The
following is a phone interview with Jan Shepard, done by Joe Krein,
on 22 June 2007. Jan Shepard worked as leading lady in
King
Creole movie, playing the role of his older sister.
Legends:
Jan Shepard, today;
Elvis with Jan Shepard, in her birthday party.
Can
you tell me a little about yourself, where you were born and raised?
I
was born in a little town called Quakertown, Pennsylvania, in Bucks
County. It’s about 40 miles north of Philadelphia. I had a wonderful
time there growing up, it was a tiny little town and everybody knew
everybody. You got to do everything when you were in high school. I
was a cheerleader and a drum majorette. I was in drama. I loved
growing up there.
You
did all of that?
Yeah
(laughing).
You
were a cheerleader?
I
was everything (laughing).
Did
you want to become an actress?
Ever
since I was in second grade I was Miss Cleanliness, in a way. I got
up on that stage and something happened. I saw all those people and
it made me want to do something nice. So I did two class plays. I
did junior high and senior class plays as the leading lady. I did
summer stock when I got out of high school. I did that for quite a
while and that was great fun.
So
did you go to Hollywood and say “I want to be a star”?
I
went to New York first and I got a terrible cold. I had gotten a
reference from Samson Raferson, who did a lot of plays. He lived in
our area. He sent me to Sherill Crawford doing Brigadoon. So
I went there and I could barely talk. You think to yourself once
they see you that you would be in Broadway by the weekend. You just
think that they are waiting for you. But she said go back home and
do summer stock. Do as much as you can of that. It was one of those
things that you are so eager and you had no clue as of how to become
an actor. So I went back home and then I had a chance to visit some
relatives in California. So I never went back to New York.
So
what studio did you sign up with?
I
did some things with 20th Century, but mostly I did
television like ABC, CBS and then Paramount. So I was working all
the time. The kids that were under contract with Paramount, they had
a class picture taken, and I wasn’t in it because I was the only one
working. Will never forget that. How I wish I was in that picture.
You
must see a lot of turn over, kids coming and then going home.
Yeah. You know there is a lot of wonderful talent walking the
street, and honestly it’s a matter of luck. Plus it helps with who
you know. What helped me was I moved in with Amanda Blake from
Gun
Smoke. We shared an apartment and Ross Hunter had an
apartment in the same building. I was working a regular job then. We
would walk together in the morning to work. There was an agent that
also lived in the building. I was out sunning myself one day and he
came over and started talking. He said, “Do you need an agent?” I
said yes. That’s how it all started. Quite by accident.
You
worked in television?
About 500 episodes. I did so much television. I did so many pilots
and series. One of my first series was with McDonald Carrie, who was
Doctor
Christian. I was a regular on that show. I did two
soap operas.
Day in Court
and
Clear Horizons. I did so
many Westerns. Every show that was in the fifties and sixties,
seventies. At least five hundred television shows.
So
what was it that you wanted? Did you want your own series?
I
just wanted to work. I didn’t care where the work was. What mattered
to me was have a job and pay the rent. You know, fill the
refrigerator, all things like that and having a career in what I
loved. That was a career in acting. I started doing what ever I
could get. Eventually it got to be leading lady roles and guest
star. It worked up that way.
Were
you an Elvis fan?
No
(laughing).
Don’t feel bad, a lot of people have said that to me.
It
was so funny because I was sitting with Dan Duriah. I was doing a
two hour film. We were sitting on the set. I had the reporter in
front of me and it said “ELVIS PRESLEY”. “What kind of a name is
that?” He said, “I don’t know.” I said there’s some kid in the south
called Elvis Presley. I said he’s never going to make it (laughing).
That was the first time that I had ever heard of him. So I didn’t
know who he was. I happened to like his voice. I liked his voice but
I am not the kind of person who is adoring movie stars. There was
maybe one or two that I adored or would like to work with, but I was
never like those type of people. But once I met him, I just adored
him.
When
did you find out that you were going to do an Elvis film?
I
was doing a play at Paramount, with Dolores Hart, who is my
goddaughter. She is now a nun.
Oh,
yes, I know who she is.
