Memphis Tennessee

Day 16, Wednesday, 9/23, To Memphis and Introspection

We hightailed back north to Memphis. Memphis is the unofficial capital of the Mississippi delta, where financiers became rich off of Mississippi cotton and rock n’ rollers like Elvis were inspired by blues songs that were relief for the hired hands picking cotton. 

Day 16 was some day. We drove from poorest Clarksdale to Memphis for Yom Kippur services at Temple Israel, one of the wealthiest congregations in the country, to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, where Reverend Martin Luther King was assassinated. Tammy said “it was like drinking American history from a fire hose.”

Yom Kippur at Temple Israel. Memphis has several conservative and orthodox synagogues. Given our religious traditions we contacted the only reformed synagogue in Memphis, Temple Israel. They graciously opened their doors for us.  Temple Israel is impressive. It is the largest and oldest congregation in Tennessee, and one of the largest Reform congregation in the United States. It is a major resource for the Memphis Jewish community with its multitude of facilities including a Hebrew school, Beit Midrash (study hall), event space, and museum. Services are broadcast over the Internet. (Temple Ohabai Shalom in Nashville, where we attended Rosh Hashanah, also broadcast services.) Temple Israel is located in a treed suburban community called Germantown, not far from our Hampton Inn hotel on Shady Grove Road. (Coincidentally, we live not far from Germantown and Shady Grove Road in Montgomery County, MD.)  Rabbi Micah Greenstein conducted a meaningful service. We liked the mahzor (prayer book) and the passages that were read. The service was mainly in English with well-known passages recited in Hebrew. Congregants fully participated in prayers and readings.  We were surprised when Rabbi Greenstein announced dinners and lectures for each of the eight nights of Sukkot (the harvest festival): benefits of a large congregation. The downside is that with so many attendees, the service can feel a bit impersonal to guests.

“The semicircular design of the 1,500 seat sanctuary implies that there is another
half beyond its confines: … for the community at large.”

National Civil Rights Museum. We thought we were not violating the sanctity of Yom Kippur to visit the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorrain Hotel. The museum is attached to the façade of the Lorraine Hotel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Reverend King’s hotel room has been retained as part of museum.

National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorrain Hotel

Jesse Jackson, Rev. Martin Luther King, and Rev. Ralph Abernathy
on the balcony (Associated Press)

Civil rights leader Andrew Young and others standing on  balcony of Lorraine motel 
pointing in the direction of assailant after assassination of civil rights leaders. 
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,who is lying at their feet. (Life Magazine)

The museum is world class.  Multi-sensory displays, large scale artifacts, news film clips, introductory movies make for a riveting experience.  Museum attendants insisted that you walk through the rooms of the museum in order. On the floor of the first room is an outline of Africa's western  coast and wide arrows showing the movement of slaves from Africa, to West Indies and the Americas. Inside the arrows are the number of Africans abducted and moved to  the Americas—12.5 million in total, 5 million to Brazil alone, 1/2 million to the United states. Two million died in-route. [See http://www.slavevoyages.org] To the right in a small alcove are statues of five Africans stripped to their shorts, seated and shackled to a wood plank floor on a slave transport ship. The wood planks give a little as you walk on them, and you can hear the men’s faint breathes, moans and coughs.

Four (of the five) statues of Africans on a slave transport ship

Fast forward past the Civil War, emancipation proclamation, the KKK, Jim Crow laws, to the civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s that we are more familiar with. It was the era of Freedom Riders and sit-ins and brutal responses. You walk through room after room with film clips showing white men and women humiliating and brutalizing black men and women. In one scene you see black men and women sitting on whites-only seats at the drugstore counter.  After throwing food at them, white men like your next door neighbors turn into thugs dragging black people to the floor.  And you see worse. The museum has full-sized replicas of the bus on which Rosa Parks defied whites-only seating and a fire bombed Freedom Riders bus going to Birmingham AL. We spoke with a parent who told us that his 12-year-old daughter asked, “Dad, this didn’t really happen, did it?”

Sculpture of sit-in at the counter and film clip on wall

Replica of burnt Freedom Rider bus.

Photo, near Anniston, Alabama, of one of two Freedom Rider buses 
en route to Birmingham.Burnt by a white mob

Bull Connor, head of Birmingham’s police, told the Klan that the police would stay away 
from Birmingham’s bus terminal for fifteen minutes after the Freedom Riders arrived,
 enough time to severely beat James Peck, and others, into the hospital.  
This picture was reclaimed from a local journalist whowas beaten 
and whose camera was smashed.(Federal Bureau of Investigation)

Martin was famished. His last meal was a couple of beers late afternoon yesterday at the Hopson Planation listening to Mr. Birdsong tell us about life in Clarksdale. We returned from the Civil Rights Museum situated south of Beale Street in downtown Memphis to our comfortable neighborhood on Shady Grove Road. Small businesses are opening up in the neighborhood around the museum. We ate at Seasons 52.

