108 Fun Facts About Memphis

Memphis sits on the banks of which great waterway?

The Mississippi River; Memphis sits on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff above its floodplain and is the largest city proper anywhere along the river.

Memphis was named after an ancient capital of which country?

The founders chose the name in 1819 after Memphis, the ancient Egyptian capital on the Nile, another great city on a great river.

Which future US president was one of the three founders of Memphis in 1819?

Andrew Jackson founded Memphis in May 1819 with partners John Overton and James Winchester, months after the 1818 Chickasaw Cession opened West Tennessee to settlement.

Which Spanish conquistador is credited with the first European exploration of the Memphis area in 1541?

Hernando de Soto's expedition reached the Mississippi near present-day Memphis in May 1541, the first Europeans known to do so; the Interstate 40 bridge across the river is named for him.

Memphis is the seat of which Tennessee county?

Shelby County, Tennessee's most populous county, has its seat in Memphis; the city itself is the state's second-largest after Nashville.

Which disease devastated Memphis in a series of 1870s epidemics, killing more than 5,000 in 1878 alone?

Yellow fever killed more than 5,000 of the roughly 19,000 people who stayed in 1878; tens of thousands fled, and the bankrupt city surrendered its charter in 1879 to become a state taxing district.

Which political machine leader controlled Memphis from the 1910s to about 1950?

Edward Hull 'Boss' Crump, mayor from 1910, ran Memphis's Democratic machine until his death in 1954, delivering Shelby County's votes to statewide candidates for decades.

Which company is the largest employer in Memphis, with its global air hub at the airport?

FedEx, Memphis's largest employer, runs its World Hub at Memphis International Airport; founder Fred Smith moved operations there in 1973 for the central location and reliably flyable weather.

Where was FedEx (then Federal Express) founded in 1971 before moving to Memphis?

Smith incorporated Federal Express in Little Rock, Arkansas, in June 1971, after sketching the overnight-delivery idea in a Yale term paper; he moved the operation to Memphis in 1973.

What was the name of Elvis Presley's Memphis mansion?

Graceland, on Elvis Presley Boulevard in Whitehaven, was bought by Elvis in 1957; it draws around 600,000 visitors a year, often called the second most-visited house in the US after the White House.

The Whitehaven mansion Elvis bought in 1957 was named after whom?

Stephen C. Toof founded Memphis's oldest commercial printing firm and named the farm for his daughter.

How much did Elvis pay for his Whitehaven mansion in March 1957?

Elvis paid $102,500 for Graceland in March 1957, slightly over the $100,000 budget he had given his parents to find a farmhouse with space around it.

In which year was Graceland designated a National Historic Landmark?

Graceland became a National Historic Landmark on 27 March 2006, fifteen years after its 1991 listing on the National Register of Historic Places and 24 years after opening for tours in 1982.

Where was Elvis born, before his family moved to Memphis when he was 13?

Elvis was born in a two-room shotgun house in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935; his twin Jesse Garon was stillborn 35 minutes earlier, and the family moved to Memphis in 1948.

Who ran Sun Studio at 706 Union Avenue and discovered Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis?

Sam Phillips opened the Memphis Recording Service at 706 Union Avenue in January 1950 with assistant Marion Keisker, and launched the Sun Records label from the same room in 1952.

Which 1951 recording made at Sun Studio is often called the first rock and roll record?

Rocket 88, cut at Phillips's studio in March 1951 and released on Chess, was credited to Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, though the band was really Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm.

The 1951 record Ike Turner's band cut at Sam Phillips's studio praised which carmaker's new model?

The Oldsmobile Rocket 88, with its new overhead-valve V8, was the car Brenston sang about; he admitted the song borrowed from Jimmy Liggins' 'Cadillac Boogie'.

Which Memphis thoroughfare is a national historic landmark and the heart of the city's blues heritage?

Beale Street runs about 1.8 miles from the Mississippi River to East Street; its historic district, where W. C. Handy played in the 1910s, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

How did Stax Records get its name?

The sibling partners started out as Satellite Records in 1957 and switched names in 1961.