She
used to be under contract with Hal Wallis. Dolores came up to me
after work. She said, “Jan, there is a part in this movie I am going
to do with Elvis Presley you would be perfect for. The part would be
playing his sister.” I said, “Yeah, right, terrific.” I just let it
go at that. But the next thing I know she calls me and says Hal
Wallis wants to see you. “I’ve talked to him about you.” So I went
up there. He said to me, “I would like you to make a test.” So they
gave me the script. When I arrived at the studio, there was four
other girls that were testing. I figured I would be the only one. I
was in shock, I almost walked out. Peter Baldwin, who was playing
the Elvis role, who was a friend of mine, he said, “Stay, stay.
These other girls are no way better than you.” So I was the last one
to be tested. After I just went home and prayed that I would get
this role. I got it!
Legends: Jan Shepard,
with Elvis, playing scenes in
King
Creole.
And
this was for?
King
Creole,
that was Elvis’s favourite movie. Plus it’s the fans favourite
movie.
It’s
also mine.
Yes,
it’s mine, too. But I have only seen two movies of his. I only saw
them because I was in them. That’s nothing to do with Elvis. It’s
just because I was working all the time. I was doing soap operas.
Different scripts every day, learning new lines every day. You just
don’t have the time to go out and see movies. I had no social life
at all. If you do have five minutes on a weekend, you want to sleep.
Can
you tell me how you met Elvis?
When
you’re assigned a film role, you have to go to the doctor, because
of the insurance company. They have to make sure you don’t have a
bad heart, any of that nonsense. They made my appointment for me at
the studio, so I was there and I had on a white shirt and these
slacks my mother had made for me that were like wine coloured. I
went in the office and I was waiting to be called in. In walks Elvis
with two of his buddies. I looked at him and he looked at me and we
started to laugh. His jacket was the identical material and colour
of my slacks. He looked at me and he said, “Honey, I’m either going
to have to give you my jacket or you’re going to have to give me
your pants” (laughing). That was my first meeting with Elvis.
Goodness.
Girl
scout’s honour.
Did
you get along with Elvis?
Oh,
wonderful. He said if he had a sister, he wished it would be me. We
got along so great because we worked alone the two of us the whole
first week of the show. I would come to work and I would find on the
set a pair of earrings he put there for me that cost about ten cents
that he had liberated from the set. I have a marvelous picture where
we are waiting to perform and we were just sitting down at the
dining room table. I handed him this jewelry and I said I can’t take
these from you, Elvis, you know it’s too much. You’re the last of
the big spenders. He is there laughing so hard and they snapped this
picture of the two of us. It’s a fabulous picture of him. But he
would do little things like that. And he would play music on his
guitar. He would ask me what I wanted to hear. Elvis loved Danny
Boy.
Did
you ever date Elvis?
No,
I was married (laughing).
Oh,
sorry, I didn’t know that.
No,
I was married, honey. But the thing was: Dolores Hart gave me a
surprise birthday party. All the kids from Paramount studio were
there. It was a big surprise to me. I was there for about ten
minutes and in walks Elvis with the boys. He had this huge stuffed
tiger under his arm. He knew I loved cats, so he had this stuffed
cat and he named it Danny Boy. He gave me this big box. For weeks I
had been asking Elvis for pictures that I could give the kids in my
neighbourhood when they had heard I was doing a picture with him.
They all pleaded for photos of him. So I would always ask him for
pictures for the kids. “Come on, please, I need pictures.” So he
hands me this box and I placed it off to the side. He said, “Oh, no,
you need to open that now.” So I opened it and it was a movie camera
with a light bar and film. He said, “Now you can take your
pictures.” You know if Colonel Parker was there, he would not had
allowed that.
Oh,
you’re right.
Dolores said the next day she ran into Elvis and she said, “I was so
surprised that you came.” He said I had to come, “She’s my sister. I
wouldn’t miss her birthday party” (laughing). I ran into him in the
studio. He said to me, “I hear Elvis was at your birthday party.”
“Yeah, he was”. He said, “You know he never goes anywhere, people go
to him, he never goes to other people’s homes.”
That’s very true.
I
said I think we bonded a little bit.
Was
Elvis a good actor?
