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Jailhouse Rock, 1 / 3
Elvis' third movie was the 1957 MGM film "Jailhouse Rock".
The story was written by Nedrick Young, who won numerous awards,
including an Academy Award for "The Defiant Ones". He was also
nominated for an Academy Award for his writing of "Inherit The
Wind." Mr. Young had a number of small acting parts in films over
the years, including an unaccredited role as a prison guard in "The
Defiant Ones".
Working with Young on the screenplay was another award winning
writer, Guy Trosper, who received various awards for his work in
such films as "Birdman of Alcatraz", "The Spy Who Came In From the
Cold" and "The Pride of St. Louis".
"Jailhouse Rock" was produced by Pandro S. Berman, who came from a
movie industry family. He started out as a script clerk and worked
his way up to assistant to David O. Selznick of RKO. It is Mr.
Berman who is credited with bringing together Ginger Rogers and Fred
Astaire and making a star of Katherine Hepburn.
His films include "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "National Velvet",
the original "Father of the Bride", "Sweet Bird of Youth" and
"Blackboard Jungle".
He was nominated three times for an Academy Award and received the
Academy's Irving G. Thalburg Award in 1977.
The director of "Jailhouse Rock" was Richard Thorpe, who began his
career in Vaudeville and then acted in a few movies in the early
1920's. He tried his hand at screen writing, sometimes using the pen
name Frank L. Inghram. By 1923, he began directing. Over the course
of his career, he directly nearly 200 films, including "Ivanhoe" and
"The Prisoner of Zenda". He teamed up with Elvis a second time by
directing 1963's "Fun In Acapulco". He retired in 1967.
Art direction was provided by award winners Randall Duell and
William Horning.
Randall Duell received Academy Award nominations for his work in the
films "When Ladies Meet", "Random Harvest" and "Blackboard Jungle".
In 1958, he started designing theme parks, going on to design
Astroworld, Magic Mountain, the Six Flags parks, the Kings Island
and King's Dominion parks, both Marriott Great Americas properties,
Opryland, the Universal Tour, Hershey Park, Lion Country Safari and
many other American theme parks.
William Horning received seven Academy Award nominations, including
the films "The Wizard Of Oz", "Quo Vadis?", "Raintree Country", and
"North By Northwest".
He won Academy Awards for "Gigi" and for "Ben-Hur".
F. Keogh Gleason was the set decorator. He was nominated seven times
for an Academy Award.
His four wins were for the films "An American In Paris", "The Bad
and The Beautiful", "Somebody Up There Likes Me" and "Gigi".
Studying inter-office memos within the MGM company, we find that
Elvis's character name was in question, going from Vince Matthews to
suggestions such as Vince Delwyn, Vince Jackwood, Vince Ledway,
Vince Edwards and Vince Edmunds before Vince Everett was finally
settled upon. Also, the character Hunk Houston became Hunk Houghton.
It seems that proper names, company names, city names and phone
numbers used in a script are subject to approval by the legal
department, which watches for conflicts with actual places and
people. Soda bottles in a memo were to be generic rather than a
popular brand name. Stock footage of a prison in Raleigh, North
Carolina used previously in the film "Carbine Williams" was approved
for use in "Jailhouse Rock"; however, the director did not wish to
use a name for the prison.
So, in a memo it was decided that Vince's fan mail must not be
filmed in a way that an address would show.
This was Elvis's first film for MGM. After starting work on the
soundtrack on April 30, he reported to the lot on May 6, 1957 for
costume fittings,
makeup tests and dance rehearsals. He was assigned to Clark Gable's
former dressing room.
It often has been reported incorrectly that Elvis was the
choreographer for the big "Jailhouse Rock" production number in this
film. Alex Romero was the choreographer for the film, but Elvis's
own natural moves were Romero's inspiration. Mr. Romero had designed
the production number for the song "Jailhouse Rock" . Then, when
Elvis tried the Fred Astaire type of steps that has been planned,
they found that it wasn't going to work. So, Mr. Romero asked Elvis
to perform several songs as if he were on stage. After watching
Elvis perform "Hound Dog", "Don't Be Cruel" and "All Shook Up", Mr.
Romero announced "I got it. See you later, Elvis," and then
explained that he was going home to work out a routine using Elvis's
natural movements. The next day, they worked their way through to
create the now-classic "Jailhouse Rock" production number, one of
pop/rock music's greatest and most iconic moments on film, a
performance considered by many to be ahead of its time and the
father of modern-day music videos. Mr. Romero also worked with Elvis
as choreographer for the 1967 movie "Clambake". |
