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'The Lisa Marie: The King’s “Flying Graceland”' - author Carlos Varrenti Introduction The world of Elvis Presley is an eclectic one and fans and researchers cannot get enough of the minutiae and sometimes obscure facets of his story. In relation to the King's Things, the bourgeoning Elvis library contains books about his Graceland mansion, jumpsuits and other fashions, watches, rings, other jewelry, his cars, motorcycles, horses, and even his John Deere tractor!
The Interview EIN: Carlos, thank you for taking time to talk with EIN today. Firstly, who is Carlos Varrenti? CV: If I had to summarize who I am in a few words, I’d say: 'A guy from the end of the world who loves aviation, teaching, and unwinding every day with the music of The King!' EIN: How did your interest in aviation start? CV: It all started when I was about 7 or 8 years old. My father used to take me to the local airport to watch take-offs and landings. I was completely mesmerized by those massive metal birds making that thunderous noise. It amazed me that something so heavy could actually fly! Around the same time, my father bought me some small styrofoam planes with little propellers, modeled after the magnificent WWII aircraft. Once, when my mother wasn’t home, I’d take a broomstick from the kitchen, stick some modeling clay on the tip, and use a thumbtack to thread a string through it—tying a plane to the other end. By the time my mom got back from work, she’d find half a dozen planes hanging from my bedroom ceiling… nearly giving her a heart attack! Those are my earliest memories of aviation. By the time I was in high school, you can bet I had already watched every aviation documentary that aired on TV in the ’90s! The university did the rest, and earning my degree in Aeronautical Engineering was a key step in unlocking even more of the aviation world. But let me tell you, Nigel — deep down, I’m still that little boy, amazed by aviation and its wonders.
EIN: Carlos, your new book, The Lisa Marie: The King’s Flying Graceland, is a stunning work! It contains everything one could want to know about what was one of Elvis' most cherished possessions. Obviously, with 400 more pages than your first book, Elvis Presley The Planes & the King, and focused only on one of Elvis' various aircraft, there is a tremendous amount of new information and archival material in your new book. What can readers expect to find? CV: Well, my friend, the Lisa Maire airplane is the heart of Elvis’ aviation legacy. A single chapter in my previous book, The Airplanes & The King, simply wasn’t enough to do justice to the Lisa Marie’s incredible history. So, with the 50th anniversary of Elvis purchasing this flying beauty approaching, I knew it was the perfect time to publish this book. What can readers expect to find? Quite simply — everything there is to know about this aircraft! Since becoming an Elvis fan in the mid-’90s at just eight years old, I’ve collected everything I could about his planes — especially the “Lisa Marie”. This book compiles all that research: photographs, newspaper clippings, memorabilia, and more. I also included two chapters covering the Lisa Marie before it became Elvis’ plane, featuring technical details on the Convair 880 project and its years with Delta Air Lines. But perhaps the heart of the book is the detailed, day-by-day account of the Lisa Marie’s flights with Elvis. Every photo I could find, both from my personal archive and from the collections of Erik Lorentzen and my friend, Elvis collector Steve Barie, is included. If you love Elvis’ planes and want a complete, detailed account of how he used his big bird from 1975 to 1977, this book is for you. I just hope future generations will enjoy and appreciate this work as much as I enjoyed creating it.
EIN: Before Elvis bought it, the Lisa Marie was originally part of the Delta Airlines passenger fleet. Please tell us a brief overview of this part of its story. CV: By the late 1950s, Howard Hughes played a fundamental role in sponsoring a new jetliner: the Convair 880. His influence significantly shaped both the successes and setbacks of this aircraft. Developed by Convair in San Diego, the Convair 880 was a bold attempt to secure a place in the commercial airliner market. This was also the era when Delta Air Lines entered the Jet Age. Although the Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 were the dominant players, the Convair 880 had one key advantage — speed. At the time, it was the fastest commercial jet in the world. Delta ordered 17 of these sleek airliners, proudly promoting them as the “Aristocrat of Jets,” in line with Convair’s own advertising, which described them as “Fit for a King.” Can you believe it, Nigel? It’s almost as if they knew that one day, the King of Rock and Roll himself would own one of these planes! The aircraft that would later become the “Lisa Marie”, registered as N8809E, was delivered to Delta Air Lines on October 22, 1960, and entered service just a few days later, on October 26. Between that first flight in 1960 and its retirement on January 1, 1974, it accumulated 40,200 flight hours — an impressive total! During its Delta years, this jet crisscrossed the country countless times, truly symbolizing the golden era of coast-to-coast travel.
