"Elvis"

We finally got around to seeing "Elvis", the Baz Luhrmann directed biopic on Elvis Presley, as seen though the eyes of his shyster manager, Col. Tom Parker.   The critics reviews on this movie have been, to be kind, mixed, which, combined with the fact that it's two hours and forty minutes long, had pervented me from rushing out to see it, but in the end, I am glad that I saw it, because it was a good movie, quite entertaining, and, despite the long running time, I never once checked my watch as I viewed it.  I highly recommend it.

First off, as the opening title came on and the first twenty or so minutes of the movie played out, my thought was "Yep, this is a Baz Luhrmann movie alright", but soon thereafter, Luhrmann played down the sensory overload (see Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby") and told the story of Elvis and Parker fairly straightforwardly, and, I must say, he hit it out of the park.  As I said, the story is told through the viewpoint of Col. Tom Parker, played by the great Tom Hanks, and he is the narrator of the movie.  Critics have not been kind to Hanks on this one, and he is saddled with some facial prosthetic make-up and a fat suit, a hokey Dutch accent, and he does tend to, shall we say, chew into the role.  It's not vintage Tom Hanks, to be sure, but hey, it is TOM HANKS, so attention must be paid.

The true star here, though, is 30 year old Austin Butler as Elvis.  Butler was pretty much unknown to me.  He came up through he ranks in Disney Channel and Nickelodeon productions, and he had a small but significant role as Manson Family member Tex Watson in "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood", but, his Elvis portrayal can truly be called a breakout role if ever there was one.  Early on in the movie, he brings to mind a young John Travolta, but when the movie takes you to the 1968 Comeback Special and the Las Vegas era Elvis, Butler  becomes Presley and completely carries the movie.  The mixed critical reviews of the movie and the summer release may cause Academy Award voters to overlook or ignore Butler's performance, but if he would manage to snare a Best Actor nomination for this one, it won't be undeserved.

Austin Butler alongside

the genuine article

And Luhrmann chooses to end the movie with a performance from the real Elvis that is both wonderful and sad at the same time.  Of the 2022 release date movies that I have seen thus far this year, I rank this as Number 1 and give it, what the Hell, Four Grandstander Stars.

An Elvis Movie: "Tickle Me"

Like many people, I have a number of "guilty pleasures", and I am willing to own up to many of them.  One of those guilty pleasures are cheesy Elvis Presley movies, and last night, thanks to TCM and my DVR, I was able to watch one of my favorites from the Elvis oeuvre, "Tickle Me", released in 1965.

In this one, Elvis plays out of work rodeo rider Lonnie Beal.  To make ends meet while waiting for the rodeo season to begin, Lonnie takes a job singing (what else) in a saloon in some out of the way desert town somewhere out west.  The job lasts one night because a drunken patron's girlfriend swoons over Lonnie (of course she does) and gets into a fist fight (of course he does) with him and pretty much wrecks the joint.  By the way, this was the first of, I believe five fist fights (I honestly lost count) that Lonnie gets into over the course of the movie.  That's high even by Elvis Movie standards.

Not to worry, though, because another customer, Vera Radford (Julie Adams) takes a shine to Lonnie (of course she does), and hires him to work with the horses on her ranch.  

Julie Adams and Elvis

The ranch turns out to be a spa/dude ranch for rich women to lose weight and stay in shape for their rich husbands.  You can see what happens, right?  All the women fall for the handsome Lonnie and his penchant to break out in song (nine songs over the course of the ninety minute movie) at the drop of a cowboy hat.  Complications ensue.

Of course, only one woman catches Lonnie's eye, and that is Pam Merritt (Jocelyn Lane), the ranch's exercise instructor, and she 

Jocelyn Lane

has no use (of course she doesn't) for a "saddle tramp" like Lonnie Beal.  This is how we first meet Pam as she leads her exercise class.  No wonder she catches Lonnie's eye!

Lonnie meets Pam

Love at first sight, and who can blame him!

