Elvis Blog Archives — March 2009
Entry #52: Posted March 5, 2009 Over the past year, I’ve tried to vary my blogs to meet the interests of as many Elvis fans as possible. I’ve written about Elvis in the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s; about Elvis’s music, movies, and stage shows; about Elvis’s sidemen, sidekicks, and girlfriends. This week, though, I’m going to do something I’ve tried to avoid and write about the same topic two weeks in a row, that being Elvis movies. First of all, your ballots have been counted, and it’s time to announce the winners of the Academy Awards for Elvis Presley movies. Thanks to all of you who took the time to vote. And the winners are … (drum roll, please!) Best Musical Soundtrack: Blue Hawaii As expected, King Creole was the big winner, taking five of the eight awards. For me the only surprise in the voting was how close the race for Best Actress was between winner Ann-Margret and runner-up Michele Carey. Another Way to Rank Elvis’s Films Last summer, an Elvis fan in Florida sent me a letter explaining how he would rate Elvis’s films from best to worst. As I explained in my blog entry #15 last June, he used a points system. He assigned points to each film in the areas of “plot, Elvis’s appearance, leading ladies, cast members, soundtrack, and sentimentality to film and soundtrack.” He then gave his rankings list, which had Girl Happy at the top and Charro! at the bottom. Since then, several other fans have sent me their personal rankings of Elvis’s movies. Last week I received another one, which I thought was particularly interesting. It came from Eugene, an Elvis fan in Australia. He started by explaining his personal attachment to Elvis films as follows: “Those fans who discovered Elvis in the 50s, liked those early dramatic rock and roll films and I can understand their disappointment when they found him doing formula films in the 60s. But formula films are not bad as they are the ones that caught the attention of new fans (like myself) who discovered Elvis in the 60s … I got to like him when I saw Fun In Acapulco in 1963. Naturally Fun In Acapulco is my all time favorite.” I think Eugene makes a good point. Those sixties romantic comedies that many fans criticize actually helped to build Elvis’s fan base during that decade. Like Eugene, I discovered Elvis during that period. The first of his movies that I saw was Girls! Girls! Girls! in 1962, and his movies over the following seven years sustained my devotion to Elvis. That’s not to say that I still like to watch movies like “Double Trouble” and “Easy Come, Easy Go,” but I did enjoy them all when I first saw them as a teenager and young man in the sixties. Back to Eugene. Reading about the Florida fan’s ranking of Elvis’s movies made him think about how he would do the same. Here’s the system he came up with, in his own words: “My ranking is done simply by dividing the 33 films in 3 groups of 11 films each and I called my first group of 11 films ‘11 best loved films’ or ‘5 star films.’ These films are a pleasure to watch anytime. My second group of films is ‘11 good films’ or ‘four star films.’ These films are good but not as frequently watched as the first group but I enjoy watching them just the same. My third group of films is ‘11 not bad films’ or ‘three star films.’ These 11 films are watched less often but I still like to watch them when the mood strikes.” Using those guidelines, here are Eugene’s three categories of Elvis movies: 11 Best Loved Films: GI Blues, Blue Hawaii, Fun In Acapulco, Viva Las Vegas, Kissin’ Cousins, Roustabout, Girl Happy, Tickle Me, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Spinout, Clambake. 11 Good Films: Follow That Dream, Kid Galahad, Girls! Girls! Girls!, It Happened At the World’s Fair, Harum Scarum, Frankie and Johnny, Double Trouble, Easy Come Easy Go, Speedway, That’s the Way It Is, Elvis on Tour. 11 Not Bad Films Love Me Tender, Loving You, Jailhouse Rock, King Creole, Flaming Star, Wild in the Country, Stay Away Joe, Live a Little Love a Little, Charro!, The Trouble With Girls, Change of Habit. Well, the first thing that struck me after looking at Eugene’s rankings is how totally different they were from my own, despite the fact that we both discovered Elvis through his movies at about the same time in the sixties. Using his ranking method, here would be my choices: 11 Best Loved Films: Follow That Dream, Jailhouse Rock, Kid Galahad, Viva Las Vegas, King Creole, Change of Habit, Wild in the Country, Loving You, Fun in Acapulco, That’s the Way It Is, Girls! Girls! Girls! 