ValeskaSuratt

> {quote:title=AddisonDeWitless wrote:}{quote}You forget Mrs. Anthony in Strangers on a Train. > Hoo-boy is she a dilly! (and the best character in the movie, IMO) *Mrs. Bates didn't get that way just from running a motel ...* Edited by: ValeskaSuratt on Aug 23, 2012 6:17 PM

MovieProfessor, I'd love to hear your thoughts on an old, anonymous, slightly crude and possibly apochryphal Hollywood quote: "The definition of an actor is someone who'll stick it into anything." To me, it means that for those movie stars -- male *and* female -- to whom acclaim and even "idolatry" becomes a significant perk of their career, the whole concept of sexual orientation goes out the window and the gender of their sex partners(s) is far less important than the ritualized meaning of the sex act: "you are loved." For many people, such ambivalence toward what they consider rigid labels like "heterosexual," "bi-sexual" and "homosexual" is uncomfortable in the extreme as it toys with the images that have been created around both those terms and the stars themselves. As he did in so many aspects of his life, Brando cared little for established norms of behavior and pursued his own path without (too much) regard for what anyone else thought. In a way, it's unfortunate that society's discomfort with non-heterosexual activity -- usually hidden behind the ardently-expressed notion that any speculation thereof is "nobody's business" -- has essentially buried the truth and we're left only with hearsay and rumor for "proof." A touchy issue, but worth the risk if we are to keep MissWonderly entertained. :^0

*Addams re: movies*

> {quote:title=dpompper wrote:}{quote}Thanks for sharing photos, Valeska and Universal. I heard on NPR this morning that she didn't start doing standup until her late 30s -- because she needed to earn a living. What a success she became. When I was little, I always wondered why she called her husband "Fang." I have so much respect for her. There are portions of an interview she did for the TV Academy posted on YouTube, and from what she says about her early career, it sounds like her first husband was a real flop at whatever he tried. At one point, she says her family was basically homeless for two years. Also, Wikipedia mentions that one of her five kids -- I think the middle child ? -- only lived for three weeks and was confined to an incubator the whole time, and one of her daughters was schizophrenic all her life ... in other words, life wasn't pretty. But then ... neither was PHYLLIS ! Ah HAAAAAAA HAAAAAA ... ! ..... (sorry) ... This is one of the reasons Roseanne has always idolized Diller -- because she feels their stories are so similar, right down to having good-for-nothing husbands who pushed them into performing. Also in the Academy interview, Phyllis discusses the origins of Fang -- it was just an ad-lib that grew into a huge part of her schtick. I mean, if you mentioned "Fang" back in the 60's, EVERYbody knew who you were talking about. Diller, however, strikes me as the sort who would have had her husbands de-fanged before bringing them home from the pet store. Less-known Diller trivia: she was a trained pianist, a prolific painter and I think I read somewhere years ago that she had an exquisite collection of very valuable jewelry (but don't quote me).

> {quote:title=UniversalHorror wrote:}{quote}I like some of his movies, but I have never been particularly fond of Brando himself or his acting...especialy the frequent mumbling (which has been spoofed by so many comics over the years). As many critics have similarly written about the mumbling over the years, I sometimes find it almost intolerable because you can't understand WHAT he is saying. Totally agree, and then along with the mumbling (or maybe to counter criticism of it ?) he does accents: Japanese in Teahouse of the August Moon, German in The Young Lions, English in Mutiny on the Bounty ... Ever Stan Freberg's take-off of Brando in "Sh-Boom!" ? Hilarious.