Anyway, there is a sub-plot to this movie that involves Pam's looking for a treasure in gold which her grandfather left hidden in some desert ghost town, and a bunch of bad guys who are after her because they want to steal the Old Man's gold.  The plot doesn't really matter as it just serves as a flimsy excuse for Elvis to sing a bunch of songs, be chased by a bunch of bikini clad women, and get into fist fights as he pursues, and eventually - spoiler alert! - wins over the beautiful Pam.

The movie was directed by Norman Taurog, who directed a whole bunch of Elvis movies and Jerry Lewis movies, and written by two guys who devoted much of their careers to writing for the Three Stooges, and that pretty much tells you all you need to know about what this one is all about.

By regular movie standards, this gets maybe One Star from The Grandstander, but by Elvis Movie Standards, it gets Two and One-half Stars.

As I often do after seeing one of these epics, I did some research on Elvis' leading lady in this one, Jocelyn Lane.  She was born in Austria in 1937 (she will turn 82 next month!), went to school in New York City, but her family moved to England when she was fourteen.  She became a model and a cover girl before she was recruited to act in movies.  Undeniably beautiful, she was dubbed the "British Bardot", and you can find lots of photos of her like this on your Google Machine.

You can also find one that she did for Playboy back in the '60's, but, as is my policy, I am keeping The Grandstander family friendly.

She has 42 acting credits listed in IMDB, and her acting career pretty much dried up after 1970.  She married a Spanish prince, had a daughter, got divorced, and has never remarried.  Like I said, she turns 82 next month. I hope that she is living comfortably and in good health.

These kinds of things just tickle me (so to speak).

Seattle, Elvis, and Joan O'Brien

In anticipation of a trip to Seattle later this year, and always being a sucker for Elvis Presley movies, we settled in and watched this one last night.

This 1963 movie was set in Seattle at the time of the World's Fair in that city.  Lots of scenes of the Space Needle and the futuristic monorail system in place at that Fair.  Also - Surprise! - Elvis wooed several  different women (including future Batgirl Yvonne Craig), fell in love with one who resisted him (at first), got into two different fist fights, and sang ten songs.  In other words, standard fare for an Elvis flick.  I also have to say that even for the incredibly low bar of the typical Elvis movie, this one was Cheesy beyond belief, but what the hell, when you watch a movie from The King, you know in advance that you ain't getting "Citizen Kane".  

What interested me in this movie was the love interest played by actress Joan O'Brien.

O'Brien was an actress with whom I was not familiar, and she did not seem to be a "typical" Elvis love interest from his filmography.  So, I went to the Google Machine to do a bit of research.  O'Brien got her start in show biz as a singer, doing stints with several Big Bands, and even had a brief shot as a fill in for Lawrence Welk's "Champagne Lady".  She took a shot at acting in the late 1950's.  Her most well known roles were in "Operation Petticoat" (1959) with Cary Grant and Tony Curtis, "The Alamo" (1960) with John Wayne, and "It Happened At the World's Fair".  She was 27 years old when this one was made (Presley was 28), and it was reported that she and Elvis had a romantic fling when the movie was filming.  This was standard operating procedure for Elvis.  It is interesting to note that while Miss O'Brien came into show biz as a singer, she only sang a few lines in the closing number of "It Happened...."  With exception of Ann Margaret, I can't recall many female leads who did a lot of singing in the Elvis Film Canon.

(Joan and Elvis dining at the 

Space Needle in the movie.)

After "It Happened At The World's Fair", O'Brien appeared in only one more movie, a teen movie called "Get Yourself a College Girl" with Nancy Sinatra in 1964.  She did some guest spots in a few TV series, the last being in a show called "Valentine's Day" in 1965 after which she walked away from the acting profession.  She sang again for a little while with the Harry James Orchestra, but in 1968 she left show business for good in order to raise her two children.  She went on to have a successful executive career with the Hilton Hotel chain.

Joan O'Brien is still alive and turned 81 years of age this past Valentine's Day.

Maybe it's just me, but I find this kind of stuff interesting.

Graceland

Two weeks ago in this space I wrote of our trip earlier this month to Tennessee, and I mentioned that some aspects of that trip deserved their own write-up, one of them being our visit to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, in Memphis, TN.

