On location for the picture 'Follow That Dream'. Elvis is seen at the bridge seen in the movie located on State Road 40, Bird Creek, Near Yankeetown, Florida. Co-star Anne Helm can be seen to Elvis' right in the background. July 11th 1961-August 11th 1961
On location for the picture 'Follow That Dream’. Elvis is seen at the bridge seen in the movie for the fishing scene, located on State Road 40, Bird Creek, Near Yankeetown, Florida.
On location for the picture 'Follow That Dream’, the scene where Toby moves the log off the road was shot at the entrance to Basswood Avenue, off Highway 19 and 98 outside of Yankeetown, Florida. The secret of how it was done can be seen.
On location for the picture 'Follow That Dream’, viewed from top of the camera truck, outside Yankeetown, Florida. This is opening scene in the car.
On location for the picture 'Follow That Dream'
Publicity Still for 'follow That Dream' with co-star Anne Helm
My girlfriend Jeannette was (is) the ultimate Elvis fan. Because I loved her, so was I. When Elvis was filming “Follow That Dream”, a 1962 musical filmed in Inglis and Yankeetown, Florida, it was the perfect opportunity for Jeanette to follow her own dream to meet Elvis. On Aug 8. 1961, we set out from Tampa with her mother Dorothy and her Italian Grandmother “Nana” in an ancient, powder blue 1952 Cadillac. It somehow took all day to drive 75 miles.
Dorothy, as always, was dressed like a Hollywood Goddess and Nana was her stately and imposing chaperone, parting the way like a lead ship parting the waters. Jeanette and I were both sailing behind dressed like preteen dorks…..me in Bermuda shorts and top that I made in Home Economics, (with green rick rack trim adding insult to injury) , and Jeanette in an equally embarrassing gold Bermuda shorts outfit.
Halfway there we stopped in a diner with a “Welcome Elvis” sign and were forced to gulp down our burgers under the threat of turning the Cadillac around and heading for home if we didn’t finish our food. When we were finally in Crystal River at the Port Paradise Motel where the crew was staying, Elvis stepped out of his 1961 white Cadillac after his Yankeetown shoot at precisely 6:45 PM. Jeanette kept a keen eye on her little wristwatch to mark the time that her Dream came true.
Jeanette asked Elvis to move next to me for a picture when she saw I was shyly standing in the shadow of his light, and this snapshot was taken after his face had moved down to kiss my cheek and was on it’s way back up (thus the blur and the silly look on my face) My autograph book was clenched firmly under my arm, but I never had the nerve to ask him to sign it.
Though I was there that day for my friend Jeanette, in retrospect, I realize I was in the presence of a seminal force who influenced many of my own heroes.
Yvonne de Villiers
Suzanne's story:
In 1961 Elvis made the movie "Follow That Dream" in Yankeetown, Florida.
He had recently gotten out of the Army and his Mother had died near that time also.
I believe he had already recorded the album "GI Blues”. My Mom found out about it so we decided to go watch them film the movie.
Elvis and the Movie Crew were staying at the "Port Paradise Hotel" in Crystal River, Florida.
Port Paradise would bring lunch for the entire crew every day and set it up at a nearby Park.
This is a Barge that the Camera Crew was set up on to film the Beach scenes
Actor Arthur O'Connell
The Crew packed up for the day and headed back to the Port Paradise hotel in Crystal River.
So Mom and I just got our car in their caravan and drove right into the Hotel parking lot with the crew.
Everyone assumed we were part of the crew.
We got out and walked through the outside corridor of the Hotel.
As we passed by one area we saw Elvis sitting outside resting by the water.
I was Chicken but my Mother was brave and she walked over to where he was sitting with Actress Ann Helm.
I felt silly standing there so I followed.
My Mom said something like "Elvis, would you mind if two Florida Girls took your picture?"
He was Really Nice and stood up and leaned on an umbrella table.
Elvis and co-star Ann Helm
Elvis kept tapping his fingers on the umbrella while mom was trying to take the picture and my Mom told him to "stay still!"
He Laughed and told her "If I had stood still, I wouldn't be where I am today".
Elvis saw my engagement ring and told me I was too young to be engaged and I told him Tom is a very nice guy.
