Trailer
Plot summary
Conrad Birdie, a rock and roll idol with crowds of teenage fans, receives an Army draft notice. Albert Peterson has a doctorate in biochemistry but has not made it as a songwriter, and Rosie DeLeon is his secretary and longtime girlfriend. Rosie convinces the host of a television variety show to have Conrad sing a song Albert writes and then kiss one high school girl goodbye before he joins the Army. Sweet Apple, Ohio, is chosen for the farewell, and the girl is Kim McAfee. Hugo Peabody, her high school sweetheart, is jealous, and Albert's widowed mother Mae interferes in his life.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bye Bye Birdie (1963)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ann-Margret said she was cast when director George Sidney saw her dancing while on a date at the Sands Casino on New Year's Eve 1961; she was paid $3,500 a week and $85,000 in total, and Janet Leigh, billed as the lead female star, was very upset that all the close-ups were going to her.
- In 1964 the Carefrees had a hit with the novelty song “We Love You Beatles”, based on “We Love You Conrad” from Bye Bye Birdie; it peaked at No. 39 on the Billboard Hot 100, and fans sang it outside the Plaza Hotel hoping the band would hear them in their rooms above.
- George Sidney said he was only to produce the film, with Gower Champion set to direct, but Champion told him he could not see the story as a film, so Sidney became the director.
- The story was inspired by Elvis Presley's enlistment into the U.S. Army in 1958, and the name of the teen idol Conrad Birdie is based on that of country singer Conway Twitty.
