Guarding Elvis In The Summer Of ´61

Toby (Elvis Presley) enters a bank to take out a loan in the movie Follow That Dream. The scene was filmed in Ocala, Florida.

Currently on vacation in Denmark with my family in our summer cottage by the sea, there is little time for blogging. But stumbling across an interesting article on the Internet where Martin Stephens, 82, reminisces about guarding Elvis while he filmed Follow That Dream in 1961, I just had to write a short post about it.

The article is titled "The summer of Elvis" and written by Susan Smiley-Height of the Ocala Gazette. In it, Martin Stephens recalls the story of how he, as a 22 year old police officer, was assigned to provide security for Elvis on the movie set in Ocala, Florida, where they did the bank scenes (most of the movie was shot in Yankeetown).

“We weren’t worried about riots or somebody hurting Elvis. The security was strictly to keep people back,” he explained. “He couldn’t do nothing without a crowd. We would offer to chase people off, and he’d say, ‘No, no, that’s what I’m supposed to do.’ He was very personable and a nice guy. He was interested in people and was easy to work with.”

He tells the reporter that it was unbearably hot in the bank as the film crew turned off the air conditioning because it made too much background noise. Elvis had to change his denim shirt every 15 to 20 minutes. He also remembers how Elvis got hold of a pair of sunglasses worn by a deputy on the security detail. ("I know, though the deputy never admitted it, that he sold his sunglasses.")

According to Martin Stephens, the filming in Ocala took place over two long weekends. ("The building is still there, right before the railroad tracks if you're going into town.") In the article, he describes one of his fondest memories during the time he was assigned to accompany Elvis on the movie set: 

“They had rented the Marion Hotel, and the movie crew went over there to eat. When we went to eat lunch that first day, Elvis told me, ‘Let’s go.’ So I grabbed three guys. We went over there, and I didn’t know exactly what we were supposed to do. Elvis went inside, so I said, ‘Well, I guess we guard the doors,’” he said. “We’re standing there, and in a minute, Elvis comes out and says, ‘Come on boys, you don’t have long to eat.’ We go in, and he’s got a table, and he says, ‘I went ahead and ordered for you.’ They brought us T-bone steaks, and he got a grilled cheese sandwich. ‘I didn’t know what you wanted,’ he said. ‘I just went ahead and ordered for you.’ That’s the guy I remember.” 

• Read the article "The Summer of Elvis" on the Ocala Gazette website

Let Us Pray – That’s The Way It Never Was

The close up with the guitar (middle shot) is in fact taken from the "Rubberneckin'" scene earlier in the movie. The clothes and the guitar itself gives it away.

I thought I had it all figured out. This was going to be a great post. However, it didn’t turn out that way at all, despite some hard work behind the keyboard. Here is what happened.

It all began while watching a video clip on YouTube of Elvis singing “Let Us Pray” in Father Gibbons’ Church at the end of the movie Change Of Habit. Suddenly it hit me that there was something wrong with the close-ups that showed Elvis’ hand strumming his guitar. The clothes and the guitar itself were not the same as in the other shots. In fact, they were taken from the beginning of the film where Elvis is belting out “Rubberneckin’” in Dr. John Carpenter’s apartment above the clinic.

Now, why had I not noticed this before? I did a quick google search, typing, “elvis let us pray scene movie blooper” but found nothing. Was I really the first one to have spotted this? I googled a bit more, changing the words some, but the result was the same. Not a thing.

I then looked up the editor on Wikipedia. Douglas Stewart (March 29, 1919-March 3, 1995) was an American film and television editor who won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for the film The Right Stuff (1983) along with four co-editors. Could such a professional really have cheated while editing the ending of Change Of Habit, using close-ups from another scene? Or had he somehow mixed up the footage, not realizing his mistake?

Whatever the reason, I got the idea to write a blog post about how those close-ups ended up in the final scene, using a bit of fiction. To get some inspiration, I read a couple of passages in Jerry Schilling’s book Me and a Guy Named Elvis that dealt with him becoming a film editor during the late 60’ and early 70’s. 

I was then ready to start typing something like this:

Douglas Stewart’s editing room in the basement of one of the post-production buildings at Universal Pictures was full of various reels of dialogue, songs and sound effects. As an assistant editor, it was my job to allow Douglas Stewart to work uninterrupted and I took great pride in maintaining order and structure in the editing room.

My plan was to have the assistant editor make a blunder, handing over close-up footage from the “Rubberneckin’” scene to Douglas Stewart who was busy editing the final of the movie, neither of them noticing the mix up. The assistant editor would spot the mistake when Change Of Habit was about to hit the cinemas, but by then it would be too late. Or something like that.

