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.
- 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.
- While filming Loving You, Elvis and his parents stayed at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel.
- 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.”
- Joe Gray was Elvis’s stand-in on the set of Loving You.
- Elvis first met actress Yvonne Lime on the set of Loving You. The two dated for a time in 1957.
- Loving You was Elvis’s first colour film.
- Making their screen débuts in Loving You were Scotty Moore, Bill Black, D.J. Fontana, Vernon Presley, Gladys Presley and the Jordanaires.
- Loving You reached #7 on Variety’s weekly list of top-grossing films.
- In July 1959, Loving You was re-released as a double feature with King Creole in selected theaters.
- 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…”
- Elvis received his first movie kiss from Jana Lund (Daisy Bricker) during the dressing room scene at the Grand Theatre in Amarillo.
- Gladys and Vernon Presley were extras in the audience at the Freegate TV broadcast. Gladys could be seen in the fourth row, aisle seat. Vernon was seated next to her.
- It was before the shooting of Loving You started that Elvis did his medical check-up for the military service. He passed on the inspection with flying colors.
- 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.
- Elvis received around 2,000 letters per day during the shooting of Loving You. One female fan confessed she had sent him 128 letters. Many of these letters were handed over to him and Elvis spent a couple of daily hours answering to letters and signing photographs.
- Elvis had to spend 2 weeks at the photo studio in Hollywood to satisfy the number of photo requests which flooded the newspapers and magazines.
- Dolores Hart was the 18 years old young woman chosen among the more than 100 candidates who hoped to fill the love interest part in Elvis’ movie. Shirley McLaine was one of them. It was Dolores’ first movie, and she was quite apprehensive for having to work with such important professionals as Lizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey. But Elvis took her aside and told her about his first experience on his first movie and her fears dissipated. They remained very good friends during the shooting.
- 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 suffered 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.
- Gladys Presley was already quite ill by the time this movie was shot. It is said that Elvis never again was able to see this movie after his mother’s death.
- This Elvis’ movie had good reviews and became known as “The Elvis Presley Story” since it was similar to his career and is the only movie in which we can see Elvis being Elvis.
Info from Elvis 100% Fan Club (Portugal) www.elvis100percent.com
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