(131) EP ENTERPRISES : ELVIS' FOOTBALL TEAM

Elvis' football team was called EP Enterprises. At five foot ten, I was one of the smaller guys on it. We played in public parks against other teams, sometimes comprised of people from the studios, often pick up teams. We even played at Los Angeles Valley College, which is still there, in Valley View (then Van Nuys), in the San Fernando Valley. Some members of The Entourage played football too.

I've heard it stated that other teams let Elvis and his team win a lot. Not at all! I remember playing some vicious games with Elvis and his team coming away from a game with their clothes ripped and muddy! Elvis carried extra clothes with him to change into and gave me a shirt of his to replace one of mine that was destroyed. Gary Lockwood, who had started out as a real football player was on the team. Sometimes other teams put some real football players on theirs! Maybe we weren't playing to kill but they were. Maybe we were playing for fun, but we wanted to win!

It is through playing football on Elvis' team that I met a singer I'd always admired but had never met up with before, despite the New York days when I met the Everly Brothers, or the road tour days with Buddy Knox; Rick Nelson!

(130) TUESDAY WELD INGENUE

Tuesday Weld had a wild unconventional reputation. To compare, maybe we could say sort of like the actress Drew Barrymore had early on; there were other similarities including growing up way too fast. She looked innocent and sexy and she had a quality to her of being very modern for the times. Elvis and his friends liked that quality in women.

I know a lot of information on the net says Tuesday and Elvis had an off screen romance but not to my knowledge. Let's just say that Tuesday showed up with Gary Lockwood for football games and that more than one member of the Entourage was interested in her, meaning, if you have read what I've said about Elvis and his policy about women, anything that happened between Elvis and Tuesday wasn't serious. And, the guys knew this because they didn't have to be hands-off, but that doesn't mean they got anywhere with her.

Gary would have been too respected by all of us to do that!

Now we looked at a lot of sites that mention Tuesday and declined to link to any of them. Let's say that she had longevity as an actress that was perhaps unexpected of someone early on assigned to be a "sex kitten," and at the same time her talent was rarely fully exposed in the roles she took. Like a lot of women who were as pretty as Tuesday she wasn't thought to be especially smart - but she was.

Earlier in this blog I talked about what it was to ever be taken seriously as an actor. Tuesday stayed in there and her nominations for an Emmy and an Acadamy Award recognized her talent.

THE WEEK / ELVIS and BLUE HAWAII MENTIONED

Christine here.

I was just reading the magazine called "The Week" which features small articles culled from other magazines. Here is a clip what it says on page 31/Leisure/Travel for the March 7, 2008 edition.


Getting the flavor of...
Elvis Presley's "Blue Hawaii,"


Elvis Presley put Kawai on the map with his 1961 movie Blue Hawaii, said Laura Bly in USA Today. More than 50 other films have also used Kauai's "lush, staggeringly gorgeous scenery as a stand-in for paradise." ......

(129) WILD IN THE COUNTRY WITH ELVIS

Also in 1961 Elvis made the film "Wild In The Country." The script was based on a novel by the famous playright Clifford Odets, "The Lost Country."

Link above to the IMDb database for Wild In The Country

(We've posted links to a number of films though this database. It's not complete by any means and is deficit photos of many actors and actresses but one of the best movie databases going on the Internet. We like the link feature which you can use to follow the careers.)

Here's a YouTube presentation of Elvis singing to Tuesday Weld's character in the film, the song "In My Way."

Elvis had numerous co-stars on this film but the people I remember seeing socially with Elvis and his friends were Tuesday Weld, Gary Lockwood, and Christina Crawford.

Tuesday and Gary were dating for a while so they were a couple, and they showed up to play football (Gary had started out as a pro football player, Tuesday was on the side lines cheering Elvis' team on.) To my knowledge Elvis was not involved romantically with any of his co-stars on this film.

GUIDE TO OUR LINKS - WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC

To the sidebar on the left, you see a long list of LINKS. Clicking on a LINK activates it and takes you to another site. We were thinking about redoing this list to make it alphabetical rather than leave it as is, which is by mention and generally in the time-line of our story. We decided to leave it as is.


If you are reading along with our story - truly an education in the music history of my era- you may want to visit each link as it is provided to enrich your knowledge. If you are reading present posts or out of sequence we suggest that you use the FIND feature in the drop down menu of EDIT or you may find it easier to simply SEARCH THE BLOG using a name or subject !

