The man telling this story ran carnival games before he ran Elvis. So try his. Under one of these shells is Graceland, under another Beale Street, under the third the International Hotel in Las Vegas. Lift one and see where it really was.
Three shells, three American places. Shuffle them, then lift one.
Sound stages at Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, in 2010. figaj · CC BY 3.0
Entertainment Road, Oxenford, Gold Coast
Village Roadshow Studios
Played Beale Street, the International ballroom, Graceland’s rooms
The production occupied the whole studio complex, all nine sound stages, from October 2019 until it wrapped in 2021.
A full-sized replica of the International Hotel’s Las Vegas ballroom was built here, and Beale Street was rebuilt in an outdoor area behind the stages.
The Graceland interiors were built on the sound stages, not far from the facade.
The studios are not open to the public. They stand beside the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, which opened on 3 June 1991.
A working studio, not open to the public. Warner Bros. Movie World, the theme park next door, is.
Where we read it
Village Roadshow Theme Parks
Warner Bros. Movie World
Oxenford, Gold Coast
The theme park beside Village Roadshow Studios at Oxenford. The studios themselves are closed to visitors; this is as close as you can get.
Before six sold-out shows in Jacksonville, a juvenile court judge, Marion Gooding, met Elvis with arrest warrants drawn up, for “impairing the morals of minors”. Deputies waited in the wings and the judge sat in the back row. The film moves this moment to a Memphis ballpark and adds a riot. Play it in the real theatre first.
Back row: the judgeFlorida Theatre · as it happened
The Florida Theatre, Jacksonville, 10 August 1956. The judge is in the back row with his warrants. What do you move?
Where we read it
Six shows on 10 and 11 August 1956; Judge Gooding’s warrants; the back row; the little finger.
The Florida Theatre on East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, May 2016. bubba73 · CC BY-SA 3.0
128 East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, Florida
The Florida Theatre, Jacksonville
Elvis played six sold-out shows here on 10 and 11 August 1956.
Juvenile Court Judge Marion Gooding prepared warrants for “impairing the morals of minors”, met him beforehand and sat in the back row. Elvis teased him by wiggling his little finger.
Deputies stood in the wings; Elvis kept still and wiggled the finger all through the show.
It opened on 8 April 1927 as the largest theatre in Florida, and reopened after restoration in October 1983.
A working performing-arts theatre downtown; see a show to go inside.
Where we read it
4 July 1956
Madison Avenue in the Medical District, 2012: the ballpark stood beside this road until 1960. A view of the street, not of the ballpark. Thomas R. Machnitzki · CC BY 3.0
Madison Avenue, Medical District, Memphis
Russwood Park, Madison Avenue
Elvis played a concert at this ballpark on 4 July 1956.
A fire after the last game, on 17 April 1960, destroyed it. City directories gave its address as 914 Madison Avenue.
The film stages a riot here. AARP’s fact check says the show happened but there was no riot; the film borrows the little-finger wiggle from Jacksonville.
The stadium and its crowd in the film are computer-built from historical reference, using more than 100 scanned extras.
Nothing of the ballpark survives. You can walk Madison Avenue, where it stood.
Where we read it
Mississippi · Tennessee · Louisiana
Before the Colonel.
A two-room house in Tupelo, a $4 record for his mother in Memphis, and a Saturday-night radio show in Shreveport. The film rebuilt Tupelo and the Hayride auditorium by computer; the real ones are still standing.
1935
The two-room house in Tupelo where Elvis Presley was born, October 2018. Bubba73 · CC BY-SA 3.0
306 Elvis Presley Drive, Tupelo, Mississippi
The Elvis Presley Birthplace, Tupelo
The two-room house was built in 1934 with $180 of borrowed materials; Elvis was born there on 8 January 1935.
The film’s Tupelo was built digitally by the Sydney effects house FIN.
Monday to Saturday 9am–4pm, Sunday 1–4pm. House, church and museum: adults $25.
Where we read it
Elvis Presley Birthplace
Elvis Presley Birthplace
Tupelo · All three · adults $25
The two-room house, the family’s church and the museum.
The film’s team walked Beale Street for days, then built it again in an outdoor area behind Village Roadshow Studios. Its club, Club Handy, is where the young Elvis meets the blues in the film.
