Elvis Presley’s home has been open to the public as a museum for over 40 years, but nobody is allowed upstairs.
That is unless you are Priscilla Presley, his granddaughter Riley Keough or someone with special permission like Graceland’s Vice President of Archives and Exhibits Angie Marchese.
Even when Elvis first moved into Graceland back in 1957, he was conscious of protecting his privacy.
The Memphis mansion had an open house for his family and inner circle, but the upstairs was by invitation only.
The world-famous singer even had a security wall with a one-way mirror installed on the first-floor landing, with security cameras for him to see who was downstairs.
Graceland’s upstairs includes Elvis’ office, his dressing room, his daughter Lisa Marie’s room, plus his bedroom and the bathroom where he died on the toilet of a heart attack at just 42 on August 16, 1977, 47 years ago today. Since it was Elvis’ private space in his life, it remains so in his death. However, Angie has spoken of what it’s like up there, as it’s her job to preserve The King’s inner sanctum – rooms that the late Lisa Marie described as the one place she felt safest in the whole world.
Speaking previously in an Instagram Q&A from inside Graceland, the archivist admitted the upstairs is preserved as The King had it in 1977, saying: “It looks as if he just got up and left. It is part of my job to maintain it. So we do go up there to maintain the space. The record on the record player is the last record he listened to. There’s a styrofoam cup that sits on a bookshelf. The bed is made, so we really maintain it the way that Lisa wants us to preserve it. So, unfortunately, [fans] can’t see it, but it is taken care of.”