11 Good Films: Blue Hawaii, Roustabout, It Happened At the World’s Fair, Tickle Me, Flaming Star, GI Blues, Love Me Tender, The Trouble With Girls, Girl Happy, Speedway, Elvis on Tour. 11 Not Bad Films: Live a Little Love a Little, Kissin’ Cousins, Clambake, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Spinout, Stay Away Joe, Frankie and Johnny, Harum Scarum, Easy Come Easy Go, Double Trouble, Charro! Out of Elvis’s 33 films, Eugene and I only ranked seven of them in the same category! That only underscores how very differently we Elvis fans tend to view his movies. And that’s not meant as criticism in any way. Though we all might have different likes and dislikes when it comes to his movies, songs, and eras, we all are joined together in an appreciation for the multi-talented legacy of Elvis Presley. — Alan Hanson
Entry #53: Posted March 12, 2009 Over the past several years, while scanning the pages of dozens of American newspapers looking for articles about Elvis, I’ve come across many other items that reveal the culture and values of the day. This is especially so in the mid to late-fifties, when Elvis first rose to fame. For example, in those days most newspapers gave considerable coverage to Christian topics. Many papers had a “religious page” once a week and often carried Bible study features. Another prominent feature in many newspapers was a “teen” column, reflecting the concern most communities had for their adolescent children in the fifties. The presentation of the “teen” column varied from paper to paper, but one common format was a teen panel discussion. A newspaper writer would moderate as a group of teenagers discussed a relevant topic, and the results would be printed in the space the paper weekly devoted to teen concerns. Of course, the controversy surrounding Elvis Presley eventually came up in most of these teen panel discussions, usually around the time the singer brought his show to town. That’s what happened on October 14,1956, when Elvis played San Antonio, Texas. That same day the headline over the “Teen Sounding Board” column in the San Antonio Express read, “Elvis Presley: Ugh! Say Boys, But S.A. Girls Like Him!” A few days earlier Express Teen Editor Connie Cullum had gathered together six city teens and listened to their opinions about the rock ’n’ roll phenom. “The Elvis Spell has not caught all teen-agers,” Miss Cullum noted in introducing the six Express-News Teen Sounding Board panel of three boys (Lawson, Gary, and Marty) and three girls (Pat, Fran, and Jan). She noted that, in general, “the young men dislike the rock and roll king as much as their girlfriends worship him. Still, their table pounding demonstrated he inspires strong feelings, whether for or against.” A running account of the teen discussion follows: The boys weighed in first. “He stinks,” summarized Lawson. “If the girls didn’t go so ape I could enjoy him.” Marty admitted that part of the reason boys didn’t like Elvis was jealousy. “He’s good-looking and has a lot of money,” he explained, “and he’s pretty much taken the girls.” Gary also admitted that it wasn’t so much Elvis that irritated him, but rather how the girls reacted to Elvis. “When his new record came out—Love Me Tender—they played it on the radio 10 minutes straight,” recalled Gary. “We were having a paper drive, and these girls made me stop the truck I was driving so they could listen … I don’t mind listening to him, but when you’re with a girl on a date and he comes on the radio … (he imitates a girlish squeal) … Makes me sick.” Marty then pulled out a prepared written statement. “He’s ruining or lowering the standards of many decent teen-agers today,” he read. “His singing is the destruction of one of the most beautiful arts given humans by God.” Lawson, however, didn’t believe Elvis was harming young people. “A person will be either low or not,” he said. Marty argued, “Any upper class person that goes for something low is lowered. He does influence a lot of teens. He could be of harm just while he’s in his big flair, because people will do things they wouldn’t do otherwise. But that will go when Elvis goes.” Why do some teens go for Elvis? Lawson explained it was because those who like Elvis “haven’t had many kicks and want attention.” As for the girls, “Mostly they like him because of lack of male companionship,” added Marty. That caused the girls to jump to Elvis’s defense. “The boys are just jealous,” said Jan. “They think it’s their duty NOT to like him.” Pat added, “And that the other boys will make fun of them if they do.” The girls had trouble putting into words just why they liked Elvis. “But I heard him when he was a Western singer, before I ever saw him, and I thought he was different and fascinating,” Pat said. “It’s his voice and him and everything.” Fran added, “He puts everything