 Elvis
Presley's ninth movie was "Follow That Dream".
It was based on Richard Powell's 1957 novel "Pioneer, Go Home",
the story of the Kwimper family,
who homesteaded on land along a newly built highway in Florida.
When the Kwimper family
car runs out of gas on a new Florida highway and an
officous state supervisor tries to run them off, Pop
Kwimper digs in his heels and decides to do a little
homesteading. He and his son Toby and their "adopted"
children - Holly, Ariadne and the twins - start their
own little community along a strip of the roadside.
The fishing is good and
the living is easy until the mob sets up a gambling
operation and the state supervisor sticks a sexy social
worker on the Kwimpers in an effort to take away Ariadne
and the twins.
Follow That Dream" opened
nationwide on May 23, 1962 and peaked at #5 on the
Variety Box Office Survey. The location shots for
"Follow That Dream" took place in July and August of
1961 near Crystal River, Ocala, Inverness, and Tampa
Florida. Elvis arrived by chartered bus and stayed at
the Port Paradise Hotel in Crystal River. Following
behind the bus in Elvis' limo an pulling his new ski
boat were his friends/entourage members Alan Fortas and
Lamar Fike.
 Elvis
played Toby Kwimper, who had
an unique method for avoiding amorous women and tempting situations
- reciting his multiplication tables.
In "Follow That Dream",
as with many of his films, Elvis worked with some of the
best talent in the movie business.
Arthur
O'Connell
played Pop Kwimper. The family patriarch believed he was
helping the government by taking advantage of their
various assistance programs. Mr. O'Connell would play
Elvis' father again in the 1964 film "Kissin'
Cousins". He was nominated for an Academy Award
as Best Supporting Actor in the 1955 film "Picnic" and
Anne Helm
played Holly Jones, one of the women interested in making Toby
forget his math. Ms. Helm, a native of Canada, moved to New York at
age 14, studying ballet and beginning to model. Eventually, she
moved to California and worked in numerous TV series and in movies
such as "Desire In the Dust", "The Magic Sword" and "The Interns".
She and Elvis dated during the filming of "Follow That Dream".
During the Elvis Presley Birthday Celebration 2002, she was a
special guest at the Elvis Fan Club Presidents' Luncheon and shared
her memories of their time together. That year's luncheon was themed
around the 40th anniversary of the film.
Also visiting
Graceland in
January 2002 and appearing as press lunch guests were the twins Gavin
and Robin Koon, who played twins Eddy and Teddy Bascombe in the
movie. They shared with the fans their memories of making this movie
from the viewpoint of two nine-year-old boys. They remembered being
in awe of the movie grips and all their muscles and the interesting
equipment they moved in and around the set. They also recounted the
many movie takes that were required to get the famous candy bar
scenes filmed. The twins were always sharing a single candy bar and
often one twin got a little more than the other in attempting to
break the bar evenly. Just for old times' sake the Graceland staff
provided all attending with their own souvenir candy bar.
Joanna Moore played Alisha Claypoole, the state welfare
supervisor who became vindictive when Toby remembered his math and
rejected her. Ms. Moore married and divorced actor Ryan O'Neal, with
whom she had two children - Oscar winning daughter Tatum O'Neal and
son Griffin O'Neal. Moore had a long career with roles in TV series
and movies. Some of the movies she worked in were, "Ride A Crooked
Trail", "The Last Angry Man", "Walk On the Wild Side" and "Nevada
Smith". A recurring role for her on television was Andy Taylor's
girlfriend Peg on "The Andy Griffith Show".
Roland
Winters played the judge. You might remember his playing
Elvis' father in the film "Blue
Hawaii".
Howard McNear
played George the bank loan officer. He was in two other
Elvis movies. He played Elvis' boss at the tourist service office in
"Blue Hawaii" and he played
Dr. Stevers in "Fun In Acapulco".
He is best known for his role as Floyd the barber on the television
series "The Andy Griffith Show".
Veteran character actor
Herbert Rudley played Mr. Endicott, the bank president who
took the Kwimper family under his wing and helped them start their
business.
