Featured image: The world-famous Peabody Ducks in the lobby of the Peabody Memphis | Photo provided by Peabody Memphis

An immersive cultural experience at the South’s Grand Hotel

by Jennifer Bain

I can now add “walked the red carpet” to my list of unexpected achievements. Granted it was in Memphis not Hollywood, and it was with five ducks, not starlets and action heroes, but those 40-odd steps made me part of the quirky history of the Peabody Memphis hotel.

It was January 9, the day after what would have been Elvis Presley’s 90th birthday. The ducks were quacking up a storm in the lovely Italian Travertine fountain while I nursed a Memphis Mule with an itty-bitty rubber ducky floating among the ice cubes.

Kenon Walker, the world’s only duckmaster, picked a boy to help roll out a red carpet from the lobby fountain to the elevator and then called on me to begin my duties.

“Jennifer, are you ready for this?” Walker teased. “Your life will never be the same again after this moment, you know that right?”

With a flourish, he presented me with three goodies — a Peabody duckmaster rubber ducky, a duckmaster t-shirt that mimicked his circus ringleader-style outfit, and a wooden cane with a brass duck head.

“Whereas, the daily march of the world-famous Peabody ducks is a time-honored tradition, begun in 1933 and attended by countless visitors,” the actor-turned-duckmaster read from a proclamation. “And whereas, the care and protection of the Peabody ducks must be attended to on a daily basis and can only fall to persons of high standards and great distinction, and whereas, you are such a person, be it resolved that Jennifer Bain has been chosen honourary duckmaster.”

The crowd clapped with delight and surely a touch of envy.

“Jennifer and I are about to take our team of five feathered friends outside this fountain, march them back up this red carpet, take them all back upstairs to the duck palace for the rest of the evening,” Walker continued. “And when those elevator doors close, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, brothers, sisters, cousins, partners and neighbours, we all will have witnessed the march of the world-famous Peabody ducks.”

All eyes would be on the ducks as they pranced down 45 feet of red carpet. But I prefer the shadows to the spotlight, and feared being splashed across social media if I bungled things..

A New Year’s resolution for more microadventures

It was my first time in Memphis since my musical honeymoon across Tennessee and Mississippi 15 years ago. Alone this time in a city defiantly described as a “blue dot in a red state,” I revisited Beale Street, Sun Studio (the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll) and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel (where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968) before a freak snow storm rolled in.

Those record-breaking 7.5 inches of snow crippled the city. But nothing stops the Peabody ducks from marching into the lobby every day at 11 a.m., swimming in the magnificent fountain for six hours and then marching back to their rooftop “palace” at 5 p.m.

My New Year’s Resolution was to seek more microadventures on quick getaways. To kick off 2025, and perhaps to atone for all the duck dishes I’ve eaten as a food writer and cookbook author, I signed up for the Peabody’s Ducky Day Family Package. My stint as honourary duckmaster would start after Walker convinced the mallards to leave the fountain and climb down portable steps.

“Once they’re out of the fountain,” he confided, “basically we’ll follow them and we’ll let them lead us. Now one of two things is going to happen. Either they’ll walk fast right into the elevator and I’ll bring them back out toward you so people can take pictures. Then I’ll let you march them back in. Or if they walk slowly, we’ll just let them lead us all the way in.”

The history of the Peabody Ducks

So how did ducks become synonymous with this stately Tennessee hotel? That’s a story that Walker shares at every duck march and on his daily history tours.

The tradition began in 1933 when general manager Frank Schutt and his friend Chip Barwick returned from a weekend hunting trip in Arkansas with their live decoys (it was legal to hunt with those at the time). Buoyed by Jack Daniel’s, Tennessee’s favourite whiskey, they thought it would be hilarious to put their three English call ducks in the lobby fountain.

Guests loved the prank so the trio got to stay and the bellmen cared for them.

Then Edward Pembroke, a former circus animal trainer, was hired as a bellman in 1940. He dreamed up the duck march and convinced the hotel to switch to five mallards. The hotel’s first duckmaster kept the unique position for 50 years until retiring in 1991.

“Now unfortunately Mr. Pembroke is no longer here with us but I do have a very, very strong feeling that his spirit’s smiling and shining brightly over our ceremony here in the lobby this evening,” Walker told the crowd. “And there’s a picture of Mr. Pembroke and his ducks right over by the valet entrance. Make sure you stop by and pay your respects on your way outside of the hotel.”

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That I did while riding out the winter storm at the Peabody. “Snowed in at the Peabody feels like Eloise at the Plaza,” Memphis Tourism’s Lauren Berry quipped as I witnessed five duck marches over four days and immersed myself in all things ducky.

Those white chocolate ducks filled with chocolate mousse in the Peabody Deli & Desserts? Assistant pastry chef Justin Hughes let me help decorate one on a private pastry kitchen tour. “It’s the only duck in the hotel that you can eat,” confided Hughes, “besides the duck cookies.”

