Legends:
Cover of Elvis Answers Back! magazine and some of the
published photos.
Location:
20th Century-Fox studios, Hollywood, California
Contents:
About the “Criticism”
About the “Show”
So I’m Never Nervous, Huh?
My Special Girl
What, No Singing Lessons?
The Green Scrapbook
My Greatest Ambition
My Sideburns
My True Religion
Have I Changed?
Who Am I Going to Act Like?
Do I Really Play the Guitar?
Do I Say All Those Things?
On Amusement Parks
Why Do I Sing Like I Do?
And Now, What Can I Say?
Address Change
Hi! This is Elvis Presley! Well, at last I’m getting the chance to
sit down and talk to you, to speak right out and tell you all the
things that are on my mind. I’ve wanted to tell you about myself for
a long time, a real long time. And now that I’ve got the chance to
speak right out to you, I hope you won’t mind if I get a lot of
things off my chest. Things I think you’ll understand, though I know
that a lot of people don’t. I want to tell you in my own way and in
my own words why I do the things I do and why I feel the way I feel.
And I know that if I can just sit down with you alone somewhere, if
I can just talk with you personal like, you’ll understand.
That’s why I made the gold record on the cover of this magazine. In
the record business, giving a gold record has a special meaning.
It’s kind of like an engagement ring or a new car or a thousand
dollars. You just don’t pass’em around to just anybody. When you
give someone a gold record, you’re saying, “This is something pretty
important to me, something pretty special… from me to you.” That’s
just how I feel about this record of mine in the magazine. That’s
why it’s gold. And that’s why I wanted to make it up. Because I
wanted, more than anything, the chance to get together with you!
One of the biggest kicks I ever had in my life was making this
special gold record for you. I wanted it to say just exactly the way
I feel, and I’ve played it over and over, trying to be sure it’s
exactly right. You know, one of the things they write about me is
that I try to do everything perfect. Maybe I try too hard sometimes.
But they’re right. I feel I’ve got to do my best, whatever I try.
I’ll bet you feel that way, too.
About the “Criticism”
When I first started doing my performances, everyone was happy. All
the kids came out and had a good time and released a lot of energy
and no one was getting hurt. It lasted that way about two years. I
kept singing the songs everyone liked, and kept doing what I’d
always been doing on stage.
But during the past six or seven months, I’ve gotten criticism from
a lot of people for “losing myself” in my performances, for singing
the way I do on stage. I can’t really understand it. This is the
only thing I can say, this is the only explanation I’ve got for it.
Legends:
Elvis live in several locations. Click on the photos to view larger
versions.
I’ve been doing the same thing ever since I started singing on
stage, for at least two and half years now. It’s only been the past
few months that I’ve felt criticism. So I guess it’s because my
records have become bigger and everything. I guess the more popular
you are, the more criticism you get. If I was still back at a Music
Jamboree in Memphis, nobody would care what I did when I sang. But
now, as I’m meeting more and more people every day and singing more
and more places all the time, it’s a different story.
I can tell you this, though. I don’t scheme up any actions for the
songs I sing, like I’ve heard some people tell. I sing the way I do,
and act the way I do, because it comes naturally to me while I’m
singing. I wouldn’t do it if I thought it wasn’t the right thing to
do, or if I thought someone was being hurt by it. If I thought that,
I’d pack up and go back home and never sing another note.
About the “Show”
There’s one other thing, too, that I think people should try and
realize. There’s a big difference in singing on a record and singing
for an audience. People can stay home and listen to your records on
the radio or phonograph and it doesn’t cost’em anything. But when
they pay their money to come out and see you at a personal
appearance, these people want to see a show. They pay their money to
see something with life in it, not just to hear something on a
phonograph. If I stood up in front of an audience and did nothing
but sing, I’d be holding myself back deliberate. I wouldn’t enjoy
myself, I couldn’t enjoy myself if I did that. And the audience
would know it. They’d know I didn’t enjoy what I was doing, and they
wouldn’t come out to see me again the next time.
