Duck March

Hello all.  I thought I would post something tonight a little on the light-hearted side today.  I was at work last night, and one of my co-workers handed me a pen that was labeld "The Peabody".  I instantly thought of another bit of useless/random trivia, and I decided to share it with you. 

Duck March circa 1940

The Duck March tradition began at the Peabody Memphis.  In 1933, the General Manager Frank Schutt, and a friend returned from a weekend hunting trip.  The two gentlemen had a little too much of Jack Daniel's finest and thought it would be funny to place some of their live decoys (it was legal then to use live animals as decoys) in the fountain.  As the legend has it, patrons of the hotel thought it was a nice addition.  So, Schutt decided to use three English call ducks as "guinea pigs" to see if it would interest his guests.  The ducks reception was nothing less than enthusiastic.

Duck palace

Eventually 5 American Mallards would replace the English ducks and the tradtion was born.  In 1940, a bellman named Edward Pembroke, who coincidentally was a former circus trainter, offered to help deliver the ducks to and from the fountain each day.  He was the man who taught them the now famous Peabody Duck March.  Mr. Pembroke was the Duckmaster for 50 years, until his retirement in 1991.  The Duck March is still a tradition at the Peabody, the current Duckmaster is Jason Sensat, who will march the ducks to the fountain everyday at 11AM, and then march them back to the Duck Palace at 5PM. 



Edward Pembroke,
the original Duckmaster



I have to admit, I wish there were more hotels that had tradtions like that.  I mean, how many hotels are still some things the way they did in the 1940's?  I'll try to get back to the world-changing history soon, but I couldn't pass the opportunity to share this with you.

Blue Skies!

Hey Kaitlynn, show this one to Grandma!