As I attended the premiere on November 10 I felt a sense of pride, having played a minor part in the editing of the movie. But that feeling was replaced by a chill running down my spine as I realized that the close-ups of Elvis guitar didn’t match the rest of the footage in the "Let Us Pray" movie final. What had happened?

Getting comfortable in front of my laptop I decided to watch the clip on YouTube once more before starting to hammer away at the keyboard. As I watched the scene unfold it was painfully clear that Douglas Stewart wasn’t to blame. Neither was my fictional assistant editor. In fact, no one was, as the clip was clearly re-edited and remixed long after the actual movie was finished in 1969. 

No doubt the footage from "Rubberneckin'" had been used intentionally to create this version (which was released on a bootleg DVD called Born To Rock 3, something I would have known had I bothered to read the text under the video clip).  

Why hadn't I spotted this before? I found another clip, this time of  the real ending, and sure enough, the close-ups with the guitar were nowhere in sight. And of course the whole scene was edited completely different. I felt like a fool.

What You Need Is A Change Of Habit

Elvis Presley and Mary Tyler Moore in Change Of Habit.

Having learned that actress Mary Tyler Moore had died, I dug out my DVD copy of Change Of Habit. It's been a long time since I watched this, Elvis' last scripted film, in which he plays a doctor (John Carpenter) and she one of three nuns (Sister Michelle) seeking employment at his free clinic in a deprived area of New York.

I have always found Change Of Habit entertaining and well acted. Including such contemporary problems as racism, violence and loan shark operators it's a far cry from the stereotypical Elvis Presley movie. In fact, it's hard to understand that Elvis made films like Clambake and Speedway only two years earlier.

One of the strongest scenes is the one where Elvis, aided by Mary Tyler Moore, helps an autistic child. Doctor and nun sit side by side, holding the girl while she kicks and screeches, all the while telling her to let out her anger and repeating how much they love her. Not very realistic, I learned today thanks to the internet and the article Elvis and autism: An unlikely couple. But emotional, nevertheless.

The movie has some humorous moments, too. When a loan shark, The Banker, turns up at the clinic, Elvis greets him with a straight face and the line "I can't help you Banker, I'm not a veterinarian."Another memorable scene has Elvis playing a bluesy version of "Lawdy, Miss Clawdy" on piano, with no vocals, in the nun's apartment.

Speaking of the music, Elvis recorded four songs for Change Of Habit on March 5–6, 1969, but one of them, "Let´s Be Friends," never made it into the movie. Instead, "Rubberneckin'" from the American Studios sessions in January that year, was used in the film, meaning the entire soundtrack was awarded to songwriter Ben Weisman.

In his book Elvis Presley: A Life In Music Ernst Jorgensen has nothing positive to say about the soundtrack recordings, writing that "Elvis must have wondered what he was doing there." Meaning, I guess, that the songs were a far cry from the Memphis recordings, and that Elvis had his mind on his upcoming return to live appearances at the newly built International Hotel in Las Vegas.

That might be true, but I have no problem with most of the material. The funky title track works well over the opening credits, and I also like the gospel number "Let Us Pray" which is used to great effect at the end of the film. (And I love it when Elvis is belting out "Rubberneckin'" in Dr. John Carpenters apartment above the clinic.)

The scene in the park where Elvis is singing "Have A Happy" on a merry-go-round after a touch football game is another matter. It really is out of place and does nothing to promote Elvis image as an adult actor. Why it was put in the script in the first place is beyond me.

But that's my only complaint, and I'd like to end with a passage from Gerry McLaffertys' book Elvis Presley In Hollywood, in the chapter that deals with Change Of Habit:

In his physial prime and with potentially a whole new career ahead of him, Change Of Habit marked Elvis Presley's final acting role. The waste of talent was horrendous. Although many further offers came his way he would never again appear in a scripted film.

A Little Thing Called Confidence

"Confidence" was sung to and with a group of children in the movie Clambake.

Today would have been Elvis 82nd birthday, and as I always do on January 8, I try to listen a little bit extra to his music, watch one of his movies or remember him in some other way. With a newborn baby boy to take care of it´s been a bit of a challenge this time around.

But as I was about to turn the children's program off I asked my six year old daughter if she wanted to watch an Elvis clip on YouTube before going to bed. "Yes, the scene with the playground," she answered. So today we honored Elvis Presley by looking at him singing "Confidence" in the movie Clambake.

To be honest, my daughter prefers more moderns stars like Justin Timberlake, Shakira, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber plus a bunch of Swedish artists I wont bother you with. But for some reason she likes "Confidence," both on record and on film. Maybe it's because it reminds her of her own world with playgrounds and children her own age, maybe she just thinks it's a funny song.