into his songs, and they have so much feeling. I don’t think he has anything to do with lowering standards. He’d go out of fad if people would let people who like him listen to him.” Jan noted, “He has the basic quality that should be in an entertainer. He transmits his feeling to you. He came at the right time, because I just idolized James Dean.” The boys and girls then entered into a back-and-forth exchange: Pat: “He’s a very humble person. On TV, he says thank you and everything.” Lawson: “You’ll have to admit when he first started he was vulgar as heck.” Pat: “But he doesn’t do that anymore and we still like him.” Jan: “He feels the music, that’s all.” Lawson: “You girls eat that up and you know it.” Continuing their defense of Elvis, Jan pointed to the odd behavior of their parents’ generation. “When our mothers were young they had idols, too,” Jan said. “How about during the 20’s? The Elvis craze is no worse than swallowing goldfish.” None of the girls, though, thought they’d like to meet Elvis. “I’d be disappointed,” Jan explained. When it came to Elvis, there seemed to be just one thing the whole panel could agree upon. They all disliked fans who “go ape” when Elvis sings. All panelists concurred that such teenagers were either following the crowd or were seeking personal attention. There was no follow-up article after Elvis appeared in San Antonio, but I would have liked to have asked those kids a couple of questions afterwards. First, if any of the girls went to Elvis’s concert, could they honestly say they didn’t “go ape” a little bit? Second, after seeing Elvis perform, would Pat still believe he no longer used what she characterized as “vulgar” movements on stage? In her review of Elvis’s San Antonio show, Connie Collum wrote in the Express, “Elvis … stood straddle legged, wiggling his hips, as fans fell to their knees before him and beat their palms and heads against the floor.” I guess that was an example of what the teen panel referred to as "going ape" for Elvis. — Alan Hanson
Entry #54: Posted March 19, 2009 Last week I received the Elvis Insiders quarterly newsletter. I’ve been a member of the Insiders since Elvis Presley Enterprises created the fan group in 2002. One regular feature in the newsletter is a selection of recent posts from the Insiders’ on-line forum. In this recent issue, various fan responses were listed to the following question posed by the forum administrators: “If you could travel back in time, to a specific event or time in Elvis’ career, what would it be and why?” In my nearly 50 years as an Elvis fan, I’ve often imagined myself in attendance at certain events in Elvis’s career. Below I’ve listed, in descending order, the top 10 Elvis events I would most like to have witnessed. It was difficult to cut the list down to 10, as there were so many memorable moments in Elvis’s career. 10. “All Shook Up” recording session — January 12, 1957 It’s not only because “All Shook Up” is one of Elvis’s signature rock ’n’ roll hits that I would like to have been there that day at Radio Recorders in Hollywood. How was this classic song recorded? Jordanaire Gordon Stoker, who sang a duet with Elvis on the chorus, has said Elvis tried to break him up throughout the recording by sticking his finger in Gordon’s mouth and so on. It’s also been claimed that Elvis slapped the back of his guitar to create the beat on the song. But how could he have done both things at the same time? (Ernest Jorgensen has said the guitar slaps were overdubbed later.) Also, no one knows for sure who was playing the piano on that recording. All questions could be answered if I could just go back in time 52 years. 9. King Creole location shooting in New Orleans — March 3-11, 1958 Elvis never looked nor acted better than he did in King Creole. But it’s not just Elvis that I would have enjoyed watching work against the background of the French Quarter. How interesting must have been his interaction, both on and off camera, with that great group of costars—Walter Matthau, Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow, Jan Shepard, Paul Stewart, Dolores Hart, and Dean Jagger. 8. The Ed Sullivan Show — October 28, 1956 I’ll take a front row seat, thank you, to this, the second of Elvis’s three appearances on the Sullivan show. Elvis sang four of his classic songs—“Don’t Be Cruel,” “Love Me Tender,” “Love Me,” and “Hound Dog.” Sullivan was there, unlike for Elvis’s first appearance on his show when he was recuperating from an automobile accident. As long as I’m making the trip back in time, I’ll take a cue card with me to hold up at the moment that Elvis forgot the lyrics while singing “Love Me.” 7. Viva Las Vegas dance scene — August 1963 Remember when Elvis and Ann-Margret met at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas to dance? Ann did her thing, and then Elvis took the stage to sing “C’mon Everybody.” Boy, I’d like to have felt in person the sexual energy produced by that sequence. AP writer Bob Thomas reported, “They hold hands. They disappear into his dressing room between shots. They lunch together in seclusion.” I’m sure they wouldn’t mind me following them around and looking over their shoulders. 