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In the summer of 1962 Elvis was on location in Seattle for filming on his second
MGM movie It Happened at the World's Fair. It had been more than
five years since he had completed his first Metro film, Jailhouse Rock,
and he now had a very different image as a movie star - with lighthearted, family-style
films the mainstay of his screen work. Once again Elvis worked under the direction
of Norman Taurog. Co-stars in the film were Joan O'Brien, Gary Lockwood (Elvis's
rival in Wild in the Country) and child actress Vicky Tiu. At this
point children featured fairly prominently in Elvis's movies, lending even more
to the 'family entertainment' image. Elvis's previous film, Girls! Girls!
Girls! included Vicky Tiu's two younger sisters in the cast. Prior to
that, Follow That Dream featured several children as part of Elvis's
character's extended family. It could be argued that the inclusion of children
into the films began as far back as G.I. Blues really. It is therefore
a very interesting fact that eleven-year old Kurt Russell made his film debut
in It Happened at the World's Fair with a couple of brief scenes
performed with Elvis. Years later Russell spoke of just how overawed he was at
the time with all the attention that surrounded Elvis as a hugely-important individual.
Shooting some of the crowd scenes at the World's Fair itself proved complicated
at times due to Elvis's presence there, and many additional police officers were
assigned to protect him as so many of the people were desperately trying to catch
a glimpse of him. He, on the other hand, and a very frustrated MGM film crew were
simply trying to make a movie - in the face of all this distraction. Interiors
for the film were shot back at Metro's studios in Culver City - the site of where
Elvis would eventually film another 12 features for MGM.
Cast as a pilot this time round, apart from some stylish aviation garb Elvis dressed
in some very sleek suits, especially tailored for him by Hollywood's Sy Devore.
The soundtrack for the movie was recorded in Hollywood. Only ten tracks were included
on the album, with no 'bonus' songs as fillers, which became the common practice
for RCA later on. The running time of the album was around 20 minutes, and this
became a rather contentious point among fans. Despite the problem, the album reached
no.4 in both the U.S. and U.K. album charts. A single, pairing One Broken Heart
For Sale with They Remind Me Too Much Of You was released, achieving
a high of no.12 and' no.ll in the U.K. and U.S. respectively. This actually began
a slump in sales of film soundtrack singles.
This information was produced by the Elvis Presley Film Society in November 2003
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