'Elvis' TRIVIA!!!!

The new movie 'Elvis' was the latest film that I worked on for the Examiner. Just like the previous Examiner reviews, I decided to hold off on the trivia stuff that I normally have in the review and put together some of the interesting trivia in a post. Also, I cut the trivia stuff out due to available space in the print edition as well lol.

So, here are some interesting little tidbits about the movie 'Elvis':

• In an interview with CinemaBlend, Austin Butler revealed he called Rami Malek before shooting his first performance, asking for advice on replicating the movements of music's past.

• The basic premise of the '68 Comeback Special' seen in this film is basically true. Elvis was appalled that Colonel Tom Parker had agreed with a sponsor and the NBC TV network that he would do an hour-long special in which he would be doing cheesy skits and singing Christmas songs in a terrible jumper, so he effectively plotted with director Steve Binder and producer Bob Finkel to do a special showcasing his career. Rehearsals started in June 1968 with filming commencing late June 1968. Elvis, Binder, and Finkel did as much as they could to keep Parker out of the studio during recordings, a move which worked. Although 4 hours of footage was shot, it was finally edited down to 50 minutes with the show being aired on December 3rd, 1968, to huge success. It was the number 1 most watched TV show that week in the US. A soundtrack album of songs specially recorded or re-recorded for the show was also released reaching number 8 in the Billboard Album Charts and would go on to earn gold certification. The success of the endeavor led to Elvis having a new enthusiasm for resurrecting his live singing career, which he did in 1970, once he had fulfilled the rest of his MGM movie contract.

• The scene where Elvis is seen putting a Derringer pistol into his boot during his Las Vegas shows is true. He started doing this after receiving death threats.

• Austin Butler and Elvis are actually 16th cousins twice removed. Elvis' dad Vernon and Austin Butler's mom share common ancestry.

• Elvis is shocked to learn of Sharon Tate's murder by members of Charles Manson's cult. Before doing this film, Austin Butler, who plays Elvis, played Manson Family member Charles 'Tex' Watson in Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) with Kurt Russell who, not only played The King in Elvis (1979), but also appeared unbilled with Presley in It Happened at the World's Fair (1963).

• Elvis's mother, Gladys died aged 46 in 1958. Although not seen in the film, Vernon Presley (Elvis's father) remarried in 1960. Vernon died of a heart attack in June 1979 aged 63, less than two years after his son. 'Colonel' Tom Parker himself died in 1997 aged 87.

• During production in Australia in March 2020, both Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson tested positive for Coronavirus. As a result, production was halted.

• It has long been debated if Elvis Presley culturally appropriated the music of black musicians or if he was honestly attracted to this music. Some musicians such as Little Richard considered him as the epitome of a typical white man using the music of another race to gain fame, while B.B. King thought that music has no color and that Elvis only made his own versions. The movie shows that Elvis didn't participate in the racism existent at the time and that he simply liked the music made by black artists more than that of white artists.

https://youtu.be/Gp2BNHwbwvI