2006年VOA标准英语-TV Producer Recalls Good Times with Elvis

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
24 January 2006

Few singers have had the impact of Elvis Presley. Born to poverty in rural Mississippi, he soared to stardom in the 1950s and popularized American rock and roll worldwide. Mike O'Sullivan spoke¹ with television producer Albert Fisher who is sharing his reminiscences of the star known as "The King."

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Elvis Presley and Fisher, captured on home video   
  

Fisher was a young man working for the Seattle World's Fair when the world's biggest star, Elvis Presley, filmed a movie there in 1962. Called It Happened at the World's Fair, it was one of a string of some 30 movies that highlighted his music, but offered little in the way of plot line or acting². Elvis's fans, however, loved his films.

Albert Fisher was just 21 years old, and the production exposed him to the world of moviemaking. He was assigned to help the Hollywood crew, and during the month-long process, he became friends with Elvis. He later went to Hollywood to work as technical advisor³ as production was being completed at the MGM studios. He recorded what he saw on his movie camera, and recently released his home movies on DVD.

He says when he first met the rock and roll star, he was not a big fan of Elvis.

"But the guy really won me over," he said. "He had such an engaging personality. And the thing that really impressed me about Elvis was that he was a real gentleman. He treated everybody with great kindness and affection, from all the members of the crew to the security people to all the crowds that were there."

Attendance skyrocketed when it was announced that Elvis would be on the fairgrounds filming his movie.

"It was bedlam⁴ around him," he said. "The young girls were in tears, screaming out his name and everything. But he'd always turn around and give a nice wave to them."

Fisher once went on a double-date with Elvis. The two men and their dates left the hotel where Elvis was staying, heading to the movies.

"And to be able to do that, at the hotel, we had to go down a service elevator and through the back kitchen way," he said, "because the lobby was filled with fans trying to see Elvis. And we got into just a plain black station wagon⁵. And it took us to the movies."

They watched an Elvis Presley film called Kid Galahad. Elvis's entourage, jokingly known as the Memphis Mafia, had bought enough tickets to clear the last three rows of the theater.
 
 
Albert Fisher, today 
  
Recalling the event, Fisher said "We waited until the movie began, and then they sneaked⁶ us in, and then we left before the movie ended."

Fisher was on the set in Seattle when a child actor got his big break. As the film unfolded, Elvis hired a young boy to kick him in the kneecaps so he could visit a pretty nurse.

"And the kid doesn't even get a credit," he said. "It's the first time he ever made a move. And it's Kurt Russell. He was 10 years old."

Russell went on to become a star in his own right.

Fisher, as a young man, got a close-up view of the colorful characters who surrounded Elvis, including Colonel Tom Parker, the singer's manager. He says that as the star was filming in Seattle, Parker - always the businessman - set up a stand to sell Elvis memorabilia at the world's fair.

After the production had finished and the Seattle World's Fair had ended, Fisher moved to New York to work in television.

"And the day that the movie opened, I got all of my friends together," he said. "I said, let's go to the very first screening at 10 in the morning to see the movie, because I want you all to see my credit come up on the screen as technical adviser⁷. So the credits start to roll in the beginning of the movie, and up comes the credit. It says, "Technical Adviser, Colonel Tom Parker.'"

He later learned that Colonel Parker took the title of technical adviser on all Elvis Presley movies.

Elvis went on to even greater stardom, and Fisher went on to produce television shows in New York and Los Angeles. He says that Elvis, who died in 1977, may be an even bigger star today than when their paths crossed at the Seattle World's Fair.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

3 advisor   

n.顾问，指导老师，劝告者

参考例句：

• They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
• The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。

4 bedlam   

n.混乱，骚乱；疯人院

参考例句：

• He is causing bedlam at the hotel.他正搅得旅馆鸡犬不宁。
• When the teacher was called away the classroom was a regular bedlam.当老师被叫走的时候，教室便喧闹不堪。

5 wagon   

n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车

参考例句：

• We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
• The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。

6 sneaked   

v.潜行( sneak的过去式和过去分词 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状

参考例句：

• I sneaked up the stairs. 我蹑手蹑脚地上了楼。
• She sneaked a surreptitious glance at her watch. 她偷偷看了一眼手表。

7 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。