Love Me Tender, Elvis Presley’s first film, debuted in movie theaters 60 years ago today. Presley, a new star, was billed third among the actors, after Richard Egan and Debra Paget.

It is the only film in which (spoiler alert) a character played by Elvis Presley dies. Fans were upset by this; most important, Presley’s mother cried at the scene, which is understandable. The studio added a reprise of the title song, sung by a “ghost Elvis” over the end credits, to help the fans. Because of his mother’s upset, Presley included a stipulation in future movie contracts that his characters not die on screen.

Presley’s recording of the song, “Love Me Tender” was already on the charts when 20th Century Fox was finishing the film; as a result the studio added four songs to the film soundtrack. Presley’s remaining films all included songs whether or not circumstances in the plot demanded them.

Film historians report that Presley arrived on the set overly prepared: he had memorized his lines, everyone else’s lines, and all the stage directions. The film (after the jump):
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Herman Melville’s novel, Moby-Dick, or, The Whale, was published by Harper & Brothers on this date in 1851 in the United States. A total of 3215 copies (in both America and England) were purchased between this date and Melville’s death 40 years later, which earned Melville a total of $1260 dollars in that time. Sales have picked up since.
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Youth: a Narrative, and Two Other Stories, a collection by Joseph Conrad, was published on this date in 1902 by William Blackwood & Sons. One of the “two other stories” in the title is a novella Blackwood’s Magazine had published in three parts in 1899: Heart of Darkness.

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Walt Disney’s film Fantasia opened in movie theaters on this date in 1940. One sequence, set to Claude DeBussy’s “Clair de Lune,” was finished but cut at the last moment to shorten the movie. Here it is (after the jump):
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