Memphis, Tennessee Great American Railroad Journeys

I have crossed the Atlantic,

to ride the railroads of North America

with my reliable Appletons' guide.

Published in the late 19th century,

my Appletons' General Guide to North America will direct me to all that's

novel, beautiful, memorable and striking in the United States.

THEY SHOUT

As I journey across this vast continent,

I'll discover how pioneers and cowboys conquered the West.

GUNFIRE

And how the railroads tied this nation together,

hoping to create the global superstate of today.

I'm nearing the end of a thousand mile railroad journey.

It began on the mighty Mississippi

and that is where I will also make my final stop.

Great rivers bring fertility and prosperity all along their banks.

So it was with the Nile, in Ancient Egypt,

and its shimmering city of Memphis.

So, with the Mississippi and its cotton fields.

In 1826,

a group of Tennessee entrepreneurs decided to name their river city

Memphis, too.

Appletons' tells me,

"It's the largest city on the river between St Louis and New Orleans."

Roughly translated, "Memphis" means "place of good abode".

Or, more roughly still, "graceland".

On this route I've been learning how waterways and railroads

shaped the 19th century Midwest.

Starting in Minneapolis,

I explored the upper Mississippi as far as the Wisconsin border,

then headed for Lake Michigan.

From industrial Milwaukee, I continued south into Chicago,

the nerve centre of the United States' rail network,

before striking out across the Illinois prairie.

Now I'm on the home straight,

bound for Memphis, Tennessee.

On this journey, I'll navigate the perilous Mississippi.

How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?

It was extremely hazardous.

There was great danger of sinking,

from boiler explosions, from fire.

Get my ducks in a row.

There they go. Don't let them get away!

Oh! I think this is the bizarrest thing

I have ever been involved in.

And get a dose of the Blues.

Ladies and gentlemen, now arriving in Memphis.

Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis - now arriving.

Thank you very much. Bye-bye.

Memphis was a transport hub even before the arrival of the railroads,

because of its strategic position on the Mississippi.

SHIP HORN BLARES

Then travellers would have caught their first glimpse of the city

from one of the hundreds of paddle steamers that plied the waters.

Appletons' remarks that,

"The prevailing character of the lower Mississippi is of solemn gloom.

"The dreary solitude, the trees with melancholy drapery of pendant moss,

"the vast volume of dark and turbid waters through the wilderness form

"the most dismal yet impressive landscape."

And indeed, Memphis has inherited a kind of shabby soulfulness,

which has been its making in modern times.

I've come here mainly to think about a man who looked back wistfully on

childhood days on the Mississippi.

19th century writer Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain,

cemented Mississippi life in American culture.

Historian Dr Charles Crawford

can tell me how the river shaped his life and work.

-Hello, Charles.

-I'm glad to meet you, Michael.

Tell me about Mark Twain. Who was he?

Mark Twain was, in the opinion of many people,

the greatest American author who ever lived.

Because his novel Huckleberry Finn,

about three boys on the river

is one of the great travel adventures

cos it is done with such simplicity.

It can be read by children.

But with more maturity,

you see he's commenting on the social aspects

and economic aspects of society at the time.

And he's doing it

through the view of two young boys and one slave.

The Mississippi first captured Twain's imagination

during his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri, some 400 miles upriver.

Then as a young man he experienced the thrills and spills of life

as a Mississippi riverboat pilot.

How safe was it to travel on the steamboats?

It was extremely hazardous.

There was great danger, sinking from boiler explosions, from fire,

of boats running aground to simply sinking.

Steamboats had a short life expectancy.

Tell me what was the worst disaster that befell a steamboat on the river?

The worst one occurred in 1865.

The captain of that boat was being paid per person,

so he admitted approximately perhaps 2,400 people to a boat

that should have been limited to 600.

During the night, several miles north of Memphis, it exploded

and the loss of life was between 1,500 and 2,000.

Mark Twain knew the risks all too well.

His brother also travelled on the Mississippi River,

and in 1858

a steamboat explosion occurred near the city and his brother Henry

was seriously wounded, was brought to Memphis for treatment.