Several other veteran character actors portrayed
the gangsters in this film. Carmine was played by Jack Kruschen, who
was nominated for an Academy Award for his supporting role in the
1960 film "The Apartment". Simon Oakland, who played Nick, began in
show business as a concert violinist, but he had a long career
playing tough guys in films such "West Side Story", "Psycho" and
"Bullitt".
The film was edited by William B. Murphy, who
received an Academy Award nomination in 1967 for his work on
"Fantastic Voyage". The makeup artist was Daniel C. Striepeke, who
was nominated for an Academy Award for his work in the 1994 film
"Forrest Gump" and for his work in the 1998 film "Saving Private
Ryan". He was nominated for a 1976 Emmy Award for television's
"Beauty and The Beast". He won an award from the Hollywood Makeup
Artist and Hair Stylist Guild for the 2001 film "Castaway" and was
nominated again this year for the film "The Road To Perdition".
The film was directed by
Gordon Douglas, who began his career as an actor in the
early 1930's, but was soon directing the "Our Gang"
series of movies for RKO. He also directed such films as
"Robin and the 7 Hoods", "Harlow", "Stagecoach", "Tony
Rome" and "The Detective
The screenplay was
written by Charles Lederer, whose writing credits
include "Ocean's Eleven", and "Mutiny On the Bounty". He
was nominated five times for Writers Guild of America
awards for his screenplays.
Producer David Weisbart
also produced the Elvis movies "Love
Me Tender", "Flaming
Star" and "Kid
Galahad". Leo Tover, the cinematographer, also
worked on the Elvis film "Love
Me Tender". Tover was nominated twice for the
Academy Award for his work in films.
The
executive producer was Walter Mirisch, who received an
Academy Award for the 1968 film "In The Heat of the
Night". He received the Golden Globe Awards' Cecil B.
DeMille Award in 1977. In 1978, he received the
Academy's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and the Jean
Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
Musical scoring was
done by seven-time Academy Award nominee Hans J. Salter.
The art director was Malcolm C. Bert, who was nominated
twice for an Academy Award.
 Soundtrack
Follow That
Dream 1:37 (Fred Wise/Ben Weisman)
Angel 2:38 (Sid
Tepper / Roy C. Bennett)
What A Wonderful Life 2:26 (Sid
Wayne/Jerry Livingston)
I’m Not The Marrying Kind 1:49
(Mack David/Sherman Edwards)
Sound Advice 1:45
(Giant/Baum/Kaye)
The song "A Whistling
Tune" was dropped from this movie, but later re-recorded
and used for the film Kid Galahad. Elvis disliked the
song "Sound Advice" so much that he requested it be left
off the soundtrack EP. It turned up later on the
non-movie album "Elvis for Everyone" in 1965.
Recorded at:
RCA Studios, 17th Avenue, South Nashville. July 1961.
Musicians:
Elvis Presley (vocals), Scotty Moore, Hank Garland &
Neal Mathews (guitars), Bob Moore (bass), D.J Fontana,
Buddy Harman (drums), Floyd Cramer (piano),
Millie Kirkham and
The Jordanaires
(vocals)
Follow That
Dream - United Artists 1962
Directed
Gordon Douglas
Writing Credits Richard Powell (III)
(Novel), Charles Lederer
Producer Kavid Weisbart
Art Direction Mal Bert
Music Hans J Salter
Cast Overview
Elvis Presley .... Toby Kwimper, Arthur O'Connell....
Pop Kwimper,
Anne Helm
.... Holly Jones, Joanna Cook Moore.... Alisha
Claypoole, Jack Kruschen .... Carmine, Simon Oakland
.... Nick, Roland Winters .... Judge, Alan Hewitt ....
H. Arthur King, Howard McNear .... George, Frank DeKova
.... Jack, Herbert Rudley .... Endicott, Gavin Koon ....
Eddy Bascombe, Robin Koon .... Teddy Bascombe, Robert
Carricart.... Al
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