So I’m Never Nervous, Huh?
One of the things they’ve said about me is that I’m never nervous.
They say I don’t worry about a thing and they say I get eight or ten
good hours sleep at night. I wish they were right.
But they aren’t. I’ve been kind of nervous all my life. And now,
going out on personal appearances all the time, I get so keyed up
that I just can’t relax. After a show I’ll go back to my hotel room
and go to bed and try to get some sleep. But you know how hard it
is, getting to sleep in a strange room and in a strange bed away
from home, particularly when you’re kind of nervous and jumpy. I’ll
go to bed at night and close my eyes and just lay there. And then
I’ll start turning. And twisting. And a couple of hours will pass,
and I won’t have had had a lick of sleep. They say you learn how to
relax when you get older. I hope they’re right.
Legends:
Elvis in his bedroom, away from home. Click on the photos to view
larger versions.
I can’t help it. I just feel restless sometimes. I don’t know what
it is. Maybe it’s that I’ve never been away from home and all my
folks and friends for so long. I don’t know. But it’s a funny
feeling. A lonesome feeling. I guess everyones’ felt it, sometime or
another.
I like the sun and the outdoors and swimming. I have to be careful
of chlorine, though, because I react to it. That’s why we don’t use
it in the pool we just had built back home. The neighbour kids love
the pool. They come on over all the time. And momma, my best girl,
is learning how to swim, too.
My Special Girl
I know what you’ve read about that “special girl” I have back home
in Memphis. You’ve read that we went steady through high school, and
that we’ve been dating each other steady for the past three years. I
know. I’ve read about her, too. But that’s the only way I know about
her, because to tell you the plain facts, I don’t have a special
girl. Now or ever. I’ve never gone with any one girl three weeks, or
three months in a row, let alone three years. And right now, with
all the travelling and work I’m doing, I don’t have time to date
very much. I’d like to, of course, but I just don’t have the time.
Legend:
Elvis with Dixie Locke, his steady girlfriend for more than a year,
even though he claims not having a steady special girl for more than
three months/weeks. Click on the photo to view larger version.
When I get back home to Memphis every so often, it’s easier to get
me a date because I still know a lot of girls I went to school with.
But I’ve never gone steady with any of them. We all have a good time
together, and that’s about all there is to it as far as any “special
girl” is concerned.
Maybe it won’t always be like that. I hope not.
Yes, I phone home to my folks in Memphis a lot. Almost every day.
But I like to know how they are and how things are going. And I
don’t get time to write much or like that, so I call instead. It
sure sounds good, hearing their voices. Makes me a little homesick
sometimes.
I’m not a loner, I don’t think. But I’ve go to admit. Sometimes I
like just getting off by myself. You know. Just off somewhere alone.
No crowds or anything. Where it’s just peaceful. And quiet. And you
can think.
What, No Singing Lessons?
Nope. I’ve never had a singing lesson in my life. No music lesson of
any kind, in fact. I just started singing when I was a little kid,
like I told you, and I’ve been doing it ever since. I was 11 years
old when I went in front of a real audience for the first time. It
was at a fairground in the town I was born, Tupelo, Mississippi. I
was shaking like a leaf, but I’d set my heart on singing, and
nothing in this world could have stopped me from going ahead and
entering the talent contest at the fair. I did it all on my own, and
I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do once I got out there
in front of all those people. All I had in my head was the idea that
I was going to sing.
I didn’t have any music or anything, and I couldn’t get anybody to
play for me and I couldn’t play for myself because I didn’t know
how. So I just went out there and started singing. I sang a song
called Old Shep, the story of a dog, and I know they must of felt
sorry for me because they gave me fifth prize and everyone applauded
real nice. Man, I’ll tell you, I was really scared and shaking and
all turning over inside. But I felt good, too. I’d been on a stage
for the first time in my life.
