As a youth, Elvis often visited the Rainbow Roller Skating Rink in Memphis. It
was located on Lamar Avenue and was a part of the Pieraccini family
entertainment complex, which included the Eagle's Nest nightclub. It was at the
Rainbow skating rink that Elvis first spent quality time with Dixie Locke, his
high school sweetheart. At the start of his music career, Elvis performed at the
Eagle's Nest. After his career took off and he could afford it, Elvis rented out
the Rainbow after hours for parties with his friends. The guys would play
skating games they had invented. They would wear elbow and knee pads to protect
themselves and then divide up into teams to have a "war" or line up in a chain
and play "pop the whip". The week before he was inducted into the army in March
1958, Elvis visited the Rainbow Roller Skating Rink every night to vent stress
and to be with his friends before he had to leave. He rented it out again in
March of 1960 when he returned home from ac!
tive service in the military.
Elvis never lost his love of thrill rides in amusement parks. In the spring of
1956, when he went to Las Vegas to perform at the New Frontier Hotel, he found
an amusement park to visit. That summer, he and girlfriend June Juanico went to
the park at Lake Pontchartrain Beach near New Orleans. There they rode the
Nephyr roller-coaster over and over again. In August of that year, when he went
to Hollywood to film his first movie "Love Me Tender", he and his cousins Gene
and Junior Smith spent time on the rides at the Long Beach Amusement Park. Back
home in Memphis, Elvis would rent out the Fairgrounds after hours and often
invited the fans who were hanging out at the gates of Graceland to join him
there with his friends and family. The Fairgrounds would charge him $30.00 per
hour for the Dodgems bumper car ride that he loved so much and a $40.00 flat
rate for the wooden Pippin roller-coaster. He would also be charged for all the
concessions the party consumed. Typically, El!
vis would ride in his favorite car on the Pippin over and over again until he
was tired of it. He would also get into his favorite Dodgem car and he and his
friends would proceed to crash into each other throughout the night.
In 1975, in preparation for the 1976 U.S. bicentennial, the Fairgrounds
Amusement Park was refurbished and renamed Libertyland. Elvis last visited the
park one evening eight days before his death. He rented out Libertyland for
daugther Lisa Marie and their friends on August 8, 1977. Today, many fans still
visit the park and have their pictures taken with Elvis' favorite rides.