Which was Stax's biggest star, who died in a 1967 plane crash?

Otis Redding, technically signed to the sister label Volt, died when his plane crashed into Lake Monona, Wisconsin, on 10 December 1967, days after recording '(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay'.

Stax's Memphis studio was set up inside what kind of former building?

Stax converted the old Capitol Theatre on East McLemore Avenue, a former movie theater whose sloped floor shaped the studio's sound; Estelle Axton ran a record shop in the lobby where the refreshment stand had been.

Which house band, an integrated group, backed most Stax hits?

Booker T. & the M.G.'s, two Black and two white musicians, backed most Stax sessions; their own instrumental 'Green Onions' reached No. 3 in 1962.

At which Memphis lodging was Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated on April 4, 1968?

The Lorraine Motel on Mulberry Street, where King was shot on the balcony outside Room 306 at 6:01 pm on 4 April 1968; James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the killing in 1969.

What institution was built around the site of King's assassination?

The National Civil Rights Museum opened at the Lorraine Motel in 1991, preserving Room 306 and the balcony; it reopened after a major renovation in 2014.

King had come to Memphis in 1968 to support a strike by which city employees?

The strike began after two workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death in a garbage truck.

Where did King give his final 'I've Been to the Mountaintop' speech?

Mason Temple, the Church of God in Christ's headquarters, hosted the 3 April 1968 speech; King spoke despite a storm and exhaustion, telling the crowd 'I've seen the Promised Land'.

Which NBA team plays at FedExForum in Memphis?

The Memphis Grizzlies have played at FedExForum since it opened in 2004, the only NBA team in Tennessee and the city's only major-league franchise.

From which city did Memphis's NBA franchise relocate in 2001?

The Vancouver Grizzlies joined the NBA in 1995 alongside the Toronto Raptors and moved to Memphis in 2001 after six losing seasons in Canada.

Which Memphis guard, drafted second overall in 2019, was NBA Rookie of the Year in 2020?

Ja Morant, taken second overall in 2019 after starring at Murray State, was the 2019-20 Rookie of the Year and started the 2022 All-Star Game.

What did the Memphis Pyramid reopen as in 2015?

Bass Pro Shops turned the 321-foot Pyramid, empty since 2007, into a megastore in 2015 with the Big Cypress Lodge hotel, a bowling alley and a glass observation deck at the apex.

What are the famous residents of the Peabody Hotel that march to the lobby fountain every day?

The tradition began in the 1930s when the manager left live decoy ducks in the fountain after a hunting trip.

What title was given to the Peabody bellman who trained the ducks to march from 1940 to 1991?

Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, became the first Duckmaster in 1940 and held the title until 1991; the march is set to Sousa's 'King Cotton'.

Memphis-style barbecue is mostly made with which meat?

Pork, above all ribs and pulled shoulder: ribs come 'dry' with a spice rub or 'wet' mopped with sauce, making Memphis one of the four great US regional barbecue styles.

What is the name of the largest pork barbecue cook-off on the planet, held on the riverfront each May?

Memphis in May also stages the Beale Street Music Festival, International Week and the Great River Run.

Which grocery chain opened the first true self-service supermarket in Memphis in 1916?

Clarence Saunders opened the first Piggly Wiggly at 79 Jefferson Avenue in September 1916, letting shoppers pick goods from shelves themselves, with checkout stands and price tags on individual items.

Which entertainer founded St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis in 1962?

Danny Thomas opened St. Jude in February 1962 in fulfilment of a vow to St. Jude Thaddeus, patron saint of hopeless causes; it was the South's first fully integrated children's hospital.

Which pop star was born in Memphis on 31 January 1981?

Justin Timberlake, born in Memphis on 31 January 1981, grew up singing in the Baptist church where his father directed the choir; in 2013 he performed at the White House's Memphis Soul concert.

Which soul singer was born at 406 Lucy Avenue in Memphis in 1942?

Aretha Franklin was born at 406 Lucy Avenue on 25 March 1942; her father, the preacher C. L. Franklin, moved the family to Detroit when she was a small child.

What is the nickname of the University of Memphis sports teams?