Legend:
Elvis, on stage of the Mississippi-Alabama Dairy Fair Show, having
won the fifth prize in the talent contest, singing
Old Shep. Click
on the photo to view larger version.
Later on, when I was 13 or so, me and a bunch of the kids would fool
around singing. I never tried to go into any of the High School
shows or anything like that, but I sure enjoyed beating up a storm
with the other kids. And you know how it is. You get to trying
different ways of using your voice and singing the words and such,
and pretty soon you’re singing in a style of your own.
Everyone does it, no matter whether you want to be a singer or not.
So that’s how I got my practice in singing, just experimenting
around and singing with the other kids and having a good time. And
most important, singing the way I felt. And to tell you the truth, I
think it’s the best kind of practice I could have had.
The Green Scrapbook
Yes, it’s true that I keep me a scrapbook of a lot of the stuff
that’s printed about me. But you know something? I don’t save the
articles or stories that tell nice things about me. My scrapbook
only has stuff in it that isn’t very friendly. I’ll tell you why
this is.
When I first started out, my momma wanted to save all the programs
and pictures and things that everyone put in the papers and
magazines. I wasn’t much interested in doing this, because I was so
busy singing and working and learning that I just didn’t want to
take the time to sit down every so often in the middle of something
and start cutting out pictures and things. Momma bought her a big
green scrapbook, though, and asked me to send her stuff whenever I
got the chance. For the first year or so, I didn’t send her a thing,
and the scrapbook was empty, except for a couple of clippings she
got out of the Memphis papers.
Then one day I saw this article about me not being a very good
singer. I cut that out and send it to momma and she wrote back and
told me I didn’t want to fill my scrapbook with things like that.
But I wrote back and told her, “Momma, anyone can fill a scrapbook
with good things. But what good does it do? I’d like to know the
things people don’t particularly like and study them and try to make
myself better if I can.” So that’s how The Green Scrapbook got
started. I’ve got a lot of pages filled, and a lot of them are still
empty, but I’ll tell you this. Every time I go home to Memphis, I
take down that scrapbook and study it. I know most of the things in
it by heart, and I’m always going to do my best to improve whenever
and wherever I can.
My Greatest Ambition
I know I’ve been lucky in an awful lot of ways. But I think the
luckiest thing that ever happened to me is that I’m beginning to
realize my biggest ambition.
All of my life, I’ve wanted to be an actor, though I never was in
any school plays or recited a line other than the Gettysburg Address
for my sixth-grade homeroom class. But always sticking in the back
of my head was the idea that somehow, someday, I’d like to get the
chance to act.
I came out to Hollywood almost three months ago, and Mr. Hal Wallis
of Paramount Pictures asked me to take a screen test. I jumped at
the chance. I went in to take the test and Mr. Wallis told me not to
worry about trying to act like John Barrymore or anybody. He told me
to just act like myself. I studied up on what they wanted me to do,
and then before I knew it I was in front of the camera. I wonder if
you can ever know what it’s like to be standing in a movie sound
stage and hear a bell ring and people shout “Quiet”, and then all of
a sudden realize that everyone’s watching you, and you’re supposed
to be acting out a part. I’ll tell you, it’s enough to make your
legs slide out from under you.
Legend:
Elvis, during his screen test at Hollywood.
Whenever I get excited, I stutter a little bit. I
have a hard time saying “when” or “where” or any words that start
with “w” or “i”. Well, I can tell you I really had a hard time with
the w’s and i’s that day.
When the test was over, I thought I’d been awful. But
Mr. Wallis came up to me and he told me that things like my missing
letters of some words is actually good in acting… it makes the
performance more natural. I kind of smiled and thanked him, but you
can bet I didn’t say a thing about not missing those letters on
purpose! If that was natural, what I’d done, and they were satisfied
with it, then it was great by me. And it was a real relief, too. My
screen test was over. I’d gone through the first step of realizing
my life’s ambition.