He said I have pretty eyes and remind him of someone he used to date.
I tried to act real Kool and told him "I am not like those other girls that faint and scream."
I was acting, I thought, Kool!!
Well, the next day we drove up the watch the movie shoot again.
I had not had breakfast and we were standing on a bridge looking down on the set and we were standing in that "Hot August Sun".
I looked over at my mom and said "I don't feel so good!"
The next thing I remember, I was being carried by a State Trooper and laid on the back of a truck and they put ice on my head and neck.
I was so embarrassed!
I knew Elvis could see what had happened and after all, I was the Kool One that didn't faint!
Elvis getting into the car to head back to the Hotel.
At that time I was taking a Photography Class at Dixie Hollins High School and when I brought my pictures in no one believed that I had really met him.
They thought I had used a Telephoto lens to take his picture.
So the next day we all went up to see Elvis.
I knew where he would be at lunch time so we went to the park.
We told him a "little white lie".
We told him the other pictures didn't come out and that’s when I got the picture of him and me together.
We were so bad!
This is Elvis's car. We were told he had 13 at the time
Suzanna and Elvis
Miss Mary Brent who played Mrs Harley one of the squatters seen briefly in the picture told Bill Bram her memories of the making of the film.
The heat was of course very difficult for him in the courthouse scenes as he was wearing a pure wool suit and it was August. Air conditioning in the courthouse had to be turned off as the sound recording picked up the noise. The air conditioner was on only when they were not filming. Elvis, Virgina Dupree, Anne Helm, Joanna Moore and a few others would wait in the jury room which had to be kept cool. We all just relaxed, had a coke etc.
One day Elvis started playing his god-awful guitar which I cannot bear, and without thinking I said, “Do we have to have that dreadful noise?" Now Elvis owned 40% of this film and he could have said, "If you don't like it you can pick up your cheque and go" instead he said, "Sorry, Mary B", and stopped playing.
Gordon Douglas was a very bad director, the crew was top notch, Arthur O'Connell was old letch, always chasing broads, Anne Helm was a really lovely girl, inexperienced in the business, but smart enough to listen and learn. Joanna was a big No Talent who couldn't remember her own name and cost the company untold amounts by being totally inadequate.
Elvis had beautiful manners which was the thing that most impressed me about him. He had a great deal of respect for older ladies, not the floozies his age and younger.
Co star Joanna Cook Moore
Soundtrack Recording
Recorded July 2, 1961,
RCA Studio B, Nashville, Tennessee
"What a Wonderful Life"
By Sid Wayne & Jerry Livingston
"I'm Not the Marrying Kind"
By Sherman Edwards & Mack David
"Sound Advice"
By Bill Giant & Anna Shaw
"Follow That Dream"
By Ben Weisman (as Bernie Weisman) & Fred Wise
"Angel"
By Sid Tepper & Roy C. Bennett (as Roy Bennett)
Billboard magazine
Deena Watson was one of three children who played the part of Ariadne Pennington, the little blonde girl told Bill Bram her memories of being in the picture.
I was only three years old at the time and in the car scene at the start of the picture, filmed from a helicopter, I was more interested in the helicopter than anything else, I kept looking up and pointing to it. Elvis was not in the car at the time. I think it was a man called Red (West). The crew had to stop filming several times to ask me to stop looking up. Finally we took a break somewhere on the side of the road, it was hot and we were thirsty. Elvis himself came to me, to me out of the cart seat, got a drink for me, and promised me that if I would look at the back of Red's head until the ride was over, he would show me the helicopter, he kept his promise, he was a nice, kind honest person. He gave me a $10 bill with "To my little star Denna - love Elvis" written on it, that was lost or stolen.
The opening scene with the car shot from the helicopter was filmed on Courtney Campbell Causeway, Tampa.
Oscala Star-Banner article about the making of the movie.
By Jennifer Kirkland
St. Petersburg Times article about the making of the movie
By John D. Mckinnon
'Cameras Rolled In Summer Of '61'
Florida FLASHBACK
By Joy Wallace Dickinson, Sentinel Staff Writer
It was almost passing-out hot in the small town of Inverness 42 years ago, Robin Koon remembers, and the Old Citrus County Courthouse wasn't air-conditioned -- except for a window unit in the judge's chambers. In that chilled haven, special guests would huddle, such as Mr. and Mrs. Presley -- Vernon and Dee -- who had come down from Memphis to see their son on the movie set.