"Look daddy, she is really cute, she looks like a princess with those blue hair ribbons," she commented the girl who is afraid to go down a slide. And she watched intently as the girl finally slides down and Elvis sets the sling going while the camera turns the whole scene upside down. She also read out loud the words "ice cream" on Red West's ice cream wagon, so Elvis has taught her some English words, also.

The scene with Elvis singing "Confidence" certainly isn't the most memorable one in his acting career, on the contrary. But watching it with my daughter and seeing it through her eyes always puts a smile on my face. For an exhausted daddy, it was a welcoming moment tonight. So, one again, thank you Elvis, and happy birthday!

Elvis: The Complete Illustrated Children's Book?

Not many things at home are off limits for our nearly one and a half year old daughter. Except my Elvis records and books. ”Those are daddy's,” I say and try to look her sternly in the eyes when she approaches my collection. Which in a way is a stupid thing to do, as I want her to get to know her father's great idol.

Usually she stays clear, but about a week ago she pulled out a big book titled Elvis: The Complete Illustrated Record. For some reason I let her get away with it, and soon found myself leafing through it, pointing at different records and telling her stuff like ”this was Elvis' first LP” and ”this was the first Elvis' album your father bought.”

Now, for the last couple of days, my daughter has developed kind of a routine. Looking at me, she says, ”Is,” which is her way of saying ”Elvis,” points at the book and indicates with her arms that she wants me to pick her up and place her in my lap. She then utters one of her favorite words, which is ”bebis.” (Swedish for ”baby”) Grabbing the book, I turn the leaves to page 76 where there's a picture of Elvis from G.I. Blues, surrounded by six babies. She points happily to the picture and says once again, ”bebis.”

But she recognizes other things in the book as well. On one page there's a shot of Elvis sitting on his bike in the movie Clambake. Spotting this, she always imitates the sound of a motorcycle. And when we come to the still from Paradise, Hawaiian Style of Elvis and all those dogs aboard a helicopter, she mimics a dog barking.

She also says the Swedish word for ”Santa” when I point at the cover of the ”Merry Christmas Baby” single, and ”at” (meaning ”hatt” which is Swedish for ”hat”) when we come to a full page photo of Elvis wearing a Texas Stetson hat at the February 1970 Houston press conference. And of course there's a lot of ”Is” as we look at all the photos of Elvis.

The authors and rock writers Roy Carr and Mick Farren published The Complete Illustrated Record in 1982 as ”the definite critical guide to the complete career of Elvis Presley,” documenting and examining his every record and movie. I wonder what they would think of it being used as a children's book 30 years later?

Blue Hawaii On New Year's Eve

I celebrated New Year's Eve peacefully with my family, including my five year old niece. As she arrived, she told me she would like to watch an Elvis movie, and of course, I was happy to oblige. Paradise, Hawaiian Style being her firm favorite, we this time went for Blue Hawaii, me telling her that "Elvis plays an ukulele, just like the one you received for Christmas."

I was a little nervous she would find Blue Hawaii to be a bit boring and too serious (she didn't like Fun In Acapulco) but I didn't need to have worried. She enjoyed it from the start, pointing out that Elvis seemed to be a Casanova in this movie as well, first kissing a air hostess and then his girlfriend (Joan Blackman) waiting at the airport.

One scene she loved was when Elvis sang "No More" with some Hawaiian friends on the beach, another the one at the luau, where Elvis belted out a couple of numbers, such as "Ito Eats" and "Slicin' Sand." She also had a big laugh when Joan Blackman turned Elvis surfboard around so he fell into the water. Finally, I could tell she was impressed with the marriage ceremony at the end of the film and the clothes Elvis wore while singing "Hawaiian Wedding Song."

As we sat there and watched Blue Hawaii, I found myself enjoying it as well. The scenery was beautiful, the soundtrack very good and many of the co stars entertaining as well. Howard McNear, who played the boss of the tour company, was particularly funny, constantly forgetting that Elvis worked for him. And last, but not the least, Elvis seemed to be enjoying himself, looking relaxed and comfortable on screen.

So maybe my niece and I will catch another Elvis movie next New Year's Eve around. It sure makes me happy that she likes Elvis. At one time during the movie I had to go prepare some food, and she came rushing after me. "Can we continue to watch the movie and don't wait for you," she asked pleadingly. From a five year old, that's high praise for Elvis indeed.

Related posts:
Queenie Wahine's Papaya (Spetember 30, 2011)
Blue Hawaii - My Holiday Soundtrack (August 20, 2011)

Elvis 1967 – That Wild Presley Beat (an imaginary press release)

What if the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated Young Man With The Big Beat box set turned out to be something called That Wild Presley Beat, focusing on 1967? I recently wrote a guest blog in the form of an imaginary press release for The Mystery Train Blog that throughout 2011 has commemorated the 44th anniversary of 1967.

