Elvis's "Firework Wars" at Graceland

[FinnAmerican]

On the 4th of July and New Year's "Firework Wars" were held by Elvis Presley on the grounds of Graceland. Back then he spent as much as $1,500 for fireworks. Including Roman Candles and Mortar shells.
Participants were divided up into teams. Then shoot each other with Roman Candles and throw Buzz Bombs at each other. The Buzz Bombs would make a screaming noise and then explode.
Elvis snuck into his own kitchen and lit a Buzz Bombs and scared all the wives that were watching the wars through the window.
Photos of Elvis shooting a Roman Candle. (Ca. 1968-69)
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[FinnAmerican]

Short video clip of Elvis shooting a Roman Candle


https://www.reddit.com/r/Elvisvideos/comments/16sagy1/elvis_shooting_off_fireworks_circa_1968/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

[Arclight]

I got invited to guitarist Dick Dale's house for 4th of July a long time ago. He owned a private airstrip and home near Twentynine Palms, CA. He bought a huge amount of fireworks and we had a similar sort of battle on the runway. We lit dozens of those little shooting tanks and drove them towards each other. I think he had another piliot fly in a huge load of stuff from Nevada or Texas for the event.

[displayfireworks1]

At Arclight: If we look on Googlemaps maybe we can still see burn marks on the runway. LOL

[jknepp1954]

We visited Graceland several years ago. When we did the tour - and they got to the part about his "fireworks battles" we all kinda chuckled to ourselves. Someone in the crowd whispered over to us "whats so funny" (they didn't find it funny) I said we own a fireworks store in Pa and we hear stories like this all the time.