Koon, 8 years old in 1961, didn't know Mrs. Presley was the stepmom of his movie-cast buddy, rather than the beloved mom, Gladys, who had died in 1958.
But for such a young fellow, Koon socked away lots of memories of movie-making in Florida with the king of rock 'n' roll,
Robin Koon, who also stayed at the Port Paradise Hotel with his twin brother, Gavin, and their mom, the trip to Florida was much more a vacation than a job. The Koon twins' dad was the art director on Lawrence Welk's television show -- he knew that bubble machine well -- when the family heard about a casting call for twin boys.
The boys were daunted when they found themselves in a sea of other twins vying to play Teddy and Eddy, the Opie-Taylor-like foster brothers of Elvis' character, Toby. But they were tapped for the parts after just a day of casting.
After they began filming in Florida, the twins were paid $350 a week, but they were oblivious to that, Koon recalled. Instead, they delighted in scooping up crabs from the dock at the hotel and delivering them to the kitchen door, where the cook paid them a dime for each one. Now, that was real money.
On the long summer nights, in days before everybody shut themselves inside to watch TV, the boys also amused themselves telling jokes and visiting with other folks in the cast and crew at the riverside hotel. “People would have the doors to their rooms open" to visit in the twilight and tell jokes, Koon recalled. They liked Elvis. He was "down-to-earth" and liked kids, Koon recalls. "He was always approachable. Everybody could talk to him."
In the weeks before filming began, the moviemakers had converted the tip of a marshy little island into a slice of paradise for Elvis Presley.
When Elvis Came To Yankeetown
By Jeff Kunerth of The Sentinel Staf
Thick underbrush was cleared on a point of Pumpkin Island near the bridge over Bird Creek. Tons of fill dirt and white sand were dumped on the island's edge to create a pristine beach. Palm trees were planted, but quickly died and had to be painted a pseudo-healthy green. A thatch-roofed shack costing $20,000 and a boat dock were constructed on the beach. A telephone pole was turned into a palm-tree trunk, and a portion of State Road 40 was painted black to resemble a newly completed road.
''They were changing the land, and these people were wheeling in and out in their big limousines,'' said Pat Langley, 40, an English teacher at Dunnellon High School. ''It was big excitement.''
Two 17-year-old high school students, Johnny Jones and his twin brother Tommy, were hired to build the beach. ‘Every day, they would pick us up in a white limousine to shovel dirt. Then the limousine would take us home. It was so big you couldn't touch the front seat from the back seat,'' said Johnny Jones, now 43 and a Dunnellon High math teacher. ''We built a beach for the beach scene and they didn't like it, so we had to build them another one.''
After the beach was built to the producers' satisfaction, the Jones brothers got to stick around and do odd jobs on the set. Looking back, Johnny Jones sees that he and his brother missed an opportunity to exploit their insiders' position by taking photographs and collecting movie-set memorabilia. ''If we had realized this was going to be a big deal there was lots of stuff we could have done like take pictures,'' said Jones. Instead, the brothers' attitude was: ''Elvis Presley was there, fine, but we were just interested in working at a summer job.''
Tommy Jones was savvy enough, however, to collect autographed chunks of broken concrete blocks and boards that Presley had used for karate practice, and to distribute them to local girls.
For one movie scene, the Jones brothers joined about 20 other Yankeetown residents on the Bird Creek Bridge, where everybody pretended to fish. ‘I remember they paid us $20 apiece and we worked 15 minutes,'' said Johnny Jones. ''We fished for rubber fish.''
Pumpkin Island was partially owned by real estate agent Ollie Lynch, who became the movie company's local talent scout. It was Lynch who recruited the rubber-fish fishermen, and rousted a neighbour out of the shower to play a gangster. Lynch himself appears briefly in the movie as one of the gangsters -- a role he won by virtue of possessing a fedora.