The Memphis Tigers' men's basketball team has reached three Final Fours (1973, 1985 and 2008), though the later two appearances were vacated by the NCAA.

Which former Memphis college star and NBA All-Star became the university's head basketball coach?

Penny Hardaway, recruited by Larry Finch in 1990 as the nation's top high-school prospect, scrimmaged against the 1992 Dream Team with the college select squad and took over as Tigers head coach in 2018.

Which coach led Memphis to the 2008 national final before leaving for Kentucky?

John Calipari, hired in 2000, won the 2002 NIT, moved the Tigers from the Pyramid to FedExForum in 2004 and lost the 2008 final to Kansas before leaving for Kentucky in 2009.

What did Memphis's college basketball team nickname the Pyramid Arena, their home from 1991?

The Tigers called the Pyramid the 'Tomb of Doom'; in their first season there, 1991-92, Penny Hardaway led them to the Elite Eight.

Which annual festival features a music festival, International Week and the Great River Run?

Memphis in May, a month-long festival begun in 1977, honours a different country each year during International Week alongside the Beale Street Music Festival and the Great River Run.

What was the June party series honouring the city's industries, with a secret King and Queen, formerly called?

Carnival Memphis began in 1931 as the Memphis Cotton Carnival and dropped the cotton name in the 1980s; a King and Queen of Carnival, chosen in secret, are unveiled each June.

Where was Elvis originally buried before an attempted grave robbery led to his reinterment at his home?

Elvis was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery beside his mother Gladys in August 1977; after an attempted theft of his body that month, both were moved to Graceland's Meditation Garden in October.

What nickname do Memphians give the I-40 crossing to Arkansas because of its double-arch shape?

The 'M Bridge' is the Hernando de Soto Bridge, whose two steel arches form an M; it carries Interstate 40 to West Memphis, Arkansas, while the older I-55 crossing downstream is the Memphis & Arkansas Bridge.

Mud Island park is known for a walking trail featuring what?

The Riverwalk at Mud Island River Park is a five-block scale model of the lower Mississippi, from Cairo, Illinois, to the Gulf, with real water flowing through its channel.

Which of these films is set in Memphis?

Hustle & Flow (2005), Craig Brewer's story of a Memphis pimp turned rapper, was shot in the city; The Firm, The Blind Side and Cast Away also have Memphis settings.

Which bank holding company, founded in 1864, is headquartered in Memphis?

First Horizon, founded as the First National Bank of Memphis in 1864 and long known as First Tennessee, keeps its headquarters downtown and is among the largest banks based in Tennessee.

Roughly what was the population of Memphis at the 2020 census?

The wider metro area, which spills into Arkansas and Mississippi, has about 1.34 million people.

Which downtown riverside green space completed a $60 million renovation in 2023?

Tom Lee Park, named for the Black riverman who pulled 32 people from a sinking steamer in 1925, reopened on Labor Day weekend 2023 after a roughly $60 million redesign by Studio Gang.

Which of these singers did NOT grow up in the Memphis area?

Dolly Parton is from Sevier County in East Tennessee; Justin Timberlake, MGMT's Andrew VanWyngarden and Julien Baker all grew up around Memphis.

Under what name did Jim Stewart found the label that became Stax in 1957?

Jim Stewart launched Satellite Records in 1957 in a relative's garage; its early releases were country, rockabilly and pop before staff producer Chips Moman steered it toward rhythm and blues.

What did Estelle Axton mortgage in 1958 to invest US$2,500 in her brother's fledgling label?

The money bought an Ampex tape recorder; she later ran the Satellite record shop in the old cinema foyer.

Which label's 1965 distribution deal, signed unread by Jim Stewart, ended up owning the Stax masters?

Atlantic's contract, drafted by its lawyer Paul Marshall, held a clause giving the distributor the masters; when Warner bought Atlantic in 1967 the clause bit, and Stewart sold Stax to Gulf+Western in 1968.

Who hosted the 1972 Stax concert Wattstax, nicknamed the 'Black Woodstock'?

