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LOVE ME TENDER - Trivia


 

  • Love Me Tender premiered in New York City on November 15, 1956, at the Paramount Theater. A fifty-too-tall cardboard picture of Elvis stood in front of the theatre. On the same bill was The Girl He Left Behind, starring Tab Hunter and Natalie Wood. Thirty-five policeman and twenty extra ushers were used for the premiere. Theater patrons began lining up outside the box office as early as 08:00 A.M.

 

  • Love Me Tender opened nationally on November 21, 1956. It was double-billed with The Desesperados Are in Town in many areas of the United States. Kathy Nolan and Robert Arthur starred.

 

  • Robert Wagner and Jeffrey Hunter were considered for the role of Clint Reno, the part played by Elvis.

 

  • While filming in Hollywood, Elvis and his parents stayed at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel on Ivar Avenue. Elvis rented the entire eleventh floor.

  • Elvis’s salary was a flat $100,000.

 

  • The production costs were recovered within the first three days of release, while the negative costs were recouped within a couple of weeks.

 

  • On opening day in Minneapolis, anti-Presley film-goers at the RKO Orpheum Theater interrupted the showing with heckling. Two policemen were put on duty to prevent any further disorder.

 

  • Total production costs on Love Me Tender were just under $ 1 million.

 

  • The original ending of Love Me Tender had Mildred Dunnock ringing the dinner bell for the three brothers working in the field. Pain was shown in the eyes of Dunnock and Debra Paget. The credits followed this scene.

 

  • For his performance in Love Me Tender, Elvis was given a “Worst Supporting Actor Award” by the Harvard Lampoon.

 

  • Filming began on August 23, 1956, and was completed on October 8. Exteriors were shot in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles. Interiors were filmed at the 20th Century Fox studios.

 

  • In early October 1956, an ending was filmed in which Elvis lived, but it was decided not to use it.

 

  • Debra Paget first appeared with Elvis on The Milton Berle Show on June 5, 1956. She began her film career at the age of fifteen in Cry of the City (1948). Her career voluntarily ended with the release of 1963's The Haunted Place. Contrary to popular opinion, Paget did not give Elvis his first screen kiss. That honour went to Jana Lund, in Loving You.

 

  • Love Me Tender reached #2 in Variety's weekly list of top-grossing films. For the year 1956, it ranked #23.

 

 

  • Love Me Tender was the only film in which Elvis did not receive top billing. Richard Egan and Debra Paget were both billed ahead of Elvis in the credits.

 

  • At the February 23, 1972 Elvis concert at the Las Vegas Hilton, Richard Egan stood up and began an ovation while Elvis was singing his closing number, Can't Help Falling In Love.

 

  • The opening scenes of Love Me Tender took place on  April 10, 1865, the day after General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomatox Court House in Virginia, thus ending the Civil War.

 

  • $12,250 - Amount of the Union payroll taken by the Reno brothers when they robbed a Louisiana & Western train in Greenwood, Louisiana, on April 10, 1865. In actuality, the first train robbery in U.S. history took place on October 16, 1866, when the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad was robbed of $10,000 at Seymour, Indiana. The gang that robbed the train was the Reno brothers.

 

  • The Union soldiers whose identities Vance Reno and his men assumed were from the 12th Michigan Cavalry.

 

  • The Reno brothers were from East Texas.

 

  • Randall's Raiders - Band of rebel cutthroats commanded by General Randall. Vance Reno served under General Randall.

 

  • The Reno brothers' father was John W. Reno (1798-1864).

 

  • When Johnny Comes Marching Home was heard on the soundtrack as the Reno brothers rode into their old homestead after the end of the Civil War.

 

  • Elvis's first words on screen: "Whoa!... Brett... Vance... They told us you were dead!"

 

  • Bedford, Texas - Town near the Reno's farm.

 

  • East Texas Railroad - railroad line that was taking the Reno brothers into Tyler, Texas, to stand before their accusers in the Greenwhood, Louisiana, train station robbery. Their former rebel friends helped them escape from the train.

 

  • Clint Reno was born in 1943 and died in 1865.

 

  • Blooper: In a night scene in which Debra Paget is at her window crying, a car can be seen briefly in the background.