6. Stage Show on CBS — February 11, 1956 This was the third of Elvis’s six appearances on Stage Show, hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Elvis only did two numbers, but they were whoppers—“Blue Suede Shoes” and “Heartbreak Hotel.” He had recorded the latter just a month earlier, and this was the first time he sang it on national TV. A month later it was at #1. Another reason I’d like to have been there was that it was just the combo at that time. Just four good ol’ boys playing rock ’n’ roll. 5. Los Angeles, Pan Pacific Auditorium — October 28, 1957 At the end of his concert that evening, Elvis grabbed the plaster statue of Nipper, RCA’s dog symbol, and rolled around with it on stage while singing “Hound Dog.” Dick Williams of the Mirror-News called Elvis a “sexhibitionist” who made love to Nipper like it was a girl. Gordon Stoker said Elvis did nothing suggestive or off-color that night. The police were concerned enough to film Elvis’s show the next night. Wish I’d been there to set the record straight. 4. Million Dollar Quartet, Sun Studio — December 4, 1956 Surely in that little studio I could have found a corner in which to stand quietly and listen to Elvis, Carl, and Jerry Lee jam on that legendary afternoon. Its charm is that it was totally spontaneous. Nothing was planned. Just three of rock’s young innovators doing what came natural. 3. International Hotel, Las Vegas — July 31, 1969 It was Elvis’s very first live appearance after eight years of Hollywood movies. For some unfathomable reason, it wasn’t recorded. Everyone in the invitation-only audience that evening has testified to the energy and excitement in the room. If I could go back to that event, I wouldn’t have to imagine today how Elvis’s confidence grew with each song, and how the crowd exploded at the end. Where was I instead? I was at my grandmother’s house in Portland, Oregon, being enthralled by the flight of Apollo 11. I had no idea that an even bigger event was happening in Las Vegas at the same time. 2. International Amphitheatre, Chicago — March 28, 1957 The opening show of Elvis’s 1957 spring tour, it was the first of only three times he wore his full gold lamé suit in public. He performed on a small, raised, square stage with diagonal iron bars to hold the girls back. Still, dozens of them pressed against the stage, stretching their arms through the bars as Elvis beckoned, just out of reach. Thirteen girls fainted and had to be carried by police to the first aid station. What a spectacle it would have been to see! Never again would a crowd be allowed to get that near to Elvis on stage. Colonel Parker saw to that. 1. Sun Studio, Memphis — July 5, 1954 This is by far my biggest I-wish-I-had-been-there” Elvis moment. Can you imagine being there for that historic event when Elvis, Scotty, and Bill spontaneously created the sound that would change the course of pop music for decades to come? I think I’m going to take my video camera back with me to record the event. On second thought, I wonder if an event of such great cultural significance might be best left as it is—in our collected imagination. — Alan Hanson
Entry #55: Posted March 26, 2009 Instead of one subject, this week’s blog will be devoted to three unrelated Elvis topics. Right now I don’t have enough knowledge to devote this entire space to any one of them. Still, there’re all interesting subjects. Our subjects this week, then, are Mary Tyler Moore, accusations of illegal drug use by Elvis in the fifties, and Elvis meeting The Beatles in 1965. Mary Tyler Moore says Elvis was her “type” The March 22, 2009, issue of Parade magazine contained an interview article on Mary Tyler Moore by Kevin Sessums. At one point Sessums asks Moore, now age 72, which of the male sex symbols she’s worked with (which include Elvis Presley, Robert Redford, and Frank Sinatra) was most her type. She responded, “I think maybe Elvis, because he went so against the grain.” Unfortunately, Sessums didn’t press her for details. Reading that one comment was something, though, considering I can’t recall ever reading about or hearing of Mary Tyler Moore commenting on her role in Change of Habit in 1969. In my opinion, it was one of Elvis’s best