It started not with a green flag, but with tuxedo shirts. Speedway history, in terms of Nancy and Elvis Presley’s friendship, originated in 1960 when Nancy was asked by her dad to meet Elvis upon his arrival at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Elvis was about to appear with Nancy on FS’s TV special to welcome Elvis back from his service in the Army. Nancy recalls the historic event in her 1985 book, Frank Sinatra, My Father:
“FS had asked me to take EP a welcome-home present and I did. On the advice of Elvis’s manager, Colonel Tom Parker, I had picked out two ruffled tuxedo shirts and now presented them to Elvis along with Frank’s regards.”
The meeting was captured on newsreel film: March 3, 1960.
From tuxedo shirts to racing suits: In June of 1967, more than seven years after their meeting, Nancy and Elvis began filming and soundtrack recording for Speedway.
Nancy’s Role:
Susan Jacks
Writer:
Phillip Shuken
Director:
Norman Taurog
Theatrical Release:
1968
DVD Releases:
2004
2004 (as part of The Signature Collection: It Happened at the World’s Fair / Speedway / Spinout / Harum Scarum / Jailhouse Rock / Viva Las Vegas)
2006 (as part of Elvis Triple Feature: Harum Scarum / Speedway / The Trouble With Girls)
2007 (remastered version)
2010 (as part of Elvis 75th Anniversary DVD Collection)
“The only good thing about Speedway was Elvis at his peak, in his prime. He was beautiful. This movie and his ‘comeback’ special were his zenith. I mean how gorgeous was he then. WOW!” ~ Nancy [source]
Similar to The Last Of The Secret Agents? ”tabloid herald” (pictured in Nancy’s International Movie Poster Gallery, Part Two), the Speedway ”herald,” a 4-page flyer, was created to generate interest in the film.
From the two-page, fold-out interior (pictured left): “Elvis stars…as a champion stock car racer with a flair for entertaining.”
In an interview on Late Night With Conan O’Brien (pictured right [broadcast: April 12, 1995]), Nancy revealed that Elvis was “a great kisser.” When Conan asked, “What was he [Elvis] like as a person,” Nancy described Elvis as “funny and sweet and fidgety.”
The 27″ x 41″ U.S. one sheet poster.
Nancy appears on seven of the eight U.S. lobby cards (with the exception of lobby card #3, which features Elvis, Bill Bixby, and Gari Hardy from the “Animals On The Loose” scene). The captions from the cards are quoted in red.
Lobby card #1: “Elvis and Nancy entertain their friends at a jamboree before the big race.”
Lobby card #2: “Tempers flair out of control when Elvis finds Nancy dating his racing rival, Ross Hagen.”
Lobby card #4: “Elvis Presley and Nancy Sinatra work around the clock to tune up his racing car for competition.”
For more about Elvis’s (Steve Grayson’s) racing car, see the …riding shotgun, windows down,” Part Two: Nancy and Classic Cars at the Movies blog entry.
In addition to her multitasking abilities as a singing and dancing internal revenue agent in the movie, Nancy’s mechanical expertise is illustrated by a related black and white publicity photo.
Lobby card #5: “Elvis, Nancy and Bill Bixby set things swinging at the racing club discotheque [The Hangout].”
Lobby card #6 (framed in red) : “Internal revenue agent Nancy Sinatra helps Elvis Presley and his partner Bill Bixby solve thier financial problems.”
The related card (framed in blue) was printed in Great Britain.
Lobby card #7: “Nancy exudes confidence as Elvis and his pit crew remain concerned about the outcome of the race.”
Lobby card #8: “Nancy Sinatra falls under the spell of daredevil stockcar racer Elvis Presley.”
The black and white image displays the “crystal helmet” publicity photo, which is based on the following dialogue: Elvis: “When will I see you again?”; Nancy: “Ask your crystal helmet.”
The U.S. one sheet poster (pictured earlier in this post) served as the template for Speedway posters around the world.