My Sideburns
I’ve heard so many stories about why I grew my
sideburns that I just can’t help from laughing sometimes. One
magazine said, “… he started wearing sideburns at 15 because they
made him feel mature and important. He still wears them for the same
reason…”
Legends:
Elvis during some breaks of filming
Love Me Tender, where his
sideburns are quite noticeable. Click on the photos to view larger
versions.
Man, that magazine made me laugh because there wasn’t
a lick of truth to the things they said. Heck, I couldn’t have grown
sideburns when I was 15 if I’d wanted to! I wasn’t hardly even
shaving by then! I was 17 when I first started growing ‘em. And I
sure didn’t feel “mature and important” when the sideburns started
coming in. I grew them for one reason only… because I’d always
admired them. I never thought they make you look older, and
certainly never thought they made me look important. Nope. I just
like them, that’s all. That’s why I wear ‘em. A lot of people ask me
why I don’t cut them off now. You know what I tell them? I tell them
that I got started off wearing sideburns and I’m like those folks
who don’t like to change horses in the middle of the stream. All my
friends have liked me with the sideburns on, so I don’t really see
any reason for cutting them off. And, oh yes, there’s one other
thing, too. I still admire them very much, just like I did when I
was a little kid.
They ask me why I wear the clothes I do. What can I
say? I just like nice clothes, that’s all. I like colour and such.
Is there something wrong with that?
My True Religion
The other day, I read this: “… Presley got his start
by singing in a church choir, but fame has made him forget all about
religion…”
I sat right down and cut that out of the paper and
put it in an envelope and send it home for my momma to put in my
scrapbook. I expected they’d start saying things like that. About me
not being religious. I mean. But this was the first time I’d seen it
anywhere.
Well, I’m not exactly sure what they mean by
“religious” in that article, but I can tell you this much. I don’t
think they’re right in saying things like that. No, I don’t go to
church regular anymore, if that’s what they mean by religious. Being
on the road all the time, and travelling every minute I’m not
working, I can’t ever be sure when I’ll have a Sunday free to
myself. I wish I could, just like I wish I could be with my folks
more often, but I can’t. So if they mean just going to church
regularly makes you religious, then I guess I don’t fit up to what
they want.
But I want you to know this. I believe in God, I
believe in Him with all my heart. I believe all good things come
from God. That includes all the good things that have come to me and
to my folks. And the way I feel about it, being religious means that
you love God and are real grateful for all He’s given, and want to
work for Him. I feel deep in my heart that I’m doing all this. And I
pray that if I’m wrong in feeling the way I do, God will tell me.
Because I owe everything that’s happened to me to Him.
Have I Changed?
I guess everyone wonders what he’d do if he got lucky
and got in front of the public and got real well-known. I remember I
used to think about that, when I was driving a pickup truck in
Memphis I used to dream about being a success and wondered how my
life would change if it should ever happen. Well, I can tell you how
I feel about it now. I don’t feel a bit different now than I did
before all this happened. I’m just like I always was.
Of course, I guess everybody says this. And even
though they say it, a lot of people change anyway, without knowing
it. But actually, I’m sure I haven’t. I’ve never felt a change. I
feel the same now as I did five, ten years ago. The only difference
I’ve felt since then is happiness, and that things have gotten
better for me… that God has blessed me and that He’s given me a lot
of the wonderful and good things in life. I hope I won’t change. I
hope I’ll never be like some of the people I’ve seen, who forget
that they never could have been successful or happy at all without
God’s help. And I wish, I just wish, that everybody could know the
same kind of happiness I’ve known from all this. I wish that, more
than anything, with all my heart.
Who Am I Going to Act Like?
There’ve been a lot of articles come out lately that
I was going to imitate or copy the late James Dean. Well, I want to
set you straight on that.
Like I told you with my singing, I don’t want to copy
anyone. The same thing goes for my acting. I was a powerful admirer
of James Dean. I think he was one of the greatest actors I’ve ever
seen. He and Marlon Brando, and a whole bunch more I could call. But
I’m not going to try and copy anybody. I’m trying to be myself in my
acting, with my own name and my own kind of style. Sure, I hope I
can be even half as good as James Dean one day. He was the greatest.
