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In 1958, Elvis Presley was becoming the biggest pop star in the world and was already carving out a second starring role on the big screen.
Following Love Me Tender, Loving You and Jailhouse Rock, he was becoming hot property in Hollywood but his pending military service meant he could only make one more film, for which he was given a short military deferment.
Danny Fisher in King Creole would remain the King’s favourite role throughout his life, and it was a teaser of where his career might have gone if he’d been given the chance.
As so often, he had two leading ladies to choose from. One. Dolores Hart, would famously soon quit Hollywood to become a nun.
The other was riding high on an Oscar nomination and would later find fame in The Addams family.
At the time, Elvis was dating Hollywood starlet Anita Wood , although that hadn’t stopped him pursuing and wooing Love Me Tender star Debra Paget in 1956. He was so obsessed with her that even a certain Priscilla Beaulieu (later Presley) reputedly modelled her own image on the actress.
The fantastically overblown trailer describes Elvis and his two leading ladies in stirring fashion: “Now he crowns his meteoric rise to fame with a fiery burst of dramatic power as hard-loving, hard-living Danny Fisher, who sang his way up from the gutters of lusty, brawling New Orleans.
“There were to be many women in Danny’s life, but only two who really count: Nelly, who knew too little about love, Ronnie, who knew too much.”
Hart played Nellie and she had given Elvis his first on-screen kiss in Loving You. Although he had coltishly pursued her offscreen, they had become friends instead and bonded over their shared faith.
Jones was rather more worldly and riding high on the success of 1957’s The Bachelor Party, which had earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
However, her unwillingness to kiss Elvis on set had nothing to do with her career or any personal feelings about her handsome leading man.
The final scenes of the movie scenes were filmed at Lake Pontchartrain, near New Orleans.
Unfortunately, at the time, Jones had come down with a temperature of 103 and later said: “It was good that I was supposed to be dying in the film because I felt like I was and I think I looked like it, too.”
She tried to persuade Elvis not to kiss her, for his own sake, but his reply was fantastic and also a perfect example of his quick wit and charm.
Jones described their conversation: “(I told him) ‘Isn’t there some way you can get around kissing me because I’m so germy that I’m gonna kill you.’
“He said, ‘That’s all right; maybe it’ll get me out of the army,’ and he necked away like crazy. He went off to the army and I took to my bed for two weeks.”
Jones’s poor health didn’t just affect her on the set of Kid Creole. It had already cost her another Oscar-winning role and would cut her life short in 1983.
She suffered from asthma and was prone to illness. Five years earlier, the role of Alma in 1953’s From Here To Eternity was actually written for her but she had to pull out when she was hospitalised with pneumonia. Her replacement, Donna Reed, went on to win an Oscar for it.
ELVIS PRESLEY famously pursued (and caught) many of his leading ladies off-screen and was a little shocked when King Creole co-star and Addams family icon Carolyn Jones begged him not to even kiss her on screen. Unfortunately, it was rooted in personal struggles that would later come to define and destroy her career and her life.
Freddie Mercury sings Love of My Life at Wembley in 1986
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The new Baz Luhrman Elvis biopic recounts his life and career, but spends very little time on his decade in Hollywood, which was a major part of his professional life and often overlapped into his personal one. The star filmed King Creole when his 1958 military service was looming. Not that those subsequent two years would in any way impede his pursuit and enjoyment of numerous ladies – including future wife Priscilla Beaulieu, who he would meet during his final months in Germany. Before and after his military service, The King famously flirted with almost all his female co-stars (and almost every woman he met), and most notoriously had an affair with Viva Las Vegas’ Ann Margret which lasted over a year. He rarely met with resistance and even Jones’ protestations were soon overcome.
At the time, Elvis was dating Hollywood starlet Anita Wood , although that hadn’t stopped him pursuing and wooing Love Me Tender star Debra Paget in 1956. He was so obsessed with her even Priscilla reputedly modelled her own image on the actress.
In King Creole, The King plays a man torn between two beautiful women, Jones’ sexy Ronnie and Nellie, played by Dolores Hart. True to her sweeter role, the latter would famously quit Hollywood at the height of her fame to become a nun.
Jones, meanwhile, had already made a name for herself as a powerful screen presence with a strong personality match and already has an Oscar nomination under her belt.
Elvis starred with Carolyn Jones in King Creole (Image: GETTY)
Elvis costar Carolyn Jones begged him not to kiss her (Image: GETTY)
The fantastically overblown trailer describes Elvis and his two leading ladies in stirring fashion.
It says: “Now he crowns his meteoric rise to fame with a fiery burst of dramatic power as hard-loving, hard-living Danny Fisher, who sang his way up from the gutters of lusty, brawling New Orleans.
“There were to be many women in Danny’s life, but only two who really count: Nelly, who knew too little about love, Ronnie, who knew too much.”
Jones had come into the film riding high on the success of 1957’s The Bachelor Party, which had earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination.
However, her unwillingness to kiss Elvis on set had nothing to do with her career or any personal feelings about her handsome leading man.
Carolyn Jones starred in The Addams Family (Image: GETTY)
Elvis with King Creole costars Dolores Hart and Carolyn Jones (Image: GETTY)
Elvis Carolyn Jones on set (Image: GETTY)
Jones described their conversation: “(I told him) ‘Isn’t there some way you can get around kissing me because I’m so germy that I’m gonna kill you.’
“He said, ‘That’s all right; maybe it’ll get me out of the army,’ and he necked away like crazy. He went off to the army and I took to my bed for two weeks.”
Jones’s poor health didn’t just affect her on the set of Kid Creole. It had already cost her another Oscar-winning role and would cut her life short in 1983.
Elvis did kiss King Creole costar Carolyn Jones (Image: GETTY)
She suffered from asthma and was prone to illness. Five years earlier, the role of Alma in 1953’s From Here To Eternity was actually written for her but she had to pull out when she was hospitalised with pneumonia. Her replacement, Donna Reed, went on to win an Oscar for it.
Jones said of the role: “I loved that show. I was sorry to see it go. Morticia was the perfect role for me because my sense of humour is just slightly off-centre.”
Dogged by health issues, she died young at the age of 53, in 1983, from colon, liver and stomach cancer.