Wonderful! Oh, just marvelous! I will never forget. You know every
person that sings is a good actor. Because they have the sense of
timing, the sense of rhythm, a sense of what words mean. He was a
brilliant actor because he didn’t need any advice. He knew
automatically what to do and act, as the show was going on. I kept
saying to him, “Oh, Elvis, for God sake, you’re doing such a great
job.” So one day we went for lunch. We were sitting there at a table
and in walks Marlon Brando. Elvis was sitting with his back towards
him. There was a table right behind Elvis that was empty, so Brando
saw Elvis as soon as he walked in. So Brando got into the chair
right behind Elvis. I said to Elvis, “Marlon Brando is sitting
behind you.” Elvis said, “Oh, my God” and his head sunk into his
sandwich. I said, “Look, he wants to meet you, I saw him looking at
you, just say hi to him.” Well, that’s exactly what happened. He got
up and bumped his chair. Marlon stood up and the two of them shook
hands. They did a little small talking. Elvis was very cool. Elvis
then walked out of the café very cool. But the minute we got outside
he leaped up. He couldn’t believe he met Marlon Brando. He was so
excited, we just danced all the way back to the studio. Then one day
after the show had been released, someone sent me the review of
King
Creole. The title was “Bourbon Street Brando.” I raced over
to Paramount and I grabbed Elvis and I said, “Look at this.” I
showed him the “Bourbon Street Brando”, he just couldn’t believe it.
I said, “See, I told you, you were going to be great in this!” Joe,
Elvis was!
Legends: Jan Shepard,
with Elvis, playing scenes in
King
Creole.
Now
you did another movie with Elvis.
Yes,
Paradise Hawaiian Style.
Can
you tell me about that movie and how you got the part?
I
had gone over to Paramount to have lunch with Dolores Hart. She was
getting a wardrobe fitting for some picture. I ran into Paul Mason.
He said, “Hi”. He asked what was I doing there. He said, “Hey, we
need a wife for Jimmie Sakita for a movie Elvis is doing. Would you
be interested?” He said, “It’s not a huge part, but it’s a good
part.” I said, “Yeah, ok.” He told me to go up and see Hal Wallis.
“I will give him a call and tell him you’re coming.” So I went up
there. Well, Hal Wallis’s office is full of art. He has originals of
Remington’s and Chares Russell, all those wonderful western
painters. I walked in and I said, “Oh, my God, you have a
Remington!” I knew art because my husband is an artist. Hal Wallis
was very impressed, he asked me if I wanted that role? Yeah, fine,
that would be wonderful! That’s how I got the part.
Now what did Elvis say when he saw you?
Well, the minute he saw me he asked how was Dolores
because now she has been a nun for the past year. And I said she was
good, I’ve seen her, I’ve gone there. And Maria Cooper, Gary’s
daughter and I were the godmothers for her when she went into the
monastery. And I said, “I’ve been there and she’s doing great and
she, you know, I said you know if they let me wear eyelash mascara,
I’d go in that place and say it’s beautiful. She’s home. This is
where she wants to be and he wanted to see if she was okay and how
you were doing. You know, and I noticed he was not the Elvis that
was the little teddy bear that would run across the stage and pick
up and swing you around. He was not that anymore.
He changed?
He was never in his dressing room and you know
King
Creole. He is always out with a group and having fun and
playing the guitar and, you know, just a lot of fun. And he went to
his dressing room and it was closed and I noticed he was drinking a
lot of water. He had lot of glasses of water and he was drinking.
Also, there was an attitude that was so different. He was kind of
jaded and at the movies, he and I knew Charlie Afura who did all his
choreography. Charlie was showing him something on stage, some dance
moves or something, and he was just looking at Charlie, like
“Charlie, I’ve done this four or five times already. I know what you
want,” because it was the same movie every time.
Right.
He was always doing the same movie and I know he was
tired of it.
Yeah, something he loved to do he learned to hate.
He learned to hate what they gave him.
Uh-huh, but he still wanted to act.
Yes.
Did he ever talk to you about that?
With Barbra Streisand.
But did he ever talk to you about it? About he hated
it or, no, he wouldn’t.
