WHAT’S HOT IN MEMPHIS

You might want to stay longer, but you can see a lot in a long weekend. Start with a trip to the modest Sun Studio where the “Memphis Flash” made his first recording. He stood right on this tile floor in July of 1953, the very spot now marked with a black X, and sang “My Happiness,” into the microphone, which some ardent fans have been known to fondle and lick. Tastier light refreshment is available at the fifties soda fountain next door, once also Elvis’s hangout.

From Sun Studio, head for Graceland, which is the second most visited residence in the United States after the White House. Visitors get popeyed not only at the sprawl and contents of the King’s homestead, but also strolling through the length of his jet, gazing at his turquoise convertible, razzmatazz outfits, fake-fur-covered furniture, his “jungle room,” gun collection, reading material (“Gods From Outer Space”) and gravesite at which some visitors weep. His tombstone is engraved, “He was a precious gift from God” and he’s buried next to his mother, father and other family members, whose bodies were moved to this site. Everywhere one listens to his recordings and watches his performances on TV monitors while meandering through the macro complex or shopping in the Graceland gift shops for Elvis potholders, shot glasses, dupes of his Social Security card or driver’s license.

The beat continues on famous Beale Street, a two-block stretch of cool sounds and cold beer. There are goats in the back yard at Silky Sullivan’s, inside are “duelin’ pianos”–two or three hot players in concert–or topnotch singing talent at the mike. Beverages come in bottles or plastic cups in keeping with the tattoo-and-denim ambiance of the street, which generally comes to life after ten at night. The Rum Boogie Café down the street, with its dark brick and hanging-guitars decor, is famous for its blues, and a glass of Bud or Coke is the only price of admission to hear first-rate performers here as in most of the street’s venues. An exception is B.B.King’s, where there’s a cover of about $7 or $10, depending on who’s at the door.

Memphis is of course, all about music, and in May of this year, the first Museum of American Soul will open on East McLenore Avenue on the site of the original STAX recording company. Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes and many other American legends recorded on this hallowed ground during the 60’s and 70’s, and STAX will now be reborn not only as a museum but also as the Academy of Music in an adjacent building. In an area where the average annual income is below $13000 per year, the school will be a magnet for neighborhood school children, “nurturing those with a deficit” in the words of the director, Deanie Parker. With funding from foundations, the government and private contributions, it will offer after-school music programs, a summer camp, recording studio and its own radio station. The museum, located in the two square mile area dubbed Soulsville, USA, in honor of its genesis of the Blues and of Rock and Roll, will pay homage to Soul in live performances, a recreation of the famous STAX Studio A, and assorted Soul-related artifacts and memorabilia. The complex is a 20 million dollar project, a long-time paean to the music that is not gospel, not blues, not rhythm and blues, but influenced by all three.

If the Memphis of yesterday and today is everywhere about the pleasure of music, its minor key is in the National Civil Rights Museum, on the site of the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. Here experience the you-are-there of standing in the Main Street Boarding House from which James Earl Ray shot Dr. King dead at the Lorraine Motel across the street. The small bathroom in which it is presumed Ray stood to take aim is preserved exactly as it was, as is the motel room in which Dr. King slept. A recent expansion of the museum includes Exploring the Legacy, which examines the history of the Civil Rights Movement following his death. The Freedom Rides, Montgomery Bus Boycotts, Washington Protest Marches, lynchings, are recorded in chilling detail.

And, there’s much more to see in the city: The Chinese Art Collection at the Peabody Museum, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Fire Museum, Gibson Guitar Factory, the Memphis Zoo.

A downtown trolley system that connects many of the city’s principal attractions makes Memphis convenient for sightseeing visitors.