Check it out over at The Mystery Train Elvis Blog

No Christmas From Elvis In Hollywood 2

It totally slipped my mind while writing about Elvis films where it's snowing: there's actually another one where a first glance at the soundtrack could have you believe it had something to do with Christmas - at least if you live where I do. I'm talking about Viva Las Vegas and "Santa Lucia," a song that is closely associated with the celebration of Christmas in Sweden.


But just like Live A Little, Love A Little and Girl Happy, Christmas and snow is nowhere in sight when Elvis sings "Santa Lucia" in Italian, just summer and sun. In fact, Elvis isn't visible either, just his shadow, as he is standing behind a curtain, singing to Ann-Margret in his rival Count Elmo Mancini's hotel room.

Being a Swedish-American maybe she, for the briefest of moments, got a bit of a "christmassy feeling" while humming along, who knows? (If she did, all thoughts of Christmas must've gone out the window as Elvis then entered the room belting out "If You Think I Don't Need You.")

If you want to know more about this "missing" Christmas song, I wrote about it last December. I was happy to see that Troy Y., who's running The Mystery Train Elvis Blog, included it this year in his post Christmas Dreams 2011: An Elvis Playlist for the Holiday Season.

No Christmas From Elvis In Hollywood

Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, but I cheated and started celebrating the Christmas season today, listening to my favorite Elvis Christmas compilation album If Every Day Was Like Christmas. Elvis' Christmas songs play an important role in helping me get in the "Christmas mode," and while listening to them it struck me that the same certainly can't be said about his movies.

Come to think about it, isn't it a bit strange that no Elvis movie ever took place around Christmas? After all, a lot of pictures do. But in the case of Elvis, sand was a lot more common property than snow.

At the top of my head, I can only recall two Elvis films where it's snowing, and in one of them the snow isn't even the real thing. In Live A Little, Love A Little, Elvis charachter and fashion photographer Greg Nolan has a busy time working two full-time jobs for separate magazines.

One of them is called Classic Cat Magazine, and in one scene Elvis is shooting studio photos of a lightly dressed model standing on a stump in a landscape covered in snow. Fake snowflakes are whirling around the model, thanks to a giant fan. (When Elvis orders the model's skirt raised, the guy handling the fan gets a little too excited and unintentionally sets it at full blast, leading to the destruction of the whole set.)

In Girl Happy, made four years earlier, real snow is falling down in Chicago. Rusty Wells (aka Elvis Presley) and his combo is playing at the nightclub 77 Club, and the snow is clearly visible outside the big windows as they perform the title track at the beginning of the movie.

Not that it's Christmas, though. No, it's Easter, and Elvis will soon have changed the snow for–yes, you guessed it–sand, and sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There he and his three band members have to secretly chaperon the daughter of their employer, the nightclub's owner. About as far from a Christmas story as it gets.

No, if you want to get in the Christmas spirit with the help of Elvis, you'd better stick to his Christmas recordings. And while you're at it, why don't you try out Christmas Dreams 2011: An Elvis Playlist for the Holiday Season, by Troy Y. over at his The Mystery Train Blog.

King Creole - The Music

This evening I sat down and listened to the CD included with the King Creole - the Music book/CD combo while at the same time leafing through the book. This FTD release from 2010 was a birthday gift this year from my wife, but for some reason I haven't taken the time to fully study it until today.

The book is divided in two more or less equally large parts including more than 200 photos, the majority of them never before published, from the recording session and the filming of the song scenes for the movie.

The highlight for me is the first part, showing Elvis at work at Radio Recorders on January 16, 1958, the second day of the sessions (when he recorded "Dixieland Rock," "Lover Doll," "Don't Ask Me Why," "As Long As I Have You," Steadfast, Loyal And True" (first version) and "As Long As I Have You" (movie version). The "audiovisual documentary" concept works well here, studying the photos while listening to the accompanying CD puts you right there in the studio. Or as Piers Beagle writes in his review on the Elvis Information Network website:

There are 92 pages of Elvis recording, playing the piano, talking with the band, Charles O’Curran [Choreographer Paramount] and Hal Wallis [Producer, Paramount] etc. Some of them are truly fascinating. You can feel the music being created – it is almost a movie with plenty of images obviously taken seconds apart.

Speaking of Piers Beagley, I found myself agreeing 100 per cent with his thorough review. And not only about the positive things, such as the brilliant photos in the second part of the book of Elvis giving "King Creole" his all, the sweat stains on his shirt clearly visible.