Jesse Jackson emceed Wattstax at the Los Angeles Coliseum in August 1972, opening with his 'I Am Somebody' litany before more than 100,000 people; Richard Pryor's monologues were added for the film.

Which animals did the Memphis Zoo host from 2003 to 2023, rare for a US zoo?

Giant pandas Ya Ya and Le Le arrived at the Memphis Zoo in 2003; Le Le died in February 2023 and Ya Ya was returned to China that April.

Which NAACP co-founder co-owned the anti-segregation paper Free Speech on Beale Street in 1889?

Ida B. Wells co-owned the Free Speech and Headlight, published from the Beale Street Baptist Church; her 1892 anti-lynching editorials got the paper's office wrecked by a mob and drove her from Memphis.

Which hotel chain did Memphis builder Kemmons Wilson found after a disappointing family road trip?

Holiday Inn opened its first location in Memphis in 1952. Wilson's architect coined the name as a joke, borrowing it from a 1942 musical film.

In which Tom Hanks film is the hero a troubleshooter for a Memphis-based delivery company?

Cast Away gives Chuck Noland a home and a hero's welcome in Memphis. His employer's real-life founder plays himself in the homecoming scene.

Which Oscar-winning actor, the narrator of March of the Penguins, was born in Memphis in 1937?

Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis and started acting in school plays as a boy. His Academy Award came in 2005, for Best Supporting Actor.

Which Memphis-born actress won an Oscar for playing obsessed fan Annie Wilkes in Misery?

Kathy Bates was born in Memphis in 1948, the youngest of three daughters. Her Annie Wilkes ranks 17th on the American Film Institute's list of screen villains.

Which film stars Sandra Bullock as a Memphis mother who takes in future NFL lineman Michael Oher?

The Blind Side won Bullock the Academy Award for Best Actress. Country singer Tim McGraw plays her husband, Sean.

Which escaped convict pleaded guilty in 1969 to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis?

James Earl Ray was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport two months after the shooting. He spent the rest of his life trying, without success, to withdraw the plea.

Which of these is a long-standing nickname for Memphis?

Bluff City refers to the ridge Memphis stands on, well above the floodplain. People had settled that spot for thousands of years before the town was laid out.

Memphis-style ribs served without sauce are coated in what before cooking?

A spice rub of salt and seasonings goes on before the ribs reach the pit. 'Wet' ribs, the other Memphis style, are brushed with sauce before, during and after cooking.

Which heavyweight champion knocked out Mike Tyson in the eighth round at the Memphis Pyramid?

Lennox Lewis kept his titles in a fight Memphis landed after Nevada refused Tyson a licence. It was then the highest-grossing pay-per-view event ever.

Which city, east of Memphis on Interstate 40, passed it in 2017 as Tennessee's most populous?

Nashville took the top spot in 2017 census estimates. Its total counts nearly all of Davidson County, which merged with the city government in 1963.

The Memphis Belle, named for its pilot's sweetheart in the city, was which type of World War II bomber?

A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, the Memphis Belle was among the first heavy bombers to finish 25 combat missions. From 1949 it stood on display in Memphis for decades.

Which Memphis-based auto parts retailer had to drop its original name after Radio Shack sued?

AutoZone began in 1979 as Auto Shack, the car parts arm of a Memphis wholesale grocer. Radio Shack lost the first round in court, won on appeal, and the new name followed in 1987.

Which upriver city's Major League Baseball club has kept its Triple-A affiliate in Memphis since 1998?

St. Louis lends its Cardinals nickname to the Memphis Redbirds, whose mascot is a cardinal named Rockey. The team moved into a new downtown ballpark in 2000.

Which John Grisham thriller follows a young Harvard law graduate lured to Memphis by a job too good to be true?

The Firm became a 1993 film shot largely in Memphis, with Tom Cruise as Mitch McDeere. One chase scene was filmed on the monorail to Mud Island.

Which Moonlighting star was crowned Miss Teenage Memphis in 1966 before finding fame as a model?

Cybill Shepherd won the title as an East High School student and took the congeniality award at the national pageant. Her film debut came in The Last Picture Show.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis is named for the Catholic patron saint of what?