Bridges Hall being escorted to a white New Orleans school by federal marshals.
Court-ordered integration of New Orleans' schools in 1960. Hangs outside the Oval Office,
 Norman Rockwell

Day 17, Thursday 9/24, Our Second Rest day

Another day of rest: a good way to think about what we have seen and update plans and rest for the next leg of our journey.  Hung out at the Hampton Inn. Caught up on writing and reading. Got carry-out from Houston’s that reminded us of the Houston’s, our neighborhood dinning spot and travern that we miss since it closed a few years ago. Shopped for provisions at Fresh Market and Whole Foods.

Day 18, Friday, 9/25, Rock n' Roll

Today we are taking in the lighter side of Memphis—the birthplace of rock n’ roll, and tasty ribs and brisket.

Sun Studios. We headed west on Poplar Avenue which runs from our hotel on the east side of Memphis all the way to the Mississippi River. Sun Studio is in an unassuming building on the corner of Union and Marshall Streets. It is said that "If music was a religion, then Memphis would be Jerusalem and Sun Studio its most holy shrine." 

Sun Studio at &06 Union Avenue

We netered into a small room with a counter and a few chairs and small round tables.  The room can barely accommodate the 20 people that are going on the tour. You can buy a beer or soda and souvenirs at the counter.

Sun Studio lobby

The recording studio is still in operation.  One of the recording engineers is our tour guide. To start the tour you go up a narrow staircase into an area with display cases and Sam Phillips’ DJ booth at WREC radio.

Our tour guide and the display cases

Sam Phillips WREC DJ booth

Sam Phillips with his friend Marion Keisker opened the Memphis Recording Service in this building that later became Sun Studios. His policy was to record anyone who walked in from the street who could pay a nominal $4 fee.  Sam continued working as a DJ at night at WREC until he could support himself through the recording service. His Memphis Recording Service did not press records, instead he sold recording to large record labels like Chess Records in Chicago.

Our tour guide takes us through the displays that are of course in chronological order. They contain some pretty neat stuff, among many other things, BB King’s Guitar and a poster for a Howling Wolf -- Muddy Waters battle of the blues musicians.

BB King's Guitar

Howling Wolf -- Muddy Waters battle of the blues musicians

At the Ike Turner display, we learn that although his behavior toward Tina Turner has tarnished his reputation, he was a native son of Clarksdale MS (see our Clarksdale write-up), and is an important contributor to Rock and Roll history. Turner’s band “Kings of Rhythm” recorded “Rocket 88” the first rock and roll song to reach #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. Ike Turner worked out the song on the piano and Jackie Brenston, the saxophonist for the band, was the lead singer. The song was recorded at Phillips’ Recording Service and then sold to Chess Records, who released it under the name of “Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats”.  The success of the record prompted Phillips to start his own record label, Sun Records. ( "Rocket 88" on you tube mysteriously interspersed with scenes of Bette Page, “queen of the pinups”   "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gbfnh1oVTk0 )

Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm success with “Rocket 88” prompted Phillips to start Sun Records.

After each display case our tour guide plays recordings of the music he has just talked about. Near the end of the tour we asked our guide if Sun Studios was selling the recording of this veritable history of rock and roll. They used to, but now it can be picked up from Amazon—“Best of Sun 60th Anniversary Compilation” at http://www.amazon.com/Sun-60th-Anniversary-Various-Artists/dp/B007A05ECW .

We go downstairs to the recording studio. On the way we pass Marion Keisker desk.

Marion Keisker Desk

Marion Keisker was Sam Phillips assistant. She is credited with discovering Elvis Presley. Marion was the first to record Elvis when in 1953 he came to the studio to record two songs for the $4 fee. A year later on her suggestion Sam Phillips brought Elvis in to record the song “With You”. Although Sam was dissatisfied with the recording, they continued to work together, and eventually Elvis and musicians Scotty Moore and Bill Black recorded a sped up version of the song “That’s All right”, which became the first of five singles Elvis released on the Sun Label.

Sam Phillips and Sun Studio developed the rockabilly sound by mixing rhythm and blues with country. Elvis success brought in other artists such a Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. We could go on and on with the stories about the notable musicians that Sun Studios recorded and promoted. If you’ve grooved to rock n' roll, you shouldn’t miss Sun Studio.