Just like him I can't understand the decision not to include the extended version of "Crawfish" as well as the instrumental version of "King Creole" (both were released on Hits Like Never Before, Essential Elvis Volume 3 in 1990). It's not like there's any lack of space on the CD - it runs for only about 36 minutes. According to the text on the back of the cover it "includes all known surviving Elvis recordings from the session," but obviously this isn't the case.

And what's more, other tracks could also have been included, such as the song "Bananas" sung by Liliane Montevecchi (like FTD did with "The Climb" by George McFadden on the Viva Las Vegas classic album). After all, five pictures of her performing this song are included in the book. Not to mention the overdubbed movie versions of "King Creole" (with drum roll on the line "he holds his guitar like a tommy gun") and "New Orleans" (with extra Jordanaires vocal backing and finger clicking).

That said, I enjoyed listening to the unique soundtrack from what is probably Elvis' best movie, simultaneously studying him at work during the recording sessions. After all, photos of Elvis in the studio are extremely rarel, and in this quality even more so (only Alfred Wertheimer's famous photographs from 1956 comes to mind). And it's certainly not everyday you get a chance to see Elvis singing his heart out in striped socks!

Queenie Wahine's Papaya

The movie Paradise, Hawaiian Style generally ranks as one of Elvis' worst. But to my five year old niece, it makes for an exciting adventure.

A couple of weeks ago her father borrowed my DVD copies of Paradise, Hawaiian Style and Fun In Acapulco. She's heard me talk a lot about Elvis, of course, and I thought she might enjoy them as they feature child actresses (Donna Butterworth and Larry Domasin).

Fun In Acapulco didn't go down that well – I think she thought it a bit boring and too serious – but Paradise Hawaiian Style she loves.

Having already seen it about five times, she invited me to watch the movie earlier this evening, her father serving us popcorn and peanut butter and banana sandwiches. It was a joy to see her jump up and down in the sofa, telling me in an excited voice what was about to happen, then running to her room to change into a skirt so she could dance just like they did at the Polynesian Welcoming Festival.

She loved the scene where Elvis and Donna Butterworth sang "Quennie Wahine's Papaya" and hummed along with the music. She then went on to explain to me that Elvis had a lot of female acquantances, one at every hotel.

During the helicopter scene where Elvis sings "A Dog's Life" she told me very seriously how sorry she felt for the dogs, and when Elvis found his partner with a broken leg beside his crashed helicopter she had to look away as it was "a bit scary to watch." But the rest of the movie was smooth sailling, and I noticed she thought it pretty cool that Elvis and the dancers actually froze during "Stop Where You Are."

All in all, it was a very enjoyable evening for me as well. I enjoyed Paradise, Hawaiian Style in a way I've never done before, thanks to my niece.

Charro! It Just Wasn't Different Enough

Earlier this week I sat down to watch Elvis' 29th film Charro! The reason for this was an article in the latest issue of the Elvis The Man And His Music magazine, titled "Charro! What Went Wrong?"

According to the writer, Gerry McLafferty, this dramatic western didn't work due to the following reasons:

• The actors Elvis was working with were much better in, for example, Flaming Star.
• Charro! suffered badly from sloppy editing and continuity goofs.
• The final script was a very uneven, disjointed piece, full of patchy dialogue.
• The original script had considerably more violence and nudity that was toned down.

As the end-credits rolled I had to agree. When it came to acting, Solomon Sturges, for example, who played the younger brother of Elvis' antagonist Vince Hackett, gave an exaggerated performance, to say the least.

As for goofs, in one scene I watched a disarmed Elvis riding his horse without his shotgun behind the saddle, in the next the shotgun was there. And during the final shoot-out the canon was falling from the wagon to the ground upside down, then in the next scene it was rolling downhill the correct way up.

And yes, the violence was minimal and the scene having Ina Balin emerge from a bath (filmed from behind) was missing.  Another reflection I made, that Gerry McLafferty didn't mention, was that the film could have used a couple of more extras. When Elvis entered the town of Rio Seco on horseback, it seemed almost empty. Surely more than some ten or twenty people must have lived there.

That said, I have to agree with McLafferty's opinion that Elvis' best moment in the film is the scene following the branding of his neck. He did convey "horrific pain and anguish" and the branding itself was violently realistic. And the music score, composed by Hugo Montenegro, was used effectively throughout the film.

Also, Elvis really looked the part of a tough gunfighter. It was indeed "A Different Kind of Role, A Different Kind of Man," as the promotion of Charro! read. But like Gerry McLafferty points out in his excellent article, "it just wasn't different enough."