> {quote:title=RMeingast wrote:}{quote}Sometimes I wonder if it would be a good thing if actors, who could afford to, retired at a certain point in their careers... I mean, after a certain age, what's the point?? > Unless you have debts/no savings, etc., and you need to work... > Look at Sean Connery... You'll never see him in another flick. He's retired. > Think some of the Hollywood heavyweights in films should have retired and maybe they wouldn't have come to a bad end?? Maybe not?? Who knows??? I'm just throwing this out there... Let's see if I can toss it back. Following The Formula in 1980, Brando announced his retirement and disappeared from sight to his private island in Tahiti. It wasn't until nine years later he returned to acting with his Oscar-nominated role A Dry White Season -- a film which appealed to his political sensibilities but also, perhaps, to his depleted bank account ? In 1990, tragedy struck when his son, Christian, shot and killed his sister's lover (Dag Drollet). After an expensive and gaudily-publicized trial, Christian received a 10-year sentence. Throughout, the 1990s, despite ballooning to over 300 pounds and developing diabetes, Brando kept accepting film roles. Then, in 1995, another arrow to the heart: Cheyenne committed suicide. While it's always risky to speculate on what goes through the minds of others, I don't think it's too outrageous to imagine that someone suffering from financial burdens, encroaching age and ill-health, and extreme family tragedy might possibly decide to cling to a source of both escape AND income ... like acting ? A possible glimmer of insight into Brando's thnking might be contained in a post at one of my favorite (as well as THE all-time best) websites ever, called "Letters of Note" which publishes the most amazing examples of personal correspondence to and/or from history's most notable people. It's a letter written by Francis Ford Coppola to Brando in late-April of 1973 -- shortly after the actor refused his Academy Award for The Godfather -- and in it, along with a final, desperate plea for Brando to reprise his role in the upcoming sequel, Coppola offers some interesting personal observations to one of cinema history's most quirky and enigmatic super-stars. See what you think: http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/09/marlon-i-respect-you-enormously.html

Two very detailed Kay Francis sites -- and the author of the first one claims he was partially inspired by Francis being SOTM in September, 2008: http://www.kayfrancisfilms.com/ http://www.kayfrancis.net/ Tons of interesting stuff ... *"What ... THIS dwess ? Why, it's just an* *old WAG that was hanging in the cwoset."*

> {quote:title=Sepiatone wrote:}{quote} > Phyllis Diller wasn't a comedian. She was an INSTITUTION! > > She made self deprecation honorable, and many of today's female stand-ups owe her a huge debt of gratitude, including Rivers. She seemed ageless and timeless, able to bend with whitchever winds were blowing, while other comics from her "hey-day" came off as dated and out of step. This forum is the first place I've heard of her passing, and that's a shame. I thought this news would be on a much larger scale. > > > RIP, Ma'am. Will miss you terribly. > > > Sepiatone > As the first public figure to speak openly and enthusiastically about her plastic surgery (a total of 15 procedures according to her autobiography), she quite literally changed the face of America.

> {quote:title=finance wrote:}{quote}I'm curious about the point of Thornhill always mentioning to others how close he was to his mother. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that the actress playing his mother, Jessie Royce Landis, was almost a year *younger* than Cary Grant ?

She made her first *national* TV appearance on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx on January 30, 1958. There's a brief clip of it with commentary from Phyllis on YouTube: http://tinyurl.com/9tgfnjq ( Most sources claim You Bet Your Life was her "first TV appearance" but an article in the Hayward (California) Daily Review from November of 1952 announces the filming of a series of 15-minute shows for local TV station KROW called Phyllis Diller, the Homely Friendmaker. http://tinyurl.com/8wqh5wh ) *________* Phyllis Diller in 1952 *________*

Even when I was too young to understand all her jokes, it never failed to make me laugh when SHE laughed . . . *_______________________________________________________* Two brief clips to remember her by: 1. Riffing about her mother-in-law on a 60s variety show (Flip Wilson?) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCKQiG4jh0w&feature=related 2. Knocking 'em dead on What's My Line? in 1965 http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=KTRNw1cGFNI *__________________________________________________* *"Colonel Sanders has started selling a special dinner in* *my honor -- no breasts ! "*

You know what, AddisonDeWitless ... ? You're right. There's no crucial information in the first Leo G. Carroll / "reveal" scene. (A copy of the screenplay is here: http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/files/scripts/NorthByNorthwest.pdf ) If that scene is dropped, the only potential weirdness is you'd be cutting directly from the murder at the United Nations to Grand Central Station where Cary is calling his mother from a phone booth. It seems like it's there because: 1) it covers Cary's rather improbable escape all the way from the U.N. to Grand Central Station without being apprehended, 2) it provides a brief respite from Cary running (which he does for a so much of the film), 3) maybe it made it easier for audiences in the kinder, gentler 50s to follow the plot of the film ? But provided you can figure out some visual transition to get from the U.N. to G.C., cutting that scene out would tighten the film slightly and also possibly increase the sense of relief when Leo G. Carroll finally explains what's been going on to Cary as they're schlepping through the airport. Interesting idea. Now, can you do anything with Greed (1923) ?

