FOLLOW THAT DREAM
– from Hawaiian paradise to sunny Florida shores
(Part 2)
To top it all off, the author of the book didn’t see any room for Presley in the film adaptation of his book. It is even said that when Powell heard only that Elvis would play one of the main roles, he was clearly disconsolate. He changed his mind only after seeing the finished film, and after the screening he even said that Presley in the role of Toby “came out pretty well “.
“Follow That Dream”, which in the early stages of production was known as “Pioneer, Go Home!”, “It’s A Beautiful Life” and “Here Come The Kwimpers”, was produced by the United Artists film studio. An American film company founded in 1919 by Douglas Fairbanks (actor and director), Mary Pickford (famous American film actress, producer and screenwriter), Charlie Chaplin (legendary British actor, director, and producer and composer of film music) and David Wark Griffith (film producer and director).
In November 1960, Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, negotiated a contract with the production company Mirish Company (owned by the previously quoted Walter Mirish and his two brothers, Marvin and Harold Mirish) – which had been cooperating with the above-mentioned studio since the second half of the 1950s – for two films starring Elvis.
For each of them, the singer was to receive both a fee of five hundred thousand dollars and half of the profits from the sale of each picture. Under the above contract, “Follow That Dream” and “Kid Galahad” were filmed. A remake of the famous 1937 drama directed by Michael Curtiz, with Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in the main roles.
News that United Artists had acquired Presley leaked to the press as quickly as the news that his new film would be shot in Florida.
George E. Marshall was originally supposed to direct the adaptation of Powell’s novel. “One of the old masters of Hollywood who, although he never became one of the giants, held a solid and honorable position in the industry, ” as John Houseman, who won an Oscar for his supporting role in the comedy-drama “The Paper Chase,” said of him years ago.
Ultimately, however, the ninth Presley film was directed by Gordon Douglas (or rather Gordon Douglas Brickner, which was his full name). An incredibly prolific and talented American actor and film director, who began his film career as a child star in the early productions of Maurice Costello, a popular American vaudeville actor (at the time, Douglas and Costello were close neighbors).
In later years Douglas also took on other jobs. As a teenager, he worked as an accountant at MGM, an office worker at Hal Roach Studios, and also played small parts in films by the founder of the above studio, Hal Roach (or rather Harold Eugene ‘Hal’ Roach Sr., which was his full name).
In 1934 Douglas also became an assistant director to Gus Meins, with whom he worked on the comedy Babes In Toyland, starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy (legendary Laurel and Hardy). Later that year he also became involved in work on the Our Gang series of comedy shorts. It is worth mentioning here that the 1936 episode Bored Of Education, which he directed, won an Oscar for Best Short Subject.
In almost five decades of his professional career, Douglas has directed nearly a hundred films (according to MUBI, there were exactly ninety-one), each time perfectly at home in almost every genre. From westerns like “The Iron Mistress” and “The Big Land” through action and adventure films like “Mara Maru” or “Santiago” to musicals – “She’s Back On Broadway” and even biopics – “So This Is Love” (about the life of singer Grace Moore).
He was associated with the largest Hollywood studios – Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Columbia and 20th Century Fox, and his productions featured the most important and famous names of the scene at that time. Both film and music. He was one of the few directors whose films featured Liberace (in the comedy “Sincerely Yours”), Doris Day (in the film “Young Heart”) and Frank Sinatra (apart from the previously mentioned “Young Heart” also in the comedy “Robin And The 7 Hoods”, in which, next to Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr and Bing Crosby also played, as well as “The Detective” and “Lady In Cement”). Of course, there was also Elvis Presley, about whom Douglas said: ” He attracts women like a magnet, but he is also very well-liked by men. He knows how to reach these people. He is a really great guy .”
Gordon Douglas died in September 1993. He was eighty-five years old.
The first media reports about another film starring Presley set off a veritable carousel of names of potential candidates for the leading female role in the press and numerous glossy magazines. Among the actresses tipped to be Elvis’ new screen partner, the name Tuseday Weld appeared most often (right next to Deborah Walley and Connie Stevens). An eighteen-year-old actress at the time, who had starred alongside the famous singer in the drama “Wild In The Country” just a few months earlier.