When we knew last year that we would be traveling to a wedding in Nashville this November, then tacking on a few extra days to drive to Memphis and see this site was a no-brainer.  This was something that had long been on our Bucket List, and once we got there and toured the place, we can honestly say that it completely exceeded all of our expectations.

When you arrive at Graceland, what you actually arrive at  is the Graceland Visitors Center, which is across the street, the aptly named Elvis Presley Boulevard, from the house itself.  (More on the Visitors Center later.)  It is there that you pick up your tickets (we had purchased ours in advance on line), and board a tour van that drives you across the street and on to the grounds.  One does not just walk through the famous gates and up to the door of Graceland.  You are given an iPad with headphones, and that becomes your "tour guide" to the house and grounds.  Actor John Stamos narrates the video on the iPad that you are seeing which guides you throughout the place.  It is very well done.

While Graceland is a very nice home, the house is actually smaller than you might think.  The decorations that were in place in 1977 are maintained, and let's just say that Elvis' ideas of home decor may not quite agree with yours or mine.

Nice wall and ceiling coverings in the Billiard Room!

The famous Jungle Room.

And some nice portraits on display:

The second floor of the house is closed off to the public, so the Tour takes you only through the first floor.  You then go outside of the house to various additions and out buildings, and these have been turned into a true museum to Elvis.  You also see a child's swing set, circa 1970 or so, that was Lisa Marie's.  It was kind of a touching thing to see, really.

Elvis also had a racquetball court built at Graceland that included this living/seating area:

It was in this room, you are told, that Elvis, on August 16, 1977,after a morning out with friends, came into this room sat at the piano, sang a couple go songs, including "Unchained Melody", and then retired to his room to rest, and it was there that he died.  It was rather moving.

Of course, it is no longer a racquetball court, as the space is now devoted to more of a display of Elvis artifacts and memorabilia.  

The Tour concludes in the Meditation Gardens, where Elvis is buried along with his parents and grandmother.

Again, it may appear to be a bit over the top, but in context, it is a touching and respectful area.

Going into the place, Marilyn and I were expecting a very high degree of Tackiness at Graceland, and I must say that, Elvis' interior decorations aside, we did not see that.  However, when you went through  the Visitor's Center upon your return from Graceland itself, that Tacky Factor manifests itself.  No less than fourteen separate gift shops where you can buy just about anything with the image of Elvis Presley upon it.  Capitalism at work, not to mention the laws of supply and demand, and, yes, in case you are wondering, we dropped a few bucks throughout the place.

Not all of the Visitors Center was tacky, though.  One place was called the Elvis Archives, and it was showcase of the efforts of museum professionals to catalogue, archive, preserve, and display all of the "stuff" accumulated over the life and career of Elvis Presley.  That was fascinating to see.   And everyplace you go throughout the Visitor's Center is playing Elvis Presley music, and this is certainly not a bad thing.

The Visitors Center also has Elvis' two airplanes on display, which were pretty cool to walk through.

There were a lot of people at Graceland on this Thursday morning in November,  but we can't say that it was crowded, which was good for us, because it afforded us a more leisurely tour of the place.  We cannot imagine what it must be like in the Summer at the height of the vacation and tourism season.   Obviously, Graceland is one of the largest tourist attractions in the State of Tennessee and the United States, and we, Marilyn and I, cannot recommend it highly enough.  

The Tennessee Waltz (With A Splash of Kentucky Bourbon)

It was at about this time last year that my friend Roger Hansen told me that his daughter Alyssa became engaged, that the wedding would take place in November of 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee, where Alyssa and Adam resided, and that we would be invited to attend.  Thus began a year long process of planning the logistics for a trip to Tennessee.  Nashville is not a quick drive, so Marilyn and I decided that we were going to make a real vacation out of it.  That we were going to do and see things (including one item that had long been on our personal Bucket List) because, honestly, when will we ever be in that part of the country again?

So it was that on Tuesday morning, after being numbers 10 and 11 to vote at our polling place, we set off on this great southern adventure.  The trip took us through five states, covered 1,744 miles, had us spending time in four different hotels, and a lot of time in the car (and, by the way, what did we do before there were in-car navigation systems? What a great invention!), but it turned out to be one tremendous trip.