 

  • Blooper: A Confederate soldier zips up the pants that were taken off Northern soldiers, before zippers were invented.

 

  • Clint Reno's dying words: "Everything's gonna be all right."

 

  • When Elvis took his first screen test in The Rainmaker, the producer Hal Wallis liked what he saw. He said, "Elvis, in a very... modern way, had exactly the same power, virility and sexual drive as Errol Flynn."

 

  • The producers of Love Me Tender didn't want Tennessee hicks cutting the tunes for their movie, so they insisted that Elvis replace his usual Memphis sidemen, Scotty Moore and Bill Black, with session musicians that included the more genteel and restrained Ken Darby Trio. Ironically, the hired hands sounded more countrified and down-home than Elvis's own musicians on their recent recordings.

 

  • Love Me Tender is based on an old ballad, Aura Lee.

 

  • On the first day of shooting, Elvis came to the set knowing his lines, Debra's lines, everybody's lines. On the set, Elvis did his job, but his Southern politeness and natural deference sometimes got in the way. In one particular scene, Elvis grabs a pistol and heads for the door of the cabin, ignoring his mother - played by Mildred Dunnock - when she snaps, "Put down that gun!" But the first time Dunnock delivered her line, Elvis sheepishly muttered, "Yes, ma'am" and dropped the gun. All the present crew laughed.

 

  • When the fans found out that Elvis was going to die in the movie, they protested and demanded a different ending. They didn't make it. The best they got was Elvis's "ghost" singing Love Me Tender over the final credits.

 

  • Gladys Presley - Elvis's mother - was extremely upset by the end of Love Me Tender. She wept at the end of the movie, claiming that she couldn't watch her son dying, not even in a movie.

 

  • Almost at the end of the shooting, Elvis told his parents they had to buy a big farm. Elvis had enjoyed the movie sets in which he had worked upon - a big farm house would be great for him and his parents.

 

  • Critics thought the movie was awful and accused Elvis of not knowing how to act. But Love Me Tender was the 6th movie listed in 1957, which indicated the normal life of a successful film. And it were "the powers that be" who have decided Elvis shouldn't have acting lessons because, according to them, that "would ruin his natural ability."

 

  • Shorty after the movie premiered and the fans lined endlessly by the box-offices, the admissions quickly sold out. A fan cried, desperate, because she couldn't get a ticket. When the reporter asked her why she was so sad, she replied, "I couldn't get an admission!" He assumed she hadn't seen the movie yet. But she had already seen it 42 times!

 

  • On Elvis's first close-up scene, he is ploughing the land with some horses and he sees his brothers coming from afar. He pulls his hat to the back of his head and smiles broadly. It is told that all the girls present in the movie theatres screamed during that scene, which really upset the boys. The girls cried when Elvis died at the end; the boys were happy and applauded.

 

  • Elvis had to cut wood and plough the fields for the movie. Joking with the irony of the situation, dressed with dirty clothes and real sweat, Elvis said, "I got into singing because I didn't want to sweat too much! I spent one whole day ploughing mules. Man, that was rough!"

 

  • After Elvis sang Love Me Tender on TV, RCA received one million pre-orders of the record. It was a Gold Record even before it was recorded!

 

  • Elvis couldn't resist the charm and beauty of Debra Paget and fell for her and, because of her, he broke his habit of addressing everyone by "Miss", "Ma'am" or "Sir". He called her Debbie. When a reporter asked him if he had any-favourite actress, he replied, "I've got one special gal, and she's the only gal for me. But she keeps me 64,000 miles away." The reporter asked, "Who?" With a boyish smile, Elvis sighed, "Debbie!" Debra Paget didn't deny the fact that she kept him at distance and she even admitted that she thought he was a moron, but she changed her opinion later on. Debra claimed that Elvis proposed to her, but she refused him. She was dating Howard Hughes at the time.

 

  • The footage of Elvis singing Love Me Tender at the end was shot after preview audiences reacted badly to his character's fate. This new footage created a continuity error as Elvis had dyed his hair black by the time of the additional shooting, while in the movie his hair colour was closer to blonde.

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