The Battered and Bruised Face of Elvis Presley Should Shock Some of His Fans! ~ Vintage Everyday

The battered and bruised face of Elvis Presley should shock some of his fans who expect to see him all prettied up in his movie roles. Elvis shows what he looks like after he gets slammed around in a remake of an old boxing picture, Kid Galahad (1962). Just to keep the record straight and avoid any unnecessary tears, the bumps and bruises are the product of the makeup department and not the result of a beating.

In the film, Presley’s makeup was used to make him look like a believable boxer, particularly after fights. Makeup artists created the appearance of cuts, bruises, and swelling to convey the physicality of his character. Specifically, makeup was used to create a gash across his cheek and swollen lips to depict the results of his boxing matches in the film.

“He looks like an electric mixer had been working on his face,” columnist Dorothy Manners reported. “One eye is puffed and closed, there’s an ugly gash across his cheek, and his lips are swollen out of shape. From the looks of him, Kid Presley must lose every fight in the script.”

Makeup could make Presley’s face look the part, but to make the rest of his physique fit would take a lot of work. Producer David Weisbart brought in former junior welterweight champion Mushy Callahan as a technical adviser to get Presley in shape for his role and teach him how to box. For 25 years Callahan had taught actors, including Wayne Morris in the original Kid Galahad film in 1937, how to handle themselves in the ring. The 56-year-old Callahan put Elvis on a rigorous training schedule to get him ready for his fight scenes. After the film was released, Elvis claimed he lost 12 pounds under Callahan’s regimen. Every morning he ran miles along the roads near Idyllwild in Southern California, where much of Kid Galahad was filmed. Every afternoon he worked the light and heavy bags and boxed with his trainer.

While Elvis was sheltered from the press, Mushy made himself available to anyone who cared to listen. Outgoing by nature, he always had something to say about his special pupil. “I try to break a script down and train him according to what the story calls for,” he explained to UPI writer Joseph Finnigan. “We work out routines that Elvis has to do in the ring and he catches on pretty good. He’s not afraid to get hit. Of course, he doesn’t want to get his teeth knocked out.”

As the training progressed, Mushy revealed that coaching Elvis was difficult for an unusual reason. “I’m having an awful time with Elvis because he looks too GOOD. He’s supposed to be a clumsy fighter in the film, but he looks and moves like a champ. So my job is to destroy his natural coordination and teach him to look bad. It’s a little like being a jockey and having to rein in ‘Man of War.’ It’s kind of hard to do.”

Two professional fighters who squared off with Elvis in Kid Galahad were also impressed. Welterweight Orlando de la Fuente indicated, “He is very, very strong. He was very interested. He watched me very carefully so he could learn the body movements.” Orlando’s brother, Ramon, a light heavyweight agreed. “Elvis hit me pretty hard. There was one scene there where we kept on fighting after the bell rang. He caught me a good right hand on the jaw. It wasn’t in the script but they left it in, it was such a good scene.”