Photo: ALAN SPEARMAN/AFP/Getty Images
On November 15, 1956, ‘Love Me Tender’with the singer Elvis Presley In its big screen debut, it opens in New York City at the Paramount Theatre.
Set in Texas after the American Civil War, the film, co-starring Richard Egan and Debra Paget, featured Elvis as Clint Reno, the younger brother of a Confederate soldier.
Originally titled The Reno Brothersthe film was renamed ‘Love Me Tender’ prior to its release, after a song of the same name that Reno sings during the film.
Presley, who became one of the biggest icons in entertainment history, sang in the blockbuster ‘Love Me Tender’as well as most of the 33 films (31 feature films and two theatrically released concert documentaries) he made in his career.
Actor and singer
Elvis Aaron Presley, who was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, began his music career with Sun Records in Memphis in 1954.
In March 1956, he released his first album for RCA, Elvis Presley, which went to the top of Billboard’s pop albums chart and launched him on his way to superstardom.
At the end of March of that same year, Presley had her first screen test in Hollywood, for a movie called The Rainmaker. She didn’t get the part, which went to Burt Lancaster, and instead began shooting ‘Love Me Tender’ in August.
Shortly thereafter, on September 9, 1956, Elvis made the first of three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the popular variety show received record ratings.
When Elvis made his third appearance on the show, television censors allowed him to be shown only from the waist up, fearing his gyrating hips would shock the nation.
In November 1957, Presley’s third film, Jailhouse Rock, was released theatrically in the United States.
The film, considered by many critics to be one of his best, contains the now iconic “cell block” dance production number, choreographed by Elvis and set to his song “Jailhouse Rock.”
Elvis’ fourth movie King Creole, was released in July 1958 and is also considered outstanding, earning him some of the strongest reviews of his acting career. Co-starring Walter Matthau, Carolyn Jones, Vic Morrow and Dean Jagger, King Creole was directed by Michael Curtiz of White House and it was based on a novel by Harold Robbins called A Stone for Danny Fisher.
The eighth film of “King of Rock ‘n’ Roll”Blue Hawaii, was released in 1961 and ushered in an era of Presley movies with light plots, pretty girls, and multiple musical numbers.
His other films from this time include Acapulco Fun (1963), Viva Las Vegas (1964), Clambake (1967), and Girl Trouble (1969). Elvis’ 29th movie, a western called Charro! in which he sported a beard, it was released in 1968 and is the only film in which he does not sing on camera.
Presley’s last feature film was Change of Habit (1970), in which he played a doctor and Mary Tyler Moore played a nun.
After suffering health problems and drug dependency, Elvis died at the age of 42 on August 16, 1977 at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee.
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