Hoop And A Holler And I'll Be There

Battling a cold on the first day of my vacation, I decided I could do worse than lying down on the sofa watching an Elvis movie on DVD. Why I picked Stay Away, Joe, I really don't know. Maybe it had something to do with the photo of Elvis from that particular film that my wife discovered a couple of weeks ago in one of the windows in a nursery school. Or maybe it was because it's been ages since I last saw it. Whatever the reason I had a pretty good time in front of the TV.

Shot on location in Arizona in 1967, Stay Away, Joe is a western comedy based on a bestselling book from 1953 dealing in a satirical way with the relationship between the government and the Native Americans. Elvis plays Joe Lightcloud, a half-breed Indian rodeo rider returning to his family's reservation home with a herd of cows and a bull, thanks to a deal with an aspiring congressman.

Although the plot is a bit thin at times, there's a lot of comical moments. My favorite one is when Elvis sister comes to visit, bringing along both her fiancé and mother in law. The visit becomes a disaster, the fiancé falling through a hole in the floor of the flimsy house, then through the paper thin walls. Well, if you've seen the scene, you know what I'm talking about.

There's also a lot of womanizing, done in a far more adult way by Elvis than in his earlier movies. Also, there's plenty of fight scenes. In fact the movie ends with a fist fight that leads to the destruction of the whole house. "Man, that's what I call one hell of a fight," exclaims Elvis as he rises from the remains.

Doing a little research after watching the movie, I learned that Stay Away, Joe received criticism for the film's "quaint and patronizing view of American Indians as brawling, balling, boozing children," as The Hollywood Reporter put it. On the other hand, The Film Daily thought that "It doesn't matter that credibility is stretched. What matters is that that the picture evokes a mood of mirth and happy frenzy that is catching."

So, maybe the truth lies somewhere in between. What's for sure is that Stay Away, Joe offered a major change for Elvis regarding his screen roles and broke the established formula of his movies. But unlike his singing career, which also received a boost that year with the recordings of "Guitar Man" and "Big Boss Man" among others, it was too late. (And I guess that the terrible song "Dominic" didn't help much, either.)

But today, 44 years after it was made, Stay Away, Joe helped me forget my cold. I enjoyed the movie and Elvis seemed to have a good time as well.

Shake That Tambourine

Of course my eight month old daughter isn't the only child interested in rattles. But the way she uses them to great effect while listening to "Shake That Tambourine" must be somewhat more unusual. It was when I noticed her interest in shaking toys that then rattled that I got the idea to play her track number six on my Harum Scarum CD. Sitting on the floor, her eyes immediately lit up when she heard the intro featuring the tambourines and her hand clutching the rattle started moving purposefully as she looked up at me. I picked her up and started humming along with my daughter in my arms. A smile animated her face as she looked at the loudspeakers from where the music emerged.

Shake... the little tambourine Shake a-ring a jing -jing a-ling Shake, shake my little dancin' queen Shake that tambourine, that tambourine

From then on that's been her favorite music number. Maybe even more so after receiving a pair of castanets from a friend of ours about a week later. Talk about the perfect present! I admit I even went so far as to play my daughter a couple of unreleased takes of "Shake That Tambourine," courtesy of FTD. But listening to Elvis loosing it after singing "Bracelets keep a-clinking, on their' TEENY feet" only seemed to confuse her, so pretty soon I returned to the master. By the way, Elvis actually did at least 38 takes of "Shake That Tambourine," as the master is a splice of takes 24 and 38, according to Ernst Jorgensen's A Life In Music as well as Joe Tunzi's Elvis Sessions III. It was the only song he recorded on February 24, 1965.

Three Princesses And A King

It's amazing how Elvis pops up when you least expect him to. I recently experienced another example of this leafing through a magazine at my parents published by the Swedish Aviation Historical Society (my father's an aviation buff and a member).

Among all the photos of Swedish aircraft, there was the well known shot of Elvis kneeling in front of Princess Margrethe of Denmark, Princess Astrid of Norway, and Princess Margaretha of Sweden on the set of G.I. Blues. What on earth was it doing in an aviation magazine?

Studying the accompanying article, it told the story of how the Scandinavian airline company SAS acquired a couple of DC-8 aircraft and started operations flying to New York and Los Angeles in 1960. Here's the episode mentioning Elvis:

The line to Los Angeles opened on June 3, 1960, and in connection with this SAS invited the three Scandinavian princesses Margrethe of Denmark, Astrid from Norway and Margaretha of Sweden on the maiden flight. The American press was beside itself with joy, and a meeting between the princesses and Elvis Presley during the visit was the crowning glory. Better PR for a company could not be achieved in the USA!

The caption stated that Elvis sang "Are You Lonesome Tonight" in front of the princesses, but I'm sceptical about that. Nevertheless, thanks to my father and his magazine I learned of the background to why the three Scandinavian princesses met Elvis in June, 1960.

