Elvis Presley fans visiting his Graceland mansion for the last 42 years will know that the upstairs isn’t included on the tour.
This decision was made out of respect for the King, given it was his private area in life and where he died of a heart attack in 1977.
Yet did you know several other secret rooms around the mansion are 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 around the house.
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. In this space, 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.
Elvis had liked the birds, known in some religions to represent eternal life, and had stained glass panels of them put up by the Music Room. These peacocks were designed in 1974 by his girlfriend of the time Linda Thompson.
As for what had turned him against them, Angie shared: “There were actually some pet peacocks that ran around the property here at Graceland at one point. That was until they started seeing their reflection in the gold Cadillac and started pecking the paint off the car. Needless to say, the car got a paint job and the peacocks found a new home at the Memphis Zoo.”