'Half the people in town were in the movie somehow,'' said Lynch, 69. ''It was something new and exciting for a little town like this. Nobody here had seen a movie filmed before. I'd say it was about the most exciting time this town has ever seen. ‘What impressed the townsfolk most was the film crew's preponderance of limousines. Lynch said he was astounded to see limos called to cart Presley and the other actors 200 yards from the movie set to the dressing room trailers.
Oddly, the adults of the community made more of a fuss over Elvis than the teen-agers did. Presley had his fans in Yankeetown, but they were more likely to be the age of Pat Langley's mother, or her grandmother who, at 84, baked Elvis an apple pie and hand-delivered it to him.
''My grandmother was just crazy about him,'' said Langley, who was 14 at the time. ''I thought it was kind of silly that my mother was so intrigued by it all. It was kind of embarrassing to me to hear stories of women my mother's age climbing on the motel roof where Presley was staying.''
Between filming sessions, the Bird Creek Bridge was left open so fans and gawkers could drive by slowly and try to catch a glimpse of Elvis horsing around with his bodyguard buddies or tossing rocks at blue crabs. Presley pilgrims flocked to Yankeetown from throughout the state, creating the first call for traffic control in the town's history.
A 16-year-old Orlando girl, Gail Burckhalter, was one of those who patrolled the Bird Creek Bridge to get a peek at Elvis. She, her 18-year-old sister-in-law, and a couple of others followed the film crew to Ocala, where a scene was filmed at the Commercial Bank. They went to Crystal River to try to find where he was staying. Unsuccessful in their pursuit of Presley, the girls were at a Crystal River ice cream stand when a line of limos passed by. They hopped back into their car and gave pursuit.
the circular driveway of the Port Paradise Resort, the girls went the wrong way and came headlight-to-headlight with an old station wagon. The station wagon's door opened and Col. Tom Parker stepped out, followed by Elvis Presley.
The stunned girls tumbled out of the car. Presley chatted with them and then agreed to pose for a picture with Gail and one of the other girls. Gail's sister-in-law snapped the picture. It was the only one they took.
''To this day, she is so mad she isn't in the picture,'' said Burckhalter, 42. ''We were so surprised, and he was so charismatic, and we had the whole roll of film and took one picture. He talked to us a good 15 minutes, but I don't remember what we said. ‘Even so, she said, ''It's a day none of us will ever forget.''
In the 26 years that have passed since the movie was made, Yankeetown's population has increased to just 634.''The sand gnats help to keep the population down,'' said town councilwoman Jimmie Wall. Yankeetown residents, most of them elderly, are a tenacious lot opposed to high-density development, noise pollution and traffic lights. There's no downtown. No convenience stores. No police department, either. The nearest movie theatre is in Crystal River.
''It takes an independent person to live here, someone who values privacy,'' said Wall. ''This is a town that takes care of itself. ‘When the filming in Yankeetown was finished, the movie set was removed. The palm tree trunk turned back into a telephone pole. The dock was dismantled. The $20,000 shack was donated to the Florida Sheriffs Boys Ranch in Live Oak, where it is still in use. Whatever the moviemakers left behind, like the artificial white-sand beach, was reclaimed by nature. Today the Yankeetown movie site looks much as it did before Elvis Presley arrived -- an impenetrable stand of shrubs and palmettos bordered by black reeds and roadside litter.
What the movie's producers couldn't remove nor time erase are the memories and small mementos that long-time residents of Yankeetown still possess. Ollie Lynch kept a copy of the movie script, a rubber fish, and an autographed snapshot of Elvis Presley standing on the Bird Creek Bridge.
And when Lynch is showing a prospective builder one particular vacant lot where Elvis was filmed being chased through the woods by a gang of gamblers, he tells of a time, not so very long ago, when Yankeetown was famous. (August 14, 1987)
Co star Anne Helm recalls her time with Elvis
I really fell for Elvis -- I mean, who wouldn’t? We did have a romance, it was quite wonderful, we were on location in Crystal River (Florida), Elvis was away from the madding crowd, and it was like a shipboard romance with Elvis.
