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JAILHOUSE ROCK -
Trivia
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Jailhouse Rock
premiered in Memphis on October 17, 1957. It opened nationally on
November 8. In many areas, Jailhouse Rock was double-billed with
The Wayward
Girl, which starred Marcia Henderson, Peter Walker
and Whit Bissell.
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Jailhouse Rock was Jennifer
Holden's film début. In competition with over a dozen starlets, she
walked into MGM in May 1956 and walked out five minutes later with a
contract. Her only previous experience was drama study with Lillian Roth
and an appearance at the Palace Theatre in New York City. Elvis's love
scene with brown-eyed, blonde beauty (37-21-35) lasted three minutes on
the screen, but took about four hours to film. On the last day of
filming, a small heater in Holden's dressing room caught fire. As the
property man put out the fire, Elvis carried her out to safety. It's
Jennifer who tells, "I no sooner stepped into my dressing-room one day
when a small heater caught fire. Flames were shooting out and I was
trapped in the corner. I screamed loudly and immediately our property
man, Harry Edwards, came running in. Elvis was at his side. As Harry put
out the fire, Elvis carried me safely outside."
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At the age of seventeen, Judy Tyler
(1934-1957) began playing Princess Summerfall Winterspring on the
Howdy Doody TV series. Her real name was Judith Hess. Julian Hess,
her father, was a trumpet player with both Benny Goodman and Paul
Whiteman. In the 1955 Broadway play
Pipe
Dream, Hammerstein sang
All at Once You Love Her. She made her film début in
Bop Girl Goes
Calypso (1957). Jailhouse Rock was Tyler's second and last
film appearance. She and her husband of four months, George Lafayette,
were killed in a car accident near Billy The Kid, Wyoming, on July 3,
1957. The 23-year-old driver of the other vehicle was also killed. After
Tyler's death, Kenny Baker recorded a tribute record entitled Good-bye
Little Star.
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Mary Jane Hamilton - Fifteen-year-old girl
from Riverport who wrote Vince Everett a fan letter that he read in his
hotel room. She gave her measurements as 33-25-36, hair as brown, eyes
as blue, and telephone number as LOckwood-4357.
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During the recording session of Don't
Leave Me Now, photos of several RCA artists could be seen, including The
Ames Brothers, Tony Martin, Harry Belafonte, Lena Horne, Jaye P. Morgan,
Hugo Winterhalter, Eddie Fisher, and Dinah Shore.
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Geneva Records - record company owned by
Jack Lease for which singing star Mickey Alba recorded. Peg took Vince
Everett's first recording, Don't Leave Me Now, to Geneva, but Lease
rejected it only to later release the song by Mickey Alba using Vince's
style and arrangement.
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Laurel Records - record label founded by
Vince and Peggy. He got 51 percent, she got 40 percent, and their
lawyer, Mr. Shore, got 9 percent. Laurel Records' first release was
Treat Me Nice (Laurel 101).
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Blooper: concerning Laurel Records
partnership, Shores mentioned that the "40 percent participant failed to
telephone the 60 percent partner", i.e., Peggy failed to telephone
Vince. However, Shores was a 9 percent partner in the firm, which left
Vince with 51 percent of the company, not 60 percent.
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Colonel Parker always appeared in the
credits as Technical Advisor. But that didn't mean anything, since he
did not advise anyone on technical matters. He just infuriated and
frustrated directors and producers, making them aware that he was the
only one who had control over his product, Elvis.
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During shooting Elvis woke at 6:00 a.m.
every day, to the sound of a radio-clock and rock music! Then he took
his breakfast: a giant sandwich of burnt bacon and tomato slices, washed
down with lots of milk. Elvis weighted 85 kg in Jailhouse Rock.
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For some scenes in the movie, Elvis had to
appear with a very short hair. He didn't mind to cut his hair, but after
so many protests from the fans, two wigs were made for those scenes.
They were so well made that almost nobody realized it wasn't Elvis's
hair. On the subject, Elvis said, "Personally I don't care if they cut
my hair. I don't think it makes much difference. Besides it'll grow out
again."
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The colourized version of Jailhouse
Rock almost never is faithful to the authentic and real colours, as
the photos and documentation regarding the actors's clothing confirm.
For instance, the woollen sweater Elvis wears during the Baby I Don't
Care sequence is blue, not green.
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Biographer Elaine Dundy, author of
Elvis and Gladys, has no doubts as to why this third Elvis movie is
so unlike his previous characters. She offers a very persuasive line of
argument to support the theory that the plot of Jailhouse Rock
was, in a sense, an extended practical joke, perpetrated by Colonel
Parker, at the expense of the Presley family. At the chore of her theory
lies the revelation (made just after he died) that Vernon Presley had
served a prison sentence for forging a cheque when Elvis was just a
small child. Incredibly that information was never made public during
Elvis's lifetime but she argues that had it been, particularly at the
outset of his career when the forces of the so-called public morality
were firmly raged against him, then it would have damaged his career
irreparably. Elvis and his family wanted him to succeed and faced with
the prospect of public humiliation - as such a disclosure would
inevitably have been - the Presleys would probably have preferred to
die. Dundy believes that somehow the Colonel found out this information
- the kind of thing studios used to do to keep their stars in line - and
in doing so he occupied a very powerful position in relation to Elvis
and his family, using this to blackmail them and get away with what he
wanted, and not with what Elvis wanted.
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