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Change of Habit, Part 1 of 2
Elvis' thirty-first and last film as an actor was "Change of Habit".
The film was part of the deal that Colonel Parker worked out with
NBC for the 1968 NBC TV Special entitled "Elvis".
It was co-produced
by NBC and Universal Pictures. The film was shot in the Los Angeles
area and at the Universal Studios during March and April of 1969.
It
was released nationwide on November 10, 1969 and spent four weeks on
the Variety Box Office Survey, peaking at #17.
The film was directed by Will A. Graham who has directed a number of
television movies and series including "Dr. Killdare", "The
Fugitive" and "Get Christie Love". He was nominated in 1980 for an
Emmy Award for his work in "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones".
The writing was done by several acclaimed writers - Eric Bercovici,
James Lee, Richard Morris, John Joseph and S. S. Schweitzer.
Bercovici received an Emmy Award in 1981 for his work in "Shogun".
He was also nominated for an Emmy in 1978 for "Washington Behind
Closed Doors" and in 1973 he was nominated for a Writer's Guild
Award for "The Culpepper Cattle Company". Lee was nominated for an
Emmy Award in 1963, 1977, and 1980 for his work in "The Invincible
Mr. Disraeli", "Roots", and "This Year's Blonde" respectively.
Morris won a Writer's Guild Award in 1968 for "Thoroughly Modern
Millie". Joseph worked on the TV series "Bonanza". Schweitzer wrote
for TV series such as "Cannon" and "Police Woman" among others.
The story centers on a doctor and three nuns working in a clinic in
a very poor, ethnically mixed neighborhood. Elvis played Dr. John
Carpenter. Elvis later used the character's name as one of his
aliases when traveling incognito.
Sister Michelle Gallagher was played by Mary Tyler Moore.
The
writers based her character loosely on a real nun, Sister Mary
Olivia Gibson, who was in charge of the speech clinic at Maria
Regina College in Syracuse, New York. This Catholic College opened
in 1934 and closed in 1990. While there, Sister Mary used some of
the same techniques as depicted in the film in her work with
handicapped children. Mary Tyler Moore started out as a dancer
before becoming an actress.
Her first TV appearance was in 1955 as
the dancing elf "Happy Hotpoint" in Hotpoint brand appliance
commercials for the TV series "The Ozzie and Harriet Show". She also
played the answering service worker, Sam, in the 1959 CBS show
"Richard Diamond, Private Detective". In that role, her voice was
heard, but only her legs were seen. She won stardom and the hearts
of TV viewers in her long running roles in the "Dick Van Dyke Show"
and the "Mary Tyler Moore Show", both of which she won Emmy and
Golden Globe Awards for. She also starred in a number of films for
the big screen as well as for TV. She was nominated for an Academy
Award in 1981 for her work in "Ordinary People". She was nominated
for an Emmy for 1979's "First, You Cry", 1985's "Heartsounds", and
1988's "Lincoln".
She won an Emmy for the 1993's "Stolen Babies".
She and former husband Grant Tinker formed MTM Enterprises in 1969
and, in addition to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", co-produced such TV
series as "Lou Grant", "Hill Street Blues", "St. Elsewhere", "The
Bob Newhart Show", and "WKRP In Cincinnati". They sold MTM in 1990.
As a longtime sufferer of type 1 diabetes, Ms. Moore has been an
activist for diabetes research and its funding. On May 8, 2002, a
bronze statue of her famous hat-toss in opening titles of "The Mary
Tyler Moore Show" was dedicated. It is displayed at the same
Minneapolis intersection where the scene was filmed for the show. |
