FILM · 2022 · AUSTRALIA
Elvis
27 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
Austin Butler sings and dances as the young Elvis himself. From the 1968 special onward, his voice was blended with Elvis Presley's original performances.
- #002
Austin Butler noted that one of the striking aspects of Elvis Presley was that he lost his mother at a young age. Butler lost his mother at 23, and Elvis also lost his mother at the same age. Austin felt he shared that pain with Elvis and used his grief in his performance.
- #003
The central premise of Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968) as shown in the film is essentially accurate. Elvis Presley was horrified that Tom Parker had arranged a one-hour special with a sponsor and NBC TV featuring Elvis in a terrible sweater performing unappealing skits and Christmas songs. With director Steve Binder and producer Bob Finkel, he planned a special taping that showcased his career. Rehearsals began in June 1968 and filming started later that same month. During the recording, Elvis, Binder and Finkel did everything they could to keep Parker out of the studio. The four hours of footage were cut down to 50 minutes. The special, broadcast on 3 December 1968, was the most-watched program in the US that week. The soundtrack album of songs specially recorded or re-recorded for the special rose to No. 8 on the Billboard album charts and went gold. The experience gave Elvis new excitement about reviving his live singing career in 1969, after he completed the remainder of his MGM film contract.
- #004
"Dr. Nick" was based on George C. Nichopoulos, Elvis Presley's personal physician, who was charged but later cleared of criminal liability because of Presley's death. In the last eight months of Elvis's life he prescribed him more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics.
- #005
At one point in the film, Parker says Elvis liked spending money on "hillbillies." It is not much depicted in the film, but in real life Elvis Presley was generous to a fault. As soon as he became financially successful he gave money, cars and other gifts to his family and friends. He also showered his employees with gifts. He would even lavish gifts on people he had never met.
- #006
RCA bought Elvis Presley's contract from Sam Phillips and Sun Studio for $35,000, or roughly $400,000 in 2024 dollars. At the time, it was the largest sum a record company had ever paid for a contract. Elvis, Phillips and Sun were constantly on the verge of financial ruin because Phillips could not make records at the cost and speed of a larger label. The $35,000 kept Sun in business for years and helped Phillips launch other major Sun stars such as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. Some radio stations refused to play Sun artists, so Phillips bought a radio station. Phillips later became a major investor in the Holiday Inn hotel chain. Sun Studio remains open in Memphis, Tennessee, as a national landmark.
- #007
Although his hair was dyed dark brown and he wore dark brown or jet-black wigs in some scenes, Austin Butler is a natural blonde. Elvis Presley, known for his dark brown or jet-black hair, was also a natural blonde.
- #008
At one point in the Club Handy sequence, Elvis Presley says he wants to record Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti" one day. In 1956 he covered the song. Little Richard was initially disgusted, but in the end the cover made the original song more widely known and made Little Richard more popular. Little Richard's original version remains the most popular.
- #009
The scene in which Elvis puts a Derringer pistol in his boot during his Las Vegas shows is accurate. Elvis Presley began doing this after receiving death threats.
- #010
In real life, "Colonel" Tom Parker was born Andreas "Dries" van Kuijk in the Netherlands on 26 June 1909. At 19 he entered the US illegally, and a few months later he joined the army as Tom Parker. He joined a foreign army but, contrary to frequent claims, he did not lose his Dutch citizenship. They never found out about it.
- #011
When the production moved to Australia, Tom Hanks sent Austin Butler a chrome typewriter. Attached to the typewriter was a note. Hanks had signed the note as "Colonel" Tom Parker. In response, Butler used the typewriter to write Hanks a note in the name of Elvis Presley. The two actors sent letters back and forth. Butler said it was a great way to rehearse.
- #012
Elvis Presley watched Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968) at home, unsure how it would be received since he had not been on television for several years. As soon as the special ended, his phone began ringing with positive praise from friends and family. When the ratings came in, an estimated 42% of American televisions were tuned to the special. A year later it helped Elvis return to live performances in Vegas.
- #013
While playing Elvis Presley, Austin Butler wore a total of 90 costumes over the course of the film.
