Every day, just before 11 a.m. at The Peabody in Memphis, Tennessee, an employee at the hotel rolls out a red carpet.
One might assume the red carpet is for a celebrity, many of whom have visited The Peabody over the years, from Elvis Presley to Justin Timberlake. Instead, the honor is reserved for five North American Mallard ducks that march down daily to the lobby's fountain — as they've done for almost a century.
The hotel's duck march has defined The Peabody's over 100-year history, becoming not only an attraction at the hotel but a must-see Memphis experience that brings in hundreds of people a day from all around the world.
In September, the 464-key Peabody hotel — known as the South's Grand Hotel — celebrates 100 years at its current location in downtown Memphis, and the iconic duck march has been there for almost every step of the way.
The making of the march
The Peabody hotel opened its doors in 1869 at its original Memphis location at the corner of Main Street and Monroe Avenue. Colonel Robert Brinkley was behind the endeavor and planned to name the hotel The Brinkley House after himself. When philanthropist George Peabody, who had once encouraged and even funded Brinkley's dream of opening a hotel, unexpectedly died ahead of attending the hotel opening, Brinkley pivoted to name it in Peabody's honor.
In 1925, The Peabody Hotel reopened just a few blocks away. The relocation — falsely rumored to be due to a fire — allowed for the hotel to meet some of the modern needs of traveler's expectations, said Douglas Browne, president at Peabody Hotels and Resorts and general manager of the hotel since 2003.
"A lot had changed from 1869 to 1925, so when they built this hotel, it was really kind of seen as a very modern hotel in those times, because it had elevators, it had air flow through the hotel — even though that wasn't really air conditioning. That was a big deal at the time," he said.
There was central vacuuming and the 625 guestrooms — the hotel's original room count — had their own bathrooms. Not long after the relocation, The Peabody acquired what would be it's most desirable feature yet: its ducks.
In 1933, Frank Schutt was the hotel's general manager. Until Browne came for the title, Schutt was The Peabody's longest-serving general manager.
The origin of The Peabody's ducks starts with when Schutt and some friends ventured out to neighboring Arkansas to hunt, bringing a flock of live decoy ducks to aid in their hunting — a practice that has since been outlawed. As Schutt and his cohorts were drinking Tennessee whiskey to stay warm on the cold day, they thought it would be funny to bring their decoy ducks into The Peabody's lobby fountain rather than leave them out in the cold.
"They got up in the morning, and they were really surprised to see that the ducks were still in the fountain, and even more surprised that guests had surrounded all around the fountain and were very intrigued with the fact that we had ducks in the fountain," Browne said.
In 1940, not long after Schutt learned of the fountain ducks' appeal, he approached a bellman named Edward Pembroke, who formerly worked as an animal trainer for the circus, and asked him if he could train the ducks to march through the lobby every day. Pembroke became the hotel's first duckmaster, and he served in that role until he retired in 1991.
While Pembroke and his ducks marched a throughline through The Peabody's history, they shared the stage with many music legends who also graced the lobby and rooftop. In 1939, The Peabody's Skyway — its event center — and adjoining rooftop were added and became a destination for entertainers and their fans. The space also hosted live radio broadcasts for CBS Radio and helped cement the rooftop and hotel as a hub for mid-south social and business.
However, the 1970s brought a challenging social and economic time for downtown Memphis, and struggling from the disruption, The Peabody closed. In 1975, Belz Enterprises, a Memphis-based commercial and industrial real estate developer, bought the hotel for $540,000 and began a $25 million renovation before reopening on Sept. 1, 1981.
Belz Enterprises — founded in 1940 by Philip Belz and now run by his grandson, Ronald Belz — grew The Peabody empire with franchise locations in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Orlando, Florida. However, both hotels have since been sold, so only the original Peabody hotel in Memphis remains.
Sustaining a 'bucket list' attraction
Despite the highs and lows of the 1900s for The Peabody, the daily duck march isn't too dissimilar to what Pembroke set up all those decades ago. The five ducks — four females and one male — march from their duck palace on the roof of the hotel to the elevator, which is reserved at 11 a.m. every day for them.
Along with their duckmaster — today held by Kenon Walker — the ducks parade across the lobby to the tune of "King Cotton March" by John Philip Sousa. Once at the lobby fountain, they swim and splash until 5 p.m. when they return home for the day in a subsequent march.
The pomp and circumstance of the ordeal has only grown over the years. Kelly Brock, director of marketing at The Peabody, said that the duck march is one of the top three attractions in Memphis according to Memphis Tourism Research. The hotel's duckmasters started presenting the history of the march before the ducks appear because they frequently got questions from the crowds.
"We've elaborated on that and made it more of a more of a show — more official and consistent," she said. "And so I think it's more more of an attraction now, even than it was 20 years ago or 25 years ago. We continue to build on it to make it a destination in and of itself."