I continued seeing him when I came back (to Hollywood), but it was very difficult; he had many lives, he had many women around him. It wasn't like Crystal (River) where I had him all to myself every night, when what seemed like "thousands of people" showed up to see Elvis (Florida mermaid show), "and they were behind a wire fence to keep them away from Elvis, because they were crazed... I was really overwhelmed by it, because I'd never seen such madness for someone...He was so sweet, he sent me back to the motel and he stayed there and signed autographs for about three or four hours for those people, and I was so touched by that. He really revered his fans. He was lovely with them. I was very impressed -- one more thing to love Elvis for."
Everyone knew about Priscilla, although he didn't talk a lot about Priscilla to me. She was only 15 or 16 at the time, but it was rumoured they were going to be married. I really fell for Elvis -- I mean, who wouldn't? But the celebrity he was, it was difficult -- he was loved by so many people. I met him in a very small community, it was a motel, basically -- you know, there were about 50 or 60 of us on location, the crew and everyone involved in the movie. [The director was Gordon Douglas, who'd cut his teeth on "Our Gang" shorts; and the screenwriter was the great Charles Lederer, whose credits include "His Girl Friday," "Kiss of Death" and "The Thing from Another World."] So I really got to see Elvis out of his element.
I became one of the guys, and I actually had a lot of fun with them. We played poker every night, and they were really silly on the set. Elvis loved jokes; he was a real prankster that way, so people were always coming up with something, especially Joe Esposito. He was the one that really seemed to care deeply about Elvis. I did see a lot of things that... that brought him down. He was surrounded by a lot of people that took advantage of his generosity.
It was a more innocent time. I mean, Elvis was -- how old was he? 24-25? [Actually, Elvis was 26 when the film was shot in the summer of 1961.] He was a baby, and I was, too. We were very young. As much as Elvis was a celebrity, he was a big kid; he was a lot of fun.
Tom Petty recalls meeting Elvis
Petty's uncle, Earl Jernigan, owned a local film-developing business and worked on location shoots whenever filmmakers came to the area (Uncle Earl's proof included one item that had already gained young Tom's fascination: the rubber suit worn by the creature in "Return of the Creature from the Black Lagoon," which had been shot in Silver Springs).
So when Jernigan's wife, Tom's Aunt Evelyn, rolled into the driveway and asked her nephew if he'd like to "go and see Elvis Presley," he was licking his chops at what would in a few hours become the adventure of his young life. “I remember this vividly,"
After driving 30 miles, Aunt Evelyn and Tommy, along with his brother Bruce and cousins Sadie and Norma Darnell, pulled up near the film set in downtown Ocala - where Elvis was to shoot a scene of him driving up in a car and entering a bank. "There was a huge crowd; the biggest crowd I've ever seen in the streets of Ocala, and then I swear to God, a line of white Cadillacs pulled in. All white. I'd never seen anything like that. And I was standing up on a box to see over everyone's head, because a big roar started up when the cars pulled in.” Guys in mohair suits and pompadours began bounding out of each car - to Tom's startled cry of "Is that ELVIS?" every time.
He stepped out radiant as an angel, he seemed to glow and walk above the ground. It was like nothing I'd ever seen in my life. At 50 yards, we were stunned by what this guy looked like. And he came walking right towards us.
Elvis' hair was so impossibly black* that it glistened a deep blue when the sunlight hit it. And that's when Elvis walked directly over to Uncle Earl, Aunt Evelyn and little Tom Petty.
"We were speechless,” Uncle Earl introduced Elvis to his nieces and nephews, The King of Rock 'n' Roll smiled and nodded to each open-mouthed youngster. “I don't know what he said, because I was just too dumbfounded, and then he went into his trailer."
Then, young Tom got "really excited" as hundreds of girls pressed against the chain-link fence. Many brandished album covers and photos, which one of Elvis' "Memphis mafia guys,” dutifully took into the trailer and returned, bearing authentic Elvis autographs.
Seeing the girls go wild over Elvis only added to the lasting impression on Tommy, his cousin Sadie said. “My sister and I were excited to watch them film a movie. But Tommy got caught up in the moment. It was like he was mesmerized with an imprint on his brain."
Tom and his cousins hung out the rest of the day and watched as the crew spent hours filming that one scene of Elvis getting out of the car and entering the bank. And every time Elvis' car rolled up, the crowd went "insane," breaking through the barricades and charging toward the star.
