”Behind the scenes” with Loving You

"Behind the scenes" with Loving You

 

 

Some of the insider details he revealed include the following.

• "Elvis drives a $10,000 gorgeous white convertible, and one sequence called for the car to be covered with loving messages written in bright red lipstick by ardent teen-age fans. This posed a problem for the studio, for it was impossible to remove the lipstick without ruining the paint. A property man finally found a solution: a mixture of red show-card coloring, cornstarch and water looking exactly like lipstick, but rubbed off leaving the paint sparkling white."

• "During the filming of [Loving You] at Paramount, the studio was deluged with an average of five hundred telephone calls a day for Elvis. Some came as far away as London. While the callers were predominately female, there was a surprising number of boys phoning."

• "One day the officer on duty at the main studio gate was approached by a couple, and the man said, with a Southern accent, 'Howdy, officer. Can you tell me how to get into this place? We've got a boy working here.' The officer politely inquired whom the lad might be. Before the man could finish Elvis Presley, the gates were opened, and Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Presley of Memphis, Tennessee, were ushered in."

• "Hundreds of teen-age fans lined up at the gate to watch their idol drive out in his white Eldorado Cadillac at the end of the day. They wanted to take photos, be photographed with him and have him sign autographs. This sometimes took as long as two hours, and while Elvis was cooperative, he came to work around eight each morning and didn't leave until almost seven p.m. So the police chief of the studio hired six extra securing officers to clear the way for Elvis to drive out at night."

• "While Elvis was making [Loving You] the mail department received conservatively two thousand pieces of mail each day for him; one teen-ager was sending him her 128th letter. The mail was turned over to Colonel Parker's secretary and it was her duty to see that it was sorted and answered correctly. A great deal of the mail was shown to Elvis, and he spent a couple of hours each day signing letters and autographing specially requested photos."

• "On the set of [Loving You] Elvis became nervous if interrupted by members of the press, so the set was closed during the shooting so that he could concentrate on his acting."