Elvis Presley’s Jungle Room Became More Trouble Than It Was Worth by Constantly Flooding Graceland

Elvis Presley’s Jungle Room at Graceland had many purposes. He ate meals in the room, watched television, entertained guests, and even recorded songs. For all its purposes, though, the room ended up costing the household a great deal of money. One of Elvis’ installations continually flooded Graceland.

Elvis Presley’s Jungle Room often flooded Graceland

Elvis’ den at Graceland was his Jungle Room, a room decorated to look like a tropical forest. The room had green shag carpeting, wooden walls and furniture, animal skins, and plants. Elvis also installed a large artificial waterfall. This became one of the biggest problems with the room.

“It was a great idea … except it flooded everything,” Priscilla Presley told Larry King (via Rolling Stone). “It never worked. The whole room would get flooded.”

Though Elvis was fabulously wealthy, his father, Vernon, was cautious in spending his son’s money. He opted not to spend much on the waterfall’s installation, resulting in constant flooding.

“Vernon got this cheap-a** plumber – some $4-an-hour guy – to do it originally, and the guy botched the job,” Elvis’ friend Marty Lacker said. “The whole wall leaked and water would flood the backyard.”

Eventually, they repaired the waterfall, but this didn’t put an end to its problems. In 1971, the waterfall’s wiring short-circuited and started a fire. Vernon reportedly used a sledgehammer to put it out.

Elvis Presley didn’t put much effort into the design of the Jungle Room 

Though the room has a very clear theme, Elvis reportedly did not put much thought into it. Stories vary on how the den ended up decorated like a jungle. According to some of Elvis’ friends, Vernon returned home one day and said, “I just went by Donald’s Furniture Store and they’ve got the ugliest furniture I’ve ever seen in my life.”

After Vernon described it, Elvis reportedly responded, “Good, sounds like me,” and bought the entire set.

Others claim Elvis saw an ad for the furniture and rushed to buy it. Either way, he didn’t put much effort into furnishing the iconic room.

He once flooded a different part of Graceland

Graceland saw further flooding after Elvis fired a gun indoors. Graceland maid Nancy Rooks heard loud noises and rushed into the hall.

“Thinking it was too loud to be a firecracker, I went running into the foyer, which is located just beneath his upstairs room, in time to see a fine mist of sheetrock dust, followed by a stream, at first, and, then, a deluge of water pouring from the ceiling near the front door above the foyer,” she wrote in the book Inside Graceland: Elvis’ Maid Remembers. “I ran down the hallway to a small closet where we kept table linens and such, and grabbed an armful of whatever was there and went back and threw them on the floor to try and help absorb the water.”

She then rushed upstairs, where she found Elvis sheepishly holding a gun. 

“With my heart pounding I tried, as politely as I could, to ask him what had happened. (Of course, all I would have had to have done is to look at the shattered toilet, in a million pieces, to realize that he had shot the commode!) He grinned, muttered something about how he had never liked that toilet anyway, and walked calmly back into his bedroom where he sprawled out on his bed and began watching TV.”

Rooks said she never found out why Elvis shot at his toilet.