Jorgenson, Ernst (1998). Elvis Presley: A Life In Music. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-18572-5. stars. This is a good coming-of-age-and-beyond story. In the right hands, the story could become a movie that eclipses the book. (I think there might already be a movie, but I don't know how good it is.) Although ASFDF was easy to read, I wouldn't classify it as a beach book. The story line is too dark, and Danny's predicaments and behavior are too frustrating. Meanwhile, Mr. Fisher finds employment as a pharmacist in a local drug store, but his boss, Mr. Primont—who reluctantly hired Mr. Fisher after his boss made him do so—constantly demeans Mr. Fisher out of retaliation, much to Danny's embarrassment. This situation makes it easier for Danny to go against his father's wishes and accept Charlie's job offer. When Danny becomes a hit at the King Creole, Maxie tries to hire him. Danny declines his offer out of loyalty to Charlie. Elvis has had to go to work because his father has been unable to hold down a job ever since the death of his wife. So's Elvis's sister, Jan Shepard, also had to work. He gets a break in Walter Matthau's club with an impromptu audition, but it's rival owner Paul Stewart who hires Elvis. That sets the stage for a lot of the action to come.

The movie version homes in on the tension between the father, a cold [ citation needed], withdrawn figure and barely successful pharmacy employee and his son, a rebellious teenager whose failures in high school are largely a passive-aggressive response to his father, masking the need for the patriarch's approval. Landers, Steve (2000). The Life Of Elvis Aaron Presley Elvis Facts For Elvis Fans. Lulu Press. ISBN 978-1-4357-3905-5. If LOVING YOU (1957) seemed to me at times to play like a lighter version of A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957), this reminded me of another Elia Kazan masterpiece, ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) which is quite appropriate since this is one of Elvis Presley’s better and most popular vehicles and one of the few with genuinely talented Hollywood craftsmen behind them. King Creole is a 1958 American musical drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and based on the 1952 novel A Stone for Danny Fisher by Harold Robbins. Produced by Hal B. Wallis, the film stars Elvis Presley, Carolyn Jones, Walter Matthau, Dolores Hart, Dean Jagger, and Vic Morrow, and follows a nineteen-year-old (Presley) who gets mixed up with crooks and involved with two women. Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher works before and after school to support his father and sister Mimi. After Danny's mother died in an accident three years earlier, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Danny's family anxiously awaits his graduation from high school, which did not occur the previous year due to Danny having to repeat the school year because of his bad conduct.

Before filming began, Curtiz was convinced that Presley would be a "conceited boy", but after a few weeks of working together, he described Presley as a "lovely boy" who would go on to be a "wonderful actor". [9] Presley, after seeing an early copy of the finished film, thanked Curtiz for giving him the opportunity to show his potential as an actor; he would later cite Danny Fisher as his favorite role of his acting career. Fourteen days after the completion of King Creole, Presley was officially inducted into the U.S. Army. [5] Reception [ edit ] Advertisement in Modern Screen (Aug 1958) For those who are used to seeing Walter Matthau as the lovable grouch starting from The Odd Couple it would surprise many to learn most of his early roles were bad guys. He's an exceptionally nasty bad guy in King Creole. The film was first shown at Loew's State Theater in New York City [1] on July 2, 1958. [16] During the opening week, it ranked number five in box office earnings on the Variety national survey. [17] The film received critical acclaim. Presley later indicated that of all the characters he portrayed throughout his acting career, the role of Danny Fisher in King Creole was his favorite. To make the film, Presley was granted a 60-day deferment from January to March 1958 for beginning his military service. Location shooting in New Orleans was delayed several times by crowds of fans attracted by the stars, particularly Presley.