• Learn more about all the dignitaries visiting Elvis on the set of G.I. Blues (Elvis Australia)
• Watch a clip on Youtube of the three princesses meeting Elvis (about 45 seconds into the clip)

Elvis 67 - Clambake!

When Troy announced that The Mystery Train Elvis Blog would honor the 44th anniversary of 1967 with special features on that Elvis year all throughout 2011, I couldn’t keep my fingers away from the keyboard. Not only does 1967 mark the year I was born, it also saw the release of the soundtrack album Clambake. So I wrote a guest blog where I talk a little bit about the latter.

Check it out over at The Mystery Train Elvis Blog

Elvis The Movie

Kurt Russell bears a striking resemblance to Elvis, and he sounds a lot like him too. That's the first thing thats hits me watching Elvis The Movie from 1979, released on DVD for the first time recently.

Made just two years after Elvis' death, director John Carpenter does a good job recreating Elvis' life and career, choosing to end the movie with his triumphant return to the stage in 1969.

And although there is nothing in it suggesting Elvis took drugs, personal problems like his marriage flling apart is hinted at, in a way signaling the decline that is to follow.

If Kurt Russell looks like the real thing, then singer Ronnie McDowell sounds very much like Elvis. It's uncanny watching the scene where Russell records "My Happiness," lip-syncing to McDowell's version of a song that wasn't released until 1990.

But being an Elvis fan it's easy to spot the mistakes in the movie, some of which are pretty big ones. Elvis performing "Tutti Frutti" while visiting a German beer joint during his army days is a fantasy that made me think of a similar scene in the movie Top Secret, where actor Val Kilmer sings the same song in a restaurant in East Germany.

Another blooper is Elvis doing a concert tour around 1963, performing in his famous gold jacket, singing "A Fool Such As I" and "Crying In The Chapel." Clearly inspired by (or mixed with) the three charity shows he did in 1961 (two in Memphis and one in Hawaii) , it's nevertheless a nice "what if" scene, where Russell looks even more like the original.

As a matter of fact, I found the 60's a much more incorrect exercise than the 50's part of the movie. Right after Elvis wedding in 1967 we see him dressed in his clothes from Paradise, Hawaiian Style, on his way to shot another movie. A couple of sceens later he's at the piano home at Graceland singing "Bosom Of Abraham" (together with the real Charlie Hodge!) wearing the red shirt/black striped pants from That's The Way It Is.

Then there's the comeback in Las Vegas, where he dons a jumpsuit looking very much like one from 1972, and performing "The Wonder Of You" right after "Blue Suede Shoes."

But all mistakes asides (artistic freedom?) I found watching Elvis The Movie an entertaining experience, mainly thanks to Kurt Russell's performance. If I had to pick one scene, it would be the one where he wakes Priscilla up in the middle of the night, quoting The Prophet by Khalil Gibran. Pulling off a scene like that not only takes great acting skills, it also lends a deeper meaning to the film.

PS: If I had to pick two scenes, I would also choose the one with Elvis rehearsing "Suspicious Minds" at his home in Bel Air. Suddenly, there is the real Kathy Westmoreland among the singers.

Movie Outtakes – The Comments

Going through my old posts preparing the “manuscript” for my book The Elvis Today Blog Vol. 1, I sometimes stumble across comments made long after a particular post was written. One such comment, from February 22, 2010, was written in conjunction with a post from February 1, 2008, in other words, two years after the post was published.

The post, titled Lost In The Vaults – Movie Outtakes, referred to an article in Elvis Monthly from September 1994. In it, Ernst Jorgensen writes about the possibilities of movie outtakes, such as the original ending of Love Me Tender as well as “Summer Kisses Winter Tears” from Flaming Star.

The comment, posted by Norton McColl who ran an Elvis fan club in Brazil for many years, goes likes this:

One thing I learnt is that most of Elvis movies presented in Brazilian movie theatres had alternative scenes. Here it goes. KING CREOLE has shown the alternative hotel scene where Elvis and Susan Hart actually got inside the room. GI BLUES had the alternative TONIGHT IS ALL RIGHT FOR LOVE (Vienna Woods) scene which is completely different than the one released later. SPEEDWAY had the FIVE SLEEPY HEADS scene where he actually sings to 5 babies. HARUM SCARUM had two extra scenes included which are ANIMAL INSTINCT with a black panther circulating and WISDOM OF THE AGES where Elvis bows to the King at the end of this latter song.
I do not know for sure whatelse we could see in the movie theatres in the 50´s and 60`s. I wish we had VHS sets at that time. But it looks like they always use South America to show alternative scenes. The same happened with Hammer horror movies productions whose bloody scenes in full colour were later cut from released VHS's and DVD's.