Thanks again for your ongoing interest in Wes Bryan- My Life in Music.

Wes and Christine

(128) THE FIRST SURGE OF THE SEXUAL REVOLUTION / THE SHIRELLES & SONGWRITER CAROLE KING

Girl Groups were a rage in the 1950's and this carried into the very early 1960's. The Shirelles, a New York based girl group was maybe the most successful in that period. Shirley Alston Reeves, Addie “Micki” Harris, Doris Kenner Jackson, and Beverly Lee, New Jersey schoolgirls, formed the group and sang their way to stardom. Beatle John Lennon went on record with praise for them. (John is also known for thinking the world of Elvis, though the Beatles meeting with Elvis left much to be desired!)

The Shirelles scored a hit in early 1961 with a song called "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," which was one of the first songs sung by women, from a woman's point of view, that acknowledged that women too were sexual. It was the beginnings of the sexual revolution and they even sang it at a J.F.K. Inauguration party.

Here's a YouTube presentation of the Shirelles Singing "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow," written by songwriters Carole King and Gerry Goffin. This song was the first number one hit by a girl group and the first number one hit for Carole and Gerry, who were part of the songwriting factory system in the Brill Building in New York. (See previous posts on the Brill Building scene, where I myself once worked.)

Here is what Oldies.com has to say about the Shirelles' influence on other groups.

OLDIES.COM on the SHIRELLES

Rock and Roll of Fame Inductees - The Shirelles!

SHIRELLES ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

updated September 2012

(127) ELVIS AND MOVIE ROLES / MARLON BRANDO? JAMES DEAN? ELVIS PRESLEY?!

Now, friends, Elvis is criticized for his movie roles these days and I have to admit that he came to be disappointed with his acting career and where movies took his music, but in the early 1960's Elvis was generally open and enthusiastic with making movies. Hollywood was still a movie-making town and it was important to Elvis to be in the Los Angeles area to make them.

Elvis was being offered roles that had been written for actors with great prestige like Marlon Brando and James Dean.

"King Creole" was written by Harold Robbins with the original title, "A Stone For Danny Fisher." James Dean was supposed to star in it. (The movie James Dean is most often known for, "Rebel Without a Cause," was also offered to Marlon Brando, who did a screen test for it.) Marlon Brando was supposed to star in "Flaming Star," which had been written with him in mind but Elvis stared instead.

Elvis would think "If this role is good enough for Marlon or James Dean it's good enough for me."

The studios would add some songs, turn a script into a musical, give the job to Elvis...

Elvis could read a script one time through and know his lines and he was the consummate professional on the set, treating people from all walks of life with courtesy.

(126) JULIET PROWSE and ELVIS / G.I. BLUES

Thanks to YouTube we have this original trailer for the movie "G.I. Blues" emphasizing Elvis' past military service. You could say he was cast as a believable character.

NEW VIDEO NEEDED

Juliet Prowse is one co-star that Elvis did have a romance with,a hot one. Juliet had recently been seeing Frank Sinatra and hadn't quite broken up with him yet and I was out in LA and staying with Elvis in his hotel suite while this was going on.

Here's Juliet with Bob Hope and Dean Martin, another YouTube presentation.

ANOTHER NEW VIDEO NEEDED HERE

Now, we searched for a great Juliet Prowse web site and didn't really find one (so many bios without any photos of her!), so I'll just say a few things about Juliet. She was an easy person to like. She had a positive attitude, was a lot of fun, and she worked hard. She was a professional and so the top talents liked to work with her and have her on their shows. If there is any advice that Juliet would probably give young people starting out in the business, it would probably be to remember that show business is work and to be professional. Her personality and talent set her above so many other dancers and singers and she managed to survive in the business even as the popularity of musicals waned.

She was a talented dancer, first and foremost, though a singer too, and a comedian, known for her especially fabulous shapely legs, and one of the more worldly women that Elvis dated to that point. He was wildly attracted to her and to me living proof that Elvis did not have one "type" of woman he was attracted to. Though in a couple years there would be another dancer and singer he went completely crazy over...

(125) THE BIG GRAPEVINE / ELVIS GOT THE INSIDER INFORMATION

Elvis was one of the most popular stars in the world and as a result he got privileged information. He was attached to what we called "the Big Grapevine," - Inside Information - the real truth - about a great number of stories that hit the press - and the rag sheets - spun a whole other way. We'd be sitting around the house talking and laughing and he'd tell something he learned that was particularly scandalous or strange, like the idiosyncrasies of other top stars. He knew things about everybody.

