I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #12, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

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On Labor Day Weekend, the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum will finally be opening. Although there have been annual inductions into the “hall” as a concept since 1986, the physical building itself has been plagued by delays.

Elvis will be prominent in many of the exhibits, and an entire section of the museum will be devoted to his 1968 ELVIS television special.

To complement clips from the show, which has become known as ELVIS: ’68 Comeback Special, some key items will be on display. An article in Graceland Express said, “Graceland presented to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame the black leather suit Elvis wore in the special, along with his gold album award for the soundtrack, his personal scrapbook and script from the production, and his 1960 Gibson J-200 guitar which was one of several he played in the show.” The items are considered “on loan” to the museum.

Rock fashions will be featured in another section of the museum, for which Graceland loaned a jumpsuit worn in his 1970 documentary Elvis: That’s The Way It Is.

The items “are the most valuable that have ever left Graceland’s archive for any extended length of time. . . . The sacrifice was deemed worthwhile to ensure that Elvis is represented in the best possible way in the museum,” stated Graceland Express.

In 1992, the museum acquired Elvis’ karate jacket, a blue suede coat, and a sign from the Crown Electric Company, where Elvis worked in the early 1950s. The Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame & Museum is expected to draw 800,000 visitors each year.

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #12, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

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E-mail has a new meaning. Forget “Electronic mail.” Now there is only one definition: “Elvis mail.” Graceland now has two Internet E-mail addresses for fans with access to a computer and a modem.

Fans can send questions, comments, or suggestions about Graceland or Elvis directly to the Graceland corporate office. The addresses are: [. . .].

The Internet addresses are the result of Graceland recently opening the Elvis Presley Fan Club Forum on the InterComm Bulletin Board Service. To connect to the InterComm service for the first time with a modem, dial [. . .].

According to Graceland Express, the fan club forum will include “a bulletin section which lists the latest news from Graceland, Elvis Week and other event information . . . and interesting Elvis facts and trivia.”

I was 20 when I wrote this article back in 1995 for The Elvis Beat #12, my official Elvis Presley Fan Club newsletter.

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Fans visiting Graceland this summer can look forward to a revamped tour of the mansion, featuring a new audio guide system and the addition of the home’s kitchen to the experience.

The audio tours were slated to begin in the spring. According to Graceland Express, “Guests will pick up a headset and tape machine in the visitor center. . . . Then the tour of the house, grounds, fan mail office, racquetball building, and trophy room will be presented almost entirely on tape.”

The audio tour will include a narrator, but will primarily feature the voice of Elvis from spoken material and musical recordings. “It is expected to feel very much as if Elvis himself is giving the tour, especially in the trophy room,” stated Graceland Express.

The kitchen is the first new room added to the public tour since the opening of the mansion in 1982. The kitchen has been restored to the way it was when Elvis was alive. “It has harvest gold appliances and avocado-colored appliances. It’s very much the ’70’s,” a Graceland spokesperson said.

The audio tour was expected to be available in several different languages by the summer. In the future, the audio concept will also be considered for the other Graceland attractions, including the airplanes and the car museum. Traditional tour guides will remain on staff at the mansion to answer questions or offer other services.