The proposed contract is still in the Graceland archives to this day and was asking too much of The King who hadn’t made a movie in several years.Included was $1000 a week in expenses for Elvis including First Class transportation. Not only that, but also a requirement that his name be first position credit, holding 100 per cent of the title above the title on the poster.
Elvis’ manager also didn’t want to have his client portrayed as having a showbiz career in decline, even though The King’s concert tours continued to pack out venues. Additionally, Ernst Jorgensen in Elvis Day By Day said that Parker had demanded a $1 million salary for The King, even though the last time he acted in a movie was 1969’s Change of Habit.
Negotiations with The Colonel fell through and Elvis never did get to act once again in A Star is Born, even though he probably couldn’t put up with being second billing to Barbra. Memphis Mafia member Jerry Schilling later said: “There was no way the film’s budget could stand two superstar salaries and Elvis didn’t care about the money. He was smart enough to know that this kind of supporting role could be his way back into the movies.”
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