DUCKS TAKE OVER THE FOYER FOUNTAIN

I once saw on TV an article about the "Peabody Ducks". There are five ducks that live in the penthouse of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN, USA. Everyday at 11:00am the ducks come down in the elevator to the foyer fountain and swim there until 5:00pm when they are marched back to the elevator on a special red carpet by the Duckmaster. This tradition has been going for 80 years. 

When we were in Memphis last month Bill and I thought it would be fun to see the march of the Peabody Ducks our friends Kathy and Rob were not so keen but we dragged them along anyway. They thought we were nuts wanting to wait with crowds of tourists to see ducks.

The fountain is cut from one enormous piece of travertine marble made and shipped from Italy for the opening of the hotel in 1925. The ducks are hiding behind the front edge. The flowers are changed every second day in the middle of the night.

The elevator is stopped for guests and a sign placed inside saying 'Elevator in use by Peabody Ducks.

Hundreds of tourists pour into the foyer as it gets close to five o'clock. There are four female and one male Mallard Ducks. They are raised by a local farmer and each team only live in the hotel for three months and then they return to the farm where they are free to live as wild ducks.

After waiting for nearly an hour the Duckmaster (full of his own importance) proceeded to tell us the legend of the Peabody Ducks. Back in the thirties Frank Schutt, General Manager of the hotel  and a friend returned from a hunting trip. The men had a little too much whiskey and thought it would be funny to put some of their live duck decoys in the beautiful fountain. They were an instant hit with guests so the ducks stayed. In 1940, bellman Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, offered to deliver the ducks to the fountain each day and taught them the now famous Peabody Duck March. He became the Peabody Duckmaster for the next 50 years.

The marching music starts and the ducks march from the fountain to the lift on their red carpet.

Into the lift and up to the Duck Palace on the roof.

After the long wait for a few minutes action we decided to make the most of the visit and have dinner in the hotel. We found an Italian restaurant. I had spaghetti bolognese.

Bill had spinach and ricotta ravioli

Kathy and Rob had Brisket.

 They don't serve duck at the Peabody Hotel.

MEMPHIS AND MUSIC

Back in 1909  Beale Street was the hub of the black community and Blues music. Every night club, dance hall, gambling den had a stage and live music. Every street corner had a jug band collecting pennies. Beale St to musicians was like Broadway to actors.

In the 50's Sam Phillips started recording the music at Sun Studios and he was instrumental in the birth of Rock 'n Roll. Beale Street was alive with music again. Even though there is still music coming from the bars and the street is blocked off at night for entertainers, Beale Street is looking tired and grotty. It is like a living museum of earlier dynamic times.

However, we enjoyed strolling up and down the famous street.

 Bill chats to some buskers.

 It was hard to decide which bar/restaurant to go in for lunch.

 One of the few buildings looking clean and tidy. More were like this, boarded up and run down.

 We found a place to eat with a stage and live band. It was fun being part of the history. (But my sand which was awful)

In the evening we found a Hop on Hop off bus stop but after waiting a long time none came at the time displayed. So we walked a few blocks and caught a regular bus back to the hotel for $1.

Bill was keen to visit Sun Studios while we were in Memphis, not that he was a Rock'n Roll fan but he is very interested in the history of recording music. This building is no longer a recording studio but a museum. The new studios are built behind. 

 We went on an interesting guided tour of the studio as it was back in the 50's. It is where Elvis as a teenager paid $4:00 dollars for Sam Phillips to record a song, with hopes of being asked back. It took a year before he was invited to play with the studio band. Sam still wasn't happy with Elvis until he heard him messing around in a break.  He recorded "That's All Right" it was blues like he had never heard before. Rock'n Roll was born.

The museum rescued this WDIA radio studio from a building being gutted. It was where the famous DJ Dewey Phillips played many blues songs and became a teenage idol. He was the first DJ to play a song recorded by an unknown teenager named Elvis Presley.

The Sun recording studio is just as it was back in the 50's. They still have the mike that Elvis used and visitors are allowed to touch it, which is unusual for a museum. But Bill enjoyed having a go.

There is a history of the recording artists in pictures around the walls of the studio. Sun Studio was responsible for making Elvis, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins famous. They were all poor kids when that started. One day the four of them turned up at the studio together and had a jam session. The photo is called "The Million Dollar Quartet". It was an interesting trip down memory lane.