And a couple of days later, editing a post called Unreleased Frames from April 13, 2009 dealing with songs shown in trailers but not in the movies themselves, I noticed a comment written two weeks later by a guy named Rick Norman along the same lines:

Well, I can tell you as much :
"Summer kisses winter tears" certainly was filmed as it was only cut after preview (because of test audience laughing at the scene).
"Steppin' out of line" has a short sequence in European prints.
The same with "Anyone" from "Kissin' Cousins".
Both songs from "Harum Scarum" were seen in prints distributed in the Middle East and "Sand castles" was also present in Europe, following the "House of sand" sequence.
Having worked in the movie and tv-world for 42 years, I strongly suspect all songs will have been filmed. They were probably cut for different reasons and some reappeared in different prints to be distributed in countries that had other copyright laws or interests. FTD and EPE must be unable to clear the rights or retrieve the actual scenes, otherwise they sure would have published them in new versions of the movie DVD's.
I know they have severe problems with copy rights for some of the movie song versions and that they're trying like hell to clear those.

It's interesting that both Norton McColl and Rick Norman mentions the inclusion of “Animal Instinct” and “Wisdom Of The Ages” in prints of Harum Scarum shown in South America and the Middle East, respectively. Maybe one day they'll turn up in on a compilation DVD together with the other songs mentioned above. And wouldn't it be something if it would include “Hard Headed Woman” from King Creole as well as the Clambake number “How Can You Loose What You Never Had?”

Wild In The Country – The Deleted Scenes

In the September 2010 issue of the Elvis The Man And His Music magazine, there is a very interesting article about Wild In The Country, documenting deleted scenes from the movie. Turns out there are nine of them, described in detail in the article.

In fact, photos from many of the deleted scenes exist, and in the magazine some of them are published, including four film frames from the original ending (where Hope Lange's character Irene had died). These frames show Glenn (Elvis) sitting on a train on his way to college, opening an envelope Phil Macy (John Ireland) had given him on the train platform.

Interestingly enough, it was Elvis himself that initiated the decision to re-shoot the ending, telling the director of the film, Philip Dunne, that he thought "the boy was getting away with an awful lot in the picture."

Dunne, taking this in consideration, wrote in a memo that "He [Elvis] is on top of the world, going to college, all expenses paid, his story is published, owing everything to her, and she is dead, and he [Elvis' character] is the one who started all the trouble by making a pass at her. She is punished for what is essentially his mistake and he gets off scot-free. The trouble isn't Elvis performance – it is in the situation as it is written."

No footage or photos from the original sequence with Elvis on the train has ever before been seen, according to the author of the article, Bill Bram. Unfortunately he doesn't elaborate as to where he's found his "movie files". But the Fox memos he's quoting offers insight into the making of the movie and the confidence the director as well as the producer had in Elvis' acting abilities.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Bill Bram that it would be nice to think that someday there'll be a deluxe DVD version of Wild In The Country with all the deleted scenes included as bonus material.

Elvis On Tour – Now And Then

Today, on August 16, I'm going to commemorate Elvis by watching his last film, Elvis On Tour, recently released on DVD/Blu-ray. But before I do that I'd like to tell you about the first time I saw it.

It must have been in the early or middle 80's. My parents had bought a caravan, and that's how we spent the vacation: on the road visiting different sights and places.

That particular summer the Swedish Television screened “rain movies” during the afternoon. These were feature films usually a bit old, supposedly to be shown if it was raining and one had to stay inside. Thinking about it right now, I'm pretty sure “rain movies” were shown whether it was bad weather or not, because what if it rained in the north and not in the south?

Now, one day I read in the paper that the “rain movie” was going to be Elvis On Tour. Needless to say, I was excited, as was my younger brother, who also digged Elvis. We told our parents in no uncertain terms that we had to park that caravan in good time before the film was to begin, so that we could turn the antenna around and try to get a sharp picture, something that wasn't always an easy task.

My parents, being very understanding folks, even headed for higher ground so that the TV signal would be stronger. An hour or so before the movie was to begin, we were parked outside a monastery, and went to work trying to find a decent picture on the tiny black and white television set.

I'm happy to report that we succeeded, and after all these years I can still recall the excitement when the screen showed a big clock where the hands were approaching three o' clock, together with a text that read: “15:00 - Elvis On Tour.” I also remember the opening “Johnny B. Goode” sequence and how cool I thought the slow-motion effect was. (Maybe that's another reason why I was so disappointed when it was announced that Warner Home Video had replaced it with “Don't Be Cruel” on the DVD/Blu-ray release.)

All in all, it was a fantastic “rain movie” and it will be great to watch it again tonight – with one big difference. This time it will be in color!