Lost causes and desperate cases belong to St. Jude Thaddeus. The hospital's founder had prayed to him as a struggling entertainer, vowing to build the saint a shrine.

Memphis sits in which corner of Tennessee, at the western end of Interstate 40's run across the state?

Southwest Tennessee is where Memphis sits, hard against the state's western edge. The site was the westernmost point of Tennessee when it joined the Union in 1796.

Which college football postseason game, born in Philadelphia in 1959, has called Memphis home since 1965?

The Liberty Bowl spent five years in Philadelphia and one indoors in New Jersey, the first major bowl played under a roof. Memphis has hosted it ever since.

Which Memphis wrestling star slapped comedian Andy Kaufman on David Letterman's show in 1982?

Jerry Lawler had already sent Kaufman to the hospital with two piledrivers in a Memphis ring that April. He later played himself in the Jim Carrey film Man on the Moon.

Which Spanish center was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2013 while playing in Memphis?

Marc Gasol was the first European to win the award. Memphis had acquired his draft rights in the 2008 trade that sent his older brother Pau to the Lakers.

Which Native American nation ceded the land that became Memphis in an 1818 treaty with the United States?

The Chickasaw gave up their territory in West Tennessee in a treaty signed in October 1818. Memphis was founded less than five months after the takeover.

Memphis lies near which seismic zone, whose 1811–12 earthquakes created Reelfoot Lake in northwest Tennessee?

New Madrid is the Missouri river town that gives the zone its name. The future site of Memphis was shaken at level IX on the Mercalli intensity scale.

Which overloaded steamboat exploded just north of Memphis in April 1865, in America's worst maritime disaster?

Sultana was built for 376 passengers but carried more than 2,000, many of them freed Union prisoners of war. Survivors drifted past the Memphis waterfront calling for help.

Which Confederate general's 1864 dawn raid on occupied Memphis sent a Union general fleeing in his nightshirt?

Nathan Bedford Forrest struck at 4 a.m., his cavalry posing as a Union patrol in thick fog. The raid was never meant to hold Memphis, which had 6,000 Federal troops.

Which future NBA MVP was the freshman point guard when Memphis reached the 2008 national title game?

Derrick Rose played a single college season before the Chicago Bulls drafted him first overall. The NCAA later vacated that entire Memphis season.

Which Prohibition-era gangster from Memphis was captured in the city by federal agents in September 1933?

Machine Gun Kelly, born George Kelly Barnes, was traced to Memphis after the kidnapping of an oil tycoon. He died at Leavenworth on his 59th birthday.

Which Marine veteran of Vietnam used a $4 million inheritance to found the delivery giant based in Memphis?

Fred Smith went to school in Memphis and co-founded a recording studio there as a teenager. He launched his express company in June 1971 and ran it for half a century.

Which Memphis mansion of Georgia marble, begun by a grocery tycoon who went bankrupt, became a museum?

The Pink Palace was begun by Clarence Saunders, who lost it unfinished to his creditors after a failed attempt to corner his own company's stock. It opened as the city's museum in 1930.

Which retailer built the vast 1927 Memphis store and catalog plant that reopened as Crosstown Concourse?

Sears shut the building in 1993, and it stayed closed until a renovation finished in 2017. It now mixes apartments, offices, restaurants and a charter high school.

Which Midtown Memphis landmark did a 1971 Supreme Court ruling save from the planned path of Interstate 40?

Overton Park won when the justices sided with a citizens' group against the highway planners. Its grounds hold an old-growth forest and the city's zoo.

Which actor earned an Oscar nomination for playing Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann's 2022 film about the Memphis singer?

Austin Butler earned one of the film's eight Academy Award nominations. Its story picks Presley up as a boy newly arrived in Memphis and mocked for loving Black music.

Which Hall of Fame pass rusher, nicknamed the Minister of Defense, began his pro career with the Memphis Showboats?

Reggie White had 23.5 sacks in two seasons with the Showboats before the USFL collapsed. He signed with Memphis to turn pro in the state where he had played in college.

Which liberal arts school moved from Clarksville to Memphis in 1925 and built a Collegiate Gothic campus?

