BLUE HAWAII
– Postcard production and… the beginning of the Presley formula-
(part 12)
Beach Boy Blues
While the excitement of Elvis Presley’s Saturday concert at Bloch Arena had not yet subsided, the twenty-six-year-old rock’n’roll star once again found himself in the spotlight, both of the local media and of thousands of local fans. And all because of the beginning of filming on Monday, March 27, 1961, of the long-awaited new Paramount Pictures production.
Production on the film, with the working title “Hawaiian Beach Boy,” began in the small town of Kailua
* on the island of Oahu . Specifically, on the hills of the exclusive Hillcrest district, which is part of the town and is famous for its interesting architecture and vast plots of land with picturesque views of the Pacific Ocean.
And it was the above-mentioned locations that served as the background for the first and, as it turned out, significant scene for the entire story told in the film. Namely, a charming picnic of the two main characters – played by Elvis, Chad Gates and his fiancée Maile Duval (Joan Blackman). During it, young Gates decides to change his life and take up a job at a travel agency owned by Mr. Chapman (the same one where his girlfriend is also employed).
The presence of cameras and, above all, the opportunity to see the famous singer live, immediately aroused keen interest among his local fans and local journalists, who almost immediately surrounded the set tightly. Some to get as close as possible to their idol and receive a souvenir autograph or photo from him, and others to get the best material for their editorial offices. As a result, shooting even the simplest scene turned out to be quite a challenge for the Paramount crew and required the involvement of additional security services, which would allow them to control the crowd of gawkers that was growing thicker with every minute (and in particular its female part, who gave a loud vent to their emotions at the sight of Presley) and provide the filmmakers with the most normal working conditions possible.
Elvis himself also required extraordinary security measures, regardless of where he appeared at a given moment (it didn’t matter whether it was another film set or the entrance to the hotel where he was staying), he was always besieged by hundreds of his fans. “What does it mean to be famous! “, wrote one of the journalists of the time in his text. “In order to prevent various tricks that Elvis’ fans resorted to just to be able to see him, during the outdoor filming, the singer had to be provided with twenty-four-hour protection. Also in front of his hotel apartment. Among the people who tried to get into it were even ten- and twelve-year-old girls who claimed that they worked at the hotel or lived there but had forgotten the key! Still other fans worked in groups, trying to bypass the guards, whose attention was effectively distracted by their friends . “
And although, as the author of the above-quoted article noted, “Elvis apparently managed to somehow get through all of this unscathed, ” unlike his friends and associates, he was never able to fully enjoy the charm of the Hawaiian Islands and spent most of his free time in a hotel room (in a suite called the Ocean Tower), cut off from people and the outside world. “Elvis couldn’t have been nicer ,” remembered one of the guards working at the Hawaiian Village at the time. “Sometimes, when all the commotion had died down, Elvis would go outside, saying he needed some fresh air. And you know what he would do? He would sit in my chair in the hotel hallway and I would go for a short walk to stretch my legs. And he would be left there all alone, guarding his own room, which was empty .”
An even more poignant image of the moment was described a few years ago on the official social media page of the Hawaiian Village hotel. “Elvis was throwing mementos from the balcony to the crowd ,” it noted at the time. “A lot of kids were waiting for him to throw something down and then handing it out in the lobby. There was a pool under the balcony. Some even jumped in with their clothes on just to get a memento from him! ”
Opened in 1955, the Hawaiian Village resort – the pride of the Hilton chain and one of the largest hotels in the world in general – became not only a place of refuge for the famous singer but also served as a place of work for the film crew. Subsequent shots for the upcoming comedy were filmed on the premises of the aforementioned facility. In the finished film, viewers could see the hotel building several times. For the first time, when Chad and Maile come to meet Abigail Prentice. A teacher and guardian of a group of teenage girls whom the character created by Elvis is to show around the islands. The conversation between them takes place in a picturesquely located café by the beach (actually belonging to the Hawaiian Village hotel).