Unknown Chaplin is SPECTACULAR, especially Part 1. Having been granted access to his film vaults by his widow, Oona, producers Kevin Brownlow and David Gill discovered that Chaplin rehearsed with the camera rolling, sometimes doing well over 50 takes on a scene before deciding it was good enough. As a result, the documentary reveals Chaplin's creative process by running take after take of a scene from, for example, The Cure which show how it evolved -- that it wasn't until the umpteenth take that Chaplin finally figured out how to make the scene work: by swapping roles with another player. However, the main reason I bump this thread is because I just stumbled on another, equally wonderful docu about the Little Tramp on YouTube called Charles Chaplin - The Forgotten Years. It's all about Chaplin's 25-year exile from the U.S. which began in 1952 when he refused to cooperate with Senator Joe McCarthy's Communist witch hunt. Particularly notable are the amazingly candid and revealing interviews with two of his children, Michael and Geraldine. For example, Geraldine describes how she and one of her sisters felt strongly that, considering how he'd been treated, their father should NOT return to the U.S. to collect his honorary Oscar. The coup de grace came when the family learned the U.S. would only grant Chaplin a 10-day visa. But when Geraldine ranted to her father about the slight, he responded with gleeful pride, "They're still afraid of me !!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFv2tf08UY

> "*Joan Blondell no longer exists. I'm somebody named Lottie."* I LOVE that. > By the time she made that series in the late '60s it must, indeed, have felt to this show biz trouper like it had been a few centuries since she had been a Warner Brothers player in Busby Berkeley musicals. Quite possible though I like to think she was one of those down-to-earth movie stars who had no desire to turn back the clock.

I didn't know anything about Blondell's earlier career when I first saw her in 1968 on the ABC series Here Come the Brides. (She earned Emmy nominations both seasons it was on.) Also ... according to imdb's trivia: "She playfully called her friend Bette Davis' four ex-husbands 'The Four Skins' since they were all gentiles."

*Some Things Gotta Itch* For the title role of a villainous Venusian vegetable trying to stay cool during a sweltering New York summer, Marilyn Monroe went totally “Method” by studying her chef’s salad every day at lunch. Though her performance was widely dismissed as "meatless," Variety said her death scene (pictured above) “simmered to perfection.” Of the recent discovery and restoration of nearly 30 minutes of scenes in which Marilyn swims naked in an Arctic ****, Leonard Maltin enthused "Marilyn brings new meaning to both 'Birdseye view' and 'frozen niblets.'"

> I enjoy reading your well-written and informative posts ... As do I yours.

> Thanks very much, Valeska ... Same back atcha, TomJH.

Thank you, Herr Professor. In the tradition of the Navajo's meticulous rug-weavers, I too always make sure to include one mistake to symbolize the fact that life is imperfect ... Or, as PeeWee Herman so eloquently equivocated: "I MEANT to do that !"

RPMay, Would you by any chance know if there's enough footage available that a full hour-long TCM documentary about Lee Tracy might one day be possible -- especially any interviews he may have done ? (Unlikely, I realize, since he died in 1968 and so probably did not chat with the likes of Mike Douglas or Dick Cavett ...) It just seems -- based on only a few minutes of Googling -- like Tracy was not only a witty, energetic performer, he was also a very ... shall we say "colorful" character ? ... whose career might be ripe for re-discovery and whose personal life would likely appeal to modern audiences who revel in the drunken exploits and raucous misbehavior of their idols. It's just a thought ... (or, more accurately, a half-baked pipe dream ... ) Thanks for your efforts to preserve Tracy's legacy.

