Elvis’ Favorite Director

Still the youngest director to ever win an Academy Award (Skippy, 1931); Norman Taurog’s career embraces the history of Hollywood, from silent comedies to the Elvis Presley era. During Taurog’s fifty-two years in the film business he directed seventy-eight feature films starring everyone from Maurice Chevalier and Carole Lombard, to W.C. Fields and Bing Crosby, to Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy (who won an Oscar for his performance as Father Flanagan in Taurog’s Boys Town), to Judy Garland, Mario Lanza, Cary Grant, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, and of course his nine films with Elvis Presley. Elvis’ Favorite Director is an in-depth study of Hollywood movie-making, seen through the eyes of a talented craftsman and told by a writer who worked closely with Taurog during the last six years and eight films of his career. Michael A. Hoey is a multi-award winning film and television editor, writer, director and producer. He is the son of Dennis Hoey, who played Inspector Lestrade in Universal’s Sherlock Holmes series. Hoey began in Hollywood working as a film editor. He later wrote, directed or produced a number of feature films, including the teen comedy Palm Springs Weekend, the cult sci-fi flick The Navy vs. the Night Monsters and two movies starring Elvis Presley, Stay Away, Joe and Live A Little, Love A Little. He was also a contributing writer on four more films starring Elvis. He then transitioned into television where he wrote and directed a number of shows, including a multi-year run on Fame for which he received several awards. He lives in San Clemente, California.