No, because the thing with Colonel Parker, he said
no, and that was a stupid move. All Colonel Parker wanted was the
money and he was stealing money from Elvis and so was RCA. I mean,
they were just Elvis. He was getting 50% of Elvis and he didn’t want
to do anything that would take him to Japan. Elvis wanted to go to
Japan. They adored him overseas. Colonel Parker always said no.
When was the last time you saw Elvis?
I saw him in Las Vegas. We went to a Casers Palace
and I was so disappointed because he was into the karate stuff and
he was turning his back to the audience all the time. And I just
wanted to just go up there and spank him, you know.
Yeah.
Because he was just not him. You know. I think that
when his mom died, that was just a terrible blow and that if she had
lived Elvis would still be alive today.
Yeah. When you were working in the movies, did you
have the chance to have one on one conversations?
Oh, yeah, all the time. Especially on the
Creole,
but not as much on Paradise Hawaiian Style. Yeah, like on the
weekend it had rained all weekend and on Monday morning when Elvis
came into the makeup room and I said, “Well, what did you do this
weekend?” “I was on the phone with my mom all day, I didn’t go
anywhere.” He told me one time they were on the road and they
stopped at a diner, this was in the fifties. This big guy came over
to him and picked him up by his shirt. He said, “I don’t like you”.
Elvis said, “What’s wrong?” “My wife carries your picture around in
her wallet.” Elvis said, “Hey, sir, I’m sorry, but that has nothing
to do with me. I’m sorry, she should do that.” He let Elvis down and
they took off. He had so much of that we had to fake people out when
Elvis left the studio. We would send out a limo, the fans figured
Elvis was in it. But Elvis was getting shoved into a taxi in the
back of the studio. Elvis would be laying on the floor. Elvis said,
“I know they don’t mean to do it, but sometimes they hurt me. They
grab at me, pull my hair”. They have scratched his eye while trying
to get some of that beautiful black hair. “I’ve been hurt,” Elvis
said. “That’s why I don’t go anywhere.” We had a lot of
conversations. One time I said to Elvis, “Why don’t you record
Danny
Boy?” He loved that song because he would sing it to his mom. Elvis
said, “They don’t want that. They won’t let me sing something like
that.” It was so funny, one day Pat Boone came walking on the set.
Elvis spotted him and he started singing April Love, just the way
Pat would sing it. Pat just grinned from ear to ear, Pat then came
over and they met. But he never had the chance to become apart of
the young Hollywood scene, because he was afraid to go out with the
other young people who were at the studio. If he went to go to a
movie, he had to rent the whole theatre. You know, Elvis never had a
dime on him, he would follow me to the apple machine. I said to him,
“You want an apple, right?” “Yes, please” (laughing). He never had
any money.
I know that to be true all the way up to the
seventies. His men would carry his money and his keys. When did you
hear that Elvis had passed?
I was sitting with a friend at her business. The
phone rang and they asked if I was there. They asked me if I had the
radio on or had been watching television. I said no, why? “Elvis
died.” I just couldn’t talk. When I was able to talk, I said I was
so angry at him. I was so angry I could not even cry. Because he was
doing all the wrong things and he knew he was, damn it! I could see
that when I went to see him in Vegas. I said to myself, “That’s not
my Elvis.”
But you know the man was the greatest entertainer of
the 20th century.
There will never be another like him. In the
Creole
days he was just a big teddy bear. I asked him one time,
“Ok, Elvis, when did all this swinging your hips start? Why do you
do that?” “I do it for fun, I know just when to break it off.” I
used to watch the little negro boys in his town, how they would sit
on the curbs and sing. And they would stand up and dance. He said
that’s where he got that from. They would sing and move their hips.
How may movies did you do?
Six or seven. I did television. I came to the scene
at the right time. My first part was a lead role! I got a call from
the series
Perry
Mason. They said to me, “We have been trying
to get you for two years. You’re always working!” Then I did a lot
of shows for that series. I told them, “You call me and I will
come.”
So what are you doing today?
I retired about ten years ago.
Well, I would like to thank you for talking to me
today.
You’re welcome, Joe.
Legend: The autographed photo
Jan sent Joe Krein, her interviewer.
Source:
Internet. |