Rhodes College grew out of a boys' academy founded near Clarksville in the 1830s. Its old campus there now forms part of a state university.

Which Memphis businessman, the South's first Black millionaire, bought the first bond after the city went bankrupt?

Robert Church paid $1,000 for that bond when Memphis had been reduced to a taxing district. His daughter Mary Church Terrell was among the first Black American women to earn a college degree.

Which Memphis neighborhood, laid out in the 1890s on a former plantation, was built for Black homebuyers?

Orange Mound began in 1890, when a developer sold lots there for under $100 each. By tradition the name comes from mock-orange shrubs on the old homeplace.

From which Memphis high school did Elvis Presley graduate in 1953, a year before his first record?

Humes was a high school in Presley's day. In his final year he sang in its annual student show, startling classmates who had never heard him.

Who became the first Black candidate elected mayor of Memphis in 1991, winning by just 146 votes?

Willie Herenton had already been the first Black superintendent of Memphis City Schools. He unseated Richard Hackett and was elected to five consecutive terms.

Which Memphis railroad bridge, first crossed by a train in 1916, now carries the Big River Crossing walkway?

Harahan is the bridge's name, and its old roadway reopened to walkers and cyclists in 2016. Cars had used those outer lanes from 1917 until a new road bridge opened in 1949.

Which relocated NFL team played its 1997 home games in Memphis before becoming the Tennessee Titans?

The Oilers had just left Houston and commuted to Memphis on game days while a permanent stadium was built. Their crowds were among the NFL's smallest since the 1950s.

Which numbered road, running south from Memphis through the Delta, is known as the Blues Highway?

Route 61 earned the nickname by running through Delta country, an important source of blues music. Bob Dylan named an album after the road.

Which nickname was given to the impromptu 1956 Sun jam featuring Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis?

Million Dollar Quartet was the headline a Memphis newspaper put on its story about the session. The four had gathered by chance, and most of what they sang was gospel.

Which Stax songwriter turned solo performer won an Oscar for the theme from Shaft?

Isaac Hayes won Best Original Song in 1972 for the theme. He had started at the Memphis label in the early 1960s as a session musician, then wrote hits with David Porter.

Which soul singer recorded Let's Stay Together with Memphis producer Willie Mitchell before becoming a pastor?

Al Green took the song to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. In 1976 he founded his own Memphis congregation, the Full Gospel Tabernacle.

Which blues guitarist got his stage name as a disc jockey on Memphis radio station WDIA?

B.B. King was known on air as the 'Blues Boy', a nickname later cut down to two letters. He had first won a ten-minute spot on the station as a singer.

Which Memphis hip-hop group, formed by DJ Paul and Juicy J, won an Academy Award for Best Original Song?

Three 6 Mafia came together in 1991, after one founder sought out the other for help making beats. Both had been DJing around Memphis since their early teens.

Which Arthur Crudup blues number became Elvis Presley's first single for Sun in July 1954?

That's All Right caught the producer's ear when Presley's trio played it between takes on July 5, 1954. It was released two weeks later, backed with Blue Moon of Kentucky.

Which singer-songwriter won the Best New Artist Grammy in 1992 on the strength of his hit Walking in Memphis?

Marc Cohn called the song entirely autobiographical, drawn from a 1985 trip he took to shake off writer's block. It reached number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Which duo, nicknamed Double Dynamite, recorded Soul Man and Hold On, I'm Comin' at Stax in Memphis?

Sam & Dave cut their Stax records between 1965 and 1968, a run of ten consecutive top-20 R&B singles. The Blues Brothers later had their biggest hit with a cover of Soul Man.

Which Memphis band, featuring former Box Tops singer Alex Chilton, called its 1972 debut album #1 Record?

Big Star won rave reviews for the album, but poor marketing and distribution sank its sales. R.E.M. and others later named the band as an influence.

Which singer, acclaimed for his version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, drowned in Memphis in 1997?

Jeff Buckley had moved to Memphis that February to resume work on his second album. He went swimming in the Wolf River while waiting for his band to arrive from New York.