JAILHOUSE ROCK
– Behind the Scenes of Elvis Presley’s Third Movie – (Part 13, Final)
By Mariusz Ogieglo
Premiere in the shadow of tragedy
However, the presence of Nedrick Young among the names of the film’s creators could have turned out to be a much bigger nuisance. When MGM management heard only that “Jailhouse Rock” was based on a story by this controversial American actor and screenwriter, they decided to omit the film with Presley from the premiere schedule for 1957.
Ultimately, however, the desire for profit and enormous interest in the new production prevailed.
As a result, at the end of the year, “Jailhouse Rock” debuted on the big screen.
Its American premiere took place on October 17 in Elvis’ hometown, Memphis. In the local Loew’s State Theater cinema, where until recently Elvis worked as an usher. ” My dad was manager of the Loew Cinema from 1949 until the mid-1960s ,” recalled Arthur Groom’s daughter, Micki Groom Creamer. “ And as many of you probably know, it was he who fired Elvis’s guard, who was then acting there, in the early 1950s, from his job for an argument with another guard. Ultimately, however, he took him back shortly thereafter.
This is truly amazing. The kid is a keeper and about five years later he comes back to see himself on the screen. It was a truly amazing night!
My dad organized a special screening for Elvis, his parents and his Hollywood friend Nick Adams. Of course, the Groom family was also there in full force at the time .
Presley himself, who had already seen his third film earlier (October 2) during the above-mentioned special screening, did not attend the premiere screening because just a few days earlier, on October 12, he had flown to Las Vegas for a few days’ vacation.
“It was 1957. I was performing at The Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, now called the Bellagio ,” recalled dancer Tempest Storm, whom Presley was dating at the time. “ There was a burlesque show there at the time. Elvis came to see us perform. Just like that, he came and sat down under the stage .”
Over time, however, the press began to speculate that the real reason for Elvis’s absence at the premiere was the tragic death of Judy Tyler, who, along with her second husband, Gregory Lafayette, died in a car accident that occurred on July 3, 1957 * . Less than three weeks after the filming ended.
The couple was on their way to vacation (or as some articles said, honeymoon since the actress and Gregory Lafayette had been married for less than four months) ** . ” Nothing has hurt me so much in my life ,” the devastated singer told a Memphis Commercial Appeal reporter. ” I remember the last night I saw them. They were going on a trip. I even remember what she was wearing. All of us guys really loved this girl. She meant so much to all of us. I can’t believe I’ll be able to watch the movie we made together now. I just don’t believe it .”
At the time of her death, the actress was only twenty-four years old.
On October 17, at Loew’s State Theater in Memphis, not only Elvis was missing, but also the main female actor. Instead, Anne Neyland played a supporting role.
The first reactions to Elvis’ new film were quite enthusiastic.
At the beginning of his review from October 24, 1957, Ben S. Parker from The Commercial Appeal noted that ” Presley’s third film guarantees solid entertainment for all his fans and may even prove to be moderately interesting for people completely independent of him .”
In turn, assessing the acting of the twenty-two-year-old singer, he stated that ” Presley seems to be a natural showman who behaves instinctively and therefore does everything on the screen correctly. In his third film, he also seems to be much more at ease than many veterans who are much more experienced than him .
The journalist’s attention also included the songs performed by Elvis. ” His vocal performances range from romantic ballads to make girls fall in love with him to a prison number (akin to rock’n’roll) staged for television ,” concluded Parker.
Two weeks after the above review, on November 8, 1957, “Jailhouse Rock” officially hit theaters across the United States. The first shows, organized first in New York and then in other cities, were not so positively received.
The New York Times critic literally crushed Elvis, writing in the first sentences of his November 24 piece that ” Guy Trosper, who wrote the script, for reasons known only to himself, forced these two lovely young people (Judy Tyler and Mickey Shaugnessy) , author’s note) to cling to the main character’s flowing mane and big ego throughout the entire film .
Later in his report, he added that ” Presley fans may not like the idea that for a good half of the movie he is a boorish, egotistical television prodigy. Of course, Elvis remains the center of attention the entire time, muttering his lines and seducing Miss Tyler, squirming like a rag doll and occasionally resting his head on her shoulder.
This time, however, the sound engineers had to shut up because his singing was mostly intelligible. However, in two songs, ‘Treat Me Nice’ and the title track, shown as a convicts’ party, Elvis even showed off his specialty in the style of Saint. Hello *** . Ten to one that next time he will succeed – he will turn his kneecaps inside out and crush them like coconuts. Never say never, El! “.
Journalists from Down Beat magazine also commented in a similar tone, calling Elvis’ performance ” amateur and bland ” and The Miami News, which stated that ” as statistics show, only Elvis Presley and his ‘Jailhouse Rock’ can keep up with his debut this ‘personality’ .
To counterbalance, in The Daily Gazette of Schenectady, Louise Boyca stated that Elvis was at his ” vocal and acting best ” in “Jailhouse Rock” and The Gadsden Times added that ” Elvis not only excels as a dramatic actor but also …reveals his versatility by dancing on screen .”
Hortense Morton from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper also rated Presley highly, saying that he would become a good actor one day. “ It won’t happen tomorrow or next year. But it will happen ,” she noted.
While the American media was in a real battle over words and opinions about Presley’s third film (the authors of the reviews went from one extreme to another. While some defended Elvis, others accused him of increasing aggression among teenagers), his fans literally stormed cinemas to see your idol on the screen.
Hortense Morton from the San Francisco Examiner newspaper also rated Presley highly, saying that he would become a good actor one day. “ It won’t happen tomorrow or next year. But it will happen ,” she noted.
While the American media was in a real battle over words and opinions about Presley’s third film (the authors of the reviews went from one extreme to another. While some defended Elvis, others accused him of increasing aggression among teenagers), his fans literally stormed cinemas to see your idol on the screen.
As a result, at the end of the year, “Jailhouse Rock” took the high, fourteenth place in the list of the highest-grossing films according to the weekly Variety, bringing the filmmakers an income of four million dollars (at a cost of one million dollars).
Outside the US, Presley’s new film was shown many times under a changed title. For example, in Italy it was shown as “Ill delinquente del Rock’n’Roll” (which can be translated as “Guilty Rock’n’Rolla”), in West Germany as “Rhytmus hinter Gittern Rock’n’Roll Sousikki” , in Thailand as “The Hot Tempered Young Man” and in Argentina as “Prisonero del Rock’n’Roll”.
In Poland, “Jailhouse Rock”, broadcast as “Wi?zienny rock”, had its cinema premiere only in the 1980s. As an interesting fact, it is worth adding that in the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant in Warsaw for several years you can see the original T-shirt that Elvis wore in the described film (with red, white and black stripes, photo below).
Despite the numerous controversies and harsh criticism that “Jailhouse Rock” received in the late 1950s, in 2004 the Library of Congress included it in the National Film Registry as “culturally, aesthetically, or historically significant.”
- The accident in which Judy Tyler died occurred on July 3, 1957, around 5:50 p.m. on US Route 287. According to the media at that time, there was a collision with another car.
- There is a lot of different, often contradictory information about the last days of Judy Tyler’s life. Some sources claim that the actor was returning home after the shooting. Others, like Alan Hanson, that she was driving (instead of flying) to New York for a TV taping. Still another, that she was going on a trip with her husband, or, as I mentioned in the text, a honeymoon.
- Saint Wit is the patron saint of dancers
Information provided by EP Promised Land (Poland), Mariusz Ogieg?o http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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