Citrus County, Florida has long thought of itself as the ideal landscape for filming television shows and movies. One of them was “Bikers’ Revenge,” or something like that. From what I've read, it was about bikers, violence and contained some nudity.
Never saw it, never wanted to.
That's a far cry from the undisputed, most famous movie filmed in the area -- "Follow That Dream," in 1961.
"Follow That Dream" was a movie from a different era, a comedy about a poor family on welfare that leaves Arkansas and takes up homesteading on state land. The closest things to bikers in this film were hoodlums in big black limousines, and the only violence was some innocent pranks.
As for nudity, forget it.
Oh, yes. You might recall that "Follow That Dream" had a big-name star, too. Elvis Presley, although not yet reaching the iconic status of "The King," was fast scaling up both the movie and recording charts.
And that's what made the movie so special. Many area citizens experienced first-hand the lifestyles of people they previously had only seen on the big screen or on television sets.
Some citizens even got bit roles or were hired for various jobs.
Those who experienced it will not forget it.
I was fifteen. Parts of it I remember as if it were yesterday. I had a summer job with the school system, painting hallways at the Crystal River school complex for seventy-five cents an hour.
One afternoon while several of us were out behind the school's gym on a break, a big black Cadillac drove up. Out stepped a man in a suit.
Now, that was an unusual sight for Citrus County, even for businessmen. And for someone to wear a suit unless it was Sunday, or they were headed for a funeral was even more unusual; particularly in the sultry heat of a Florida summer.
"You guys interested in some work?" he asked matter-of-factly.
We told him we already were employed, thank you very much, but what did he have in mind? (We figured anybody wearing a suit on such a hot afternoon must have some money to throw around.)
"We need some help for a few hours, maybe a couple of days or so, putting up trailer scenes in the gym, just in case rain doesn't stop filming for our movie," he said. That drew a laugh and a couple of blank stares because we hadn't heard about any movie, let alone that some of the scenes would be shot in the very gym where we played basketball each winter.
Then he mentioned he was paying $3.50 an hour.
"When do we start?" we all asked in unison. It meant quitting our jobs with the school system, which was no real problem because the school administration was doing us a favor by giving us jobs anyway. It turned out to be hard work and took 11 hours. I can't even remember who the other two teen-agers were, but I remember the wages and the hours. That's because we had never even seen that must cash, let alone earned it. In 1961, not many youths our ages saw $38.50 in cash, especially not in Crystal River. I figured maybe this year I would be able to buy my own school wardrobe, with enough left over for a new pair of Converse basketball shoes.
Then my fortunes became even greater. I was pulled aside and asked if I wanted to help with the security throughout the remainder of the filming. The pay wasn't quite as good, but just the thought of being around movie stars boggled my mind.
I said "yes" on the spot. When I got home and told my parents, I got chewed out. Mom was concerned about her youngest running around with "high-filuting out-of-towners" and movie types.
Fortunately, as he usually did, Dad took my side and Mom caved in. Dad did warn me to watch out for the girls, including the movie stars and girls on the set hoping to get a glimpse of Elvis. (He was right. I met all kinds of girls and even got a few dates,)
During the next few days, I was either bored stiff from standing around or shocked by the excitement of the movie industry. Most of my time was spent walking around roped-off areas, both at the doorways at the school's gym and at the Old Courthouse in Inverness, the county seat where some of the scenes were shot.
There were a couple of memorable moments, too, like:
• I was told to take a portable electric fan in to co-star Ann Helms’ dressing room, which was the boys’ locker room at the gym. When I knocked on the closed door, she said to come in. I did and found her wearing only a bra and panties.
She thought nothing about it, even thought it was cute that my faced turned such a deep color of red. However, to a fifteen-year-old boy whose previous experience with womanhood had been peeks at True Detective magazines at Winn's Drug Store, it was a shock to a body's system.
The experience tugged at my heartstrings so hard that I dreamed about her for months.
• Elvis once came out and struck up a conversation with me during a filming break. He asked my name and offered to sign a picture. That's when I began believing he was special. (Too bad the picture went missing; it might be worth something today.)
A crowd began to gather, so Elvis – a karate expert --grabbed the spotlight and demonstrated his skills by breaking a few boards he found behind the gym, them graduated to cement blocks.. Then he went into mock combat with one of the half-dozen actors who played thugs in the movie.
Elvis accidentally hit the guy, who lunged backward into the side of Elvis' big Cadillac. It left a huge dent. All Elvis said was, "Get it fixed," to one of his assistants and walked off.
• During a break in Inverness, Elvis picked up a football and began tossing it around. He invited several of us to join him. It soon became a game of touch football. Someone threw Elvis a chest-high pass. As he reached for it, he jammed the pinkie finger on his right hand.
We stood in amazement as aides rushed to his side and escorted him off in the back seat of one of his black Cadillac limos. I assume they went to the hospital, but we couldn't believe anyone would require medical attention for a jammed pinkie.
Then again, we weren't big-name stars, were we?
Like most people I've talked to over the years who knew him, I found Elvis to be a normal, somewhat quiet and caring person, although I also heard he had a temper at times. However, he took time to talk to me, even if it was mostly small stuff. And when he personally delivered my pay once, he called me by my first name.
If Elvis later became the type person he has so often been portrayed, then I cannot approve of his lifestyle. But the Elvis of 1961 was a positive role model for an impressionable fifteen-year-old boy.