The story regarding the reasons why Elvis never actually set foot in Mexico for the filming of "Fun in Acapulco" are so out of this world that a movie could be made of it. It all started in late 1956, when sales of Presley's records went through the rook in that country. He was such a fantastic record seller and so famous there that, in early 1957, two things happened. One, was the decision by RCA to build the largest record plant in Latin America at the outskirts of the country's capital. The other, which initiated his "unmaking" in that country, was a letter sent, with a blank check, and signed by the then all powerful Mayor of Mexico City, Ernesto Peralta Uruchurtu, inviting Elvis to sing at the 15th birthday party of the daughter of one of the two media communications tycoons in that country. The letter reached Elvis while filming "Jailhouse Rock". It would appear that the birthday coincided with Elvis playing Vancouver, so a letter was sent back thanking Uruchurtu and the tycoon for the offer, and returning the blank check. Because letters took their time to be delivered in those days, there was at least a month in which the tycoon had the time to tell his immediate friends, namely the country's top business associates, as well as the entire line up of the PRI party, which ruled Mexico for 70 years, that Presley was ACTUALLY coming to sing at his daughter's party. When the letter declining his singing in Mexico reached him, his first reaction was to call his best friend at "Excelsior", the country's top daily, and to ask him to smear him as an anti/Mexican. The column where the smear appeared was the most read, in the entire country so by April of 1957, all Mexico took for a fact that Presley had been interviewed in Tijuana, where he had stated that he didn't want to ever sing in Mexico, especially since he would "prefer to kiss three african Americans girls than a single Mexican one". This led to his being banned in radio stations in Mexico, as well as created a divide between those who loved Elvis and those who hated him. Then, two years later, at the first screening of "King Creole", a huge fight erupted between the two sides, which resulted in one death, covered up by Uruchurtu, and where legal proceedings where hidden from the media. This is when his records could not be bought in stores, in other words the second of four succesive, back to back bans in that country. Two years later, at the first screening of "G.I.Blues", at the same theatre, another fight erupted, albeit with no human loss, so this is when Uruchurtu exercised the third ban, which meant no other Presley movie could be shown at Mexico City's theatres. So, by the time Paramount announced the filming of "Fun in Acapulco", which was a year later, and sent requests for visas, of all concerned, a letter stating that Presley would not be welcomed, and which was received, meant Hal Wallis, the producer, had a tough decision to make. Either scrap the movie, or just sent the entire crew to Mexico, since their visas were granted, and do the locale shooting there, but film all of Presley's scenes in Los Angeles. He chose the latter. Now, Uruchurtu had been known to a tough Mayor, they called him the Iron mayor, but in this particular case, he'd been kind of hoodwinked by the tycoon, who welcomed Presley's undoing because he was the rival to the tycoon who was behind the building of the RCA plant. He, the tycoon, by spite, killed two birds with one stone by smearing Presley. So, when two years later, in late 1965, the Beatles announced that they'd be playing Mexico, Uruchurtu to be politically correct withy his earlier stance on Presley had to say no, which he did, lest someone investigating the real reasons may find out about the Presley story, which only came out after he died, at age 91.
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rockmail
9 years ago
Wow, what a huge fecking story, and yet it does nothing to address or refute the fact that Elvis didn't film any of his scenes in Mexico.
What a jabroney.
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gfperez-arguello
8 years ago
Are you suggesting that the second most powerful man in Mexico, the Mayor of that city in three succesive administrations could NOT ensure that Elvis Presley never set foot in his country? Of course, he never went there!!
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