The full interview can be read here
http://www.gainesville.com/article/2007 ... ?p=1&tc=pg*Elvis had his natural hair colour for the movie.
"ELVIS PRESLEY'S TIME IN OCALA LEFT AN IMPRESSION ON EXTRA'S"
Oscala star banner January 8th 1995.
Ocala residents remember the day Elvis came to town
BY ANTHONY VIOLANTI STAR-BANNER
Published: Sunday, August 12, 2007 at 6:30 a.m.
One steamy July day in 1961, Elvis got the shakes and Ocala felt the heat.
Locals still recall rubbing elbows with Elvis.
"Follow That Dream," a comedy filmed in the summer of 1961 and released in 1962, didn't fare as well at the box office.
Maybe the film didn't pack in audiences, but Elvis had a blast. He came to town in a big limo, pulling a brand new ski boat behind. He stayed at the Port Paradise Hotel in Crystal River, along with his friends and Memphis entourage.
- Anthony Violanti
It happened during a break in the filming of "Follow That Dream." Part of the movie was shot in Ocala and other Central Florida locations, including Crystal River, Inverness and Yankeetown. During filming, Elvis stayed at the Port Paradise Hotel in Crystal River.
Elvis was doing a scene at the old Commercial Bank and Trust Company on State Road 40 in Ocala. The air conditioner was turned off, as the camera's microphones were picking up the noise. The heat was intense, and Elvis kept sweating through his denim shirts.
Outside, a couple thousand people gathered, with the hope of glimpsing Elvis. He looked out the window and, during a filming break, decided to give the people outside something to remember.
Elvis, 26, stepped through the door near the bank entrance. Once outside, he began to twist and shake his body as if he were singing "Hound Dog." The whole thing lasted about a minute, but that's all it took to thrill the crowd. The people began screaming, yelling and waving. After getting all shook up, Elvis gave the fans a big wave and darted back into the bank.
"It was incredible, unbelievable," said Louise Sherouse, now 69, who was there that day. "Elvis comes outside and starts doing all these gyrations, shaking everything. All the people went wild; the girls just couldn't stop screaming. It was hard to believe he was right with us in Ocala."
Elvis had been in Ocala once before, on May 10, 1955, at the old Southeastern Livestock Pavilion, during the dawn of his singing career. He was on a bill headlined by country singer Hank Snow. Six years later, Elvis was back in town for the film shoot.
Sherouse's father, the late Tom High, worked as a security guard in the bank and couldn't stand Elvis.
"I loved Elvis, and when he came on television, I asked my dad to watch," Sherouse said. "He hated the way he moved when he sang his songs. 'That is the most vulgar thing I've ever seen, 'Ê" High told his daughter, adding, "'That man should be ashamed of himself the way he shakes his hips and moves his body.'"
High changed his tune once he met Elvis.
"My dad came to really like Elvis," Sherouse said. "He said Elvis was so polite and well-mannered. Elvis would say, 'yes sir, yes ma'am.' He was wonderful with everyone, so humble and personable. You never felt he was some big star looking down on you. Just being around him made you feel good."
During one shooting break, Sherouse took her son, Tony, 4, to meet Elvis. "Here, let me hold him in my arms so you can get a picture," Elvis said, lifting Tony up.
"He was so gracious and nice," Sherouse added. "I'll never forget him."
A REGULAR GUY
The same holds true for the other locals who worked as extras and had other duties on "Follow That Dream"
George "Red" Langdon did a little bit of everything on the film set, including pal around with the star. One day, Langdon remembers, he and Elvis sat on the grass by the side of the road and threw small rocks into the water. "We just sat there talking, like I'm talking to you," said Langdon, now 74.
Langdon, with his Southern accent, good-ole'-boy personality and strawberry blond hair, seemed to fit right in with the hordes of pals, hangers-on and entourage of helpers who did everything for Elvis, from opening doors to buying sunglasses to lighting his cigarettes.
"I just hit it off with Elvis," Langdon said. "We were close to the same age, and he seemed a lot like me. He came across as a regular guy."
