Sunday at Sun Studio - April 7, 2019

With all the hype surrounding Sun Studio, you'd think it would be a large place. Not so. In fact, of all the places we saw, this was the least interesting. Overall, not including the cafe, it was three rooms. 

Bob outside Sun Studio

Historical marker in front of Sun Studio.

Need to find Sun Studio?
Look for the huge guitar!

No tour time was specified on our ticket. Upon arrival, we were rushed up the stairs to join a tour that was already in progress. The room was small and looked in poor repair. The floor seemed like it could collapse from all the people crammed in there. 

Our tour guide was trying way too hard to be likable/enthusiastic/personable and sounded like he had the same script on every tour. I don't know how much we had missed. We heard him talk about five minutes, giving us a history of "Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips, a young man who was hired by WHBQ radio after he dropped out of Memphis College of Music. 

Dewey "Daddy-O" Phillips Control Room C where
he smashed records on the floor that he didn't like.

Daddy-O wowed his audiences with his passion for rhythm and blues. He helped launch the careers of Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and my others. When he played records, if he didn't like the music, he would literally shatter the record on the floor of Control Room C. 

Our guide then gave us about 15 minutes to look in the exhibits lining the room. There were so many people that it was hard to see and read the exhibits.

Remember these tape recorders?

B.B. King memorabilia.

From this room, we headed downstairs where we had a very brief talk about this room that was used as the business office. He brushed off this room and took us immediately into the recording studio. 

The business office of Sun Recording Studio.

Our third room was the actual recording studio. He gave us the history of the room, told us all the famous faces who came here to record and then let us loose to take photos of everything in the room, including the microphone Elvis Presley used. Ooooh, big whoop.

The Million Dollar Quartet: Elvis Presley,
Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, and Johnny Cash.

Guitars used by artists
who recorded here.

One of U2's drum sets.

I'd listen to this handsome man sing!

We were goofing around.

My turn to rock.

The tour was over after a half hour and our guide asked for tips. We then were shown to the gift shop/cafe.

A beautiful stained glass piece near the ceiling.

Cafe and gift shop.

Enlarge to read.

An old LP made into a work of art.

A mural at a building next to Sun Studio.

We thought about parking here but decided against it after reading the sign below. No other cars were parked in front of this business.

We thought the Sun Studio tour was rather forgettable and don't recommend it.

A couple of blocks away is the Victorian Village National Historic Neighborhood. While it has beautiful buildings, as you will see below, it is not a neighborhood we would walk through. It was very seedy with many homeless populating the park. One man was lying on a sidewalk. He didn't look like he was doing very well. At first, there was one police car there, by the time we drove around the block, there were five police cars and a fire truck...for one guy.

Here are the buildings in Victorian Village...

The James Lee House.

Woodruff-Fontaine House, 1871.

Mallory-Neely House, circa 1852, a 25-room,
Italian villa-style mansion. It's now a museum.

Christian Brothers College purchased this
Memphis Female College in 1871.

St. Mary's Cathedral College and Diocesan House.

St. Mary's Cathedral College and Diocesan House-
front view.

Lowenstein Mansion - side view.

Lowenstein Mansion - front view -
1891 Victorian Romanesque residence.

We finished our activities for the day by returning to Makeda's Butter Cookies. She is closed on Sunday but told us to check back this afternoon because she might be in. We found her in front of her shop talking to some British visitors who were asking if she was open. She was waffling on opening until we came up and asked her to please open, too. We convinced her and were able to get more banana pudding. We were very happy and so were the Brits. I think she was too because she had two customers in five minutes. She even threw in three small packages of her butter cookies! Great lady.

We then made our way back to the 5th wheel to get ready for our travel day to Nashville tomorrow.