Elvis History E-zine #2 — May 2008
It's Time for the May Issue
of Elvis History E-Zine
This is the second issue of Elvis History E-Zine, and things are looking up. The subscription rate has more than doubled, and I'm starting to feel (perhaps unwarranted) that I know what I'm doing with this e-zine thing. My plan is to send out Elvis-History E-Zine on the first of each month, but I'm a day late this month because May 1 was a Thursday. That's my blog day of Elvis-History-Blog.Com, and I didn't have time to do both a blog entry and this E-Zine on the same day. Anyway, check out the e-zine contents below and let me know what you think. I'm still trying to get a feel for what you would like to see in this e-zine.
Contents of Elvis History E-Zine #12
• May Anniversaries … A list of important events that occurred in May during the life and career of Elvis Presley.
• Two Elvis Anecdotes … Read about a movie idea Colonel Parker had for Elvis and an Elvis LP that took six years to reach Gold Record status.
• May Birthdays … A list of people in Elvis’s world who were born during the month of May.
• Quotation of the Month … Read what Lizabaeth Scott said about Elvis in 1957.
• What’s new and what’s coming … on Elvis-History-Blog.com.
May Anniversaries in Elvis’s Life and Career
May 1 — 41st anniversary of Elvis and Priscilla's wedding in Las Vegas in 1967.
May 2 — 48th anniversary of the start of principal photography on G.I. Blues in 1960.
May 5 — 52nd anniversary of Elvis's first LP reaching #1 on Billboard's album chart in 1956.
May 23 — 46 anniversary of the nationwide opening of "Follow that Dream" in 1962.
May 26 — 45th anniversary of Elvis recording "Devil in Disguise" in Nashville in 1963.
May 29 — 45th anniversary of Priscilla's graduation from Immaculate Conception High School in Memphis in 1963
This Month’s Elvis Anecdotes
Presley plays Parker—Yeah, right!
A short article that appeared in Variety on February 28, 1962, mentioned a proposed movie role for Elvis that, thank god, never came to be. The first of the article’s two paragraphs reads as follows:
“Showmanship experiences of Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager, will be recounted in a film planned by Metro with title, ‘Right This Way, Folks.’ Pic is being planned as a starrer for Presley.”
The idea of Elvis playing Colonel Parker in a movie was absolutely silly, and I think Parker knew it. He was often known to throw out ridiculous proposals as jokes to see how people would react. I’ll bet the Colonel got a good laugh when this preposterous nonsense was actually reported in Variety. The second paragraph of the article suggested Colonel Parker was already out doing research for the proposed movie about him: “Parker is currently is researching material for project at the Florida State Fair in Tampa, with a position to tell the problems of staging a big fair. Parker started his career as a barker at the Florida Fair.” Six months earlier, in the summer of 1961, the Colonel had indeed been in Florida, on location with Elvis during the filming of Follow That Dream.
Elvis’s Gold Records—Sometimes It Takes Awhile
It’s no surprise that Elvis received a Gold Record for his Christmas Album, issued during the holiday season in 1957. It is surprising, though, that he received that Gold Record in 1963, six years after his Christmas Album was first released. An article in Variety on January 1, 1964, announced that “Elvis’ Christmas Album” had finally reached the $1 million sales mark that holiday season. The bulk of the LP’s sales, of course, came during its initial release in 1957, but sales that first year were well below the million dollar mark. It took re-releases of the album for six more Christmas seasons for it to reach the Gold Record standard.
That same variety article reported that Elvis’s Xmas LP was the sixth Presley album awarded Gold Record status by the Record Industry Association of America. The others, as of January 1, 1964, were “Elvis”; “Elvis’ Golden Records, Vol. 1”; “G.I. Blues”; “Girls! Girls! Girls!”; and “Blue Hawaii”. Variety also indicated that two current Elvis LPs, “Elvis’ Golden Records Vol. 3” and “Fun in Acapulco” were approaching the $1 million sales mark.
May Birthdays in Elvis’s World
May 12 — Millie Perkins ("Wild in the Country" co-star was born in 1938..
May 13 — Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips was born in 1926.
May 16 — Two of Elvs's movie co-stars were born on the same day in 1937—Yvonne Craig ("World's Fair" and "Kissin' Counsins") and Jocelyn Lane ("Tickle Me")
May 18 — Joan Blackman ("Blue Hawaii" and "Kid Galahad") was born in 1938.
May 23 — Linda Thompson was born in 1950.
May 24 — Priscilla Presley was born in 1945.
May 27 — Fred Wise, composer of over 30 songs for Elvis, was born in 1915.
This Month’s Quotation
In March 1957 Lizabeth Scott returned to Paramount Pictures to appear in Elvis’s second movie, Loving You. She was 34 years old and hadn’t made a film at Paramount in over three years. The studio wardrobe department was amazed that “her measurements had not changed even a fraction of an inch.” When asked her secret for a trim figure, she mentioned two factors: her diet and Elvis. “Trying to keep up with Elvis’ rock ’n’ roll gyrations is real exercise,” she explained. “I advise it for any woman who wants to take off pounds.” (Source: Buffalo Courier-Express, March 31, 1957.)
What’s New and What’s Coming on Elvis-History-Blog.com
During April I posted reviews of four Elvis movies on the site. They include his two films from 1961, "Blue Hawaii" and "Wild in the Country," followed by his two 1962 movies for United Artists, "Follow That Dream" and "Kid Galahad."
Also, check out the new images posted in the Elvis Photos section. Galleries #6-8 contain 6 photos each that I took during Elvis's 1976 appearance in Spokane. One viewer called the photos "awesome." You can purchase 8 X 10 enlargements of the photos for $6 each.
My weekly blog entry will be posted on Thursday, May 8. It will deal with the Jordanaires, Colonel Parker, and some of Elvis's traveling companions fifty years after they accompanied Presley on his 1957 concert tours. Also, I'll continue my weekly reviews of Elvis's movies. Next in line are "Girls! Girls! Girls!," "It Happened at the World's Fair," and "Fun in Acapulco."
Like this E-Zine and Elvis-History-Blog.com? Pass it on!
Tell your Elvis fan friends, the members of your Elvis fan club, and everybody else you know to go to elvis-history-blog.com and sign-up for this e-zine. Consider purchasing a copy of Elvis’57: The Final Fifties Tours for yourself or as a gift for a friend. . I’ll be back in your mailbox a month from now with the May issue of Elvis-History E-Zine. Until then, I'll see you in the blog, and I look forward to getting your feedback.— Alan Hanson
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