There was a top star - a singer - who was a kleptomaniac but only for neck ties...

Elvis said that President of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn (and his wife), had given millions to charity but didn't want anyone to know about it. So he would threaten to kill anyone who told in such a serious and intimidating manner that even when he laughed people took him seriously.

One time an actor visited Harry personally upset about the budget of a film he was working on. The star wanted to quit. Harry and the star got into it, and the star took a leisurely whizz all over Harry's desk, which was covered with scripts for the film...

We used to laugh and joke about all of this.

(124) SCATTER THE PLAYBOY CHIMP

One member of The Entourage who was also a close personal friend of Elvis' was his pet chimp Scatter! Scatter chased women too! Most of the time the women made a run for it before he could get his nails into them! Elvis thought it was funny when women screamed and yelled at Scatter's approach. Usually he would pick the little guy up in his arms and have the guys take him back to his little residence in the furnace room.

Scatter took off on his own adventures around Bel Air one time too many and the neighbors complained. Elvis had to send him to Graceland TM to live and, banished from all the fun, the poor little guy took it badly and went to Eternal Life. Elvis felt terrible about it.

(123) ELVIS THE ALBUM SELLER and MOVIES

It was our job at American Music to "pitch" our demos to an artist if we had a connection there, but meanwhile Sylvestor Cross, the owner of the company, was always on the phone, making deals for the music we wrote, and despite the staff meetings, it was he who often made the final decision about what songs would go to Bobby Darin, which songs would go to Elvis Presley, and so on.

I was friends with Elvis and attending his house parties every weekend that he threw one, but Cross send demos that my co-workers and I had written by messenger - company mail. He didn't expect me to exploit my friendship with Elvis in that way, and Elvis knew it and appreciated it. So did I. I didn't want to make business an issue between us. That doesn't mean Elvis never entertained any of the songs we at American Music wrote, just that I wasn't showing up at the house with that purpose.

Once Elvis was making movies, and movie soundtracks, it wasn't often that he was looking for music for a single. Elvis was becomming what we called "an album seller" rather than "a single seller." And he had established his own publishing houses, which was a move a lot of singers, be they singer-songwriters or covertune types, took. It was an investment in the songs you recorded to own a peice of them as publisher, and a way to make even more money.

Movies and soundtracks would take him away from the Elvis who sang "Hound Dog." Elvis wasn't concerned. Not yet anyway.

EASTER BLESSINGS!

EASTER BLESSINGS

TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY !

Wes

art courtesey of Dover Samplers

(122) SEXY CO-STARS ? / ELVIS' POLICY ABOUT WOMEN!

In 1960 Elvis made two movies. At Paramount Pictures he made "G.I. Blues" with the beautiful dancer - actress - singer, Juliet Prowse as his co-star, and at Twentieth Century Fox he made "Flaming Star," in which Barbara Eden was featured. (We previously blogged on these films and you can click in our links area to the left and go right to sites that give you more information about the films and the stars!) I can testify that Juliet and Elvis were involved but I can't say for sure about Barbara.

Rumors, rumors, and more rumors.

Over time so many women have claimed to have had affairs with Elvis that I've come to believe that the fact that he went on to Eternal Life years ago and can't speak for himself has created a situation in which anyone can claim anything. In my book I go on a bit more than I will here about this. He was no Saint and neither was I but the fact remains only so much is humanly possible.

I often wonder if Elvis were alive what he would say in response to claims that have been made.

I think some of it would upset him and depress him yet my friend did have a good sense of humor, even a self-depreciating one at times, and he loved a good practical joke and was behind a lot of them.

As I mentioned previously here on this blog, Elvis had a policy that the Entourage and close friends of his followed: "Hands Off" Elvis' women! And there were beautiful women at the house - everywhere. To know who Elvis was very interested in, who to stay "Hands Off" with, you had to be an insider. The policy went the other way too. If Elvis had it for a woman and she slept with someone else in his close circle first he usually gave up on her instantly.

Elvis' policy was about loyalty and trust.

(121) THERE'S A HOUSE PARTY TONIGHT - KEELY SMITH

Keely Smith and Louis Prima were one of the favorite Lounge Acts acts of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack in Vegas.

