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It’s a glimpse into King of Rock and Roll’s future
Jan 12, 2026 11:09 AM EST
By Lucille Barilla
Entertainment Writer, Parade
Key Points
Graceland preserves over 1 million Elvis artifacts, and Angie Marchese oversees them all.
Marchese highlights personal finds, including Elvis’s teen photo strip and his graduation program.
“That’s the future king of rock and roll, right?” Marchese reflects on young Elvis photos.
Elvis Presley‘s Graceland houses a treasure trove of over 1 million artifacts, and Angie Marchese, VP of Archives and Exhibits, works tirelessly to preserve this priceless collection for generations to come. Among them, however, there is one item that resonated with her personally, offering a rare glimpse into the young man who would become the King of Rock and Roll.
Parade had the opportunity to sit down for an exclusive with Marchese as Graceland hosted the first U.S. screenings of Baz Luhrmann‘s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. The film uses newly discovered archival footage, rare concert films, and Elvis’s own recordings to create an immersive experience focusing on his legendary Las Vegas residency and performances in the 1970s.
Marchese is the guardian of Elvis’s legacy at Graceland, ensuring both the preservation and public presentation of the King’s life and career. She curates exhibits that bring the King’s life and legacy to life for visitors.
Therefore, she has unprecedented access to the home, its archives, and family members. One of her most memorable finds bridges the gap between the man and the public persona.
She told Parade, “There was a strip of pictures; Elvis is probably about 15, and it was a photo booth thing. And you can see it was like, the first picture, he’s got his jacket on, his shirts button up. He’s got a tie.”
“Second picture, the tie is undone, but the shirts still buttoned up. In the third picture, the buttons are a little bit looser. But in the fourth picture, he’s got that collar turned up, and it was like, there he is.”
She said, “That’s the future king of rock and roll, right? You know? And just looking at this and going through it, just trying to imagine what he was thinking and what he was doing and what was, you know, it was just being a teenager and trying to figure out his life.”
A second memorable find was located in 1993 after the death of Elvis’s aunt, Delta Mae Presley Biggs. She lived at Graceland from 1967 through 1993, even after the home opened up for tours in 1982.
Marchese explained that Delta’s room formerly belonged to Gladys and Vernon Presley, then his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley. “Gladys was in there just for a period of time, and then grandma moved in, and then eventually Delta used that room,” she said.
“We didn’t really get in there until 93 when Delta passed away. And so we went into the closet and found a wicker trunk, and in there, literally, was memorabilia of Elvis’s from the 50s. And it’s just like finding a treasure in an attic somewhere, and literally in a shoe box, there were all of these fan photos sent to Gladys. It was in the bottom of that that I found his graduation program and tassel. And for me, that was, that was really one of my, when I say, one of my first discoveries in archives that really went to another level about who this person was, because that was a mom saving a memorable moment in her son’s life.”
She concluded, “He wasn’t Elvis Presley at the time, you know? He’s the first Presley to graduate high school, you know?”
Angie Marchese has worked at Graceland for 36 years, overseeing the conservation of all items in the family’s catalog, maintaining the historic home, and curating exhibits that chronicle Elvis Presley’s life and career.
Lucille Barilla
Entertainment Writer, Parade
Lucille Barilla is an entertainment writer with almost four decades of experience in the entertainment industry. She has deep industry knowledge and works to create stories that are not only entertaining but also informative. She's interviewed some of the notable musicians in the industry, including Jon Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews, Darius Rucker, and Gene Simmons.