TOO MUCH MONKEY BUSINESS: The Elvis Forum

1963 - END OF AN ERA

CHAPTER ONE:

THE CURTAIN DROPS ON GARY PEPPER'S TANKCASTER NEWSLETTER

It's the summer of 1963. Elvis is filming (among other things) in Las Vegas with his new co-star Ann-Margret:



Sunshine, songs and fun. But back in Memphis Gary Pepper and his parents ain't having much of that. In the final issue # 10 of the Tankcaster fanclub newsletter, Gary has to explain to his 1500 club members worldwide, it's all over for the club. His mother, and club secretary for almost 5 years, is ill. No longer can she do all the work that's involved with running a fanclub. Because Gary is partly disabled, his mom would type the magazine, answer the huge pile of mail, from the fans, coming in regularly at their home address, and on top keep an eye on administration, all for the love of Elvis. The subscription money never actually covered the cost of printing and sending out the 1500 newsletters worldwide. The Elvis management had never helped the Peppers financially. When the club got bigger and more fans from outside the US joined up, the cost of postal stamps for foreign countries got out of hand. Combined with the bad health of mom Pepper, Gary and his father had no choice but to end the fanclub...

CHAPTER TWO:

END OF AN ERA

In more than one way...

Returning home to Graceland, in September, after filming Viva Las Vegas, his bride to be, Priscilla, is mad at Elvis, after hearing about the love affair between him and Ann-Margret.



His friends, The Peppers, go thru hard times, the fanclub has folded, and already filming yet another MGM movie is to start on October 8 ! It's to be the disastrous Kissin' Cousins.



Four months later The Beatles will take America by storm appearing for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show.

While filming Kissin' Cousins, Elvis is made aware, his most recent release Bossa Nova Baby, only made it just into the top 10 of the Hot 100 single charts, and is selling poorly in the rest of the world...

And even though the movie soundtracks still sold amazingly well in the US Album charts, Elvis, in late 1963, was beginning to face the end of an era. From 1964 onwards his supreme reign in the record charts had come to a halt and the movies became worse and worse.

CHAPTER THREE:

CELLULOID HERO

He was wearing a little mustache, which looked great on him, but he didn't keep it very long. I told him how much I liked it and he said "Thanks, Gary, but I wont be able to keep it". He looks real healthy, in fact he said he weighed about 190 lbs. but of course he's solid as a rock. and the weight looked good on him.
(Tankcaster issue 7, 1961)



After finishing filming of Blue Hawaii on location, Elvis and company return to Hollywood where filming continues at Paramount Studios.



On June 1st Elvis flies home to Memphis. After 3 weeks of leisure and pleasure, he returns to RCA's Studio B in Nashville to cut new material, enough to fill up the Pot Luck album, set for release in 1962, and the forthcoming single for August release: the brilliant His Latest Flame on the A-side, coupled with the just as brilliant Little Sister! Due to the fact that both sides compete with each other in the top 10 singles charts stops either from going to a well deserved number 1 spot! Flame reaches #4 and Sister #5. If released as 2 separate singles, with ballad like B-sides, both could easily have topped the charts. That same month of June sees the release of Something For Everybody. It will make number 1, but will sell only 300.000 copies in the US. Both film soundtracks, G.I Blues and Blue Hawaii, each sold a million plus! Both the colonel and RCA now know where the big money will come from for future record releases. Films with their soundtracks, one after another, are to be the new money making machine!

CHAPTER FOUR:

ANOTHER YEAR OVER...

Elvis said to me before he left ,"Gary, Ann-Margret will be my leading lady" and with a grin said, "you know, she was billed at one time as "The Female Elvis!" He seemed very pleased that she would be his female lead..."
(Tankaster issue #10)



In the second half of '61, Elvis is back on location filming 2 more titles: Follow That Dream and Kid Galahad. He doesn't look his best in either, and the songs, fun at times, but far from great, are thrown into the film scenes with little care.



The title song Follow That Dream is filmed with him lying on his back in the sand poorly lip-synching to the words. The best song in the film is handled with no care or imagination at all!

While in the opening titles to the film Kid Galahad he's seen sitting at the back of a truck singing King Of The Whole Wide World, looking like a marzipan faced dummy sporting a terrible haircut.

In December of 1961, when the filming of Kid Galahad is finished, Elvis leaves for Las Vegas for a short holiday.



His recent single release Can't Help Falling In Love is riding high in the charts! What a great way to celebrate, and 'rock' the Rock-A-Hula girls in his Sahara Hotel room for the next few weeks...It's a tough life being rich and famous!

CHAPTER FIVE:

FROM HAWAII TO THE WORLD'S FAIR

With his recent number 1, Good Luck Charm under his belt, April 1962 sees him back in Hawaii. No concerts are lined up this time. He's there for his next film: Girls! Girls! Girls! for Paramount Pictures.



Hal Wallis nicely labels it: A picture that provides wholesome, all-ages fun and good times. Principal photography is completed during the first week of June and with his bride to be, Priscilla Beaulieu, he leaves shortly after, for a 2 weeks holiday in Las Vegas.

Some 8 weeks later Elvis returns to Hollywood for yet another film: It Happened At The World's Fair, to be filmed on location in Seattle. Wwhile he's filming and recording songs for the new soundtracks, record sales are brisk for the recent EPs Follow That Dream and Kid Galahad. Follow That Dream tops at 500.000 copies! Elvis' record sales for singles, EPs and Albums are still huge in 1962, and will be for another year.

It's no surprise to see Elvis back in January of 1963 on the Paramount studios lot where filming Fun In Acapulco starts. More wholesome all-ages fun and good times !



