Elvis Presley’s ‘Open-Door Policy’ at Graceland Meant 1 Entrance Was Always Unlocked

Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, saw more than one break-in, but the singer kept an open-door policy throughout his life. Elvis had security measures in place but he wanted friends and relatives to be able to enter the home whenever they wanted. Danny Smith, one of Elvis’ relatives, spent time at Graceland when he was growing up. He revealed that one door was always open.

Elvis Presley had an open-door policy at Graceland

While fans were often camped outside the Graceland gates — sometimes even trying to get inside — Elvis still wanted his friends to be able to access the home whenever they wanted to. Smith, whose father Billy was Elvis’ cousin, said the home’s back door was almost always open.

“The back door of Graceland was usually always unlocked,” Smith said in a YouTube video (per Express). “I remember just going through the back door. Us kids, that the door that we went in and out of about 98 percent of the time. The front door stayed locked for the most part. But if Elvis was home sometimes it would be unlocked, especially if he was up, going in and out.”

Graceland archivist Angie Marchese confirmed that Elvis kept the home open.

“He really had an open-door policy that if you were a friend of his and you wanted to bring somebody out to Graceland, Graceland was your house too,” she said. “So you could bring anyone out you wanted to.”

He put security measures in place

While keeping a door unlocked may seem risky for someone of Elvis’ level of fame, he had security measures in place. He installed security cameras in the 1960s and built a privacy wall on the first-floor landing. He also had a number of one-way mirrors in order to see who was coming into his home.

On top of that, members of Elvis’ entourage served as bodyguards for him. They said they were willing to do just about anything to keep the singer safe.

“If anyone was going to hurt him, they would have had to kill us to get to him,” bodyguard Dave Hebler said in the book Elvis: What Happened? by Steve Dunleavy. “That was the relationship.”

Elvis Presley had some off-limits areas in Graceland

While Elvis’ friends were welcome through Graceland’s doors, they didn’t have free reign of the home. He kept the upstairs off-limits to visitors. Tourists still cannot access this area of the home.

“The upstairs at Graceland, even when Elvis was here was always a very private part of the home,” Marchese told Express. “Even Elvis’ closest friends and family didn’t go upstairs unless personally invited. And when we opened up for tours in 1982, the family requested that we keep the upstairs private, and we still honor that request and keep it private today.”

Lisa Marie Presley said the upstairs bedrooms look the same as they did during Elvis’ life.

“Upstairs, which has never been open to the public, is my room and his room, next to each other, and an attic,” she said. “It’s pretty creepy. It’s a shrine.”