Elvis, Memphis, and the Queens of Comedy

Just a quick reference to this blog for when I read it later.  I am on my second week being house bound trying to avoid the corona virus.   Many people have posted online about all of the projects they have completed around their home.  They have posted all of the wonderful meals they have cooked.   Some talk about time bonding with family.  Me?   I have been sitting in my family room daily with the TV playing in the back ground.  I have not bothered to change out of my sweat suits.  My dog is gaining weight from sharing all of my snacks I have been eating while watching the TV.   And I am finding that I am not really hating it.  It's becoming my new norm.  I have travel plans that we cancelled which is minor in the grand scheme of things.   I collect coffee mugs when I travel.  So to entertain  myself I have been having my morning coffee in a different cup each day, and have posted a imaginary travel moment with the cup on Facebook each day.  This morning I used my Memphis Music Hall of Fame coffee cup and traveled to Memphis.   This immediately sparked some memories, both good and bad, from my visit to Memphis.  My movie on  TV is a little boring this afternoon so I decided to write a blog about my memories of the visit to Memphis.

Larry with quarantined beard and Memphis coffee mug

We traveled to Memphis in April of 2018.  This was part of our Music Legends car trip with our friend Gillian from England.   We drove from our home in Baltimore south through the Smokey Mountains and had many fun music related experiences.    To me personally Memphis was the least exciting part of our trip.  To be fair to Memphis though we had spent three days previously in Nashville.  Nashville is a city that is alive all day.  The streets are busy.  The honky tonks have life music playing non stop.  And the streets stay full of tourists.    We were expecting a similar experience in Memphis.   But we arrived to find empty streets and empty honky tonks.  Beale Street, which is Memphis's main entertainment street could not compare to Broadway in Nashville.  In Memphis defence we did not get to spend any evenings in  Memphis as our hotel was about fifty miles south in Tunica, Mississippi.   But our days in Memphis found Beale Street to be almost vacant.

An empty Beale Street in Memphis

Away from Beale Street there was still much to see and do. We spent some time along the water front.   We visited the Bass Pro Shop Pyramid.  That does not sound exciting but it was quite fascinating and well worth visiting.   It sits on the bank of the Mississippi River.  It is huge.   At one time it was a basketball arena.   And it is very impressive.   It contains a hotel, a tropical forest with live alligators, and  a beautiful bar at it peak with a deck over looking the river.

  We spent quite a bit of time exploring the pyramid.   Much of this was spent enjoying the bar and some cool drinks of course.  We had to take the worlds tallest free standing  elevator to reach the bar.  So that gave us one fun fact to add to our list of accomplishments.

World's tallest free standing elevator

Mark and Gillian surrounded by an aquarium at the bar

The bar is located at the top of the elevator.  It has an over sized aquarium filling the area behind the bar.  It was a beautiful place for a drink.

Mark, Gillian and  I on the deck of the Pro Bass Shop Pyramid

Of course if you are in Memphis one of the must see attractions is Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.   I am a huge fan of Elvis.   I believe Gillian also likes Elvis.   But Mark on the other hand really has not opinion one way or the other on Elvis.   So Graceland was kind of a non event for him. 

Two very excited Elvis fans on the bus to Graceland....and Mark

In the end Mark did enjoy the tour.  But just not on the level that I enjoyed it.  The house was a big tacky, dated and bizarre.   But if you love the legend of Elvis you expect and appreciate this.

Graceland

Elvis Living Room

The TV Room

The Famous Jungle Room 

Elvis's Grave

Memorial to Elvis at Graceland

Of course knowing me I had to take at least one funny selfie in Graceland.   I found the perfect location going down the mirrored stair case into the Jungle Room.

All in all the three of us did have fun touring Graceland. 