EIN: The Lisa Marie: The King’s Flying Graceland is full of interesting information and rare archival photos. What were some of the most surprising discoveries as you reached the book? CV: I’d have to say the photographs taken at Geneva Airport on July 3, 1980, courtesy of Jean-Luc Altherr. You know, Nigel, by mid-1980, Elvis’ dream of taking his aircraft internationally finally came true, and the Lisa Marie set foot on foreign soil. The aircraft had been operating charter flights across North America, but in 1980, it extended its operations to Europe, including Switzerland and France. Mr. Jean-Luc Altherr, who lived in France near the Swiss border — just about 300 meters away — spent most of his professional career at Geneva Airport before retiring a little over two years ago. When the Lisa Marie landed there in 1980, he captured two incredible photographs that were completely unknown to me. Before discovering these, the only image I had seen from the Lisa Marie's time in Geneva was the well-known photo by Jacques Delessert, which I had already published in The Airplanes & The King. But these two new pictures were absolutely stunning — a true hidden treasure in Elvis aviation history!
EIN: Without giving too much away, can you allude to some of the interesting or funny things that happened aboard or relating to the "Lisa Marie" during the time Elvis owned it? CV: Oh boy, where do I even begin? It’s still incredible to me that a guy who was so fearful of flying could fall so deeply in love with this airplane. He truly adored it and found any excuse to use it. Of course, we all know the famous story about the 'Fool’s Gold Sandwich' in Denver, but there are plenty more funny and fascinating stories from aboard the Lisa Marie. One of my personal favorites is the story of Elvis meeting his crew for the first time and taking his first flight aboard the Lisa Marie. The late Dick Grob once recalled a hilarious moment when Elvis was preparing to sit in the jump seat to observe the cockpit crew for the very first time. Captain Elwood David, with a mischievous grin, pretended to have trouble starting the plane. He jokingly asked co-pilot Ron Strauss where the manual was and how to start the plane. They kept up the prank, acting as though they were clueless about how to operate the aircraft. Elvis, already a bit nervous and unsure, stood frozen in the doorway, growing more concerned. Eventually, he realized it was all just a joke. His expression changed, and he broke into a big grin, laughing and saying, “You got me this time!”
EIN: One of the fascinating chapters in the book is about the Lisa Marie coming back home to Memphis and Graceland. Briefly, can you tell our readers about some of the challenges this involved. CV : Well, as you know, Nigel, after Elvis's passing, maintaining the magnificent Lisa Marie became financially overwhelming for Vernon Presley. As a result, on April 3, 1978, he decided to sell the Convair. Over the next few years, the airplane changed ownership several times, passing between different owners from 1978 to 1984. By 1981, after a series of international flights the previous year, the “Lisa Marie” was grounded at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. This period turned out to be an opportunity for both amateur and professional photographers to capture stunning images of the "King’s Bird." However, the plane was in poor condition. Many of its flight instruments had been removed from the cockpit, and even the pressurization door was stolen. Fortunately, negotiations began in November 1982 between Jack Soden, the executive director of Graceland, and the then-owner of the Lisa Marie, Raymond Zimmerman. But it wasn't until more than two years later that Soden finally concluded the deal — not with Zimmerman directly, but with a new owner, K.G. Coker. Luckily for us, by December 1983, Soden facilitated the acquisition of the plane through a long-term loan agreement, with the owners receiving a share of ticket sales as part of the arrangement. On February 6, 1984, the Lisa Marie was granted a special ferry flight to Memphis by the FAA after many parts and flight instruments were replaced. These materials had to be sourced from all over the country because they were so old and hard to find. During the flight, the crew was not allowed to retract the landing gear once the plane was airborne, just in case it couldn’t be lowered again for landing. Another plane flew alongside to film the Lisa Marie’s last time in the sky. Sixteen days later, the aircraft was transported via Highway 51 to its final resting place at Graceland. To make this journey possible, they had to remove the vertical stabilizer, wing tips, and two of the engines. The parts were reassembled with bolts once the plane arrived at its destination.
The relocation was a monumental and impressive feat. The “Lisa Marie” had to be moved three miles from Memphis Airport to Graceland, and traffic lights had to be temporarily removed to allow the plane to pass through. Extensive preparations were made to accommodate this massive transport. The date of the transport was February 22, 1984. In honor of the occasion, Richard Cecil "Dick" Hackett, the Mayor of Memphis, and William "Bill" Morris, the Mayor of Shelby County, Tennessee, officially declared February 22, 1984, as “Lisa Marie’s Day.” This was a tribute to the enduring bond between Elvis, his beloved airplane, and the spirit of Memphis and Tennessee. EIN: Having read the book, I found the two Appendices, The Lisa Marie Memorabilia and Lisa Marie in Flight Simulation, to be not only surprising, but also fascinating. I doubt most fans knew about these. The variety of Lisa Marie aircraft memorabilia is impressive - please tell us about the various items and how you went about obtaining so much information and about them. CV: Well, Nigel, my love for both aviation and Elvis was the perfect combination to keep my radar on whenever something new about the Lisa Marie came up. I remember my first time in Memphis, collecting every little brochure about the Lisa Marie and the Hound Dog II, and also investigating what was released at that time. I remember acquiring the personal guide brochure from the Atlanta exhibition in March 1979 in the early 2000s, and the rare Lisa Marie pin from the mid-80s a few years later. There are so many items released, pens, postcards, model planes, shirts… even a Ceramic Pepper Shaker!..... a lot! My friend Steve Barile also helped me a lot to gather many items and he sent them from New York to Buenos Aires. I may have had the chance to collect all of it because I always had my aviation and Elvis radar turned on! Lol.
