Pretty Quacky

We’re the city of Grit and Grind, Soul Music, Rock and Roll, delectable BBQ, and the most insufferable humidity you’ve ever experienced. But if you moved here from elsewhere or you’ve ever needed to entertain some young cousins for a weekend, you also know we’ve got ducks. Ducks that ride on elevators, live in penthouses and are followed by their own paparazzi. Ducks that add a little quack to the natural quirk of our great city.

The Peabody’s Hotel

In 1869, the first Peabody Hotel opened in downtown Memphis, adding gilt to the growing riverside metropolis. From its beginning, the Peabody at Main and Monroe became the most luxurious place to stay, gather, and negotiate for well-to-do Memphians and their associates. For 50 years, the hotel remained there in the heart of downtown, surviving the yellow fever epidemic of 1878 and the lost city charter of 1879. In 1925, the “newer” location at Union Avenue and Second heralded the “South’s Grand Hotel” with a world-class, Renaissance Revival style lobby and 464 elevated rooms. But it wasn’t until 1930 that the hotel’s most famous guests enjoyed their first stay.

Tennessee Whiskey

It was on a hunting trip to Arkansas that the Peabody’s General Manager Frank Schutt and his buddy Chip Barwick enjoyed a little too much whiskey and decided to return to the hotel and put their live duck decoys (legal back then) in the lobby fountain. The guests thought it was a hoot and the rest is, quite literally, history. A tradition was born and a mere 94 years later, we’re still visiting marching ducks when the in-laws come into town.

March Madness

A few years after the ducks became permanent residents of the Peabody fountain, Bellman Edward Pembroke decided to formally train them to march into the lobby twice a day, creating a little magic and a lot of spectacle for human guests and sightseers alike. A former circus trainer, Pembroke was perfect for the job, and he served as the official Duckmaster of the Peabody Hotel for 50 years until he retired in 1991. These days, families can pay a package fee with their hotel reservation and be granted Duckmaster status for the day, escorting the feather friends from their $200,000 rooftop abode to the lobby fountain, gifted an official brass cane, and seated at an especially reserved table in the usually busy lobby bar. 

For the rest of us, the ducks make their splashy march twice a day, at 11 am and 5 pm, guarded by rope and stanchions. The experience is free, but certainly elevated with a Shirley Temple at the bar or a chocolate mousse duck from the menu. And a visit to the hotel is incomplete without a visit to the roof where the little duck mansion can be seen alongside spectacular skyline views.

Visit the Peabody online for more details on the world famous ducks and becoming Duckmaster!

Images via Trip Advisor