Peabody Hotel is not just another luxury hotel in downtown Memphis in Tennessee, USA. This one has a peculiar attraction – ducks. Every day at 11 in the morning, a parade of five mallard ducks makes its way from their penthouse home on the roof of the hotel down to the lobby via the elevator. Red carpet is rolled out all the way from the elevator door to the hotel fountain made of a solid block of Italian travertine marble. The ducks frolic in the waters the entire day. At exactly 5 in the evening, the ducks are ceremoniously led back to their penthouse.
The unique tradition started in 1932, when the general manager of the time, Frank Schutt, had just returned from a weekend hunting trip in Arkansas. He and his friends thought it would be amusing to leave three of their live English Call Duck decoys in the hotel fountain. The ducks became immediately popular with hotel guests, and since then, five Mallard ducks (one male and four females) have played in the fountain every day.
