If you were old enough to go to the movies in 1957, you might remember the electric buzz around Elvis Presley’s third film. Jailhouse Rock hit theaters that fall, and it was unlike anything audiences had seen before.
Production kicked off on May 13, 1957, according to Elvis Australia. But Elvis had already been at work for weeks. He headed into the studio on April 30 to begin recording the soundtrack, then showed up for costume fittings, makeup tests, and dance rehearsals starting May 6.
It was his third film in as many years. Love Me Tender came first in 1956, followed by Loving You earlier in 1957. But Jailhouse Rock was something different altogether.
The Dance Scene That Changed Everything
Elvis played Vince, a construction worker who ends up in jail after accidentally killing a man in a bar fight. He discovers his voice behind bars and becomes a singing sensation after his release. Not exactly realistic, but nobody was buying a ticket for the plot.
What they were buying a ticket for was Elvis. And the film gave them something unforgettable.
The scene where Vince dances among fellow prisoners to the film’s title song has since been called the first music video ever made, according to the official Graceland website. It is one of the most iconic moments in pop culture history.
But here is something most people never knew: that scene almost looked completely different. Choreographer Alex Romero had originally planned something elegant, smooth, Fred Astaire-style dancing. Then he watched Elvis move.
“He asked Elvis to perform a few songs as if he were performing on stage at a concert. After watching Elvis’ natural dance moves, he redesigned the entire number,” the Graceland website explains.
In other words, Elvis being Elvis changed everything. Romero scrapped the original plan entirely and built the choreography around what came naturally to the King.
A Real-Life Scare on Set
Filming did not go smoothly for Elvis personally. According to the Graceland website, he suffered a serious injury during production, and a tooth cap became lodged in his lung.
He was hospitalized and had to undergo surgery to remove it. The incident reportedly made its way into the film itself. Elvis’s character, Vince, suffers a throat injury at the end of the movie, a detail said to have been influenced by what happened to Elvis in real life.
A Family Milestone and a Box Office Hit
The film also marked a quiet but meaningful chapter in Elvis’s personal life. It was during the making of Jailhouse Rock that his parents, Gladys and Vernon Presley, and his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, moved into Graceland. The Memphis home that would become forever tied to his legacy was just becoming a family home for the first time.
When the film was released, audiences showed up in large numbers. Jailhouse Rock went on to gross nearly $4 million in the United States alone, a remarkable number for 1957.
Sixty-eight years later, that prison dance scene still gives you goosebumps. Some things just hold up.