By: Marcia Abramson
My education began a few weeks ago when I arrived at the Peabody Memphis Hotel, an elegant 14-story Italian Renaissance Revival architectural edifice at the heart of downtown Memphis adjacent to the Peabody Place Entertainment & Retail Center. I learned that the Peabody Memphis has been a Memphis institution since 1869 and brims with history, tradition, Southern hospitality and true Tennessee style. Just about everybody of importance like Presidents Andrew Johnson and William McKinley and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Jubal Early stayed at the famed hostelry. Plantation owners, professional gamblers and movie stars, noted author William Faulkner and aviator Charles Lindbergh were known to be guests here as well. In the early days the going rate was $3 to $4 a day for a room and meals, extra for a fire or gaslight. The original hotel only cost $60,000 to build. In 1923 the hotel closed. A new enlarged $5 million Peabody was opened at its present location in 1925. The 1930s and 1940s brought many innovations to the hotel with the introduction of three national radio broadcasts featuring the music of Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and Paul Whiteman who appeared at the Peabody. Also the famous Peabody Ducks took up daytime residence in the lobby fountain. They were trained to march on a red carpet to the music of John Phillip Sousa every evening at 5 p.m. They march to their private elevator to the Duck Palace on the roof of the hotel and retire for the night. This has become a much-appreciated ritual for hotel guests at all the Peabodys, according to general manager Douglas Browne. The city of Memphis like many urban areas began to decline economically and socially in the 1970s. Businesses, shoppers and retailers left the area. The Peabody was forced to close due to fire damage and possible mismanagement by many changes in ownership. Pelz Enterprises started the rebirth of downtown Memphis with their purchase of the Peabody on Aug. 1, 1975. It took six years and a $25 million renovation program before the Peabody reopened on Sept. 1, 1981. The Pelz family led by patriarch Philip Pelz was lauded for restoring and reopening the venerated landmark. I don't think that there is a cultural activity in Memphis that does not have Pelz family involvement. Marty Pelz, president and chairman of the Peabody Hotel group, said, "We are proud to have established a cultural alliance with each city over which the Peabody flag flies." The first cultural alliance began with the foundation of the Orlando Peabody Alliance for the Arts and Culture (OPAAC) in 1966. Similar cultural alliances will be forged with Memphis and Little Rock Peabody Hotels, pledged Marty Pelz. During my whirlwind tour of Memphis, the lovely Maureen Brigid Gonzalez, the coordinator of the Peabody Orlando, Memphis and Little Rock Cultural Programs, saw to it that I did not miss attending any planned event. Future columns will deal with some of the outstanding cultural Memphis destinations. I will share with you what I saw at the Peabody Place Museum. The Museum houses Jack and Marilyn Pelz's awesome collection of Chinese jade and ivory carvings, Judaica, Russian lacquer and Italian mosaics. Actually, I learned more about Chinese jade from Jack Pelz than I learned on my visits to the Far East. Other planned programs included attending the National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis Symphony, Memphis Opera, Ballet Memphis, Dixon Galleries, Pink Palace, Chucalissa Indian Museum, Brooks Museum, Children's Museum, Memphis Black Repertory Theatre, Opera Memphis, National Ornamental Metal Museum, B.B. King's Blues Club, Gibson guitar factory, Memphis Rock in Soul Museum and additional Mem/PAAC alliance members.
© Copyright by Marcia AbramsonE-mail address: mascribe@aol.com