The “Million Dollar Quartet”: Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash

Pictured: (top) Marion Keisker; (left to right) Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Marion Keisker, and Sam Phillips 

Central BBQ. We were hungry after a long day touring rock and roll Jerusalem. Let’s get some of that famous Memphis BBQ. Central BBQ rates at the top of the best BBQ joints in Memphis. They have 3 locations. We drove to the one on the east side of town at 4375 Summer Ave. We parked. While walking to the front door we looked up and saw several nomad-clad men on the roof doing what we construed to be smoking brisket and ribs. Mmmm! 

Central BBQ insignia

The counter at Central BBQ

Let’s not beat around the bush. Martin ordered the ribs with a dry rub and Tammy ordered the brisket with spicy sauce. The plates come with 2 sides. We ordered beans and slaw. The dry-rubbed ribs were very tasty. No need to wet them down with sauce. Tammy loved the lean, slow smoked brisket as did Martin gobbling up the leftovers. According to Tammy's cousin, Don, who smoked a mean brisket himself, all you need is a lean cut of brisket and a smoker. Smoke 15 lbs of brisket for at least 11 hours. Ingredients for the brisket are Don's secret, so far. Ingredients for Central BBQ's dry rub aren't a secret:

Ingredients: 1 tablespoon each: cumin, paprika, granulated garlic, granulated onion, chili powder, brown sugar;  2 tablespoons: kosher salt;  1 teaspoon each: cayenne pepper, black pepper, white pepper. Combine in an airtight container, shake, and store, covered, until ready to use.

 
Downtown: In between Sun Studio’s and Central BBQ, we killed some time going to the Belz Museum of Asian and Judaic Art in downtown Memphis.  The museum is on South Main Street. South Main has been turned into pedestrian way with a trolley line running in the middle. If you have time and the inclination go the Belz Museum to see the incredibly detailed Chinese ivory tusk carvings and the Judaic bronze block sculptures, intricate metal boxes, and a photo exhibit. Mr. Belz emigrated as an infant from Galicia Poland to the USA and became a very successful industrialist who helped develop Memphis.

Chinese ivory tusk carving at Belz Museum

Photo of grandfather teaching grandson Hebrew clandestinely In Iran

Day 19, Saturday, 9/26, Graceland

Graceland. We had debated whether to visit Graceland or not. We didn’t especially want to visit what could turn out to be a tourist trap to see a gaudy mansion.  Are we that effete that we wouldn’t visit the King of Rock and Roll’s pad?

We head west on route 240 then zigzag over to Graceland on route 51.  We notice that you can’t drive onto the Graceland estate, instead you park across the street. Parking is $10.  Our suspicions about this being a tourist trap are raised a little bit. We haven’t bought entrance tickets yet. We walked across the large parking lot and notice Elvis Presley’s 707 private jet called “Lisa Marie” parked behind a wall. We take a few photographs against the wall and then follow the signs to a terminal building to buy tickets.

Martin, Tammy, and Elvis Presley

Tickets for visiting the Graceland mansion and archives, not the plane or other offerings, and taking all discounts possible is $68 for the two of us. We have accepted that we are here, we’re going to see the Graceland mansion, and not be bothered by any nickel-and-diming. The terminal is packed with tourist who have come on their own or on tour buses. You get to Graceland on shuttle buses. While we wait for over an hour for our shuttle, we walk through the five rooms of the souvenir shop that sell small trinkets up to head-to-toe Elvis Presley costumes.

Souvenirs

Elvis Presley's Las Vegas Costumes

Our group is called to line up for our shuttle bus.  Before we board, the attendant takes our picture in front a Presley mural. We figure correctly that we will be asked to buy these pictures in various sizes and shapes at the end of the tour.  

 

Picture taking at mural for later purchas

Here is the last piece of logistics we’ll talk about.  We are given iPads with straps to carry them on our shoulders. John Stamos (from "Full House" TV show) narrates the iPad portion of the mansion tour. He directs you from room to room and supplements what the docent tells you.

We walked through mansion and grounds and found them to be tastefully done. Not gaudy or over-sized. Here’s Tammy’s gallery of the mansion:

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Den

Billiard Room

Jungle Room

Mansion

Grounds

The archives building had  file cabinet drawers containing personal memorabilia like an bill for interior decorations, a photo of Elvis shaking President Nixon's hand, and a telegram from Elvis congratulating the Beatles on their Sullivan performance.

Interior Decorating Bill (Archives)

Elvis shaking Hands with President Nixon

Elvis congratulating the Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show appearance

The tour tells a whitewashed story about Elvis. But that’s OK. This is a memorial to him, not a PBS Frontline expose. What struck us is that as a young man he was a humble person who attended church and loved singing gospel songs.  In an filmed interview before induction into army he was asked what advice he would give inductees. The young Presley says—“the advice I would give them is to go the straight and narrow, don’t act special.” Long live the King.