They were cared for by the people so much so that Mark Twain said after

his brother had died said, "God bless Memphis,

"there is no more noble city on the face of the earth."

Late 19th century United States citizens had to endure danger,

violence and disease.

The civil war claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and fast-growing

crowded cities were the perfect breeding ground for epidemics.

In 1878,

Memphis was gripped by a pestilence that threatened its very existence.

This lovely spacious place is according to Appletons',

"The principal of the six cemeteries and is known as Elmwood."

It's the final resting place for 14 Confederate generals

and for many dead from steamboat disasters,

but lots of people buried here were not the victims of great events,

but of something extraordinarily tiny.

Executive director at Elmwood Kim McCollum

works to raise awareness of the cemetery's history.

So, Kim, why are the years just before my guide book was published

so memorable for Memphis?

Well, the 1870s brought a lot of turmoil to the city of Memphis

in the form of a mosquito, the Aedes aegypti mosquito.

She caused a lot of damage in the form of yellow fever.

Did people know that the mosquito was to blame?

No, no-one knew the mosquito was to blame, in fact,

many believed that it was what Americans called a miasma,

that was sort of a fog that floated over cities,

that carried a foul air and infected people.

17th century slave ships first brought yellow fever to the east coast of America.

The disease spread,

aided by the advent of steamboats and railroads.

In the 1800s, it reached Memphis' crowded streets.

Why was Memphis particularly badly hit, do you think?

Memphis was a very unclean city during the yellow fever epidemics.

There were no sewer systems and the Gayoso Bayou was located downtown,

which was a large body of water that was stagnant and so the mosquito

had a wonderful breeding ground in Memphis.

The city was struck by a series of yellow fever outbreaks,

each worse than the last.

So when a case was reported in 1878, panic set in.

In the year 1878,

the population of the city of Memphis was approximately 50,000,

so about 25,000 people chose to leave the city of Memphis

and they headed up the Mississippi River towards St Louis.

Most of those were Caucasian people who had the means to leave the city,

those who remained in the city were largely African-American.

We liken it to a modern-day Hurricane Katrina in its devastation.

So what was the impact on the 25,000 who remained?

Out of the 25,000 who remained in Memphis,

about 5,000 of those died from the yellow fever.

In the month of September of 1878,

about 200 people were dying per day in the city of Memphis

and about 50 of those people were brought to Elmwood for burial

and they were buried in trench-style graves in this piece of land

that we're standing on now, which is called No Man's Land.

The epidemic upended the social order in Memphis.

White flight made way for African-Americans to serve for

the first time as police officers,

while businessman Robert Reed Church,

whose mother was a slave, made a fortune snapping up property,

becoming reputedly the South's first black millionaire.

Nowadays the people of Memphis remember those who stayed behind

to serve the victims.

One unlikely hero was a brothel owner

who apparently still haunts the cemetery today,

keeping her story alive.

Well, Annie Cook, I presume!

-Good afternoon.

-I'm Michael.

Annie, what sort of business have you been running here in Memphis?

I've been very successful in Memphis.

I started out as a housemaid, but there's not a lot of money in that,

so I knew what the sailors in a rough river town like Memphis needed

was it something a little more exciting than a clean house.

How did 1878 begin?

Well, that terrible disease hit Memphis that was nicknamed "yellow fever"

because you turned as yellow as a banana.

It was burning you up from the inside out.

You bled from everywhere, your ears, your eyes, your nose, your mouth.

Luckily, I mean, mercifully, you died within three or four days.

What did that do to your business?

Well, I turned my palatial mansion into a hospital.

-How did you do that?

-Well, we just pushed back the furniture,

rolled up the carpets

and filled every room with cots

and they were full with the sick and the dying.

Well, Annie, thank you very much for all of your services to Memphis.

-Sure, thank y'all.

-Bye-bye.

-Bye.

Appletons' recommends the Peabody Hotel,

which first opened its doors in 1869.

It moved to this site in 1925

and soon after, a remarkable tradition was born.