films, due in no small part to Moore’s performance in it. Elvis did fine work in the film, as well. Yet today the picture is considered no more than a footnote in the careers of both stars. Change of Habit was Elvis’s final film, and he had already returned to live performing in Las Vegas several months before the movie was released in November 1969. Moore, as well, went on to bigger and better things. Her critically acclaimed TV sitcom began its seven-year run on CBS-TV in September 1970. I’ve always wondered what Mary Tyler Moore thought about her role opposite Elvis. In Elvis fan magazines, I’ve read dozens of interviews with actors who shared the screen with Elvis, but never one with Moore. Does anyone know of a time when she commented at length about her work with Elvis? Let me know if you have. Elvis joked about using heroin and cocaine in 1956 On July 1, 1956, newspaper columnist Hy Gardner interviewed Elvis via telephone at the Warwick Hotel in New York. Toward the end of the interview, Gardner said, “Several newspaper stories hinted that you smoked marijuana, or hit the bottle, in order to work yourself into a frenzy while singing. What about that?” Elvis merely laughed and responded, “Well, I don’t know.” For months critics, who reasoned that Elvis’s wild antics on stage must be a result of him being high on something, had floated the rumor that Elvis used dope. Elvis declined to address the issue in the Gardner interview, but he had spoken seriously about the subject a couple of months earlier. Reporter David Wood interviewed Elvis before his April 18, 1956, show in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His article appeared the next day in the Tulsa Daily World. At one point during the interview, a member of Elvis’s band entered the room and asked, “What are you drinking, Elvis?” He responded, “Dope,” and then began to speak of what Wood called a “painful” subject. “People ask me if I take something to make me do what I do out there. I don’t even drink alcohol. At first I tried to deny that I took anything but that didn’t seem to help. I switch to wisecracking, ‘Oh, just a mixture of my own—heroin, Benzedrine, cocaine.’ I don’t guess anything can be done about it. They’re just going to talk. It makes my mother mad. People have even phoned the house in Memphis to ask what I take.” The truth is that in 1956 Elvis probably never thought of taking drugs. He had the unlimited energy of youth to power him through his hectic performance schedule. Unfortunately, we know now that a little more than two years later, while in the army, he developed a dependence on Dexedrine that would start him inevitably down the road to self-destruction. What really happened when Elvis met the Beatles? Last week I listed my Top Ten “I-wish-I-had-been-there” Elvis events. I invited readers to send me any other special Elvis moments they wished they could have shared. One response was from David, who wrote, “I would also add August 27, 1965. The day The Beatles met Elvis. I would be there with camera and tape recorder.” That event certainly had the makings of a legendary encounter. The ultimate fifties rock ’n’ roller meets the supreme rock ’n’ roll group of the sixties. Certainly it would have made for some classic photos. I left the event off my list, however, because, by all accounts of those who were actually there that night, the encounter failed to live up to expectations. As Peter Guralnick described it in his Elvis biography, the main characters felt ill at ease with each other from the start. There was no natural camaraderie among rock legends. Things loosened up somewhat, and Elvis, John, and Paul carried on a conversation. Meanwhile, Ringo played pool with a couple of Elvis’s buddies, and George shared a joint with Larry Geller. Elvis, John, and Paul are said to have participated in an unrecorded jam session, although it has never been described as anything special to hear. I suspect that it was strictly an instrumental session—no vocals. When The Beatles left, Elvis didn’t accept an invitation to visit their place the next night. Five years later, Elvis bad-mouthed The Beatles in his meeting with President Nixon. He called them un-American (really?) and blamed them in part for the drug problem in the U.S. I’m surprised that Paul McCartney remains so gracious towards Elvis’s memory today. Oh well, the point I was trying to make was that for an Elvis fan (or a Beatles one, for that matter), being there on the evening of August 27, 1965, when Elvis met The Beatles, might well have resulted in a huge let down, especially considering what it could have been. — Alan Hanson Go to Current Blog
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