But I won’t try and copy him. I know I couldn’t, even if I tried.
Legends:
Elvis during a scene of
Love Me Tender; James Dean in
Giant
and Marlon Brando in
The Wild One.
And another thing. Some magazine a month or so ago
already had me playing in the life story of James Dean on the
screen. Well, I’m not. It would be a great privilege to be good
enough to play the part of James Dean in his life story, but it
certainly isn’t being planned for now. All I hope is that I’ll do an
acting job that will make you proud of me. And I want you to know,
I’m going to keep on trying always to do my very best.
I’ll tell you something about Hollywood. It’s a
really great place. At least, I’ve had the kicks there. I just
finished my first movie for 20th Century-Fox, called
Love Me Tender, and you know, it was the biggest thrill of my
life. Making pictures is, well, I don’t know exactly what to call
it, except that it’s different. It’s something I’ve always wanted to
do. And I just hope you’ll like me on the screen because I’d sure
like to keep on making pictures for you.
Do I Really Play the Guitar?
There’s been another rumour of sorts that’s kind of
amusing. I read in one magazine that I can’t play a note on the
guitar, and in another, the same week, that I’m the greatest guitar
player in the world. Well, both of those stories are wrong.
I’ve never had any music lessons, like I told you.
But I’ve always enjoyed music of any kind, and musical instruments.
My daddy bought me a department store guitar when I was pretty
young. I learned to pick out a couple of chords on it, but I didn’t
try to get fancy or anything like that. I can plunk on it pretty
good, and follow a tune if I’m really pressed to do it. But I’ve
never won any prizes and I never will.
Then when I went out on stage in my first personal
appearance, I just naturally took my guitar along with me, to sort
of keep me company. I used it as a prop or whatever you want to call
it. To me, in that first appearance, it was the best friend I ever
had because it kept me company and I knew I wasn’t alone out there
making a fool of myself. I’ve just kept on taking it out there with
me, and I’ve got a new one now, a gift to me, that even has my name
carved on it. There’s always another fellow in the band who does
most of the playing, and if you’ll watch me real close in a
performance sometime, you’ll see how it works. He follows my motions
and hits the chords at just the right time.
Legends:
Elvis playing guitar during a break in
Love Me Tender;
playing the piano before one of his appearances at the Steve Allen
Show and playing drums for relaxation. Click on the photos to view
larger versions.
Along down the years, I’ve just naturally take to
some other instruments, though. I like the drums, and I really would
have like to take lessons on them some day. I try’em now just for
fun, and sometimes it almost sounds like I know what I’m doing. I
also like the piano, though I guess I don’t play it exactly the way
you’re supposed to. I just hit whatever keys look good to me. It’s a
lot of fun, and sometimes I’ll play along while I’m singing. Never
in a performance or on record though. I’m not that good. I bought my
mama and electric organ, which we now have in our home in Memphis.
The whole family takes a whack at it, and I guess it’s about the
easiest thing of all to play. Sounds great, too, when you’re in the
mood to experiment around.
Maybe someday I’ll learn to play some of these things
better. But in the meantime, I keep trying out all kinds of
instruments. As I say, I do it because, of everything I know, I like
music the very best.
Do I Say All Those Things?
It’s not just the rumours. It’s the things they claim
I say that kinda gets me down ever so often. I don’t know why people
claim I say things that I don’t, but that’s what happens sometimes.
And they go off on a whole big business about teenagers being so
different today and that kind of stuff. I’ll tell you honestly. I
can’t understand it.
And you know something? I’m sorry that these people
who try to put words in my mouth and read something into my actins
on the stage don’t try, instead, to understand about kids our age.
I’m sorry that they don’t try to understand that we’ve got a lot of
energy that we’ve got to do something with, and that the main reason
we stick together is that we understand each other, and that we can
help each other work off some of this energy by sharing our feelings
together. Is this wrong for us to do? I can’t believe that it is.