Mr Duck Master, I assume?

Mr Portillo, great to have you with us.

Thank you, it's lovely to be here. What's going to happen?

Well, have you ever seen a duck march before?

-Duck march? No.

-Well, that's all right.

Have you ridden on an elevator with ducks before?

-With ducks? No.

-That's fine.

Have you ever seen a Royal Duck Palace?

-No.

-That's all right.

The Peabody ducks, these guys right here,

they are a legend here in the city of Memphis and you, sir,

have been nominated to act as our honorary Duck Master.

Oh, that is a great honour, I'm humbled.

Ducks have been a feature here since 1933,

when an inebriated general manager

positioned some of them in the fountain of the hotel,

to the guests' delight.

Nowadays the daily duck march draws a crowd.

Here we go. All righty, ducks,

wait for it, wait for it.

Very good. I like what you're doing.

Excellent. Very good, very nice.

Very good, I think he's got it.

Duckies, hup, hup.

Very nice. Double back for you.

Very good waddle, duckies.

Look at you guys! Oh, excellent posing, ducks.

Very nice. Very good!

Great job!

The ducks are going to go running right past you

as soon as that door opens, just so you know,

if just stay still. There they go.

-Don't let them get away.

-Oh, right!

-We got work to do.

Beautiful day for a duck march.

I think this is the bizarrest thing I've ever been involved in!

You're doing great. Pardon me, ducks.

Pardon me. Thank you, good job.

-Hooray!

-Great job, Duck Master! Thank you very much.

Wow! Duck Master, what an honour to serve with you.

It was a pleasure having you with us. Thank you so much.

Look at this palace that they're in as well.

Not bad for ducks, right?

Well, I'm staying here slightly less time than they are

and I think my room is not quite as big.

Well, there's five of them!

Before I turn in,

I'm taking a stroll down the famous Beale Street

to soak up a little Memphis nightlife.

Around the time of my guidebook,

this was where African-Americans gathered.

I suppose Beale Street is what it is today because about 150 years ago,

penniless black musicians came here

who would have faced immense prejudice, I dare say and now,

look at this.

All the neon signs, all the tourism, and it's all down to those guys.

How the wheel of fortune, how the wheel of fashion, turns.

A new day and I've been invited to play with a big toy...

Hi! May I come aboard?

-Yes, sir.

-Thank you very much.

..to get a feel of Memphis' modern rail story.

Appletons' tells me that Memphis has an immense railroad

and steamboat traffic. Of course it was a hub,

having both the railroad and the Mississippi River,

but perhaps more surprising is that even today,

the big five railroads of North America all converge on Memphis.

Railfreight today is a 60 billion industry

and Memphis is America's third largest rail hub.

And the city represents a cultural crossroads too.

Since travelling black musicians first congregated on Beale Street,

Memphis has been a musical melting pot.

In the home of the blues,

I'm meeting Grammy-nominated musician Cedric Burnside.

Cedric, how did music begin in your life?

My big daddy was a big part of my musical history.

RL Burnside. I grew up with him.

Because he grew up playing in the juke joints I kind of grew up too.

That was the life we had, you know.

What are you saying with your music?

What is it you're communicating, do you think?

Slaves, you know, really started the blues,

they couldn't talk a whole lot, so they had to do code

and I kind of think blues is sort that way still today.

People go through things, you know,

they talk about it through their blues.

It's the roots.

After the civil war,

African-Americans made use of their new-found freedom and the growing

railroad network to travel, taking their music with them.

In 1912,

the first commercially successful blues song was published by WC Handy,

a Beale Street band leader,

inspired by a lone musician whom he heard playing at a Mississippi rail station.

During the Great Depression,

blues men migrated north on the Illinois Central

and the electrified Chicago blues was born.

Cedric, there are different sorts of blues.

How would I distinguish between, I don't know, between Delta blues...

Chicago blues, hill country blues?

-Tell me about that.

-Well, Delta blues, it's all bars, you know.

I like to think of hill country blues as film music.

