Touch the Hand of Elvis
Tupelo, Mississippi
Although Elvis Presley was always too polite to say it, leaving his hometown of Tupelo was the best thing that ever happened to him. After he became rich and famous in Memphis and Nashville, he returned to Tupelo in 1956 to perform at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show. Elvis was greeted on stage by the governor, and later was photographed reaching out to touch the hands of adorning fans.
In 2012 sculptor Bill Beckwith unveiled a bronze statue of Elvis, posed as he was in the photograph, standing pretty much on exactly the same spot. The statue joins a list of other bronze Elvi in Honolulu, Shreveport, Las Vegas, and Memphis, all of them different. Elvis has more statues that most U.S. Presidents.
The statue was designed to encourage people to touch Elvis's hand, and during our visit we saw tourists instinctively reaching up to do just that. It's like God reaching out to Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, except that the god of Tupelo cradles a microphone and has a pompadour.