This event has passed.
Elvis in Hollywood (Hybrid)
Thursday, September 28 | 1:30 pm - 2:30 pm | add to Google Calendar
This is a Zoom event. To receive the link and watch from home, click here to register.
The presentation will also be broadcast on our big screen in the Yeager Community Room. No registration necessary for watching it at the library. Please note the speaker will NOT be here in person.
From 1956 to 1969, Elvis Presley made 31 films, playing the above-the-title star in all but one. That’s an extraordinary achievement and it helped make him one of the wealthiest performers in Hollywood as a result. But unfortunately, Elvis’ dream of being taken seriously as an actor and becoming a true movie star was never fulfilled, thanks to the almost insatiable greed and crass commercial instincts of his manager, Col. Tom Parker. This talk will examine the ups and downs of Presley’s Hollywood career, which started off with such promise in films like King Creole and Jailhouse Rock but would ultimately conclude with dozens of cheap, mediocre movies like Harum Scarum and Paradise, Hawaiian Style that dimmed his creativity and his reputation during the 1960s. We’ll also look at some of his movie musical highlights, including “Love Me Tender,” “Return to Sender,” and “Viva Las Vegas.”
Presented by: BRIAN ROSE is a professor emeritus at Fordham University, where he taught for 38 years in the Department of Communication and Media Studies. He’s written several books on television history and cultural programming, and conducted more than a hundred Q&A’s with leading directors, actors, and writers for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Screen Actors Guild, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Directors Guild of America.