April 20th in Elvis History

It's April 20th, and on this day in 1964, *The Las Vegas Desert News and Telegram* published an article entitled "Elvis Helps in Success of Burton-O'Toole Movie." The piece featured an interview with Hollywood producer Hal Wallis, who discussed how the profits from Elvis's films helped finance more "classy" projects, like *Becket*, starring Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole. Wallis even suggested that the success of Elvis's commercially popular movies was key to making such artistic films possible. However, his comments about Elvis's films being necessary but not always considered highbrow struck a blow to Elvis's ego. He would privately mention this article and the hurtful remarks about his movie career for years to come.