FOLLOW THAT DREAM
– From a Hawaiian paradise to the sunny shores of Florida (Part 5)
“Angel”… in Florida
The news that Elvis Presley would be shooting his next film in Florida – the third-most populous state in the US, famous for its beautiful beaches and warm, almost tropical climate – leaked to local media weeks before filming began. The Tampa Tribune, a newspaper published since 1895, was among the first to report on the possibility of United Artists filming in one of the most touristy regions of the United States. In an article from May 28, 1961, it indicated not only potential locations but also emphasized the atmosphere of extraordinary excitement and anticipation surrounding the famous singer’s arrival, not just among his local fans. “The anticipation among younger residents stems primarily from Presley’s presence. Chambers of Commerce representatives, on the other hand, from the potential promotional value for the entire region ,” the article wrote.
On Thursday, July 6, 1961, what had been the subject of speculation in the press and the local community for days finally became a fact. Twenty-six-year-old Elvis Presley, still the most popular American entertainer, arrived in Florida. Specifically, in the town of Crystal River, now home to just over 3,500 residents.
For the duration of filming, the singer, along with the rest of the crew, was billeted at the Port Paradise Hotel (now the Port Hotel and Marine). Built in the 1940s by Sam Pickard, co-founder of CBS, this elegant resort is located less than half a mile from the city center and has hosted celebrities such as Marlin Perkins (American zoologist and host of the television program “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”) and Jacques and Philippe Cousteau (eminent French oceanographers).
According to various sources, Elvis occupied the corner room number one hundred and one.
A group of his closest friends and associates also checked into the hotel with him, including Alan Fortas, Lamar Fike, Joe Esposito, and Red West with his newlywed wife, Pat (as they later recalled in interviews, they spent their honeymoon in Florida). Red West’s entourage was absent this time, though, including Sonny West, Red’s cousin. ” I finally managed to meet him again in mid-August, when he was filming ‘Follow That Dream’ for Samuel Goldwyn ,” Sonny West recalled in his book “Elvis: Still Taking Care of Business.” ” We had a very friendly conversation. Elvis knew I needed more work, so he got me a role as an extra in a courtroom scene. However, it only lasted a few days, and like most working actors, I started worrying about when and where I would get my next role. ‘The Outlaws’ was about to be suspended for the summer break, and I was down to my last dollar. That’s when I ran into director Don Siegel at Paramount. Siegel remembered me from the film ‘Flaming Star.’ After a short conversation, I gathered the courage to ask him for the job. I couldn’t have chosen a better time. Siegel was starting filming a World War II-set production, ‘Hell Is For Heroes,’ starring Steve McQueen, Bobby Darrin, Fess Parker, James Coburn, and Bob Newhart .”
Presley was also accompanied on the trip to Florida by his cousin, Billy Smith, and his father, Vernon, along with his second wife, Davada ‘Dee’ Stanley, and her three sons from a previous marriage—David, Rick, and Billy. “We had only moved to Graceland the year before, so everything was new to me,” Billy Stanley, the youngest of the siblings, recalled years later. “We lived near the filming location. The hotel was near where the scene with the pier and the beach house was filmed. We stayed there for almost two weeks. I was only eight years old at the time. I loved the weather there. It was nice and warm. So, when we weren’t on set, we spent most of our free time by the pool .”
In the same interview, Stanley also remembered that “it was really cool to be on the set and watch a movie being made. In his free time, Elvis would show us around, and his co-star, Anne Helm, taught me and my brothers how to play Frisbee. It was a brand new toy back then. It had just come out. Plus, we got to meet everyone—all the actors and the kids who were in the movie. They seemed a little reserved, so we didn’t push anything. It was really fun. We had a great time. “
Filming for the film adaptation of Richard P. Powell’s book was not scheduled to begin until mid-July 1961. However, Elvis arrived in Crystal River a few days earlier to relax and spend time having fun with his loved ones.
And that’s why the motorcade that parked in front of the Port Paradise Hotel on July 6 included not only the singer’s rented bus and his personal Cadillac, driven by Alan Fortas, but also a white Chrysler station wagon (driven by Lamar Fike) with a boat tow truck carrying a brand new Century Coronado motorboat.
The boat was moored behind the hotel, and whenever the opportunity arose, Elvis would enjoy it in nearby Crystal Bay. It was also used on numerous occasions for water skiing, on which, according to various witnesses, Anne Helm often accompanied Presley.
The presence of the young actress, who, like Elvis, arrived in Crystal River a little earlier than the rest of the film crew, near the famous singer, quickly aroused the interest of the local media, which began to see in their relationship something more than just friendship.