Oh, Fred, Fred, Fred ... > "How could Elvis have done any better than he actually did?" Maybe by not dying at only 42 as a result of his drug addiction ??? That's hardly the mark of a happy, successful person. > "He made as many as 3 films a year, and recorded hundreds and hundreds of songs, and he became very very rich." Elvis worked constantly and earned a LOT of money, but for a number of reasons (including his profligate spending, his natural generosity AND Colonel Parker's sticky fingers) he was never "very very rich."According to Alanna Nash, author of TWO Elvis biographies (both exhaustively-researched AND backed up by interviews with people who were around Elvis virtually 24/7 for many years): "When Elvis left the building on August 16, 1977, he was mired in financial quagmires, and sometimes resorted to mortgaging Graceland to make his payroll. Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager, advanced the estate $1 million to make it look as if Elvis had some cash in his depleted checking account. In truth, the singer's years of gargantuan spending sprees (Cadillacs for strangers, houses for girlfriends, and an arsenal of guns for his cohorts) had left him strapped, as had his 1973 divorce from his wife, Priscilla ... *"'It was a shock to all of us' that Elvis had left so little money* Priscilla said years later." http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/advice/20040108a1.asp Elvis' entire estate, including Graceland and all rights and publishing, was valued at only around $3 million. Ironically, it was thanks largely to Priscilla that Elvis spent so many years atop Forbes' list of top-earning dead celebrities -- in 2011 alone, his estate raked in $55 million. However, becoming "very very rich" only when you're not around to enjoy it anymore is an awfully tragic definition of success. > "I think Parker made a great success out of Elvis. I think Elvis and Parker were lucky to find each other, and I think both of them knew it." Absolutely true ... at first.Unfortunately, Parker was as unscrupulous as Elvis was naive and easily swayed and within a few years of forming their partnership, Parker had begun lying and double-dealing. Again, according to Alanna Nash: "Presley's biggest financial liability was Parker himself, who systematically siphoned off far more than the usual 15 to 25 percent of his client's earnings. By the late '60s, Parker had forced Presley into a contracted 50/50 split. But through double dipping, the Colonel got his 50 percent and all but about 22 percent of Elvis' half, too. "Parker had always figured out a way to make more money than his client, whether through song publishing, souvenirs, or side deals with Presley's record company and movie studios. Then, when he formed Boxcar, a merchandising company, with Presley in the early '70s, he took 56 percent control, apart from his 50 percent commission. *Some estimates have concluded that the Colonel wound up with nearly 78 percent of Elvis' name and likeness* ..." 78 PERCENT ??? And the remaining 22% that went to Elvis was before taxes ??? It's entirely possible that in his later career Elvis was only netting around 15% of all the money he was earning ! > "Elvis made 27 movies in 10 years, plus the 3 he made before he went in the Army ... " The *quantity* of any artist's work is not nearly so valid a measure of his/her success as its *quality* -- and please note that with actors "quality" is NOT synonymous with "appeal" but is instead based on such factors as awards and reviews. The list of Elvis' acting awards could be written on the head of a pin with a chisel. As for his reviews, it's entirely possible to dismiss them as merely the condescension of biased, snobbish highbrows -- provided, of course, that one can 1) ignore the fact that the vast majority -- regardless of source -- were negative, 2) overlook their various authors' credentials and reputations as serious, honest critics, and 3) disregard how often they reached identical conclusions regarding Presley's talent, potential, career choices, etc. Why was his potential as an actor so unrealized ? Because Parker was far more interested in profiting from Elvis' films than in helping him improve. Did you know, for example, that despite the obvious need for it, Elvis never had any formal acting training of any kind and was instead left to "fend for himself" by picking up whatever he could on the set each day ? That may have worked for some movie stars but not for Presley. For Elvis, whose childhood dream was to become an actor, the relentless and obviously valid criticism he received film after film and year after year simply could not have gone unnoticed -- or unfelt. *“Someday we’ll do it right,”* he inscribed on a photo he gave co-star Gene Nelson. > "I just don't see how Parker abused Elvis in any way." Then you've either not read what I've posted nor clicked on the links I provided to see the sources which support it, or else you simply choose to ignore any facts which negate your opinions. And while any or all of those reactions are your perogative, I'll still add one final fact to the avalanche of information I've provided in the hope that it will, finally, help you to see precisely how Parker DID abuse Elvis in a BIG way:He either ignored or never cared enough to do anything about Elvis' addiction to drugs and the obvious toll it was taking on his health. According to numerous statements made by members of the "Memphis Mafia" (the cadre of friends who were with Elvis virtually all-day, everyday, some for well over a decade), when it came to anything that could impact Elvis' earning power there was NOTHING the Colonel did not know. Yet even in the later years when Elvis was a bloated, slurring mess, Parker did NOTHING ... zilch ... nada ... nothing, that is, except continue arranging exhausting concert tours which, Elvis' doctor personally informed Parker, were severely impacting Elvis' health. From about.com: "Elvis' fondness for prescription drugs had begun back in the early Sixties (although at least one confidant claims Elvis began by stealing diet pills from Gladys, his mother). Facing a punishing work schedule set up by his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, Presley began to use 'uppers' to get him going in the morning and 'downers' to help him relax and sleep at night. By the early Seventies, Elvis had come to rely on these pills as necessary equipment for his hectic career, especially since Parker's schedule now had him working like a dog: an average of one show every other day from 1969 until June 1977 and a three-album-a-year schedule for RCA." http://oldies.about.com/od/elvisdeathfaq/f/elvisdrugs.htm That Presley was and still is a beloved entertainment industry icon is an undeniable fact, but your notion that "nobody could have been any more successful than Elvis actually was" simply makes no sense. Elvis could have been FAR more successful than he actually was -- more fulfilled creatively, more enriched financially, more recognized for his acting, more respected by the film industry -- had it not been for the underhanded, greedy and callous way he was manipulated by The Colonel. End of avalanche and I hope no one's been buried in snow. (A very very large h/t to Alan Hanson who's created one of the most comprehensive and, best of all, most fair and objective of all fan sites at http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/ )