EIN: Carlos, how many items of Lisa Marie memorabilia have you collected? CV: Oh boy, oh boy, I have no idea how many items I have, but if I had to make an educated guess, I'd say between newspaper clippings, postcards, and other items, maybe more than 200. Perhaps even more. I even have fan blade shavings from one of the Lisa Marie's engines at home! EIN: Please tell us about the various Lisa Marie Flight Simulation games. CV: This is a very special subject for me. I’m involved in the development of a physical flight simulator at my university in Buenos Aires. We’re building a full flight simulator from scratch for students and pilots to use, so I’m very involved in the flight simulation world. Since I was a kid, I’ve had every flight simulator program released on the market— from Microsoft Flight Simulator to Flight Unlimited and X-Plane. Every simulator was installed on my computer at least once. In the late '90s, I was in high school, and I discovered that some Microsoft Flight Simulator fans had created a custom "Lisa Marie" Convair 880 to fly. I remember seeing the download file late one night, but I didn’t have the chance to install it on my Flight Simulator 98 (it was still dial-up internet back then). The next day, all I could think about at school was returning home to install the Lisa Marie. While my teacher was trying to teach me about Thermodynamics, I was imagining making the approximately 209 flights Elvis did from '75 to '77 with my simulated plane. (I never actually completed all of them — I think I stopped during the May '76 tour.) Anyway, as soon as I finished school, I took the train and rushed home. The first time I saw that Convair 880 simulated cockpit, I was shocked. Since that day in the late '90s, I’ve never stopped flying the Lisa Marie in flight simulators. Nowadays, I occasionally do a simulated flight from Memphis to somewhere else in the U.S. You can find a lot of “Lisa Marie” airplanes in flight simulators! Also, the beautiful red, white, and blue livery has been adapted for non-Convair 880 airplanes, like an Airbus A320, a couple of Boeing 737s, and even a Cessna 172! EIN: How many of the Convair 880 are known to still be in existence? CV: As far as I know, only 9 of these aircraft are still in existence. None of them is airworthy, and only one is properly preserved: Elvis Presley’s “Lisa Marie.” The others are only partially preserved, with seven of them located in the U.S., and one preserved as a home in East London, South Africa.
EIN: How can fans obtain a copy of The Lisa Marie: The Kings' Flying Graceland? CV: I’m currently working on the distribution logistics in the weeks leading up to its release. But it will likely be available directly from Amazon and in the Graceland Air store in Memphis, just like my other book, “The Airplanes & The King”. Updated information will be provided in the coming weeks. EIN: And when will the book be released? CV: The book will be released on April 17, 2025, exactly 50 years since Elvis bought his “Flying Graceland”! EIN: What is the next book or project for Carlos Varrenti? CV: I have to confess, Nigel, this was a three-year project with only a few breaks in between. I think I’ll rest for the remainder of 2025. It was almost a full-time job creating this 550-page baby, with a lot of work involved in research, photo authorizations, and newspaper investigations. But you can bet that the logical next step is to work on the JetStar (The Hound Dog II), which is definitely on my bucket list! I have a lot of information, photos, and an idea for the book already in my mind. Of course, it won’t be a 550-page book, but it will be a nice companion to the Elvis Aviation Legacy collection, one that any Elvis fan or aviation enthusiast will want to have in their personal library. I hope to have it ready by Elvis Week 2027. EIN: Carlos, before we wrap up the interview, is there anything else you'd like to mention? CV: Yes! I sincerely hope that “The Lisa Marie: The King's Flying Graceland” will endure as the definitive biography of this magnificent flying machine, a testament to its place in history, allowing future generations to learn more about this great American beauty that flew the skies for more than a quarter of a century. My intention with these pages was to invite the reader to join me on an immersive journey through the life of Elvis Presley, as experienced through the prism of aviation and the extraordinary story of his Convair 880. For those who share my passion — whether it’s for Elvis, flying, engineering, or the sheer wonder of aviation — I am confident that you will discover a treasure trove of insights within these chapters. This book is an invitation to a world where the King of Rock met the thrill of the skies, a realm where dreams and airplanes soared together. EIN: Carlos, thank you very much for what has been a most interesting conversation about your interest in aviation and Elvis’ most prized airplane. We wish you all the best for strong sales of “The Lisa Marie: The King’s Flying Graceland” and we look forward to “JetStar (The Hound Dog II”). Read EIN’s review of Carlos Varrenti’s first book, Please note that the images used in this interview are only personal low-res photos - so do not represent the image quality of the book itself.
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Elvis Presley, Elvis and Graceland are trademarks of Elvis Presley Enterprises. The Elvis Information Network has been running since 1986 and is an EPE officially recognised Elvis fan club.
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