One of Elvis Presley’s post-army movies of the early 1960s was Follow That Dream, which hit cinemas 62 years ago today.
Anne Helm played The King’s love interest, alongside the star’s cousin who made his big-screen debut in the Hollywood movie.
Billy Smith, the last surviving original Memphis Mafia member has shared how he doubled for Anne while wearing a hat, wig and balloon breasts for one of the scenes.
Billy, who knew Elvis before he was famous, said on the Memphis Mafia Kid YouTube Channel: “I hung out with [Elvis] ever since I was a little bitty boy. When I first started to work for him was 1961, August.
“It was on Follow That Dream…my first movie to actually be in. Boy, it was quite something to be able to live that experience at that time.”
On working on the Follow That Dream set, Billy said: “My Mom and Dad got to come down too and my brother, to watching the filming of it all, that was another treat.”
And after being prompted by his son Danny, Elvis’ cousin shared how he ended up doubling for Anne Helm. The Memphis Mafia member said that Hollywood movies usually had to advertise for extras and doubles, but they didn’t want to slow production down. So director Gordon Douglas pointed out Billy and told Elvis: “He’s about the right size and I think we can make him enough from behind to look like Anne that he can double for [her].”
Billy continued: “[It was] in the scene [where] they’re walking down this road and this car comes from out of nowhere and it’s actually trying to hit them. When they dressed me up they had this straw hat that Anne had on and they put her hair up in a ponytail, so they put a ponytail on me and the ponytail was hanging down the straw hat.”
Elvis’ cousin also shared how he had to wear two balloons as breasts under his shirt that were held in place by tape. He remembered with a laugh: “I slapped every sucker that reached to feel!”