It was used by the musician to reflect on any problems or situations that arose during his life. It is also where his entire family is buried: himself (1935–1977), his parents Gladys (1912–1958) and Vernon (1916–1979), and grandmother Minnie Mae Hood (1890–1980) while a small stone memorializes his twin brother Jesse Garon, who died at birth thirty minutes before Elvis was born on January 8, 1935. In late 2020, Lisa Marie's son Benjamin Keough was laid to rest on the opposite end of the Meditation Garden after his death from suicide in July of that year. Lisa Marie Presley died from sudden cardiac arrest in January 2023 and is buried next to her son.
After Elvis Presley's death in 1977, Vernon Presley served as executor of his estate. Upon his death in 1979, he chose Priscilla to serve as the estate executor for Elvis's only child, Lisa Marie, who was only 11. Graceland itself cost $500,000 a year in upkeep, and expenses had dwindled Elvis's and Priscilla's daughter Lisa Marie's inheritance to only $1 million. Taxes were due on the property; those and other expenses due came to over $500,000. Faced with having to sell Graceland, Priscilla examined other famous houses/museums, and hired a CEO, Jack Soden, to turn Graceland into a moneymaker. Graceland was opened to the public on June 7, 1982. Priscilla's gamble paid off; after only a month of opening Graceland's doors the estate made back all the money it had invested. Priscilla Presley became the chairwoman and president of Elvis Presley Enterprises, or EPE, stating at that time she would do so until Lisa Marie reached 21 years of age. The enterprise's fortunes soared and eventually the trust grew to be worth over $100 million.
An annual procession through the estate and past Elvis's grave is held on the anniversary of his death. Known as Elvis Week, it includes a full schedule of speakers and events, including the only Elvis Mass at St. Paul's Church, the highlight for many Elvis fans of all faiths. The 20th Anniversary in 1997 had several hundred media groups from around the world that were present resulting in the event gaining its greatest media publicity.
One of the largest gatherings assembled on the 25th anniversary in 2002 with one estimate of 40,000 people in attendance, despite the heavy rain. On the 38th anniversary of Elvis's death, an estimated 30,000 people attended the Candlelight Vigil during the night of August 15–16, 2015. On the 40th anniversary of Elvis's death, on August 15–16, 2017, at least 50,000 fans were expected to attend the Candlelight Vigil. No official figure seems to have been released, maybe because, for the first time, attendees had to pay at least the lowest tour fare, $28.75, to cover the extra security costs due to a larger than usual crowd.
For many of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit Graceland each year, the visit takes on a quasi-religious perspective. They may plan for years to journey to the home of the 'King' of rock and roll. On site, headphones narrate the salient events of Elvis's life and introduce the relics that adorn the rooms and corridors. The rhetorical mode is hagiographic, celebrating the life of an extraordinary man, emphasizing his generosity, his kindness and good fellowship, how he was at once a poor boy who made good, an extraordinary musical talent, a sinner and substance abuser, and a religious man devoted to the Gospel and its music. At the meditation garden, containing Elvis's grave, some visitors pray, kneel, or quietly sing one of Elvis's favorite hymns. The brick wall that encloses the mansion's grounds is covered with graffiti that express an admiration for Presley as well as petitions for help and thanks for favors granted.
The Graceland grounds include a new exhibit complex, Elvis Presley's Memphis, which includes a new car museum, Presley Motors, which houses Elvis's Pink Cadillac. The complex features new exhibits and museums, as well as a studio for Sirius Satellite Radio's all-Elvis Presley channel. The service's subscribers all over North America can hear Presley's music from Graceland around the clock. Not far away on display are his two aircraft including Lisa Marie (a Convair 880 jetliner) and Hound Dog II (a Lockheed JetStar business jet). The jets are owned by Graceland and are on permanent static display.
In early August 2005, Lisa Marie Presley sold 85% of the business side of her father's estate. She kept the Graceland property itself, as well as the bulk of the possessions found therein, and she turned over the management of Graceland to CKX, Inc., an entertainment company (on whose board of directors Priscilla Presley sat) that also owns 19 Entertainment, creator of the American Idol TV show.
Graceland Holdings LLC, led by managing partner Joel Weinshanker, is the majority owner of EPE. Lisa Marie Presley's estate retains a 15% ownership in the company.
In August 2018, Gladys Presley's headstone, which contained the Jewish star of David on one side and a cross on the other and was designed by Elvis himself, which become publicly displayed when it placed in Graceland's Mediation Garden after being stored for many years in the Graceland Archive.
Lisa Marie Presley's estate, which is being held in trust for her daughters Riley Keough and Harper and Finley Lockwood, retain 100% sole personal ownership of Graceland Mansion itself and its over 13-acre original grounds as well as Elvis Presley's personal effects – including costumes, wardrobe, awards, furniture, cars, etc. Prior to her death in 2023, Lisa Marie Presley had made the mansion property and her father's personal effects permanently available for tours of Graceland and for use in all of EPE's operations.