I thought Keely was terrific and had an amazing voice. Make that HAS an amazing voice that has only gotten better with time. Keely performed at J.F.K.'s inauguration and in the 2000's she's recording CD's and making appearances on television shows sans Louie who passed some time ago in 1978. So many of the songs she and Louie recorded were high energy and positive. They were good time party songs, fun in Vegas songs, and "There's A House Party Tonight," is one of my favorites! Now, we searched for a video of Keely and Louie and this song to no avail, but we didn't want to miss posting about them. House parties, be it Vegas, Palm Springs, or Los Angeles, were the rage. They were private parties. Parties of the rich. Elvis' kind of party.

Link above to a NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO site that features an interview with Keely.

From YouTube a Video of Louie and Keely in the mid to late fifties singing "When You're Smiling." Keely's stone face is in direct contrast to Louie and the band's energetic performance, and that's exactly what's so funny about it!

On March 22 2011 we substituted in the below YouTube video, which is not of the song "There's A House Party Tonight," but does document Keely's act with Louis!

PHOTOS ANYONE? "WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC" / RSS FEED AVAILABLE

Friends, if you read our blog a lot, please know that there is a RSS FEED available that will put our frequent posts right in your e-mail. Now as you know you can read this blog like a story, my story, beginning with the August 2007 postings. Christine Trzyna and I have been working on my memoirs and this blog is like our index coming alive. You can click on the links to the sites that have photos, music samples, and videos of many of the people who populate our book and it is our hope that this will help you get situated when it comes to the era this blog and my career covers.

Now, as you see we are not actually posting a lot of photos along with each blog, though it would be easy enough to do so. The reason is that we are very sensitive to fair use and copyright issues of photographic and artistic work. The art we have uploaded is public or by subscription or is directly related to me and my career.

IF YOU ARE THE OWNER OF PHOTOGRAPHY OR OTHER ART THAT IS RELATED TO THE SUBJECTS WE COVER HERE AND YOU WANT US TO POST IT, please contact us for consideration.

THANKS!

Wes

WILL PETE TAMBUNGA PLEASE STAND UP ? !

Pete Tambunga is an old friend of mine who I've lost contact with. He's a prankster who pulled off a few over the top practical jokes in his life, and he has always had an interesting way of putting things.

Pete, where've you been hiding out?

Wes

(120) ELVIS' HOME MY HOME AWAY FROM HOME & THE ENTOURAGE

Working for Elvis could be round the clock, odd hours, long hours, and traveling. It was hard on a man's personal life, his marriage, especially because of the perks and benefits like having beautiful women over to the house so often, the parties. Members of the entourage enjoyed the life of a millionare along with Elvis.

The entourage wasn't the same men through the years. Some men stayed with Elvis from beginnings of his career to his death while others moved on to other jobs or came and went. I suggested a couple men that Elvis hired.

I wasn't one of The Entourage. I can understand that this idea of who or who wasn't in it is confusing. Yes, I was there with them a lot in the early to mid 1960's. The relationships, living with Elvis, paid or not paid to work, could be familial. But I had my own work, singing, songwriting, and eventually producing music. I never actually worked for Elvis Presley and as a result my friendship with him never suffered from the issue of money.

During the Los Angeles party years my social life and therefore my private life and Elvis' were woven together. I stayed hands off the women he called his "girlfriends." He stayed hands off the women who were mine.

But I always knew that if I ever got into real trouble, Elvis would help me.

DAVE TYSON GENTRY Quote on Friendship

"True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable."
-Dave Tyson Gentry

(If interested in a collection of quotes about friendship, please use the search feature of this blog and put in the word quotes!)

(119) TELEVISION, ELVIS PRESLEY and JOHN F. KENNEDY

An event that prooved that television was gaining importance beyond entertainment was the United States Presidential elections of 1960. Richard Nixon, the Republican, and John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the Democrat, debated on television. This brought the campaign from the whistle stops and rubber chicken luncheons into the homes of Americans who were charmed by JFK's more youthful body language, charismatic smile, and optimistic outlook. Historians have since remarked that Nixon's dark beard, uncovered by studio makeup, gave him a dour, dark look.

Now Elvis and me always sided with the poor because we had both grown up poor and come out of nowhere. That made us Democrats, right? Except that we were also self-made men who had made it out of poverty in youth through talent, luck, and damn hard work. That made us Republicans, right? I can't tell you who Elvis voted for when he voted, I can tell you that we were both patriotic and we both believed that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a President who was going to change the world.