> {quote:title=RMeingast wrote:}{quote} > > > > Think Elvis would've had to do some serious training for this flick... Unless he would've used a body double for all his scenes... I think the flick would more likely have done Elvis some serious *damage* ... Playing the role of a self-destructive, drug-addicted rock-n-roll has-been seems so close to the truth of his real life that it might very well have precipitated an emotional breakdown ... or worse ?... (like an "accidental overdose" ?) ... Either that or he'd have won an Oscar ... (and followed it up with such triumphs as Brando's role in Apocalypse Now ?) Sadly -- or maybe it's for the best -- we'll never know. Y'know ... ah thank I need go make me a big, fat deep-fried peanut butter-and-banana samich in honor of "the King." (Although, I read somewhere that when, during one of his Vegas concerts, a whole row of fans stood up and declared their love for "the King," Elvis responded, "Jesus Christ is the King !" and the fans all sat back down REAL quick.)

TomJH, Thanks to your starting this thread and the magic of Google, I found out a bunch of fun trivia about Lee Tracy. (Talk about "What a Character !" ...) As tough and abrasive as his characters were, he fought his battles with words rather than violence. Though essentially a character actor, he got leading man roles and usually wound up getting the girl. At the time of the Viva Villa! fiasco, both MGM and news reports claimed Tracy had gone out on the balcony naked and shouted lewd epithets at the cadets. Tracy said he'd only waved at them and that he'd been wearing pajama bottoms. It wasn't until years later that Desi Arnaz claimed in his autobiography that he witnessed Tracy **** off the balcony -- a story denied by others who'd worked on the film. Whatever happened, it was serious enough that MGM apologized to the nation of Mexico and Tracy bailed himself out of jail, hiring a private plane to get out of the country. Arriving back in the States, he greeted his then-girlfriend Isabel Jewell with "Holy cats, honey, but it's been a dizzy week !" The Viva Villa! incident aside, Tracy was as unapologetic a bad boy off-screen as he was on -- possibly because real estate investments made him a millionaire ? In fact, he was so notorious for drinking, missing work, and being flippant to interviewers that he never stayed at one studio for long. For example: * Unlike the stars who foisted their "happy families" into the public eye, Tracy once announced that he didn't want a home or children but preferred to live transiently in hotel rooms, claiming that it actually cheered him up to watch Long Island commuters with "that strained and anxious husband look in their eyes." (He must have changed his mind -- his 1938 marriage to a woman who'd come to sell him insurance ended 30 years later with his death.) * He tried to get out of paying taxes by claiming his residence was "Trucksville, Pennsylvania" and by writing off money spent in Hollywood as business expenses -- including what he paid to studios to let him sleep late in the morning. * And (my favorite) after being arrested in 1935 for firing a gun through his neighbor's window while drunk, *he explained that his real target was an ashtray he'd never liked !* He created such problems for producer David O. Selznick during the filming of The Half Naked Truth by arriving late and disappearing from the set that in a “strictly confidential” inter-office memo dated October 8, 1932, Selznick stated that, “for the good of the company and the industry,” a legal suit should be brought against Tracy for the total amount of monies he had cost the studio. Selznick was so bugged by Tracy's behavior that he not only suggested serving Tracy with the lawsuit “on the set as soon as the last scene has been finished, and in front of the entire company,” he also flatly stated that Tracy should be "run out of the industry" ! RKO ultimately withheld $3,500 from Tracy’s final paycheck and then filed a $10,000 “conciliation” suit against him through the Conciliation Committee of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. In Tracy's defense, a doctor stated he'd been suffering from a nervous breakdown and that his set absences were the result of stomach disorders. Around the time he originated the role of Hildy in the Broadway production of The Front Page, Tracy went for an entire year without ever leaving the block of W. 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan. Apparently, it contained his hotel, the theater where he was performing, and whatever else he required in the way of restaurants, laundries, drugstores, etc. As he told a friend at the time, "The block has everything. I may never leave it." (h/t to http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/64/64leetracy.php and http://moviemorlocks.com/2010/07/10/lee-tracy-a-motormouth-ambulance-chasing-four-flusher/ ) P.S. Your suggested pairing of Tracy with Blondell is nothing less than a stroke of Hypothetical Hollywood Casting genius.

