Graceland Case Study

Mrs. Finnern recounted the first and only time she has traveled to Graceland. In the early 90s, Mrs. Finnern went on a yearly vacation with her sister-in-law to Alabama for a country music concert that was held there every year. One year, they decided they were going to take a detour through Tennessee and see Graceland. Mrs. Finnern didn’t expect it to be right in the middle of town. She always imagined it to be out in the country somewhere. The big wrought iron gates didn’t surprise her though, she had known about them from seeing pictures. She recalls making reservations to tour the house and pulling in to park. While the outside of the house looked old and pillard, it was kept in very good condition, as it should be, because in a quote from …show more content…
Mrs. Finnern explained that you didn’t get to see the whole house, such as the kitchen or upstairs, as Elvis’ daughter and ex-wife occasionally stayed there. The most memorable room to Mrs. Finnern was what was called the Jungle Room. She described it as being “so gaudy it was gross” and how there was “heads of animals and shag carpeting that was like 6-inches long shag”. She also said, “it just looked like a place from Jumanji.” The weirdness of the Presley house didn’t end there, however. Mrs. Finnern said there was a billiard room and along with the floor, the walls and ceiling were all carpeted. A possible reason that Elvis’ home looked so bizarre was because, “He wanted his home to look new, jazzy, to reflect his status as a young rock-and-roller and, now, Hollywood guy” (Keogh 130). Elvis Presley had grown up poor, and when he finally had enough money where he could do whatever he wanted with it without worry, he went all out on his new, multi-roomed house. Mrs. Finnern also remembers seeing Elvis’ …show more content…
Finnern was asked if she believed Elvis Presley was still alive or not, she replied, “For the longest time, I was one of those who believed he wasn’t really dead.” When he first died, and for a few years after that, Mrs. Finnern believed that Elvis staged his death because he felt the pressure from everyone who depended on him and expected things from him. She felt that Elvis was getting overwhelmed and wanted to escape from all of that. A lot of her feeling he might still be alive was perpetuated by random “Elvis sightings” that would appear in magazines. The misspelling of his middle name on his grave was also a superstitious belief that it wasn’t really him in that grave because the name was spelled wrong. But, as the years went on, Mrs. Finnern stopped believing that Elvis could be alive, as the sightings stopped and the reason for the middle name spelled incorrectly on his grave as explained.
A quote by the great folk and rock singer Bob Dylan in Being Elvis: a Lonely Life by Ray Connolly, sums up what many people may have felt when they heard Elvis Presley sing, “‘Hearing Elvis for the first time,’ said Dylan, ‘was like busting out of jail. I thank God for Elvis Presley.’” Like so many other fans out there, Mrs. Finnern feels Elvis Presley is one of those entertainers whose legacy has endured for decades. This appeal may not be completely understood, but for those die-hard fans, both young and old, famous or not, Elvis had a

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