elvis Facts, Roustabout, 1 / 3

Roustabout, 1/ 3

Elvis's sixteenth movie was the 1964 Paramount film "Roustabout."

Having at one time been a carnival worker, the idea for a picture with a carnival background had been that of Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis's manager. However, Colonel was adamant that the movie "not cheapen carnival life....that this was a wholesome way of life in which the participants had a legitimate pride."

The movie was first announced in May of 1961, but production was delayed until March of 1964. In the time between there were changes. Among them were: that the working title went from "Right This Way Folks" to "Roustabout;" that Elvis's character name changed from Charlie Main to Charlie Rogers; and that the character of carnival owner Maggie Moore changed to Maggie Morgan; and that the actress chosen to play Morgan changed from Mae West to Barbara Stanwyck.

The writers were Anthony Lawrence and Allan Weiss.
Anthony Lawrence later worked on the scripts for the Elvis movies "Paradise Hawaiian Style" and "Easy Come, Easy Go" and the 1979 TV biopic "Elvis," starring Kurt Russell in the title role. Among his other credits are a number of TV series including "The Fugitive," "Hawaii Five-O," "Cannon," "Quincy" and "The Blue Knight."

Allan Weiss was the screenwriter for the Elvis flims "Blue Hawaii," "Girls! Girls! Girls!," "Fun In Acapulco," "Paradise Hawaiian Style" and "Easy Come, Easy Go." He once remarked that the scripts were written to producer Hal Wallis's specifications: "Wallis kept the screenplays shallow. I was asked to create a believable framework for twelve songs and lots of girls." However true this was, both Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Weiss received a nomination from the Writers Guild of America in 1965 for their work on "Roustabout" as the Best Written American Musical of 1964.

The director was John Rich and this was his first time to work with Elvis. He came from a strong background in TV, having directed such series as "Our Miss Brooks," "I Married Joan," "Gunsmoke," "The Rifleman," "The Andy Griffith Show," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Gilligan's Island." He was anxious to break into film directing with Hal Wallis. He wasn't impressed with Elvis's entourage and their constant hanging around and playing practical jokes on one another. Elvis told Mr. Rich, "...when these damn movies cease to be fun, I'll stop doing them. And if my guys go, (expletive), so do I." Elvis and Mr. Rich had gotten off to a shaky start when Elvis cajoled the director into allowing him to do his own stunt fight, which was very uncommon then due to the possibility of the star's being hurt and shutting down production. When Elvis indeed was hurt in the stunt and required several stitches above his eye, Mr. Rich was afraid to tell Hal Wallis that he'd allowed their star to become injured. Then he came up with a plan to write into the script the bandage that covered the stitches and thus production wasn't halted and Wallis was appeased. John Rich later directed Elvis in "Easy Come, Easy Go." By that time he was disillusioned with Hal Wallis and his methods and had developed a respect for Elvis. He returned to directing TV series including such programs as "All In The Family," "Sanford and Son," "Maude," "The Jeffersons," "Barney Miller," "Newhart", "Dear John" and "Murphy Brown" among others. He has received many accolades including seven Emmy nominations with three Emmy wins.

On February 26, 1964, Elvis reported to Paramount for pre-production. He started with soundtrack recording sessions at Radio Recorders of Hollywood. On March 3, Elvis recorded the version of the title song "Roustabout" that was written by Otis Blackwell and Winfield Scott. It was not used in the film. Instead they used a different song with the same title written by Bill Giant, Bernie Baum and Florence Kaye. Elvis recorded his vocals for that second song on April 29, 1964 after the principal photography was shot. An acetate of Elvis's long-thought-lost Blackwell/Scott song was found in Winfield Scott's basement and RCA first released it as a bonus track on the 2003 ELVIS 2ND TO NONE album. To differentiate it from the one used in the movie, the title was changed to "I'm a Roustabout."

Elvis became frustrated during these sessions when he wanted The Jordanaires to back him up on a song that he would be seen singing alone in the film while riding a motorcycle down the road. One of the producers questioned him as to where the backup singers would be in the shot. Elvis snapped back,
"The same damn place as the band!"

One of the songs in the film, "It's A Wonderful World," written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett,
was for a time in contention for an Academy Award nomination as Best Song.