Dolores Fuller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dolores Fuller

Dolores Fuller (born 1923) is best known as the one-time girlfriend of the low-budget film director Ed Wood, Jr. She played the protagonist's girlfriend in Glen or Glenda and a filing clerk in Bride of the Monster.

According to Fuller, the female lead in the latter film was written for Fuller but Wood gave it to Loretta King instead when she offered to help "finance" the movie. King denies the allegation to this day. Fuller left Wood shortly after and later earned popularity in her own right serving as a body double for Dinah Shore in The Dinah Shore Show and by writing several songs for Elvis Presley including "Rock-a-hula Baby", "I Got Lucky" and "Spinout".

She was portrayed by Sarah Jessica Parker in Tim Burton's 1994 Wood biopic Ed Wood, a film of which she dissapproved due to the image of her smoking in the film. Fuller says she never smoked.

Fuller's ability as a songwriter manifested itself through the intervention of her friend, producer Hal Wallis; Fuller had wanted to get an acting role in the Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii, which Wallis was producing, but instead he put her in touch with Hill & Range, the publisher that provided Presley with songs. Fuller went into a collaborative partnership with composer Ben Weisman and got one song, "Rock-A-Hula Baby", into Blue Hawaii. It was a beginning that eventually led to Elvis Presley recording a dozen of her songs. Fuller also had her music recorded by Nat 'King' Cole, Peggy Lee, and other leading talents of the period.