Just Ducky
Ducks get the red carpet treatment everyday at 11 a.m. inside The Peabody hotel in Memphis, Tenn.
If you’re wandering around downtown Memphis a tad before lunchtime and you happen upon the steps of The Peabody, Memphis’ famous hotel, don’t be surprised to see a crowd.
Each day at 11 a.m. sharp, a 50-foot red carpet is rolled out from an elevator to the hotel’s lavish marble fountain in the main lobby. With great fanfare, along with a blinding array of flashbulbs and the music of John Philip Sousa, five ducks – one mallard and four hens – emerge from the elevator and strut their stuff across the hotel lobby to their afternoon hangout. That hangout is a fountain.
These are the famed ducks of The Peabody. The tradition began in the 1930s when the general manager thought it would be fun to place his ducks in the hotel’s barren fountain. The practice stuck, and today you can view the ducks seven days a week at 11 a.m. or 5 p.m., when they make their retreat from the fountain back to the elevator. |
