In a summer 1972 interview where his 1960s Hollywood career was discussed, Elvis singled out the 1965 Allied Artists film "Tickle Me" as being "pure entertainment."
Interview with MGM's Adidge and Abel in Culver City, CA - July 1972
That's why when you get on stage, I think it's ...
It comes out.
It's honesty, it's real, it's, uh, it's you. I had, like I told you before, I had a completely different, different image of you until I met you, until I saw you in a live performance. And I think, uh, a lot of people do, they have an image like that.
Well, not, you know, not all the movies were, were that bad. I, I, uh, in-between I'd do something that, uh, was entertaining to people, it's just a pure entertainment nature, so, like "Tickle Me" or something like that, you know. They worked well on television.
A lot of people still watch them.
Yeah.
Among the 1965 film's many attractions which helped it be a great success, such as the breezy, light humour, beautiful co-stars like Jocelyn Lane and Julie Adams, and decent, albeit recycled, studio songs supplying the soundtrack, I discovered "Tickle Me" also featured the celebrated, and now very rare, monster mask artistry of Ellis Burman, Sr.!
Below is the story I found online.
Tickle Me featured two monsters -- unless you count the guy in the closet sitting in a rocking chair, which I won't. Both monsters wore masks created by Ellis Burman, Sr. Burman is generally acknowledged as having produced the first commercially available line of studio-quality monster masks. The masks were sold exclusively through the Bert Wheeler Hollywood Magic shop in Los Angeles; either directly from the store or through the store's mail order business. Few of the masks have survived. Because of their rarity and significance within the history of commercial masks they're highly sought after by collectors today.
During the period the Burman masks were being sold, Verne Langdon purchased half of Don Post Studios and decided he'd like to offer a Don Post line of studio-quality monster masks, for which licensing was procured to produce masks of some of the more popular Universal Studios monsters. Unfortunately Burman did not have such licensing for his line of masks and they soon became history; reportedly after the Post folks asked him to cease operation. He would eventually end up working for Don Post Studios as their chief lab technician, which also involved designing some of their early masks.
Both Burman and Don Post, Sr. worked within the film industry designing props, masks, makeup appliances and anything else that was required. Burman had designed such memorables as the wolf-head cane featured in The Wolf Man, the headpiece worn by Lon Chaney, Jr. in Ghost of Frankenstein and many other items. Don Post had similarly spent many years producing props, life masks and all manner of commissioned goods for the entertainment industry. So both Burman and Post were capable of creating studio-quality monster masks, but no one thought of doing it on a commercial level until Burman broke the ice. Post had been creating monster masks commercially for many years, but his commercial studio-quality offerings didn't begin until the introduction of the Verne Langdon overseen calendar masks.
Both of the Burman-made masks featured in Tickle Me were part of that first line of masks that started the studio-quality monster mask trend that Don Post Studios would later run with. The early Burman masks were made of the "claytex" clay and latex formula he favored, and which he later incorporated into the Don Post masks. The Tickle Me monsters were off-the-rack from the Bert Wheeler shop.
The "Werewolf" mask sold for $14.95:
The "Hunch of Notre Dame" sold for just $8.95:
The "Hunch" mask got to occupy extra celluloid when it was used as part of a fight scene with Elvis:
And the "Werewolf" mask (and actor) ended up in the mud:
And there you have it, my friendly nod to the Tickle Me monsters.
Let's now resume our regularly scheduled programming . . .
http://monsterkidclassichorrorforum.yuku.com/sreply/910280/TICKLE-ME-1965-Elvis-meets-the-monsters
Despite the years, there's always something fun waiting to be uncovered when it comes to the man and his career.
All hail the "Tickle Me" monsters!