On a more somber note there are other historical sites to visit in Memphis that are not laughs and fun.    We  visited the Dr. Martin Luther Kind Jr Memorial at the Lorraine Hotel.   This was not a place for fun selfies or laughs.   It is just one of those places you feel you must visit.   It was very moving and heartbreaking to see the location of the murder of Dr. King.  I am a child of the 60's and have emotional memories that will never leave me from the day of his murder.   Seeing the location and the memorial brought all of those back to mind.   It's a place to think.  A place to show respect.  And a space to feel no shame in shedding a tear.

You can actually walk through the hotel where he stayed.  However the museum was closed the day we were there and I was actually kind of glad about that.  I can not imagine the emotion of walking through that room.   I don't think I could have walked into the room.

Adele Givens , Laura Hayes, Mo'Nique and Sommore - The Queens of Comedy

One of the biggest highlights for Mark and I in Memphis was the chance to see the theater where the video The Queens of Comedy was filmed.   For the uninitiated The Queens of Comedy is a wild irreverent hysterical comedy concert filmed in Memphis.  The comedians on the show were Laura Hayes, Adele Givens, Sommore, and our fellow Baltimore favorite Mo'Nique.   Mark and I own the DVD of the concert.  We have watched it many many times and each time are in tears with laughter.   Gillian had not really heard of The Queens of Comedy so we had to teach her all about it.   When the ladies arrive in Memphis they drive across the Mississippi River on the Hernando de Soto Bridge aka The Big M. As the cross the bridge in their car the raise their hand and shout MemPHIS with the accent on the PHIS.   So when we crossed the bridge Mark and I both yelled MemPHIS.   This was not the only time we yelled MemPhis while in the city.  We yelled at at any given opportunity in the city.   Even from the top of the Pro Bass Shop pyramid.   Just ask Gillian

You must yell MemPHIS when crossing this bridge if you visit, just for Mark and I

We talked with a lady at the Memphis visitors center.  We mentioned our love of The Queens of  Comedy and she laughed.  She asked us "Do you guys really remember that show?  That was a long time ago."   And then Mark quoted some jokes to her and she cracked  up.  She said to us you guys are real fans and then shared a joke she remember from the show also.  Poor Gillian was lost to all of this but she is used to that.  We lose her at least once on every trip and have to explain to her our enthusiasm. 

Finally we found the theater where they filmed the show.  The Orpheum Theater in Memphis.  And once more we yelled out loud MemPHIS.

Mo'Nique we did you proud in Memphis.  We shared your jokes.   We yelled MemPHIS.  We educated Gillian about your show.   You are our home town Baltimore Academy Award Winning Actress.   We are you fans.

Mo'Nique

If you travel to Memphis and you see the Orpheum give a big MemPHIS shout for Mark and I and our girl Mo'Nique.   And if you come to visit us at our house we will play the DVD for you.

One last fun note about Memphis.   If you visit the Hard Rock Cafe you can see Shakira's bra.   If you are a fan it's worth the journey.

Everthing I need to know about Hawaii I learned from Elvis and Dennis the Menace

I am a child of the 1950's.   I was born in 1952.  There were only forty eight states in 1952.  I entered the first grade in September 1958 at the age of five.  I turned six three months later.   So in 1959 when I was in the second grade the addition of two new states was something exciting.  At the age of seven I became fascinated with our new fiftieth state.  I can remember going home from school all excited and asking my parents when we were going to be able to visit the new fiftieth state of Hawaii.  We  were a working class family.  My father was a heavy equipment operator and drove a tractor and trailer for the Department of Defense at Aberdeen Proving Ground.  We lived in a rented house in a small town in Maryland.  Hawaii was in a different world.  My sister was just born in 1959.  My father, who was taught by his mother to use a sewing machine, made my mother's maternity clothes for her.  Vacation meant driving down the street to Jeff Baldwin's boat dock and talking our little boat out to  the "flats" just off the city park in Havre de Grace, Maryland to go swimming on Saturday.  The closest I got to Hawaii was getting my parents to buy me the comic book Dennis In Hawaii - congratulation 50th State.