In France, Speedway was released as À Plein Tube, as displayed on this four sheet poster.
From Turkey, a Gençlerin Sakasi Yok poster.
A 13″ x 30″ Australian daybill poster.
The 30″ x 40″ U.K. quad poster.
For its release in Italy, the movie was known as A Tutto Gas on this four sheet poster.
The first in a series of eight 46-cm x 68-cm A Tutto Gas posters is displayed at the top of this post. The remaining seven follow.
This poster employs the image of Nancy and Elvis from U.S. lobby card #1, as well as a color-altered depiction of Nancy from her performance of “Your Groovy Self.”
This composite is derived from Nancy and Elvis’s performance of “There Ain’t Nothing Like A Song” (left) and Nancy’s “Your Groovy Self” solo (right).
Elvis charms Nancy following her (Susan Jacks’) protestation:
“Oh no. It could never work. We’re complete opposites. You’re wild, extravagant and unreliable. You’re not the kind of man I should fall in love with–and besides we don’t even like each other.”
Nancy and Elvis embrace as he sings “Who Are You? (Who Am I?)” (left).
From the performance of “There Ain’t Nothing Like A Song” (right), the composite presents the same image as U.S. lobby card #5.
With a slightly different pose, the image of Nancy in pink is a variation of the photo which appears on the inlay card of the Nancy [Twelve Ways] CD (pictured left: Sundazed SC 6058).
In another composite, Nancy’s image is derived from the “She’s Gonna Listen” scene with Ross Hagen (see U.S. lobby card #2), while Elvis and Bill Bixby are pictured in Elvis’s “trailer trap.”
The Italian composite variation (framed in yellow) of U.S. lobby card #4 is derived from the “Popular Mechanics” scene. The related card (framed in blue) from the same scene was printed in Great Britain.
This A Tutto Gas poster is one of several international posters which feature a non-Speedway image of a bikini-clad Nancy.
Released as A Todo Escape in Mexico, lobby cards continue the theme of the previous poster.
In the “Cupid’s Bankroll” scene, Bill Bixby warns Nancy about Elvis (Steve): “Well, if I were a girl, I would let the measles in my apartment before I’d let him in.”
The black and white photo of Nancy, as she sings “till you bring your groovy self on home–to me,” also appears (in a cropped version) on the interior right panel of the gatefold jacket of 1973′s Japanese Nancy Sinatra LP (RCA SX-248).
Illustrating the film’s finale, the black and white image of Nancy and Elvis is derived from their duet of “There Ain’t Nothing Like A Song.”
The Speedway movie trailer.
For Speedway’s October 4, 1971 broadcast on NBC, this amusing promotional photo of Nancy (from the “Popular Mechanics” scene) was distributed as part of a September 10, 1971 press release (pictured right):
“AT-TIRED FOR SLEEP – Susan Jacks (Nancy Sinatra), wearing a race driver’s outfit, manages to catch forty winks while sitting on two large tires in ‘Speedway,’ a comedy set against the background of stock car racing, to be colorcast on ‘NBC Monday Night at the Movies’ Oct. 4 (9-11 p.m. NYT) on the NBC Television Network.”
The Lisa Marie Connection…
At the time of Speedway’s production, the news of Priscilla Presley’s pregnancy was announced. Nancy would later organize Priscilla’s baby shower.
In a Sinatra Family Forum post [source], Nancy shares a memorable conversation she had with Elvis, regarding Lisa Marie’s birth:
“When Lisa Marie was born, E.P. (the name he used with friends) phoned me to say how he was so moved by the experience and how he felt it was not fair that she would have such great blessings and the same child born in a ghetto that very night would suffer poverty and want, and God knows what else, perhaps all her life.
His heart was so full of love and pain that night. I will never forget it as long as I live.
I treasure him.”
The history of Speedway soundtrack and video releases will be the subject of a separate post.