One day, Langdon asked Elvis for an autograph for his 4-year-old daughter. "Elvis asked to see a picture of my daughter and then he asked me her name. I told him, Lisa-Kim."
Elvis paused and, according to Langdon, said "Lisa's such a beautiful name. If I ever have a daughter, I'd like to name her Lisa."
Of course, Elvis and his wife, Priscilla, did have a daughter: Lisa Marie Presley, born Feb. 1, 1968.
Elvis had a way of relating to people, and that's one reason he was so admired, Langdon said. "He told me, 'Red, I know what it's like to be poor and I know what it's like to be rich. My fans mean everything to me.'"
LIKE A FANTASY
One fan was Linda Longo, who in 1961 was a 19-year-old beauty queen from Ocala. She landed a role as an extra in "Follow That Dream" and appears in a couple of scenes in the bank.
"I had a crush on Elvis - those eyes, that hair and that face," Longo said. "That man was beautiful. He had an aura about him. Elvis smiled at you and you just wanted to be with him. When he looked at you, you felt he was looking at you and no one else."
This was prime-time Elvis, circa 1961. He was young, strong, lean and cool. At times it didn't seem real to be on the set with Elvis, shooting a movie and then talking to him between takes. During one break, Longo said, Elvis sat in the corner of the bank and strummed some tunes on a guitar.
"It was like a fantasy," Longo said. These days, she said her three grown children - June, Beverly and Paolo - watch a video of "Follow That Dream" and always hit the pause button when mom comes on screen.
"It's a nice memory and very special to me," Longo said. "I was a big Elvis fan and had all his records and loved his movies."
It wasn't the rock or movie star that left an indelible mark on Longo, but Elvis the human being.
"Elvis was just so humble and down to earth, you couldn't help but like him," Longo said.
Richard Pembroke, another extra, shared those feelings.
"Elvis was as hometown as you could get," he said. "He'd walk up and talk to anybody."
When asked what he talked about, Pembroke replied, "We were both young guys, and we talked what young guys always talk about - women."
When not gabbing, "Elvis was working hard, memorizing lines," Pembroke said. "He came across as a regular guy, like a truck driver. But then he'd give a wiggle and shake, and people would go crazy. Kids followed him wherever he went; Elvis had something that was magic."
Elvis pictured with cast and Colonel Parker and his wife.
PART OF DOING BUSINESS
Martin Stephens said he was one of four Ocala police officers constantly assigned to guard Elvis. Stephens estimated more than 100 local security personnel were hired to work on the movie. One day, Elvis went to eat lunch with the movie crew at the old Marion Hotel. The four cops waited by the door when Elvis went inside. A few minutes later, Elvis returned.
"Hey guys," Stephens said Elvis told them, "we don't have a lot of time left, you better get in here and get something to eat." Stephens said Elvis ordered four steaks for the cops. "And Elvis ate a grilled cheese sandwich."
Col. Tom Parker, Elvis' manager, spoke to the officers about security early on.
"We thought the biggest thing we had to do was protect Elvis from his fans," said Stephens, who was paid $3 an hour for the work. "The Colonel told us not to worry if some fans got through and close to Elvis, because Elvis could handle it."
Most of the time, Stephens, said, Elvis did just that, signing autographs, taking pictures and making small talk.
"One time, the crowd was really getting big and they kept asking for autographs. I told him, 'Elvis, we can stop this.' He said, 'No, it's all part of doing business.'"
"He was one of the nicest, personable people I've ever met," said Stephens. "He liked cops and he respected police. I had just gotten out of the Army, and Elvis got out of the Army about a year before. We talked a lot about Army life and the military." Elvis was passionate about karate and put on a couple of demonstrations for the cops, breaking boards, Stephens said.
"Elvis was tough; he could handle himself," Stephens said. He recalled one incident in which a guy in the crowd was chiding Elvis and called him "hillbilly" and "pretty boy."
"I said, 'C'mon Elvis, let's go,'" Stephens said, adding he had no doubt Elvis could have ripped the guy apart - "if he wanted."