According to Elvis Presley's Enterprises, staff at Graceland informally kept a list of celebrities who had visited in the first years following Elvis's death. This practice was not formalized for a decade. Muhammad Ali was an early celebrity visitor in 1978, as was singer Paul Simon. He toured Graceland in the early 80s and afterward wrote a song of the same name; it was the title track of his Grammy-winning album Graceland.
During the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987, U2 toured Graceland. The footage was filmed for the film Rattle & Hum. During the visit, drummer, Larry Mullen Jr., sat on Elvis Presley's motorcycle -- against the rules for Graceland visitors.
On June 30, 2006, then US President George W. Bush hosted Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi for a tour of the mansion. It was one of the few private residences on United States soil to have been the site of an official joint-visit by a sitting US president and a serving head of a foreign government. On August 6, 2010, Prince Albert II, Head of State of the Principality of Monaco, and his fiancée (now Princess of Monaco) Charlene Wittstock, toured Graceland while vacationing in the US. On May 26, 2013, Paul McCartney of The Beatles visited Graceland. Prince William and Prince Harry, while in Memphis for a friend's wedding, visited Graceland on May 2, 2014.
The home has also been visited by former US President Jimmy Carter; the late Duchess of Devonshire, the sitting ambassadors of India, France, China, Korea and Israel to the United States; as well as several US governors, members of the US Congress, and at least two Nobel Prize winners, namely singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, a Literature Prize laureate, and the former President of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias, a Peace Prize honoree, who visited it on October 10, 2001.
In May 2016, Graceland welcomed a newlywed couple as its 20 millionth visitor.
In June 2022, actors Austin Butler and Tom Hanks visited the mansion and were interviewed virtually by the Good Morning America news program from the Jungle Room to talk about their biographical film Elvis.
In popular culture
Paul Simon named an album Graceland, as well as its title track. The song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1987.
The song "Walking in Memphis" by Marc Cohn mentions Graceland; in the second verse, he refers to the mansion and the Jungle Room. This song was later covered by Cher and Lonestar, among others.
The film 3000 Miles to Graceland is about a group of criminals who plan to rob a casino during an international Elvis week, disguised as Elvis impersonators. No scenes take place at or near the estate.
The film Finding Graceland stars Harvey Keitel with Johnathon Schaech. Keitel is an impersonator who claims to be the real Elvis after Schaech picks him up as a hitch-hiker.
In the rock music "mockumentary" This Is Spinal Tap, band members gather around Presley's grave at Graceland and attempt to sing a verse of "Heartbreak Hotel".
Pop punk group Groovie Ghoulies have a song called "Graceland" on their 1997 album Re-Animation Festival.
In the movie Zombieland: Double Tap, the protagonists venture to Graceland in hopes of shelter during a zombie apocalypse, but are distressed to find it in a ruined state.
During the credits of Lilo & Stitch, there's a photograph of Lilo, Nani, David and Stitch visiting the front gates of Graceland. Almost 20 years later, the original painting of that shot was put on display as part of the traveling Walt Disney Archives exhibition at Graceland.
In the season three episode of American Dad “The Vacation Goo”, Steve Smith asks Stan Smith if they can go to Graceland for their next vacation and Stan says “Steve, if you want to pay your respects to a fat man who died on the toilet, we can visit your Aunt Mary’s grave.”
Phoebe Bridgers has a song "Graceland Too" on her second studio album Punisher.
In the third episode of National Treasure: Edge of History, "Graceland Gambit," the main protagonist, Jess (portrayed by Lisette Olivera) is on a treasure hunt that leads her and her friends to Graceland.
Florence + The Machine reference Graceland and Elvis in their song "Morning Elvis" on their 2022 album Dance Fever.
TodaysArt 2015
Pier, Scheveningen
A live concert driven by the sea.
Two man angling, trying to catch ‘A tempo Hydro’.
Perhaps the sea will release the Accelerando. and returns to it’s A tempo.
For this piece the environment is the instrument.
The works from Onno Poiesz are very varied. From large 2D works such as; ‘EXIT’ which existed out of stickers made specially for the Central Station of Rotterdam- to glaced keramic airplanes and bronzed doorknobs in the Dutch public transport. For this eleventh edition of TodaysArt , Poiesz created a project intended for the most lefthanded island on The Pier which will be demolished at the end of 2015. This projects is inspired on one of the original ‘ZERO on Sea’ installations. Artist Heinz Mack planned to place pillars made out of mirrors into the sea. Poiesz is planning to wrap the left hand island completely in mirroring foil. By doing so, a new dimension will arise and will change the context of the building. The building will gain body and the exact contours will fade. During the day, light and colors will change and reflect in the sea.