In chronological order, this is what we did.  Many of these stops along the way deserve their own separate Grandstander posts, so watch for them over the course of the next few days and weeks.  Here we go....

First stop on Tuesday, the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory.

Yep, that's me next to the giant bat.

Dinner in Louisville was at a sports bar called the Cardinal Hall of Fame Cafe, and even though you have to be well into your sixties to have actual memories of this guy playing, I was glad to see that Johnny U. holds  prominent position on the wall at this place.

Wednesday morning, we hit the road and entered Tennessee.

We arrived in Memphis (about a six hour drive from Louisville) and then checked into the famous Hotel Peabody.

During the course of her business travels over the years, Marilyn had once stayed at the Peabody, an old-style luxury hotel, and our spending two nights there was a true indulgence on our part, but it was well worth it.  What a treat.

That afternoon, we visited two historic sites.  The first was the Sun Records recording studio,

where legendary record producer Sam Phillips discovered a young Memphis boy named Elvis Presley.  Elvis made his first recordings at Sun and signed his first recording contract there.  The place has become a museum, of sorts, to Phillips, Presley, and legendary blues, country, and rock artists such as B.B. King, Howling Wolf, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis.  It is still an active recording studio and contemporary artists like Ringo Starr and U2 have recorded there.

The tour ends in the very studio where Presley made those first recordings.  Hallowed ground to be sure.  You also get a chance to pose with the "very mic that Elvis used" to  make those recordings.

Personally, I am a bit dubious that that was THE microphone, but so what?  For a few seconds, anyway, I was in the footsteps of The King.

From Sun Records, it was on to the Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

A very sobering experience.

Back to The Peabody in time to see the famous Peabody Ducks, and their march out of the lobby fountain to the elevator and their home in the Duck Palace on the roof of the hotel.

No trip to Memphis would be complete without a visit to this famous spot.

Thursday morning was that major Bucket List item to which I referred  earlier....

Yes, Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley.  A visit to Graceland is something that Marilyn and I have talked about forever, and it finally happened.  This visit will get its own Grandstander post in the days ahead, so watch for that.  I will only say here that the place exceeded all expectations that we had for it.  An awesome experience.

Okay, Friday morning it was back in the car for another three hours or so to head for Nashville.  When we arrived, we met up with our friend David Cicotello, and we then experienced a real Nashville treat, The Bluebird Cafe.

Like Graceland, the visit the The Bluebird deserves its own write-up, so that will be coming soon.  Many thanks to David for suggesting the place and putting the visit together.

Saturday morning was spent visiting The Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States.

On the grounds, both Jackson and his wife are entombed in a small family cemetery.

This marks the fifth Presidential grave that I have visited:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Woodrow Wilson, and John Kennedy being the others.

And, of course, ex-banker Marilyn couldn't resist this cornball touristy photo op:

Saturday night, of course, was the raison d'être (Definition: "The most important reason or purpose for someone's or something's existence.")  for the entire trip, the wedding of Alyssa Hansen and Adam Korsvik. 

I know of few things that are happier to be a part of than a wedding, and this one was no exception.  This one was bittersweet, though, because the world lost Denise Hansen, Roger's wife and Alyssa's mom five years ago.  However, we all have faith to know that Denise was there on Saturday night and watching with all of the pride and love that any Mom has on such an occasion.

It was a terrific event.  

We got to spend some time with a bunch of old Highmark friends...

and we cleaned up pretty well ourselves for the night.

Sunday morning, it was back in the car for a three hour drive to Louisville where we visited the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs,

where The Grandstander got to pose before one of the most famous Grandstands in the world,

and where I was able to take a photo that will be popping up on both The Grandstander and my Facebook feeds in the future (regular readers will know the context of this):

The final stop on this Grand Tour was the Muhammad Ali Center. 

This is a remarkable museum and cultural center.  It features three floors of exhibit space devoted to Louisville's most famous favorite son.  Lots of video and interactive exhibits.  Terrific stuff, and a must see if you are ever in Louisville.

We broke the trip up by leaving Louisville and stopping about halfway home and staying in a hotel on Sunday night.  It made for a shorter and more relaxing trip home.  We packed a lot of stuff into six days, and it will go down as one of our most memorable trips ever.