Jeansonne, Glenn; Luhrssen, David; Sokolovic, Dan (2011). Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel: His Life and Our Times. ABC-Clio. ISBN 978-0-313-35904-0. After a few years, the Fishers have lost their house and are living in a cramped apartment in the city. Danny continues to box, much against his father's wish, and dates a young Italian Catholic woman, Nellie Petito, much to the chagrin of his mother. Danny's boxing skills attract the attention of hoodlums, and he is offered a large sum of money to lose the Golden Gloves championship, a fight he could win easily and which would bring him professional fame as well as, he hopes, his father's acceptance. Directed by seasoned pro Michael Curtiz (Casablanca and White Christmas), King Creole is a gritty affair, unlike Elvis's later, candy-coloured, family-friendly cinematic offerings. Combining hard-edged drama, violence and tragedy with sexually charged musical numbers (just watch those women swoon), and with Presley exuding rebelliousness with every shake of his hip, King Creole is a masterpiece of the misunderstood youth genre, its star giving a perfectly nuanced, iconic performance to rival James Dean at his best. Only Nellie, who works the luncheonette, notices Danny's complicity in the theft, but she does not turn him in. Later that night, Danny meets Ronnie again at The Blue Shade nightclub, where Danny is now employed. At first, she pretends not to know him, as she is accompanied by her boyfriend and the club's owner, Maxie Fields, aka "The Pig". When Maxie does not believe her, she claims she heard Danny sing once. Maxie insists that Danny prove he can sing. His rendition of " Trouble" impresses Charlie LeGrand, the honest owner of the King Creole nightclub, the only nightspot in the area not owned by Maxie. LeGrand offers Danny a job as a singer at his club.Jeansonne, Glenn; Luhrssen, David; Sokolovic, Dan (2011), Elvis Presley, Reluctant Rebel, p.147, ISBN 9780313359040 King Creole DVD (2000)". Allrovie. Rovi. Archived from the original on July 20, 2012 . Retrieved June 20, 2011. I enjoyed some of the Yiddish and period slang. I also liked getting the perspective of a boy repeatedly adjusting to new life situations. I only wish he had learned more from them.

King Creole" is a must for Elvis fans everywhere. There was a darkness in this movie something like Rebel Without a Cause set in New Orleans. Elvis was even darker than James Dean....in this movie. It’s all about craft and engaging the reader–some writers can engage on more subliminal levels, others provide more obvious stimulations. God bless the writers who can do both. Disillusioned youth Danny Fisher (Presley) lives in New Orleans' French Quarter with his recently widowed father (Dean Jagger) and sister (Jan Shepard).His pharmacist father is finding it tough to cope without his wife and cannot find regular work,while Danny flunks his college studies to work in a nightclub owned by sleazy crook Maxie Fields (Walter Matthau), and begins to take romantic interest in a boozy if pitiable tramp,Ronnie,used by Fields as a mistress (Carolyn Jones).He toys with joining a gang of hoodlums led by Shark (Vic Morrow),and attracts the attentions of a sweet-natured shopgirl,Nellie (Dolores Hart).With his talent for singing,Danny decides not to work in Fields' venues,but of his rival Charlie LeGrand instead,the King Creole,where he is a great success.Fields resents Danny's behaviour and is determined fair ways or foul to force Danny to work for him,but Danny will make his own decisions who he works and falls in love with. Although Robbins is more a writer of incident than image, he can be wonderfully effective at important turning points in the story by presenting a minor detail of life in a way that suggests the whole direction of the story. For example, when Danny's mother does learn that milk service will be discontinued, she sits down in front of the open icebox. "Whatever cold was left in it would escape," Robbins writes, "but somehow it didn't matter. She didn't have the strength to get up and close the door. . , . She stared into the almost empty icebox until it seemed to grow larger and larger and she was lost in its half-empty, half-cold world." A Stone For Danny Fisher is a brutal coming-of-age story covering both The Great Depression and WWII eras. Danny Fisher is a sensitive, likable Jewish boy who, when his family falls on hard times, discovers that he not only has a natural talent for fighting but also for the clever manipulation of everyone close to him. But Danny is too clever for his own good, and has a serious tragic flaw that always propels his happiness just out of his reach.

Selected

Wallis, Hal B.; Higham, Charles (1980). Starmaker: The Autobiography of Hal Wallis. Macmillan Pub. Co. ISBN 978-0-02-623170-1. After he had written the three novels Never Love a Stranger (1948), A Stone for Danny Fisher, and 79 Park Avenue (1955), Robbins came to see them as forming a trilogy which he calls The Depression in New York. These are parallel stories involving different characters but all illustrating the struggle for survival of the lower middle classes during the Depression.