Storefronts, fitted out with neon signs
Window paint and paper flyers, by 16 graphic designers
Period cars, trucked in and repainted
More than 300 picture cars and motorbikes across the film
In the film it is where young Elvis hears the blues, and its club, Club Handy, is one of the places Australia doubled.
The crew rebuilt the street behind the studio: storefronts with neon, window paint and paper flyers by 16 graphic designers, and period cars trucked in and repainted.
The stretch from Main to 4th became a National Historic Landmark in 1966; Congress named Beale Street the Home of the Blues in 1977.
A public street of blues clubs and restaurants, busiest at night.
Where we read it
Viator · Ad / affiliate
Memphis music tours
Memphis
Live marketplace results for Elvis and Memphis music tours. None is about this film; check each itinerary.
The filmmakers looked for land with the same rise as the lawn in Memphis and found it in the Gold Coast hinterland. The facade took ten weeks. Then the pandemic stopped the shoot, and Graceland stood wrapped in plastic for almost a year, its lawns and plants watered and trimmed round it, while the rooms waited on the sound stages.
Where we read it
Ten weeks; private property in Guanaba; plastic for almost a year; interiors on the stages.
A hillside photographed at sunrise and rebuilt in Melbourne. A comeback taped in a Burbank studio. A ballroom built full size in Queensland, with Las Vegas painted round it by computer in Adelaide.
The Hollywood Sign from Griffith Observatory, July 2022. Andrek02 · CC0
Mount Lee, Los Angeles
The Hollywood Sign
For the film’s Hollywood sequence, Luma’s Los Angeles team photographed the hillside and the valley at sunrise; the scene was built from those panoramas.
The Trust marked the Sign’s hundredth anniversary in 2023.
Griffith Observatory and Ovation Hollywood are the Trust’s recommended viewpoints.
Seen best from Griffith Observatory, which has free parking, or from Ovation Hollywood.
Where we read itThe Burbank Studios, formerly NBC Studios, on West Alameda Avenue, 2014. Junkyardsparkle · CC0
3000 West Alameda Avenue, Burbank, California
The Burbank Studios, once NBC
The ’68 Comeback Special was filmed at NBC’s Burbank studios in June 1968 and aired on 3 December.
AARP rates the film’s version of the special 8 out of 10: the director, Steve Binder, really did steer Elvis back to his strengths, and Parker saw Binder as a threat.
NBC owned the studios from 1952; they have been The Burbank Studios since 2014.
A working television studio; see it from West Alameda Avenue.
Where we read itWestgate Las Vegas, formerly the International Hotel, April 2018. Jeff Hitchcock · CC BY 2.0
3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas
Westgate Las Vegas, once the International
Elvis opened a 57-show engagement at the new International Hotel on 31 July 1969.
The hotel counts 636 sold-out shows by him over seven years, ending in December 1976.
In the film, the hotel and the Strip around it are a digital build by Rising Sun Pictures in Adelaide; the ballroom stage was built full size on the Gold Coast.
A working resort and casino; its theatre still stages Elvis shows.
Where we read it
Westgate Resorts
Westgate Las Vegas
Las Vegas
The old International Hotel, where the Las Vegas engagement opened in 1969; its theatre still stages Elvis shows.
The film has Elvis find out that the Colonel is from Holland, with no papers, and fire him from the stage. AARP’s fact check says neither happened. Elvis did want to play Europe, and Parker blocked it, citing security and the size of the venues. The film ends in Las Vegas, with his death in 1977.
Austin Butler (Elvis) at the film’s Sydney premiere, June 2022. Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Austin ButlerElvis Presley · June 2022
Tom Hanks (Colonel Tom Parker) at the film’s Sydney premiere, June 2022. Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Tom HanksColonel Tom Parker · June 2022
Olivia DeJonge (Priscilla Presley) at the film’s Sydney premiere, June 2022. Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Olivia DeJongePriscilla Presley · June 2022
Baz Luhrmann, director, at the film’s Sydney premiere, June 2022. Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Baz LuhrmannDirector · June 2022
Elvis Presley and Colonel Tom Parker in 1969, the year the Las Vegas engagement began. Unknown photographer · Public domain
The real pairElvis and the Colonel · 1969
Austin Butler plays Elvis, cast in July 2019 after an audition tape of him singing; Tom Hanks plays Colonel Tom Parker and Olivia DeJonge Priscilla. Baz Luhrmann directed and co-wrote it; Catherine Martin designed the costumes and the sets. Shooting began on the Gold Coast on 28 January 2020 and stopped on 12 March, when Hanks and Rita Wilson tested positive for COVID-19; it resumed on 23 September and wrapped in March 2021.