I must have read that comic over one hundred times.  Dennis and his family flew on Pan American Airlines to Hawaii.  Dennis yells to the taxi driver taking them to the airport "We're going to Honey Lulu".  This little boy wanted to go to Honey Lulu also.  Dennis got to go to "Wahoo".  He saw a heavy lady in a moo moo and asked his mother if moo moo was like in cow.   He went to Pearl Harbor, and even though he was too young to understand, he still got teary eyed at Pearl Harbor.  Dennis got to taste poi at a luau and thought it tasted like school paste.  Dennis even included a glossary of Hawaiian words for me to learn

Little did I realize at the young age of seven that fifty three years later I would finally get to visit Hawaii.  And I would not need Dennis' glossary of Hawaiian words because I would be spending my honeymoon on Honey Lulu with my husband who is a linguistics master.

Two years later, in 1961, the new state of Hawaii was still big news.  Hollywood was making movies about the new fiftieth state.  Surfing was becoming a new fascination.  Movies set on the beaches of Hawaii were very popular with the small town Saturday afternoon matinee kids.  And who else, but Elvis Presley, would capitalize on it it best. I still had my Dennis the Menace comic book, but now Elvis now brought Hawaii to life on the big screen.  I saw the movie Blue Hawaii at the State Theater in my little home town on a Saturday afternoon.  From the moment I saw the opening credits and the view of Diamond Head my fascination with Hawaii grew even stronger.

Now I just had to go to Hawaii.  Elvis was there.  He sang on the beach.  He surfed.  He rebelled against his parents.  He got married and sang the beautiful Hawaiian Wedding Song on a canal in Kauai.    I learned about luau's and what the words hooki lau meant.   What I did not learn from Dennis, I learned from Elvis.

Hawaii did not become a reality for me for many years.  My best friend from high school and I talked about going to Hawaii after we graduated.  I started to save some money for the trip.  World travel and tourism was still in it's infancy in 1971.  So the thought of going to o Hawaii was a real fantasy for us at the time.  In reality my best friend got married and I used my savings to go to college.  Hawaii remained in the world of Dennis the Menace comic books and Elvis Presley movies for me. 

I had two other opportunities to go to Hawaii over the years, but both times they did not happen.  One of the planned trips was going to allow me to stay at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel where Gidget and her family stayed when Gidget Goes Hawaiian.  But Hawaii was still a fantasy for me and continued beckoning me in the future.

Two years ago I started thinking about Hawaii again.  I had long lost my Dennis Goes to Hawaii comic book. With the technology of Ebay, I found an original copy of the comic book at a price much higher than the original twenty five cents.  But I wanted it.  When it arrived I was a kid again exploring Hawaii with Dennis and the Mitchell family.  The Elvis movie Blue Hawaii had been in my DVD collection for many years.  It still fascinated and inspired me, even with it's cheesy dialogue and plot.  I was getting older and knew I still wanted to see Hawaii but wanted to go before I was too old to enjoy it.  I wanted to go before I needed a cane or walker.  So sixty seem liked a good age to finally visit the island paradise.   

I was a little nervous about finally going to Hawaii.  I had such high expectations and was afraid I would be disappointed.  I love to travel, but I hate touristy places where nothing is authentic.  I love to meet locals, explore foreign cultures, and learn lots of history.  Hawaii was touristy.  Some places were not authentic.  But there was so much more to see and explore than I had expected.  When I returned home with over a thousand photos I was overwhelmed at what I had seen and learned.  When my daughter came to visit and to see my photos  I broke out the Dennis the Menace comic book and she was amazed that I had been able to recapture Dennis' trip.  I showed her where Dennis had visited and where I had visited.  Everything I had learned from Dennis was still there.  

Now as I am slowly labeling and organizing my photos I have been watching Elvis's Blue Hawaii on my big screen TV.  Along with my guide books, notes I wrote, and Dennis's guides, I also have Elvis's travelogue to be my companion in remembering the details of the vacation.  Elvis wore a blue Hawaiian shirt on the movie poster and sound track album cover to Blue Hawaii.  Can you guess what color shirt I bought in Hawaii to wear to the luau?

As Dennis and the Mitchell said: