The Top Things You Never Knew About Bye Bye Birdie

Elvis Presley Was The Inspiration

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Both the original stage production and the film version of Bye Bye Birdie are intended to be extremely tongue in cheek by exposing how teenagers of the 1950s can become too obsessed with rock stars. The idea for the premise of Bye Bye Birdie didn’t come until writers saw a news report about Elvis Presley being drafted into the army in 1957. The event caused a huge media ordeal and even sparked a contest in which Elvis would five a special member of the Women’s Army Corps ‘one last kiss’ before he was deployed to Germany for 18 months.

But They Wouldn’t Let Him Star In It

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Because he was the inspiration for the story, Elvis Presley would have been an obvious first choice for the role of the lead character. But Presley’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, would not allow the rock-and-roll legend to star in the film. Parker stated that he didn’t want Presley in any roles that were just parodies of himself, or that would be interpreted as such. Although having Elvis in the lead role would have certainly made the film a huge success, fortunately, his appearance wasn’t necessarily needed. Bye Bye Birdie was the 13th highest grossing film of 1963, earning over $13 million in U.S. box offices alone.