In 1944, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released Meet Me in St. Louis, a Hollywood musical that climaxes with the opening of the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. The film was both a commercial and critical success, finishing second in the overall box office of 1944. With Seattle on the verge of launching its own World’s Fair in 1962, Washington Governor Albert Rosellini pitched the idea to MGM of using the fair as a setting for their next Elvis Presley film.
Given the synergy, the proposal was enthusiastically accepted. A script entitled It Happened at the World’s Fair was quickly written, and in September 1962, Presley arrived at the fair and rode the Seattle Monorail, gazed up at the Space Needle, and ran through the fountains of what is now the Pacific Science Center, all as part of the film’s plot.
Elvis Presley made his initial foray to Seattle five years earlier when he performed at Sick’s Stadium on September 1, 1957. Over 16,000 fans – an estimated ninety percent of which were teenage girls – shrieked and swooned during the thirteen-song set, which ended with Presley singing only two choruses of “Hound Dog” before making a hasty exit. Among those in attendance was a fifteen-year-old Jimi Hendrix, who would perform his last Seattle concert in that same Sick’s Stadium on July 26, 1970.
By 1962, Elvis Presley was no longer dominating the record charts as he had in 1957, moving on to a series of Hollywood musicals instead. It Happened at the World’s Fair was his twelfth film, but despite now appearing on the silver screen as opposed to concert stages, young girls still shrieked and swooned just the same. Three hundred of them surrounded the Doric New Washington Hotel awaiting his arrival, laying siege afterwards for the next ten days.
September 5 had been selected as the first day of filming since it was also the first day of school in Seattle, but that didn’t stop a flock of teens descending on the fair nonetheless. The initial scenes that day took place on the Monorail that connected Westlake Center in downtown Seattle with the fairgrounds. The Red Train was selected for filming, with the Blue Train continuing to operate as scheduled. Two particular teenage girls not only skipped school but rode back and forth on the Blue Train, screaming each time they passed the Red Train containing Presley. They bought so many Monorail tickets that they confessed to “going broke” as a result.
Production moved inside the World’s Fair the next day, with Elvis Presley and child co-star Vicky Tiu walking past amusement rides, eating ice cream and hot dogs, and winning a large stuffed animal at the Lucky Strike coin toss. In addition to the crowd straining to get a glimpse of the King of Rock and Roll, hundreds of extras were on hand, most of whom took the gig simply to see Presley.
Elsewhere in Seattle, teenage fans stormed the Doric New Washington Hotel as soon as school ended and remained throughout the evening. “The distressed hotel staff was augmented by six off-duty Seattle police officers hired to protect Elvis’s fourteenth floor suite,” Alan Hanson, founder of Elvis-History-Blog, later wrote. “Some aggressive fans tried to penetrate the security shield using strategies like climbing fire escapes or claiming to be Elvis’s friends. Others posed as reporters for high school newspapers, and a few even tried to convince hotel staffers that they had a date with Elvis.”
Eighteen-year-old Sue Wouters actually did have a date with Elvis Presley. Wouters had been in the crowd at the Seattle World’s Fair on the third day of filming when the twenty-seven-year-old Presley noticed her and, much to her surprise, walked up and began talking to her. A first date followed that evening – with the approval of Wouters’ mother – at Elvis’ suite at the Doric New Washington Hotel. Presley confessed that he would rather have taken her out on a proper date but the fans surrounding the hotel made that impossible.
“We watched television, listened to records and drank Cokes,” Wouters told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Elvis sent for hamburgers and would eat three or four of them.” He likewise kissed her goodnight but was “a gentlemen at all times.”
The character that Elvis Presley portrayed in It Happened at the World’s Fair had more traditional excursions with love interest Diane Warren, portrayed by actress Joan O’Brien. At one point in the film, the pair dine together at the restaurant on top of the Space Needle. Instead of shutting down the iconic structure, however, a facsimile of the restaurant was reproduced on a Hollywood sound stage in Los Angeles. Other features of the Seattle World’s Fair appearing on screen were the actual structures, including the United States Science Pavilion and its outdoor fountains.
“The biggest attraction at the World’s Fair continues to be Elvis Presley, who may turn out to be the biggest boon to the sellers of camera film since the Space Needle was unveiled,” the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported on day seven of filming. “Whenever the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer crew sets up its shop to film a scene with Presley, literally thousands flock to the spot (to be held back at a respectable distance by approximately 40 off-duty Seattle policemen) and the first thing they do is get their cameras at the ready. When Elvis appears, which is always some time after a great deal of rehearsal (with stand-ins) and adjustment of equipment, the noise of cameras whirring, clicking, snapping, flashing and other assorted noises runs a close second to the helicopter ride and Space Needle chimes.”
It Happened at the World’s Fair was released on April 3, 1963. Unlike Meet Me in St. Louis, the film was far from a commercial and critical success, being panned by critics and barely recouping its production costs at the box office. The movie catapulted Seattle onto the big screen for the first time nonetheless, paving the way for everything from Harry and the Hendersons to Sleepless in Seattle in the years that followed.
Anthony Letizia