And I’ll bet that if the people who criticize us would only try to
understand instead, they wouldn’t feel we were so bad either.
I’ll tell you, though. I guess no matter how hard you
try to be fair and good with people, there’re always those few who
are gonna make up stories no matter what you do.
One fellow wrote in a magazine that he knew a
“secret” about me. His piece went, “… Presley’s secret? Simple. He’s
popular because he throws himself around the stage. Without his
contortions, he wouldn’t stand a chance in the big time music
business.” I wonder what this fellow would say if I told him that
most of my records have been bought by people who have never seen me
in person!
On Amusement Parks
Sure, I like amusement parks. I like’em a lot. And I
like winning pandas and that kind of stuff. That’s about the only
relaxation I get when I’m on the road. That, and going to movies.
And as for food, give me home cooking. My mouth waters every time I
think of momma’s bacon and egg breakfast. I sure fill up on’em when
I’m home!
Why Do I Sing Like I Do?
Everybody asks me: Why do I sing like I do? I know as
well as you what some people are saying. I’m not deaf. I can hear it
same as you. They don’t like dancing. They don’t like western music.
They don’t like rock and roll. And they don’t like me.
Well, my momma taught me one thing right from the
very beginning, and that’s that everyone’s got a right to his own
opinion. I believe that. And I also believe that you can’t make
everyone like you, no matter who you are.
I can’t explain it. I can’t explain what happens when
the music starts. But I think I know. I think you know what it is to
get all tied up in something, to get lost in it. That’s what singing
and music does to me. It ties me up. It makes me forget everything
else except the beat and the sound. It tells me more than anything
else I’ve ever known, how good, how great it is just be alive.
I’ve been singing the way I do now as far back as I
can remember. I don’t know what style you’d call it or anything like
that. All I know is I sing the way I don because it comes to me
natural.
A lot of people ask me, “Are you trying to copy
somebody, the way you sing?” All I can tell’em is what I honestly
know in my heart. I’ve never tried to copy anybody.
One girl said I reminded her of Johnny Ray, but I
laughed and told her that I don’t pull my hair or roll on the floor
or anything like that. And I never intend to. No, I’ve never copied
anybody, and I’ve also never heard any style like mine. I just
originated it accidentally, more or less.
When I was called to make my first record, I went to
the studio and they told me what they wanted me to sing and how they
wanted me to sing it. Well, I tried it their way, but didn’t work
out so good. So while most of’em were sitting around resting, a
couple of us just started playing around with
That’s All Right, a
great beat number. We were supposed to be resting for ten minutes or
so, so we just did it natural. It came off pretty good, and Mr.
(Sam) Phillips, the man who owned the recording company, said I
should go ahead and sing all the songs my own way, the way I knew
best. We tried it, and everything went along a lot better. They
decided to put That’s All Right on record, and backed it up with
Blue Moon of Kentucky.
That was my first record. I’ll never forget it.
Lately, as you probably know, there’s been a lot talk about all the
“bouncing around” that goes on during one my shows. I’d like to tell
you how the bouncing around all got started.
When Mr. Phillips called me to make that first
record, I went into the studio and started singing. I started
jumping up and down, they tell me, and I wasn’t even aware of it. My
legs were shaking all over, mostly because I was so nervous and
excited, but also because I can feel the music more when I just let
myself react. After the third rehearsal Scotty Moore, the guitar
player for the band, came over to me and said, “You still scared,
Elvis? You shake all over when you start singing.” I told him I
wasn’t scared once the music started, and that I didn’t even realize
I was moving around at all while I was singing. I told him I’d try
to just sit still during the next rehearsal.
Legends:
Elvis with Scotty Moore, his guitar player, during a rehearsal and
with Bill Black, his bass player, live. Click on the photos to view
larger versions.
But at the next rehearsal the same thing happened.