It premiered at Cannes on 25 May 2022, took $288.7 million worldwide and had eight Academy Award nominations.
Where we read it
Cast, casting, dates, Cannes, box office and nominations.
Elvis Presley’s own World, with Graceland, Sun, Lansky and the army years, is Elvis Presley.
The whole midway.
Where it is now
12 places you can visit: 2 on the Gold Coast, 4 in Memphis and 6 on the road. The studio lots are seen from outside. The Guanaba property is private and is not on the map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working studio, not open to the public. Warner Bros. Movie World, the theme park next door, is.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: building · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A shopping centre with a cinema, a short walk from Broadbeach South light-rail station.
1
Sound stages at Village Roadshow Studios, Oxenford, in 2010. figaj · CC BY 3.0
Entertainment Road, Oxenford, Gold Coast
Village Roadshow Studios
The production occupied the whole studio complex, all nine sound stages, from October 2019 until it wrapped in 2021.
A working studio, not open to the public. Warner Bros. Movie World, the theme park next door, is.
Where we read it
2
Pacific Fair beside Little Tallebudgera Creek, Broadbeach, 2014. Shiftchange · CC0
Hooker Boulevard, Broadbeach Waters, Gold Coast
Event Cinemas, Pacific Fair
The Australian premiere was held here on a Saturday night in June 2022; hundreds lined up outside Event Cinemas, Elvis impersonators among them.
A shopping centre with a cinema, a short walk from Broadbeach South light-rail station.
Where we read it
Stay
Sleep near the real ones.
Graceland’s own hotel, and the old International in Las Vegas.
Guest House at Graceland
The Guest House at Graceland
Whitehaven, Memphis
Graceland’s own hotel, steps from the mansion, with packages that include the mansion tour. Pictured: Graceland.
Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
The barker’s ledger
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
13 of 13 places · 17 of 17 Moments
Village Roadshow Studios
Entertainment Road, Oxenford, Gold Coast
Nine stages
Graceland’s rooms, the International ballroom and Beale Street all built on one studio lot.
The ballroom
The International’s ballroom, built full size on a Gold Coast sound stage.
Graceland’s facade, Guanaba
Guanaba, in the Gold Coast hinterland
Graceland’s facade
Graceland’s outside is built on a hinterland paddock in ten weeks, then wrapped in plastic for almost a year.
Event Cinemas, Pacific Fair
Hooker Boulevard, Broadbeach Waters, Gold Coast
The Gold Coast premiere
The Australian premiere, outside Event Cinemas at Pacific Fair.
Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue
Union Avenue, Memphis
The demo
He pays about $4 to record a demo for his mother.
Beale Street
Beale Street, downtown Memphis
Beale Street, rebuilt
Beale Street and Club Handy, rebuilt behind the studio with neon, flyers and repainted period cars.
Russwood Park, Madison Avenue
Madison Avenue, Medical District, Memphis
Russwood Park
The film’s riot at the ballpark: a composite, with the little finger taken from Jacksonville.
4 July 1956
Elvis plays the ballpark on Independence Day.
Graceland
Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis
Graceland
Elvis buys Graceland for $102,500.
The Elvis Presley Birthplace, Tupelo
306 Elvis Presley Drive, Tupelo, Mississippi
Tupelo
Elvis’s boyhood in Tupelo, rebuilt digitally.
Born
Elvis is born in the two-room house.
Shreveport Municipal Auditorium
705 Elvis Presley Avenue, Shreveport, Louisiana
The Hayride
The Colonel first sees Elvis on the Louisiana Hayride; the film makes it a first sight, which it was not.
Hayride debut
Elvis makes his Louisiana Hayride debut.
The Florida Theatre, Jacksonville
128 East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, Florida
The little finger
Under a judge’s warning, Elvis stands still and wiggles his little finger.
The Burbank Studios, once NBC
3000 West Alameda Avenue, Burbank, California
The comeback
The ’68 Comeback Special, and the Colonel’s fight to make it a Christmas show.
The Hollywood Sign
Mount Lee, Los Angeles
Hollywood
The Hollywood Sign, built digitally from photographs taken on the hill at sunrise.
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