« Return
LOVING YOU -
Trivia
-
Loving You
premiered in Memphis on July 9, 1957, at the Strand Theater. Elvis, his
parents, and Anita Wood attended a midnight showing. The film opened
nationally on July 30, double-billed in many areas with the Van Johnson
film,
Action of the Tiger. Four days earlier, Loving You
was sneak-previewed at the Alhambra Theater in Sacramento, California.
All movie-goers were given a photo of Elvis.
-
Production on Loving You began on
January 21, 1957, and was completed on March 8. Except for the Jessup's
farm scenes, the film was shot entirely on the Paramount lot.
-
Loving You was based on the story
A Call from Mitch Miller, by Mary Agnes Thompson, which appeared
in the June 1956 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. The lead character
in the story was Lonesome Harris, who sang with Tex Warner and his Red
River Ramblers. His girlfriend was Susan Harris, and the setting was
Oaklahoma. On July 30, 1956, Hal B. Wallis bought the rights to Miss
Thompson's story as a vehicle for Elvis.
-
The original title for Loving You
was The Lonesome Cowboy. The title was changed to Running Wild in
the fall of 1956. As a matter of fact, on Elvis's last appearance on
The Ed Sullivan Show, Sullivan referred to Elvis going to Hollywood
to make his latest film, Running Wild. Another title for the film
briefly considered was Something for the Girls.
-
Actress Dolores Hart made her film début
in Loving You. After making only ten films, she retired from
acting in 1963 to become a nun. Today, Hart (real name: Dolores Hicks)
is know as Mother Dolores at the Convent of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem,
Connecticut. Her last film was
Come Fly With Me (1963). In 1959
Photoplay magazine published Hart's article "What It's Like to
Kiss Elvis."
-
Like Elvis, actress Lizabeth Scott was
signed to a Paramount contract after a screen test for producer Hal
Wallis. She was called "The Threat" by studio publicity agents.
Loving You was Lizabeth Scott's last film, except for a 1972 British
release,
Pulp.
-
Wendell Corey was elected to the Santa
Monica, California, City Council in 1965. He was defeated in the 1966
Republican primary race for the House of Representatives. Like Elvis and
Lizabeth Scott, Corey was signed by Hal Wallis to a movie contract. He
made his début in
Desert
Fury (1947), which also starred Lizabeth
Scott. Elvis had a cat named Wendell.
-
Making their screen débuts in Loving
You were Scotty Moore, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana, Vernon Presley,
Gladys Presley and the Jordanaires.
-
Baker - one of the towns in which Deke
Rivers performed. Baker (population: 1,234) was known as "The Small Town
with a Big Welcome". Some of the other towns where he performed included
Jordan Crossing, Indian Wells, Big Hill, Alkalai Wells, and Lone Star.
-
Adams High School Hop - one of the events
at which Deke Rivers and Tex Warner's Rough Ridin' Ramblers performed.
After the event, Susan presented Deke with a guitar that Tex had bought
for him. Tex announced that from that time on, Deke would appear on
stage with the band and not just come out of the audience as he had
before.
-
Montgomery Ward - Rodeo City Store where
Deke bought a green shirt with Susan's assistance. Deke referred to the
store as "Monkey Wards". A pre-movie star, Gregory Peck, modelled
clothes for the 1940 Montgomery Ward catalog.
-
Bill Black made his screen début in
Loving You. His first screen line. "Hey, Deke. See the picture in
the paper of the gals fighting over you?" His next line was, "Yeah. From
what it says in here, Deke's just about..."
-
Deke River's real name was Jimmy Tompkins.
His early years were spent in an orphanage run by Miss Whipshaw. When
the orphanage burned down eleven years before, Jimmy ran away and
happened upon the Woodbine Cemetery near Allen City. In the cemetery he
saw a tombstone that read: "R.I.P., Deke Rivers, 1878-1934. He was alone
but for his friends who miss him." Jimmy Tomkins assumed the name
of Deke Rivers on that day.
-
KTED - Freegate, Texas, television station
that provided the broadcast facilities for the national TV special that
starred Deke Rivers. The telecast was aired from the Freegate Civic
Center. The Jordanaires were seen in the telecast.
-
Hollywood was astonished with the "chaos"
that Elvis caused in the studios. From 08:30 a.m. they started receiving
phone calls for Elvis and, around 06:00 p.m. they had already received
around 500 phone calls. Elvis's fans were different from all the others
they had contacted with before and they had worked with countless mega
stars.
-
Elvis worked from 07:00 a.m. till 07:00
p.m. - 12 consecutive hours. Even so, when he exited the studios, he
stopped by the gates to talk with his fans. Sometimes he spent more than
2 hours with them, in spite of being tired from working.
-
Even though Elvis seemed to conquer every
girl's feelings, like bees make honey, Robin Corey, Wendell Corey's (Tex
in the movie) daughter didn't feel impressed with Elvis' image and
didn't want to go to the studios to meet him when her father invited
her. However, when she set her mind to it, it didn't take long for Elvis
to make her change her mind. He gave her much attention and she felt the
most special girl in the world. Besides showing Robin around the studio,
Elvis still found the time to sing Loving You to her. Robin, who had
suffered from reumathic fever when she was a child, had become quite
litte for not growing too much after she recovered from the illness.
Elvis's friendship helped her overcoming her shyness in meeting new
people. Elvis spent a lot of time at Corey's house and became a kind of
oldest brother to Robin. "He was a very honest and sensitive person,"
Robin said, "And, I don't know, but when I was close to him, I felt
stronger."
-
While he was shooting the movie, Elvis
sufferend an almost fatal accident when a very heavy roof of lights fell
on the ground, just a few centimeters from where had had been seconds
before! If he hadn't moved away, his movie career and his life could
well had been much shorter.
-
But Elvis indeed suffered an accident. For
the fight sequence in the movie, the Director felt he had to hire a
professional boxer to train Elvis and Ken Becker, so the scene would
look real. Only they exaggerated. After the fight was over, Ken had a
bleeding mouth and Elvis a broken finger.
« Return |