Interestingly, her presence on the set was almost certainly confirmed in her articles by Orlando Sentinel journalist Mary Goldman. She wrote about the young actress’s involvement in the production even when another journalist, Louella Parsons, not only denied the revelations but also introduced the actual actress, to whom producer David Weisbart entrusted the role of Holly Jones. Toby’s half-sister.
That actress turned out to be Anne Helm. Born in Toronto, Canada, the then twenty-three-year-old TV actress (and later also an author of children’s books), who had made her big-screen debut just a few months earlier. In 1960, playing Cass Wilson in the thriller “Desire In The Dust”.
Previously, the actress had only appeared as a guest on such series as “The Phil Silvers Show” (TV debut), “The DuPont Show With June Allyson”, “Western Rawhide” and “My Sister Eileen”. She also acted in TV commercials and tried her hand at modeling.
As she later recalled in interviews, the series that changed her career forever was Route 66. It was in one of its episodes, titled The Clover Throne, that David Weisbart, who was casting Presley’s new film, spotted her. ” Weisbart saw me in an episode of ‘Route 66 ,'” the actress remembered. ” It was one of my best roles at the time. I was so excited that he chose me (for the role of Holly, author’s note) .”
It should also be added that before taking on the role of Holly, Anne Helm had never met Elvis in person. What’s more, as she herself has often mentioned, at that time she wasn’t even his fan. It was only when they met on the set that everything changed…
Another equally large and important role for the plot of the film that was being created was given to Joanna Moore (or rather Dorothy Joanne Cook, because that was her real name and surname). A television and film actress only a year older than Presley, known to viewers from such series as “Lux Video Theatre”, “Goodyear Theater”, “The Rebel”, “Hong Kong”, “Adventures In Paradise” and “Route 66”.
In the second half of the fifties, Moore also began to skillfully combine work in television with appearances in various Hollywood productions. She made her big-screen debut in 1957, playing Penny Spencer in the crime film “Appointment With A Shadow”. In the following years, she played smaller or larger roles in such films as “Touch Of Evil”, “Monster On The Campus”, “The Last Angry Man” and “Walk On The Wild Side”. In interviews, she liked to say about herself that she was a versatile actress who ” easily moves from acting in dramas and westerns to light comedies and thrillers “.
In “Follow That Dream,” which was supposed to launch her into an international career, she played Alishia Claypoole, a sexy social worker who shows up one day at the beach occupied by the Kwimpers to conduct a background check on Toby (it is for her that Elvis sings the title song in the film).
“I enjoyed working with Elvis ,” she recalled. “He was a wonderful man and one of the hardest working actors I know. He never complained or delayed a production .”
Unfortunately, in the case of Joanna Moore, success in her professional life did not go hand in hand with success in her private life. The actress was married four times and in later years she struggled with a serious alcohol problem and addiction to medicines and drugs (the latter intensified as a result of a difficult divorce from actor Ryan O’Neal).
Throughout her career, gossip magazines have chronicled her alleged affairs and relationships with famous people in the film industry, including Elvis Presley, whom she allegedly approached early on in the comedy Follow That Dream. Several sources, citing Elvis’ friend and collaborator Joe Esposito, have even claimed that her brief relationship with the singer nearly ended tragically for the actress.
According to Esposito’s recollections, Moore allegedly showed up at Presley’s door one day, claiming she had to see him immediately because she was pregnant with his child. ” She looked like she had just rolled out of bed ,” Presley’s associate recalled. “She was babbling and demanding to see Elvis.” She announced that she was pregnant with his child and had just taken a large quantity of sleeping pills.
Hearing this, Esposito not only prevented the meeting but also called the medical services to the scene, which immediately took care of the actress. After taking her to the hospital, the doctors even performed a stomach pump, which finally put an end to the revelations about the alleged pregnancy. ” I knew this girl had problems. That’s why I stopped seeing her, ” Elvis said a few months later.
Despite these unfortunate circumstances, Presley reportedly later inquired about the health of his screen partner.
Interestingly, Joanna Moore’s daughter, Tatum O’Neal (also a popular actress), vehemently denied in an interview that her mother and Elvis ever had an affair.
Article written and provided by Mariusz Ogieglo. EP Promised Land http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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