The fact that duck isn’t served here was once a Trivial Pursuit question. It’s also discussed in a framed 1981 letter about replacing duck entrées that’s kept in the memorabilia room.

“We are basically taking our logo, slaughtering it, and serving it and I’m not sure this is to our benefit,” wrote managing partner Gary Belz. “In other words, there is definitely an unconscious psychological connection to these ducks with many generations of Mid-Southerners.”

Executive chef Charles Roseman scrawled this promise on the typed letter: “Gary, there will be no dead duck at The Peabody.” The hotel now boasts that Chez Philippe is one of the world’s only French restaurants that doesn’t serve duck. (It is, however, famous for a scene in The Client, a John Grisham novel turned Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones film.)

The Peabody Hotel is an iconic destination

The Peabody, aka the “South’s Grand Hotel,” has 156 years worth of stories to tell. Opened in 1869 at Main and Monroe, it became a social hub before moving to grander digs at Union and Second in 1925. Named for philanthropist George Peabody and designed by Chicago architect Walter Ahlschlager, it’s listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The hotel languished for a spell until the Belz family saved it from demolition in 1975 and helped revitalize downtown. World leaders, presidents and celebrities have stayed here. Lansky’s at The Peabody is a famous retail tenant selling things like shirts and jackets that Elvis wore when he performed.

“I don’t have any money, Mr. Lansky, but when I get rich, I’m going to buy you out,” a young Elvis famously promised Bernard Lansky.

“Don’t buy me out — just buy from me,” replied the savvy retailer who found fame as “Clothier to the King.”

Elvis attended his prom in a Peabody ballroom. Neil Diamond wrote “Sweet Caroline” here. Jimmy Buffet’s “Math Sucks” has a line that says “quackin’ like those Peabody ducks.” On the sidewalk outside, look for the Duck Walk Hall of Fame. In the rooms, expect duck-shaped soaps and TVs that play a short hotel documentary.

From a duck “tuck-in” card, I learned that the first lobby fountain residents were actually turtles and baby alligators that people picked up on holidays to Florida and Louisiana. (If you want to see gators in Memphis, six of them live at Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.)

Go early for the duck march because the duckmaster presentation starts around 10:45 a.m. and 4: 45 p.m.

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The ducks have long been raised by a local farmer and do three-month hotel stints before retiring to the farm to live as wild ducks by a lake. Walker — @duckmasterkenon on TikTok — is the Peabody’s seventh duckmaster and he trains the teams to march between the roof and lobby but doesn’t name them or treat them like pets.

“As the ducks are marching up the carpet please do not attempt to reach out and touch or pet them,” Walker always warns spectators. “These are wild ducks and they will get nervous. If these ducks get nervous, they will leave duck sauce all up and down this red carpet — so let’s keep it clean.”

Kids, and sometimes adults, sit on the red carpet. Most people watch from the lobby bar or stand behind stanchions. Photos and videos are encouraged but flash photography is forbidden.

“Here we go y’all — it’s marching time,” said Walker as he signalled the ducks to leave the fountain for my march. “There’s one. There’s two. There’s three, four, five.” To the sound of John Philip Sousa’s “King Cotton March,” the veteran team of mallards (one drake and four hens) strolled the red carpet like pros.

“Ah, Jennifer you’ve got your ducks in a row,” teased Walker. “Alright duckies — strike a pose for everybody sitting by the red carpet. Good job, duckies. You’ve brought a lot of joy in this lobby. I’m proud of all five of you. Now Jennifer, do you think you can get those five ducks to march inside that elevator?”

“Absolutely,” I replied as Walker filmed me executing my duties.

“You looked so awkward,” my kids teased me later. Still, I was ridiculously proud that we marched without any blunders or duck sauce. And how cool was it to ride an elevator with five feathered friends and stroll with them across the roof, which is famous for a party scene in The Firm, a John Grisham novel turned Tom Cruise film?

We put the ducks to bed in their $200,000 (that’s USD) palace, a marble and glass enclosure with HVAC, a miniature Peabody hotel to nest in, and a fountain featuring a bronze duck spitting water. Grateful to have been part of the charmed life of the world’s luckiest ducks, I marched back to my room, twirling my duckmaster cane, certain that I’ll never look at ducks (or red carpets) the same way again.

Disclaimer: To learn about this city, Jennifer was a guest of Memphis Tourism, which did not review this story before publication. 

Planning your trip to Memphis, Tennessee

How to get there

Fly to Memphis International Airport (MEM) and then travel by car, taxi, or rideshare. Check for flights here.

Where to stay

Jennifer stayed at the Peabody Memphis. What started at Grand Central Station in 1914 is still an active train station with rail links to New Orleans and Chicago, but also includes the Central Station Hotel (part of the Curio Collection by Hilton). Click here to find the perfect place to stay.

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