Happy Birthday Elvis

If you grew up in the 50's or 60's, you were probably an Elvis fan. I was, but not one of those crazy girls that swooned and cried. I loved his music, his voice and his looks. I was lucky enough to meet him and watch him work on the set of the movie Follow That Dream, in 1962.

My next door neighbor growing up was Vicki Weisbart, daughter of film producer David Weisbart. He is best known for his work on Rebel Without a Cause, but he also produced many movies in the 50's and 60's, several of them Elvis movies. In 1962 David took his daughter Vicki and I to the set to watch a day of filming on the movie Follow That Dream. You can imagine how excited I was. Even though I had been around Hollywood celebrities most of my life, I had never met anyone like Elvis Presley.

My most vivid memory of Elvis is how absolutely gorgeous he was. He was clean cut, had slicked back black hair that was so dark it almost looked blue. He had impeccable Southern manners. He was gracious, took pictures with us, and spent time asking us about ourselves.

The funniest part of the day (most of it was boring, lots of down time on a movie set) was when Elvis was doing a love scene where he had to kiss a girl. Remember, this was the early 1960's and his movies were very clean cut, so a kiss was a big deal. They worked on that kiss for at least 2 hours. They just couldn't get it right. I can only imagine what it would be like to try to do a love scene with 30-40 people watching your every move. Anyway, the day was something I will never forget, and I recall it every year when I hear it's Elvis' birthday. I saw him once again in person, year before he died. We were in Las Vegas at a Wayne Newton show, and Elvis was in the audience just a few rows behind us. He didn't look anything like I remembered him. He was so fat I couldn't believe it. (all those prescription drugs, I guess). I like to remember him as the suave, handsome man with the beautiful voice, that kissed me on the cheek when I was 16 years old. What a great memory.

I heard about Elvis' death in 1977 when I was shopping with Brian (my son) at Sears. Brian must have been about 9 years old and we were buying him some new pants for school. Someone came in the dressing room and announced that Elvis had died. Funny how you remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when some famous people died. I'm sure you all remember where you were when Kennedy was shot, Diana was killed and when John Lennon was killed.

Every once in a while I get in an Elvis mood and turn on Sirius radio to the Elvis station and get a good dose of his beautiful voice. He sure could sing. Then once a year, around his birthday, I remember the time I actually met him...