About The Peabody Ducks
Most luxury hotels discourage waterfowl from entering the lobby. The Peabody Memphis has spent generations doing the opposite. Five mallards appear each day for a carefully staged procession through the Grand Lobby, march along a red carpet to the hotel’s fountain, spend several hours swimming there, and then perform the whole ritual in reverse.
The tradition began in 1933 after Peabody general manager Frank Schutt and his friend Chip Barwick returned from a hunting trip and decided to place live duck decoys in the lobby fountain. Guests enjoyed the stunt, and what could have remained a single questionable hotel decision became a permanent Memphis institution. The original ducks are long gone, but their successors still report for duty.
Today’s ducks march at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. under the direction of a Peabody Duckmaster. Between appearances, the working flock occupies the lobby fountain while visitors gather around a luxury hotel interior that has somehow been reorganized around five mallards. The ducks are eventually retired and replaced by another group rather than becoming permanent hotel residents.
The routine works because everyone involved treats it with tremendous ceremony. There is a red carpet. There is a designated Duckmaster. Crowds assemble in advance. The stars of the event remain ducks who mostly seem concerned with reaching a fountain. Memphis has turned that simple daily walk into one of the strangest and most charming hotel traditions in the country.