The Peabody Ducks are coming to UCCC!

The famous Peabody Duck March at UCCC

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26 at 12:30pm

The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. The hotel is known for the “Peabody Ducks” that live on the rooftop and make daily treks to the lobby. Next week the Ducks will be touring in St. Louis, and UCCC has been asked to host the famous March. Please take some time and read about this event, it is so cool and people travel from all over the world to see the march.  I would really like to roll out the UCCC red carpet and a have fun with this event.

Below is a little history. 

The Peabody is probably best known for a custom dating back to the 1930s. The General Manager of the time, Frank Schutt, had just returned from a weekend hunting trip in Arkansas. He and his friends found it amusing to leave three of their live English call ducks decoys in the hotel fountain. The guests loved the idea, and since then, five Mallard ducks (one drake and four hens) have played in the fountain every day.

In 1940, a Bellman by the name of Edward Pembroke volunteered to care for the ducks. Pembroke was given the position of "Duck master" and served in that position until 1991. As a former circus animal trainer, he taught the ducks to march into the hotel lobby, which started the famous Peabody Duck March.  Every day at 11:00 a.m., the Peabody Ducks are escorted from their penthouse home, on the Plantation Roof, to the lobby via elevator. The ducks, accompanied by the King Cotton March by John Phillip Sousa, then proceed across a red carpet to the hotel fountain, made of a solid block of Italian travertine marble. The ducks are then ceremoniously led back to their penthouse at 5:00 p.m.

Post by Ms. Peaches