In the above scene, there is a very funny mistake. Namely, Gates, played by Presley, who just a few minutes earlier assured his fiancée that he would easily recognize his future client among the hotel guests, because, as he claims, “he recognizes a teacher a mile away “, ultimately mistakes her for… an elegant older woman reading a book at the next table. The role of the aforementioned woman was played by Mrs. Russell, the wife of the owner of the popular clothing store “Russell’s Men’s Wear Stores”. And as the Honolulu Star-Bulletin wrote (in the March 28, 1961 issue), “this was her big screen debut, although she had previously been active in the Honolulu Community Theatre (the oldest performing arts center operating in Hawaii. In 1990, it was renamed the Diamond Head Theatre), had worked in television and appeared in commercials for American Airlines “.
The next sequence in which viewers could see the famous building – this time in all its glory (and the driveway and entrance leading to the hotel in quite some detail) was the scene in which Elvis meets his clients for the first time and takes them on their first tour of the area.
Filming on location on the island of Oahu continued until April 10, and among the places that the Paramount crew visited with their cameras during those days were many objects that are still considered true Hawaiian landmarks.
One of them was the Dole Pineapple Plantation, founded in 1901 by the “pineapple king”, James Dole. Currently, it is one of the most popular and most frequently visited tourist attractions in Hawaii. It is estimated that almost a million people visit this place every year! And what attracts them there is the opportunity to taste pineapple delicacies not found anywhere else, including frozen pineapples, which the film Chad Gates (Elvis, author’s note) treats his clients to, as well as the opportunity to visit one of the world’s largest mazes (built in the shape of a pineapple, of course).
It is worth adding here that the “Dole’s Ananas Plantation” did not open its doors to tourists right away. It happened only in 1950, and the first attraction that tempted visitors was… a small wooden booth (probably the same one seen in the movie “Blue Hawaii”), from which pineapple delicacies were sold.
The above location was filmed on March 30. The following day, on April 1, Elvis and the rest of the cast moved to the Honolulu airport tarmac, where Presley’s fans once again gave their idol such a warm welcome that, as Timothy Knight noted in his book “Elvis Presley In The Movies,” “despite their best efforts, the sound engineers were unable to completely clean the noise of the screaming crowd from the soundtrack (of the finished film, author’s note) .” And as he added, “During the opening scene at the Honolulu airport, the voices of Presley’s fans can clearly be heard in the background as he gets off the plane .”
The last filming before leaving Oahu was done in the incredibly charming Hanauma Bay (which means “Crooked Bay”), where the Paramount crew worked almost the entire first week of April (from April 3 to 8). Among the scenes filmed then were the sequences with the songs “No More” and “Aloha Oe” and all the other scenes taking place on the beach and in front of the hut standing on it (the one where the main characters change into their swimsuits after returning from the airport).
According to the latest guidebooks, the aforementioned cottage unfortunately no longer exists. It was completely dismantled and can no longer be seen. However, you can still visit the bay itself. Hanauma Bay, now known as the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve, is open to tourists and, according to statistics, over three million people visit it annually! And here, as a curiosity, it is worth mentioning that Krzysztof Krawczyk was among the many famous people who admired these areas over the years. One of the most important and popular Polish vocalists, who in his autobiography “?ycie jak wino” (written together with his manager, Andrzej Kosmala) described his visit to this famous location in such a vivid way: “The next day we went to the beach, the same one where Elvis shot his big hit movie, ‘Blue Hawaii’ in 1961. You can see a lot of people lying motionless in the ocean water and watching the underwater world. We put on masks with breathing tubes and again… we found ourselves in a different world. Fish completely tamed with people, who even feed them from their hands (I did it too) and their colors and the number of types shocked me again. It’s an amazing feeling to be there underwater! ” ** .
- Kailua is a census town. The term, “census town,” was created by the U.S. Census Bureau for statistical and census purposes only.
- Krzysztof Krawczyk visited Hawaii during his concert in Honolulu in 1990
Article written and provided by Mariusz Ogieglo, EP Promised Land (Poland) http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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