Red West who played a guard (unseen) and Elvis
ELVIS GETS UPSET
Bill Layton, then a 17-year-old extra on the set, remembered one time when Elvis got upset during the filming. The star kept changing his denim shirts in the July heat because he was sweating through them. No one on the set at the bank had an iron to press the shirts, Layton said, so his mother, Jean, had to go home and get one to use.
One scene, Layton said, took more than 30 takes and Elvis, hot, sweaty and tired, finally had enough. Elvis growled out in a loud voice, sprinkled with salty language, "What's it going to take to get this (expletive) scene done."
"He was human," Layton said. "But that was an exception, because as soon as you were around him, you knew Elvis was a genuinely nice guy who loved people."
The interior of the courthouse as seen today, and was used in the courtroom scene in the picture, located in Inverness Florida. Elvis was in Inverness for four days, and the courtroom audience consisted of employees of the courthouse and some teenagers.
Red West:
Follow That Dream was a real fun movie. Joanna Moore and Anne Helm were in it. That was the movie I got married on-married for real - and I spent my working honeymoon down in Florida getting paid and having a ball. We all had a real good time on that one. Elvis could kind of relax and play a character for a change- a slow, dumb, ol' country boy.
Walter Mirisch
The deal with Elvis was simple, we paid him $1 million flat, he received no participation, just cash. I hoped that we could develop properties in which the below-the-cost of the pictures would not be too high and, even including the $1 million that he was being paid would allow us to make the picture at an overall reasonable cost. That is exactly what we accomplished in both the films we produced with Elvis (Kid Galahad being the other picture)
We were preparing Kid Galahad script when another script 'Pioneer Go Home!' was brought to me by an ex-agent, Sam Jaffe, who intended to produce it himself, I was taken by it. I thought it offered an ideal vehicle for Elvis and could easily be tailored to his talents. Pioneer became 'Follow That Dream', and Charlews Lederer, its original screenwriter, did the script revisions.
I talked to Elvis about the script; he was polite and respectful and said he thought it would work out just fine. We agreed that he and his team of composers and lyricists would supply the songs through his publishing company, Hill and Range. For his scoring sessions, he used a scoring stage at Radio Recorders.
He selected the musicians, and he and the composers seemed to work out the songs as they went along. This was really quite unique for me, with the arrangements seemingly happening before my eyes. Elvis would be plucking on the guitar, and someone would come up with something and they'd pick up on it, and the lyrics would be interpolated. One of the songs was 'Follow That Dream'. Liking the song, and hoping it would be come a hit, we used it as the title of the picture.
Having gotton the screenplays in the works for the Presley pictures, I looked about for somebody to produce the pictures, go on location, and supervise on a day-to-day basis. I was just too involved in all the rest of our program. I chose David Weisbart, a man I had known for some time, who had previously produce Elvis's Fox picture, ‘Love Me Tender'.
David proposed that we employ Gordon Douglas to direct 'Follow That Dream'. Gordeon had worked for David previously, although I had never met him before. He had a long list of credits, and I agreed to the selection.
'Follow That Dream' was shot on location in Florida, in Tampa, Ocala, Yankeetown, Inverness, and Bird Creek. I never went to the locations. I saw the dailies, and I talked regularly on the telephone with David. We shot the interiors at the Goldwyn Studio.
I was pleased with 'Follow That Dream'. I thought it was a good picture and that it stood on its own even without the presence of its great star. I t disappointed me in that it wasn't a really big grosser. I t did well, but not nearly as well as I had hoped it would, unfortunately, we didn't get a hit title out of it.
The wife of Florida Governor Farris Bryant arriving for the world premiere of 'Follow That Dream' Ocala, Florida, opening: 11 Apr 1962
Sunday July 30th 1961(Day By Day)
In what might well be an extension of Snowmen's League business, the Colonel* arranges for a special ceremony honouring Elvis for his achievement in show business at an event in Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida, where the newly convened Elvis Presley Underwater Fan Club puts on a show for the assembled multitudes
*
Miss Mary Brent & Deena Watson from an great article about the making of 'Follow That Dream' ETMAHM No.40
Walter Mirsch from the book 'I thought we were making movies, not history' By Walter Mirisch
*FECC E-Cat
Red West - Elvis by those who knew him best by Rose Clayton and Dick Heard
David
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