It don't have any bars.

It's just a straight beat that goes on through.

You can't put hill country blues in front of somebody and say, "Play this,"

because you can't write it, really.

This is a hill country song I'm about to play you

that my big daddy used to play all the time.

And it don't really have too many changes,

it just has a lot of finger picking and just a strong, hypnotic beat.

This is called Skinny Woman.

# Well, I don't want skinny woman

# Well, I don't want skinny woman

# Meat don't shake

# Meat don't shake... #

-Thank you, Cedric.

-You're very welcome, man. Thank y'all.

In the mid-20th century,

the blues helped to give birth to a new style of music here in Memphis.

And a local boy was its king.

I'm joining the 20 million people

who've made the rock and roll pilgrimage

to his home since it opened to the public in 1982.

My guide is Libby Perry.

-Hello, Libby, I'm Michael.

-Hey, Michael, welcome to Graceland.

Thank you so much. It's really very exciting to be here.

In what sort of circumstances was Elvis born?

Elvis was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.

It's about an hour and a half south of Memphis.

He was born to a poor family,

they had a very small shack on the edge of a very poor historically

African-American neighbourhood.

Elvis moved to Memphis at the age of 13 and absorbed its musical influences.

-Where was he going to hear his music?

-Beale Street.

Everyone goes to Beale Street in Memphis to hear all sorts of music.

It was the same for Elvis when he was growing up.

And he really made a lot of connections at Stax and Sun Studio

with so many up-and-coming Memphis musicians

that would really help put Memphis on the map in terms of blues

and gospel and eventually rock and roll.

And does Elvis himself pick up the blues?

Yes, absolutely.

Big influences of Elvis in terms of blues are Big Mama Thornton,

who actually came out with Hound Dog and that famous song of Elvis'

is a cover of hers.

Otis Blackwell was an amazing blues writer

that Elvis loved to work with.

He wrote, Don't Be Cruel and All Shook Up.

So, Graceland, I've never been here before, big moment,

but when does he acquire it?

Elvis bought Graceland when he was 22.

It's June 1957,

came with about 13 acres of land and he paid about 100,000 for it.

The poor boy from Mississippi had become

the first global rock and roll superstar,

thanks to his fusion of rhythm and blues, country and gospel.

He died aged just 42.

But it's as though he lives on at Graceland.

Well, it's a...

-a time capsule, isn't it?

-That's right.

When Elvis passed away in 1977,

he was kind of in a very masculine, '70s phase,

so most of what you see here that's white or blue

was actually red and black, lots of leather and fur.

So we kind of like to hedge the balance between what it was like when he passed away

and what it was like the majority of the time that he lived here.

What was the difference that he made to music?

He is credited with a lot.

At Sun Studio, downtown, he and Sam Phillips, Johnny Cash,

Jerry Lee Lewis really blended together blues, gospel, country, R&B,

soul and created what we now know as the infancy of rock and roll.

And so many current pop culture and musical artists today kind of attribute

some of their success, some of their musical stylings to the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

Despite his renown as a rebellious youth whose music and sensuality

divided generations and families, Elvis was devoted to his parents.

They lived with him off and on at Graceland and are buried beside him.

I've been thinking,

which figures most help you to understand American history?

Thomas Jefferson, "All men are created equal".

Abraham Lincoln, the abolition of slavery,

and Elvis Presley.

That's not far-fetched because from the second half of the 20th century onwards,

America, through its entertainment, has global, cultural domination

and Elvis is absolutely at the heart of that,

and the interesting thing is

that he draws his inspiration largely from black Americans.

Guided by my Appletons',

my train journey from Minneapolis to Memphis has left two strong impressions,

that the Mississippi tells the story of America up to

the late 19th century.

Native Americans, fur traders, settlers, steamboats,

industry and the civil war.

And that Chicago carries on the history of the United States,

sitting at the centre of a vast iron web,

spinning out new rail lines in every direction.

Growing fat and tall on the profits, because by then

access to a railroad was more important than proximity to a river.

Even to this one, the father of the waters.