The Beatles, meanwhile, score their first hits in the UK with Love Me Do and Please, Please Me. Nothing to worry about yet for Elvis and his management. The 4 lads, and their brilliant manager, Brian Epstein, still have to wait a while before they steamroll over the US, charting with 5 singles at the same time in the top 10!

CHAPTER SIX:

FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN'

"Colonel said he would consider an offer for Elvis to do a concert while in Seattle to tie in with the World's Fair Exhibition..."
(Tankcaster newsletter, 1962)

We know it didn't happen. Neither did a Memphis charity show materialize for that year, even though there was some serious talk about doing one. Instead Elvis travelled up and down from Memphis to Hollywood for another 6 years, filming one movie after another. He would complain about the trashy scripts to each and everyone, in the inner circle, who would lend him a willing ear, but standing up to the people responsible for wasting his talent in many of these films, he never did. He was an easy victim to mould in the hands of the colonel and the movie moguls in Hollywood.

No more serious scripts, such as Wild In The Country or Flaming Star would be passed on to him any longer. "Hey Everybody Get Around, listen To That Bongo Sound!"



The real nose dive years started a while after Viva Las Vegas: Kissin' Cousins, Girl Happy, Spinout, Harem Holiday, Frankie and Johnny, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Double Trouble, Clambake, and so on.

And even though he looked and sounded a lot better in Stay Away and Live A Little, the film scripts still would have made any actor, with a reputation to live up to, cry.

Gary, a die hard fan till the very end - he passed away at age 48, in 1980- would surely have had good things to say about afore mentioned films. We will never know. The Tankcaster newsletter folded in 1963. It was the end of an era.



THE END

Let me be the first to thank and cogratulate you, John,
for having done another first class job. And thanks for your
patience!! You handsome devil, you!

Steady, people will get the wrong idea, but thanks anyway, you're very welcome.

Great article you guys.
Jim

Makes me sad.
Times were getting worse. I wonder how Elvis thought about it.
What if ...

Thanks for this topic guys !

Interesting reads.
It surprises me that names are often misspelled in newsletters and posts.
Ann-Margret as Ann-Margaret
Anne Helm as Ann Helm
Just to name 2.

Ah yes, that one got past me. I had already added the hyphen, bit missed the incorrect spelling, as did my editor.

And yet it was this awful period where Elvis was the highest paid film star in the world according to many sources. With Parker getting the proportion of such it was easy to see how he applied presure at all times on Elvis to meet his contractual obligations.

Ive used 2 books to check on dates, and the spelling of Ann's name... I had, and still
have no interest in his leading ladies after his first 5 films. Well, except Ann, ofcourse.
Im not writing biographies... just light weight stories to 'dress up' the very rare Tankcaster newsletters. Stories and innocent fun for the whole family to enjoy!

Very interesting topic.

How very ture, 100% right on target

Nice reading.


colonel snow

As i wrote on here before,it"s nice to see Gary Peppers work up on an EP forum like this one!.

Well done all round!.

check out the story behind our 'appetiser' color candid
used in the Elvis Today section to plug this topic.

No more please! Or I'll get nothing done.

Too much to enjoy here, already!

This week we hope to feature an eye witness report from the Tankcaster
newsletter on the meeting between Albert Hand and Elvis on the set
of Kid Galahad, back in 1961. It was Hand's first meeting with the man from
Memphis.
We will also expand our story by looking into the year 1964. Stick with us.
With already 200 visits, in only a few days time, End Of An Era is already
a big success. Thanks!

No more serious scripts, such as Wild In The Country or Flaming Star would be passed on to him any longer.
"Hey Everybody Get Around, listen To That Bongo Sound!"

The real nose dive years started a while after Viva Las Vegas: Kissin' Cousins, Girl Happy, Spinout, Harem Holiday, Frankie and Johnny, Paradise Hawaiian Style, Double Trouble, Clambake, and so on.




Excellent job John & Ger.... here are some extra additions for this great topic.
Some Dutch newspaper ads for the TOPmovie "Kissin' Cousins

courtesy: Rijff

On February 14, '64, Elvis can be found doing a brief press conference, in the company of comedian Danny Thomas, for charity purposes. (to be continued...)

Thanks, John, for putting up the appetiser for a soon to appear
chapter on the year 1964... I haven't written it yet, so in the meantime
I like to ask you record collectors to put up a few rare releases ( worldwide)
that tie in with the End Of An Era topic. RCA commercial releases.
Titles that come to mind : from Germany: King Of The Whole Wide World
and Viva Las Vegas singles, the French Little Sister EP, a.o.
Here's my little contribution with Japanese releases. Not sure if the one
with Jailhouse Rock publicity shot cover belongs here? But it being part
of the many Japanese 60s releases was good enough for me.

( photo scans: Chris Giles/ The Elvis Shop)

Here a few German releases on the single market in the 60's

Hey Jans,

Great input your collage....but could you scan them a bit larger?
Thanks!

lt.columbo

Don't be long now....

They should be in Spinnin' Around than.

Here a link to some of these singles :
http://www.verzameling.page.tl/singles-1963_1965.htm

Let me explain my request for the 45 record sleeves. Look at the topic as
a book. Text and illustrations that go together, and not for the sake of them
being rare...or not. The Spinnin' section takes care of the rarities.
John & I just like to present a tasty lookin' topic. No more, no less.
This time, even though we get a lot of visits, few fans add any illustration
material... But that's okay. John found some good pictures, and so did I.
We have enough to continue this topic for several weeks. Geert & Jans:
continue posting if you have more goodies to share. It's always appreciated.
Some of the French EPs are still welcome. 3 or 4 will do nicely.

How about these Ger? German , Spanish, French. Hey, where is Bruno and Ric when you need them?
Jim