Now the link below is really exciting. It takes you to the JFK PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY and links that can take you to television clips about the campaign and election. You can be sure that Elvis, me, and the guys (and any gals who happened to be around at the time) were fascinated with the machinations of politics and watched some of this coverage.

JFK PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY HOME PAGE link above

Here is the televised debate

http://www.jfklibrary.org/Historical+Resources/JFK+in+History/Campaign+of+1960.htm

RCS DISCOGRAPHY WES BRYAN

If you'll click on the words RCS Discography above, you'll go to the Rockin Country Style page for me. Now, these aren't the only recordings I ever did, but the emphasis here is rockabilly and early country rock and roll. You'll find that a good number of the artists we're talking about in this blog have RCS Discographies.

Christine and I have a great respect for the work that is behind RCS, a volunteer project of many years. They can't take donations of money, but you may be able to help them get more music documented if you have a record collection that you are willing to lend. So get in contact with RCS if you do!

WILLIE NELSON MY HEROS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN COWBOYS

As I mentioned early in this blog, Elvis and I grew up loving cowboys, especially Lash LaRue. We grew up in a part of the United States that had experienced the Trail of Tears, and real cowboys and indian wars, but our imaginations at play were more triggered by what we heard on radio and television.

That Elvis would star in Westerns or take a role in "Flaming Star," a movie that he played a "half-breed," in makes complete sense to me.

Now, as a little variation here, we're posting Willie Nelson singing his song "My Heros Have Always Been Cowboys." Take a pause and enjoy it with us!

(118) BRENDA LEE - ON TV AT ELVIS'

Now, Elvis is known for watching a lot of television. And when you were friends with Elvis being at the house meant watching a lot of television with him. Usually there was a television set on when a party was going on, as well as a juke box, and a turn table.

Elvis was like a walking encyclopedia of music and he made it a point of obtaining the records of other singers, of stocking his home juke box with the Top 40 and some personal favorites, and watching the performances of others on television.

I always enjoyed Brenda Lee. Brenda Lee started out so young.

I once performed with her myself. Here she is in this YouTube presentation circa 1960, still so young, singing "Sweet Nothings." The backdrop and production here signal a movement forward from the 1950's into the "hip" 1960's.

Link above to Brenda Lee's official site and note,

Brenda Lee Rock Hall of Fame

http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/brenda-lee

You can read about BRENDA LEE by using the search feature to this blog and you can also use the LINKS list to locate web sites that feature Brenda.

WES BRYAN's BLOG - Rights Information

WES BRYAN'S BLOG - Rights Information

Every once in a while we'll be posting a notice like this one that reminds readers that the content of this blog is Copyright Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna with all rights reserved including Internet and International Rights. If interested in speaking to me, Wes Bryan, please contact us at the e-mail address we've provided. We are linking to a good many web sites, favoring the official web sites of various famous and important people as well as reference sites. If we link to your site and you don't want us to, please let us know, and we'll take down the link. The content of other people's sites remains theirs. Thank you for your consideration and courtesy.

Christine Trzyna and Wes Bryan

http://wesbryan.blogspot.com

WES BRYAN - MY LIFE IN MUSIC

Thank you to Google - BLOGSPOT for providing free blog templates and access.

e-mail is wewritethebook@yahoo.com

INTERNET MYSTERIES ABOUND !

Once in a while Christine and I spend some time checking out what various search engines bring up about me and my career. The other day we wondered why our blog was not appearing on Google, when Google is the supplier of Blogger TM and is said to carry 60% of all blogs, when ours appears on Yahoo, and a few others. Christine "pinged" and resubmitted our URL. This morning our blog is appearing, as well as our complaint to Google help groups about it. Whoever or whatever happened, it's one of those Internet Mysteries.

Now, we said this before but one of our reasons for blogging is to help people get out of all that Wes Bryan confusion. Several other Wes Bryan's have Internet presence but they aren't me and I'm not them! I wonder sometimes how many of them have gotten messages for me and visa versa. I wonder if the Christian Minister who wrote a book and has a music CD has ever been asked about his "wild past" as a rockabilly artist, or if the teenage Wes Bryan's out there have been asked how they met Elvis...

We'll carry on here. Thanks, whoever or whatever got us back up on the Google search engine.