On August 22nd 1956, Elvis began working on his first movie, Love Me Tender.
In the drama, set during and just after the American Civil War, Elvis played Clint Reno, the youngest of four brothers.
Elvis’s determination to succeed in Hollywood was evident in his dedication to the cause. He arrived to start work on the movie having learned not only all of his lines, but the lines for all the other parts as well.
The original title for the movie was The Reno Brothers, but it was changed to take advantage of the Love Me Tender song recorded for the film. That song was first performed on the Ed Sullivan TV show in autumn 1956 and two weeks later RCA Records confirmed that advanced sales had made it a Gold disc pre-release – an industry first. It sold a million pre-release and eventually topped two million.
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