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}Back in the 1970s, there was a theater in Berkeley that had a big Mae West film festival, and they showed 35mm prints of nearly all of her films. Many of those films, Ive never seen since then. But I assume they are still available, since the theater had good 35mm prints of them. > Might that have been the legendary revival house known as the U.C. Theater on University Ave. ??? I've HEARD that some local high school kids used to love going there because you could get high in the back rows while enjoying Busby Berkeley musicals or I Am Curious Yellow ... (They are, of course, all dead or institutionalized ...)

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote} > What I dislike about his 1960s films is that they are basically all alike, and nearly the same story. They are designed to attract a lot of young girls and middle-aged women, and they have a lot of girls in shorts in them to attract male members of the audience. What I dislike about the 1960s Elvis movies is that his resignation to their stunning mediocrity sometimes seems palpable. Oh, he's a pro and always seems to be giving it his all, but there are times when it seems like his heart just wasn't in it ... like he knows he's capable of better things but -- whether because of The Colonel, the drugs, his own lifelong need to people-please, or all of the above -- he knew he'd SOLD OUT. Admittedly, I could be imagining all this based on what I've read about Elvis' career ... For example, a lot of movie/Elvis fans have heard about Streisand approaching ol' Swivel Hips to star opposite her in her version of "A Star Is Born" (which has to rank as one of THE most intriguing missed opportunities in all Hollywood casting history). I don't mean to keep making Colonel Tom Parker the villain or the sole cause here, but ... Jerry Lieber was a lyricist who, with his partner, composer Mike Stoller, wrote the songs Jailhouse Rock and Kid Creole and was therefore very instrumental in launching Elvis' movie career. According to Lieber: "One evening in New York I was invited to a very elegant New York cocktail party at the home of Charles Feldman, the well-known agent and producer. "He said, 'I'm so pleased to meet you. I think the world of the work that you and your partner have done. I have just optioned a novel by Nelson Algren, Walk On The Wild Side*,* and here's what I want to do: Elia Kazan has agreed to direct it and I've got Budd Schulberg to write the screenplay and James Wong Howe to do the cinematography. I want you and your partner to write the songs and Elvis Presley to play the lead.' "I was ecstatic. I called Mike and he was thrilled. We thought the news was going to blow the minds of Elvis and The Colonel and Jean and Julian Aberbach***. We went up to the Aberbachs' office at Hill and Range and I told them the whole story ... "When I was finished, Jean said, 'We'll have to speak to Colonel Parker. Can you boys wait outside ?' "As we sat outside Jean's office, we imagined how excited Parker would be. After ten minutes or so we were summoned back into Jean's office and he reported to us that The Colonel said: *"'If you ever dare try and interfere in the career of Elvis Presley again you will never work in New York, Hollywood, London or anywhere else in the world.'"* The upshot is that within a few years after becoming a major movie star, instead of jumping at Walk on the Wild Side and the opportunity to pursue his lifelong attraction to serious acting -- some of his Humes High School classmates later recalled that he was often cast as the lead in the Shakespeare plays they studied in English class -- Elvis only made fluffy, kitschy movies like Blue Hawaii, Follow That Dream, Kid Galahad, and the rather emphatically titled Girls ! Girls ! Girls ! What I am, as usual, taking taking too long to say is: there have been a number of "reluctant movie stars" i.e. people who were not only unlikely to have become movie stars had it not been for their parents and/or other heartless profiteers, but who also suffered terribly from their "success" ... stars like Jackie Coogan, Jean Harlow, Sandra Dee, Patty Duke ... and Elvis. But IIMO Elvis was both reluctant AND not always able to hide his disappointment -- and even, at times, his humiliation -- in front of the cameras. *Hello, Success ... Aloha, Elvis ?* * Julian Aberbach and his brother Jean founded a music publishing empire called Hill and Range. In 1955, Julian helped his friend, Colonel Tom Parker, become Elvis' manager and then set up a truly unprecedented arrangement: the publishing rights to songs Presley recorded were split 50:50 between Hill and Range and Presley. Aberbach then made his cousin, Freddy Bienstock, the head of Elvis Presley Music, and organised writers to provide songs for Presley's films and albums. This didn't just make the Aberbachs rich -- it also effectively precluded Presley from ever recording material that was not licensed to Hill and Range.