This is Birdnote.

The Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee is a swanky hotel best known for its ducks.

It has five ducks that live in a palace on the roof.

Each morning, they're marched into the lobby fountain with great fanfare,

then marched back up in the afternoon.

The tradition goes back to 1933, to an incident involving the manager of the hotel,

live duck decoys for a duck hunt, and a bit too much whiskey.

Guests were charmed to find ducks swimming in the hotel fountain in the morning,

and they became a fixture of the hotel.

And it became a tradition to have ducks live in the fountain, but the bellman had to take care of them.

Kenan Walker is the current duckmaster of the hotel.

But when these ducks first arrived in the 30s, there was no ceremony.

Just some ducks swimming in a fountain that there wasn't a great plan for taking care of.

Keep in mind, we were in the South.

So the hotel was a segregated hotel at that point.

The Bellman were black.

Couldn't stay at the hotel, though.

Based off of pictures that I've seen, prior to starting the duck march, I think that the men

who were responsible for caring for those ducks felt like the ducks had more value than they

did inside the hotel.

As I look at pictures of the bellmen who were responsible for the ducks, I don't see a smile

on anyone's face, not a single person.

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