To the several hundred people who gather each day for the march — Browne said 500 people is a slow day, but the number can get up to over a thousand — the ordeal is a major attraction and cornerstone for the hotel. Brock oversees the duckmasters and the ducks as both are integral to The Peabody's brand.
"We hear the phrase 'bucket list' a lot," Brock said. The ducks have also appeared on TV, including on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson,” “Sesame Street” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
The nuances of the presentation lends for a very unique hiring need. A duckmaster has a wide range of duties, and not all glamorous. The role requires a passion for history and presenting, as well as a natural ability to work with animals. The duckmaster, and his assistant duckmasters, are part tour guides and showrunners and part caretakers to the ducks, responsible for training, feeding and cleaning up after them.
For Doug Weatherford, who has served in the role since 2009, he loves that he gets to indulge his passion for Memphis history and storytelling. A former hotel manager, Weatherford exchanged the high-stress job for duckmaster, which let him keep some of the calmer parts of a hospitality career. He semi-retired from the position during the pandemic, but still helps out as an assistant duckmaster.
"It's where I'm supposed to be. I have an opportunity to talk about the city that I love, the hotel I enjoy," he said.
When they aren't marching or basking in the attention from their fans, the ducks live in their rooftop duck palace for the duration of their stay. The fowl, procured in partnership with a local farm and overseen by a veterinarian, check out after their 90-day residencies. Browne said research shows that at 120 days, ducks are domesticated, so they are released well before then. They aren't named or handled like pets so that they are able to more smoothly return to the wild.
"They live a good life here," Browne said. "They're fed daily and taken care of medically."
When a new flock of Peabody ducks come on-site, Weatherford said the wild animals don't take very long to learn their new routine — ducks are very habitual creatures — and they learn on the fly.
"For the first couple of weeks that I have them, we will ask people to form a human wall on each side of the red carpet leading from the elevator to the to the fountain, so the ducks don't see any options along the way," Weatherford said. "So, after a couple of weeks of that, they pretty much get it because the fountain is where they want to be. ... They're pretty happy to spend their six hours a day there. And then they look forward to going back to because we will feed them upstairs in the duck palace."
The 'living room of the south' and other Peabody features
The Peabody Hotel is in a prime downtown location in Memphis close to the famed Beale Street, which features nightlife and live music. Due to the hotel's central location, its lobby serves as a meeting ground for both Memphis residents and tourists alike.
The Lobby Bar at The Peabody has been integral to the hotel since the halcyon days of rhythm and blues for Memphis, but the daily duck marches ensure a constant flow of business, Browne said.
"Having an attraction in the lobby like the ducks, our lobby bar probably does in a week in revenues what most hotel bars do maybe in a month or two," he said.
The lobby is known as "the living room of the south" because of how much it's serves as a place to see and be seen, Browne said.
"We have celebrities in the hotel almost every week," he said. "It's highly likely that you can sit in our lobby and watch somebody walk by that's a celebrity."
The Peabody has 80,000 square feet of meeting space, and Browne said the hotel does about 60,000 group rooms a year in the hotel. Many of the city's galas and weddings take place at The Peabody as well.
The Peabody is also home to a spa — called the Feathers Spa, a nod to its resident ducks — and two dining concepts. Capriccio Grill is an Italian steakhouse and Chez Phillippe is an award-winning French restaurant led by Chef Keith Clinton. Neither eatery serves duck.
Maintaining a legacy
A priority for The Peabody is to maintain the elegance and look of the lobby, while providing a quality atmosphere, and that means frequent upkeep of the hotel. The busy lobby gets renovated every five years, but the average guest won't notice that, Browne said.
"For the most part, the lobby does not change, and that's because people for the last 100 years have been coming and their expectation is to walk into this lobby that they've seen pictures of, and they want to see it," Browne said. "We're very careful to make sure that when we renovate, we renovate to maintain the elegance and the luxury part of it, but never change really the look of it."
The lobby and Chez Philippe were both renovated last year, and The Peabody currently is undergoing a $19 million rooms renovation that will conclude next month. Again, Browne said the goal is to update the hotel while still keeping the style consistent to people's expectations.
"We're all very careful of when we work with designers that we keep a traditional elegance to the look of the guestrooms," Browne said. "Yes, we want all the modern conveniences so that you can connect your cell phone to charge it, you've got Wi-Fi and and all of the modern conveniences expected, but at the same time keeping a very historic and traditional elegant look to the rooms."
The current rooms renovation includes all new beds and bedding, furniture, wall coverings and drapery, electronics, light fixtures and lamps. The color schemes are soothing tones of blue and gray-blue for upholstery and warm woods for furniture. And, hanging in each guestroom, will be artwork that features ducks.