Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!Elvis!

"It Happened at the World's Fair"

No Web Site dedicated to the Seattle World’s Fair would be complete without at least a mention of Elvis Presley’s visit to the fair and the movie that starred the King.

Movie posters promised that Elvis, Elvis, Elvis would be "swingin' higher than the Space Needle" when "It Happened at the World's Fair" debuted in 1963.

For the few weeks that Elvis was at the Seattle World’s Fair in 1962, the then-27-year-old gave the city a case of Elvismania.

Everywhere Presley went, there were plenty of girls. Elvis even had four dates with a local Seattle girl, an 18-year-old blonde named Sue Wouters. Elvis spotted Wouters in a crowd and had one of his bodyguards ask her out for him.

Elvis stayed at the New Washington Doric Hotel while he was in Seattle.

In It Happened at the World’s Fair, a musical comedy filmed against the backdrop of the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, Elvis Presley’s character, Mike Edwards, and partner Danny Burke, portrayed by Gary Lockwood, hitchhike to Seattle to find work. The two desperately need money to reclaim their airplane, on which the sheriff has attached a lien. They hitch a ride with a Chinese farmer and his seven-year-old niece, Sue-Lin, played by talented Vicky Tiu.

When business unexpectedly occupies the uncle, Mike takes Sue-Lin on a tour of the World’s Fair, where he meets and falls for nurse Diane Warren, portrayed by Joan O’Brien. When Sue-Lin’s uncle fails to return, Mike takes responsibility for the little girl. Mike’s situation goes from bad to worse when Child Welfare takes Sue-Lin away and Danny inadvertently becomes involved with a smuggling operation. Mike, Danny, and law officials eventually subdue the smugglers. The film ends happily when Sue-Lin finds her uncle and Mike and Diane find each other.

Cast of It Happened at the World's Fair:

Character                     Actor

Mike Edwards              Elvis Presley

Diane Warren              Joan O’Brien

Danny Burke                Gary Lockwood

Sue-Lin                        Vicky Tiu

Songs Featured in It Happened at the World’s Fair:

Beyond the Bend

Relax

Take Me to the Fair

They Remind Me Too Much of You

One Broken Heart for Sale

I’m Falling in Love Tonight

Cotton Candy Land

A World of Our Own

How Would You Like To Be                                                   

Happy Ending