- #014
Lisa Marie Presley was initially nervous about watching the film. Presley said that about halfway through watching it, Austin Butler's performance put her even more at ease. In an email published after her death, Presley praised the "incredible film" and said it helped her daughters through the difficult period after her son's suicide. It was "a break from the pain and a ray of light that hit us last year… They were so proud and honored to be their grandchildren. It made them feel blessed for a moment and less cursed in life. It made us all so proud because it was a true portrayal of who he really was."
- #015
When Elvis approached Steve Binder about working on the Christmas special, Binder says he had actually never worked on Christmas specials. A year after Elvis's death, Binder directed the Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), now considered the worst Christmas special ever made.
- #016
This is the second highest-grossing musical biographical film after Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
- #017
Although Elvis Presley was raised as an Evangelical Christian in the deep South, his mother Gladys Presley had distant Jewish ancestry. She even gave him the Hebrew middle name Aron in acknowledgment of it. Elvis himself was aware that he was partly Jewish, and when his mother died he asked for a Star of David to be engraved on her gravestone to honor her.
- #018
The entire film was shot in Queensland, Australia.
- #019
While promoting the film, Austin Butler still carried a bit of the Southern accent he had used to play Elvis Presley. In an interview, Butler said that because he had spent so much time preparing for and shooting the film, his accent only came out in front of many people.
- #020
At the end of the film, Parker says that what really killed Elvis was his love for his fans. In the film, as in real life, Parker never understood why Elvis Presley valued his fans above the expectations of the mainstream media and of Parker himself. According to Joe Esposito, one of Elvis's closest friends, Elvis's fans were the second thing he loved after his immediate family.
- #021
Austin Butler did not meet any of Elvis Presley's extended family until the film was finished. When he finally met Lisa Marie Presley, his eyes were teary as she hugged him and thanked him for his faithful portrayal of her father. She later took him as far as Elvis's bedroom, where they sat on the bed and talked until evening.
- #022
Bob Finkel, one of the producers of Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968), was given the job by Steve Binder of distracting "Colonel" Tom Parker during the taping and keeping him from learning that they were not making a Christmas special. Finkel did this partly by playing jokes on Parker, and the two agreed that whoever told the best joke would get something from the other; Finkel wanted Parker's cane. After the taping was completed, Finkel had a crew take the famous ELVIS lights that stood behind Elvis Presley during "If I Can Dream" from Parker's Palm Springs home and kept them lit with a generator until Parker arrived home. Within a few days Finkel received a package from Parker containing his cane.
- #023
Adam Dunn, who plays Elvis's upright bassist Bill Black, had never played the instrument before. He rented a double bass the night before his audition, won the role, and spent the next three months practicing up to eight hours a day before filming. Black's original double bass now belongs to Paul McCartney, who met Elvis with The Beatles (27 August 1965) and played an electric bass guitar in the living room of his Bel Air home.
- #024
Elvis Presley's mother, Gladys Presley, died in 1958 at the age of 46. Although he does not appear in the film, Elvis's father, Vernon Presley, remarried in 1960. Vernon died of a heart attack in June 1979 at the age of 63, less than two years after his son.
- #025
Austin Butler took tap dancing and swing dancing lessons to perfect Elvis's dance moves and physical body language.
- #026
Designer Bill Belew created Elvis Presley's famous gold lamé suit and was also tasked with finding costumes for Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968). He designed the black leather suit Elvis wore for his "If I Can Dream" performance as well as a two-piece white suit. Elvis later asked him to come up with clothing ideas for his return to the Vegas stage that would allow more movement than the black leather suit. Belew therefore designed Elvis's now-famous iconic flamboyant jumpsuits for the Vegas stage, keeping the designs and high collar he had used in Elvis: The Comeback Special (1968), because the high collar framed Elvis's high cheekbones and face perfectly.
- #027
The film implies that Elvis Presley wore conventional makeup from his earliest days on stage, but that was not the case. Elvis was a natural blonde with blond eyelashes that did not look good with dyed black hair, so he used mascara to cover his blond eyelashes. As a young man working as a movie usher, Elvis watched films starring Tony Curtis and became a great fan. Years later, while shooting The Rat Race (1960), Elvis finally met Curtis and they became friends; Curtis taught him to apply eyeliner and give himself a slightly smoky look. This was an occasional practice for some male actors and performers, but far from the norm.
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