The minute the music started, I wasn’t me anymore. I couldn’t have
stopped moving around if I’d wanted to. Because all that motion was
just as much a part of the music to me as the words I was singing. I
told Scotty and he said, “Okay, then, do whatever comes natural.” So
that’s what I did.
After that first record was a success, I appeared on
this big Music Jamboree in Memphis, my hometown, in an open-air
theatre. I’ll never forget how it was, standing backstage and
listening to all these great performers and knowing that I’d have to
get out there in just a couple of minutes and try to be as good as
all the others. When my time came, I was scared completely stiff. Me
and my band went out there and set up and we were ready to begin.
But man, we couldn’t move! We were all like a bunch of dead people,
we were scared so bad. I guess there were four or five thousand
people in the audience, and they stared at me and I stared at them.
Then someone in the bass section got up nerve and started playing,
and the others followed, and before I knew it I was singing. And
then the audience got to squealing a little, and then someone
started hollering, and then they all got with it and we really had a
ball. I left the stage and they applauded and called me back and
kept calling me back. I couldn’t figure it out. I didn’t have any
idea what I was doing that they liked. My manager gave me a push
toward the stage and told me to get back out there and do what I’d
been doing, and I said, “What have I been doing?” and he said,
“You’ve been shaking all over.” He said, “Your legs have been
shaking with the music and your eyes twitching and your shoulders
twitching and everything! Get out there and keep doing it!”
So I went back on, and we picked another rock and
roll song real quick. And I said to myself, “Now listen, try and do
it again.” And then the music started, and I never did remember to
do what I said to myself, but I must have done it again because the
audience was whooping and hollering like crazy when the song was
through. That’s when it really started, that night, and it’s
happened ever since.
I wish – how can I explain it – that I could do
everything with music. I wish I could play every instrument. I wish
I could know every song. And I wish I could thank all of you who
feel the same way about music and who tell me so. I’ve been so
lucky. From that first wonderful start on the Stage Show TV
program until now, and Mr. Sullivan. I’ve been so lucky. I just
can’t believe it sometimes.
And Now, What Can I Say?
I just don’t know what to say about how I feel now,
about all this. Since that first night, things have happened so fast
that I really don’t know. I like it, of course. It’s been the most
wonderful thing in the world. The way you’ve bought all my RCA
Victor records, and come out to my performances and watched me on
Mr. Sullivan’s TV show, and all the others. I just don’t know
exactly what to say.
Legend:
Elvis with Debra Paget, his co-star, during a break of
Love Me Tender, studying their lines together. Click on photo to see a
larger version.
And now that I’ve made my first movie out at 20th
Century-Fox, I’m hoping to learn how to become as good an actor as I
can. Making
Love Me Tender was something I’ll never forget.
You’ll never know how nice Debra Paget was to me, helping me learn
my lines and study and such. And the same goes for everyone out
there. What can I say, except that I’m thankful to all of them.
And what can I say to you? All I can say is the same
thing. Thanks. I know it’s not enough, but I want to tell you
something. With that one word goes out a big part of me. A part of
me that never could have existed at all save for your help and
encouragement.
And I want you to know that my thanks to you comes
from right down here, right from the deep bottom of the happiest
heart in this whole great big old world.
Yes, I’ve been lucky. And you know something? I just
feel sometimes like it’s all a dream, like I’ll rub my eyes and wake
up and it’ll all be over. I hope not. I hope it never happens. I
hope it never ends.
Address Change
I’m ever grateful to my fans everywhere. They really
are responsible for my acceptance and success. So that the ever
increasing mail from those wonderful people can be properly and
quickly approved, we are moving the Elvis Presley Fan Club
Headquarters to Hollywood. Now that I have finished
Love Me Tender for 20th Century-Fox, and am making another
picture for Paramount, it likes like I’ll be spending a lot of time
in Hollywood. So please address your mail to me to Box 94,
Hollywood, California. A million thanks!
Source:
Elvis Answers Back magazine. |