After Elvis Presley‘s death in August 1977, it was the Presley family’s wish that his suite of upstairs rooms remain untouched. Elvis’ bedroom, dressing area, office, and bathroom are the same as the fateful day the king of rock and roll died. However, there are some items have been removed.
The items that are no longer in Elvis Presley’s sealed bedroom
Elvis Presley’s sudden death on Aug. 16, 1977, occurred in the master suite bathroom in Graceland. The room was attached to his bedroom.
The entertainer was found unconscious by then-fiance Ginger Alden. She called for help, and Elvis was rushed to Baptist Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:30 p.m.
After Elvis’ death, the family sealed off his suite of rooms, leaving them exactly as they were on that fateful day. When Graceland opened for tours in 1982, the upstairs was off-limits to visitors.
However, a few select people have been invited into the sacred space by Lisa Marie Presley. These included Lisa Marie’s ex-husbands Nicolas Cage and Michael Jackson, Elvis actor Austin Butler, and the film’s director Baz Luhrmann.
Luhrmann told Apple Music Country, “Lisa Marie protects it because of what happened there. But I did go in, and without giving away too much, nothing’s been touched.”
However, he did indicate some things are missing from Elvis’ sanctuary. “The clothes have been removed, but nothing else has been touched.”
Baz Luhrmann also revealed other details regarding Elvis Presley’s bedroom
Director Baz Luhrmann says Lisa Marie Presley granted him rare access to Elvis Presley’s bedroom while researching his music biopic Elvis. However, there were specific stipulations he had to adhere to.
The director only had 20 minutes in the sacred space. He was not allowed to take photographs of the suite of rooms.
He said, “I had to remember everything in 20 minutes. I wasn’t allowed to take a camera or anything.”
Luhrmann continued, “I had to remember everything to reproduce it for the set.” He says he saw a white organ in the sitting room next to the bedroom and “a spiritual book open on a coffee table, sitting next to where the guitar was.”
Lisa Marie Presley once said Elvis’ bedroom is like a ‘time capsule’
When Elvis Presley first moved into Graceland in 1957, he installed a privacy wall on the upstairs landing with one-way mirrors for security. He regarded his bedroom as his sanctuary, and no one was allowed upstairs unless the king of rock and roll personally invited them.
In an interview with USA Today, Lisa Marie Presley once discussed her father’s inner sanctum. His suite of rooms was connected to her bedroom.
“It’s got an extraordinary energy there when you go,” she says. It is “like a time capsule: nothing’s been changed or moved since 1977.”
She continued the area is “like a time warp, and the energy is still very much there. You can feel it.”
“It’s from the essence of that period. It’s an exceptional place, and it was incredible to grow up there,” Lisa Marie continued.
In a subsequent YouTube interview with Jezebel, Lisa Marie revealed that Elvis’ bedroom was where she went to find solace. She said, “It’s the one place I feel the safest.”
Lisa Marie once said of the suite of rooms, “I keep the key for upstairs with me. Up there is just his [Elvis’] room and my room. It was his sanctuary. I can shut that door and feel the safest and the calmest I can feel.”
Elvis Presley’s body was interred in Graceland’s Meditation Garden in 1977. His daughter, Lisa Marie Presley, was buried across from her father in January 2023.