THE KING AND I: MY MOVIE WITH ELVIS
In the torrid Florida heat of August 1961, I was home from my junior year at Carnegie Tech spending the summer in Ocala and directing a play for the local Marion Players. I answered the box office phone. “Mirisch Brothers calling from Hollywood. We understand you’re familiar with local Ocala actors. Could you supply us with potential extras for a movie to be shot in Ocala next month?”
“Who’s in the film?” I asked. “Someone famous,” the voice said. “Elvis Presley.”
Elvis Presley! “Yes!” I shouted. To reward me for my help, I was put next to Elvis for the better part of two blistering days to cue him when to enter the Commercial Bank for a phony bank robbing scene.
And now there’s a new book just published about that summer. It’s called Elvis: Summer of ’61. It includes photos of me and an article I wrote at the time. It was printed in the Edinboro Independent in 1961 and now re-printed in this new book.
See pages from the book, read the article I wrote that’s re-printed in the book, and see photos of the 2013 Elvis Festival in Inverness, Florida! To view the picture, click here »