The closeness of the two didn’t escape the notice of columnist Louella Parsons, who writes her column for the popular film magazines Movieland and TV Time. ” Now, while filming ‘What A Wonderful Life’ in Crystal River, Florida, Elvis is dating Anne Helm ,” she informed her readers in one of her columns. ” And he did it in good old fashion. He even put one of his cars at her disposal—a luxurious white Cadillac. Another night, he also invited her to dinner aboard his twenty-one-foot motorboat, which he had brought with him from Memphis.”
Besides, Elvis is also a great guy when it comes to flowers. He finds out what kind of flowers the girls he works with like on set and then makes sure their dressing rooms and hotel rooms are filled to the brim with them .
There’s another anecdote connected to the flowers Parsons wrote about. As Anne Helm claimed in later interviews, it was the flowers Elvis brought to her room that began their relationship. ” He came to my cottage the day I arrived and brought me a flower ,” the actress recounted. ” Maybe he even picked it on the way to my room. Who knows. Anyway, later we went for a drive. We turned on the radio and… he was on the radio. It was a really strange date. I felt like I was a small-town girl, dressed in a ruffled dress and tennis shoes. Like a little girl going out for a milkshake with her boyfriend. Despite that, we hit it off right away .”
Helm and Presley, however, kept a low profile and tried to keep their relationship away from the prying eyes of journalists. Moreover, both claimed at the time that nothing more than friendship had ever united them and that their relationship was purely professional.
Quoted by Movieland and TV Time magazine (December 1961), Presley even stated that: ” Anne is the most wonderful young actress I ever worked with. In Florida, she worked very hard and there was not a shred of conceit about her. When we weren’t working, we spent a lot of time together. We’d go back to the motel where the crew was staying and watch TV or play blackjack or Monopoly. We’d have dinner together too. We really had a great time together. She’s a really wonderful girl .”
Even Helm herself, who many years after Presley’s death began to publicly reveal the details of her alleged affair with the famous singer, in the first half of the 1960s only claimed that she ” liked Elvis very much ” but that he ” never took her on a date .”
Ultimately, the actress stopped seeing Elvis shortly after filming wrapped. ” It was very difficult ,” she said in a 2010 interview. ” But he had a very active social life, and there were always so many different women around him. It wasn’t like Crystal River anymore, where I could have him all to myself every night… He was wonderful to me and very kind. When we weren’t filming, we spent a lot of time together. So I got to know him from a very ordinary, very human side. And that was wonderful. He was unique and very kind. He had great manners and was always respectful of everyone. He was gentle and had Southern ways .”
While Elvis was resting and recuperating before filming, enjoying the delights of one of the sunniest states in the entire United States, in Yankeetown, just over fifteen miles from Crystal River, crews and locals were busily building an artificial beach near the Bird Creek Bridge. ” They literally changed our land ,” Pat Langley, an English teacher at Dunnellon High School, recalled years later. ” They traveled back and forth in their white limousines. It was so exciting .”
Over ten tons of sand were reportedly used to build the beach where most of the film took place (previously, studio staff and specially hired help had to clear away the dense vegetation growing on the site). Interestingly, as one website reported, the palm trees planted on the newly created beach quickly began to wither, so to preserve their freshness and natural color, someone on the production ordered their fronds repainted green. The entire project, including the beach, clearing the vegetation, and building a dock with a boat, cost over twenty thousand dollars!
Many Yankeetown residents found work on the set of the new film, especially in the demanding and expensive set design. Among them were two high school students, brothers Johnny and Tommy Jones. ” Every day they drove us to the location in a white limousine. We were supposed to shovel sand ,” Johnny Jones, then seventeen (and later a mathematician), later recalled. ” After work, they drove us home in the same limousine. It was so big that if you stretched out in it, you could reach from the back seat to the front seat with your legs. […] We created a beach set, but the producers weren’t happy with it, so we had to build another one .”
As a reward for helping build the beach, the teenagers were allowed to stay on set during Presley’s filming (and were sometimes asked to do minor chores).
The brothers’ only regret, years later, was never taking advantage of their time on the set of the comedy “Follow That Dream” to take souvenir photos or get autographs. However, as Jones admitted, at the time, they were only interested in seasonal work, and they didn’t even realize that these items might one day have any value. On the other hand, as the mathematician later admitted, working on the film made him and his brother heroes among the local girls, whom they both gave pieces of boards Elvis had smashed during karate training.
Article written and provided by Mariusz Ogieglo, EP Promised Land (Poland) http://www.elvispromisedland.pl/
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