Elvis, Marilyn, and the Space Aliens

Icons on Screen in Nevada

Robin Holabird

• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780874174656
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Weltgeschichte

Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and space aliens like the Transformers share a surprising connection along with James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Rocky Balboa. These beloved icons played active roles in movie and television projects set in the state of Nevada. Long time state film commissioner and movie reviewer Holabird explores the blending of icons and Nevada, along with her personal experiences of watching movies, talking with famous people, and showing off a diverse range of stunning and iconic locations like Las Vegas, Reno, Lake Tahoe, and Area 51.

Holabird shows how Nevada's flash, flair, and fostering of the forbidden provided magic for singers, sexpots, and strange creatures from other worlds. She also gives readers an insider's look into moviemaking in Nevada by drawing on her extensive experience as a film commissioner. This is a unique take on film history and culture, and Holabird explores eighteen film genres populated by one-of-a-kind characters with ties to Nevada. Along with being a film history of the state of Nevada written by a consummate insider, the book is a fun mixture of research, personal experiences, and analysis about how Nevada became the location of choice for a broad spectrum of well-known films and characters.

1

Elvis and the Impersonators

We call him “The King,” and Las Vegas serves as his glittery Camelot. Elvis Presley only made one feature film in Las Vegas but, ever since, the man and the place blend as a unified force. Dynamic, bright, and sparkly, Elvis and Las Vegas come from the same flashy fabric. A sleek, trim dynamo when cameras rolled for Viva Las Vegas in 1964, Elvis thrived in a city where nightlife included showgirls, the Rat Pack, and mobsters.

“Elvis took me to Vegas in the early sixties,” recalled his Army buddy and road manager, Joe Esposito, at a Las Vegas convention where he peddled documentary footage of The King.

Dressed in a dark mock turtleneck sweater covered by a black sport coat, Esposito looked more like a casual businessman than a key member of Elvis’s famous Memphis Mafia, the tightly knit group of friends that surrounded the singer, protected his privacy, and shared the spoils of fame. A young soldier with dark locks when he first met Elvis during the singer’s Army stint in Germany, Esposito lost some hair, gained a trim, white beard, but never wavered in his loyalty to The King and their shared memories.

Las Vegas provided many of those memories.

“We drove down with a bunch of guys and went to the Sahara. We came for a week—we stayed five weeks. That’s when Vegas was Vegas. Every showroom had a major act, and all of the big acts were in the lounges. We went to every act, every showroom. We had a great time. He enjoyed it tremendously because it was a twenty-four-hour town. The sun would rise, and we went to bed like Count Dracula.”

By the time Elvis returned for Viva Las Vegas, he had made fifteen movies, most of them ranging from bland to bad.

“All his movies are travelogues, thirty-one films of him singing to a dog, a cat, a kid,” recalled Esposito.

Viva Las Vegas continues that trend, though with extra panache to push it into iconic pop culture status.

“Viva was a better story, better crew, and good director,” said Esposito.

That director, George Sidney, never buckled under the Elvis mystique. Sinatra, not Elvis, played on the sound system in his Las Vegas Country Club home. Photos of him working with Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and other MGM stars filled his office walls. At eighty-six, Sidney’s memory remained sharp and detailed. Wearing a dapper gray suit and ascot, he clearly enjoyed discussing work.

Sidney’s office included photos of Elvis, but the director noted the two never hung out like buddies.

“At the end of the workday, he went off with his troupe,” recalled Sidney. “He was polite, but it was hard to get to know him.”

Sidney preferred his Viva co-star, Ann-Margret, who held a place of honor in his home. A framed picture of her as the Flintstones caricature Ann-Margrock, graced the kitchen wall near an original still life by Georgia O’Keefe.

A couple of years later, Ann-Margret sat on a Nevada set in Genoa when Sidney’s name came up. Still sporting her famous red hair, Ann-Margret’s face softened and her blue eyes misted.

“Oh, Mr. Sidney,” she sighed. “He was so wonderful.”

This came decades after she first worked with him. With five Golden Globe Awards, two Oscar nominations, and a handful of Emmy nominations, plus the star stature to headline a television movie, ’Til the River Runs Dry, she still danced, still sang, and still sold out stage shows. And she still called her Viva Las Vegas director Mr. Sidney.

Sidney’s stature as president of the Directors Guild of America for sixteen years meant current directors called to talk with him. He knew all his era’s Hollywood legends and made decisions that helped launch careers for Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. He understood musicals, directing film versions of Annie Get Your Gun and Bye Bye Birdie. Since Birdie spoofed an Elvis-style singer, Sidney seemed a natural to work with the real thing.

He had never watched an Elvis movie before getting the Viva gig, so he studied a couple of the singer’s projects. Sidney immediately spotted a consistent flaw: directors always focused on Elvis, ignoring the leading lady.

“You need to go ‘boy-girl, boy-girl,’” he explained.

As an A-list director, Sidney’s clout allowed him to make many changes in the tentatively titled Las Vegas Days, which he promptly renamed Viva Las Vegas. One involved switching Ann-Margret’s character from showgirl to swimming instructor and letting a bathing suit enhance her performance.

Sidney made other changes. He turned Elvis into an underfinanced race-car driver who earns money gambling and waiting tables in an exciting casino environment. Originally, the singer supported his race-car hobby by working on a drill rig in the desert.

“Who wants to see Elvis do that?” Sidney wondered.

Sidney tinkered with projects throughout his career, and he loved exploring new directions. He shot in 3-D long before it became a mainstay in new, millennium-era movies. His picture Anchors Away features a memorable scene where Gene Kelly dances with the famous cartoon mouse of Tom and Jerry, an early example of live action melding with animation.

Viva Las Vegas took a more traditional path, reflecting Sidney’s tastes, including a love for speed. Sidney got Elvis all shook up by riding a Harley Davidson to work the first day on set, destroying the singer’s image of a staid, old-school director. Sidney followed the motorcycle stunt the next day by arriving in a Bentley race car.

Sidney’s passion for flashy, colorful cars shows up throughout Viva Las Vegas, with fast, flamboyant vehicles on picturesque routes throughout the region. Elvis zips along Blue Diamond Road by Red Rock Canyon and flashes through the flame-colored red sandstones of the Valley of Fire, an hour’s drive north from Las Vegas.

In another scene using popular visitor sites, Hoover Dam provides a backdrop, with Lake Mead presenting a chance for water ski action. The giant, neon cowboy, Vegas Vic, waves and welcomes visitors to the old city’s heart on Fremont Street during the film’s climatic Grand Prix car race.

Las Vegas casts its spell as a party town with sunshine, nightlife, and beautiful people like Elvis with his jet-black pompadour hair or Ann-Margret with her high cheekbones and Swedish bombshell allure.

Both gorgeous stars seem in their natural habitat amid sun-dappled pools and nighttime neon as they spar and sing through eleven numbers. That much music in a movie running only eighty-five minutes leaves little room for detailed storytelling or complicated character development. Performers and songs take the spotlight.

Decades later, the “Viva Las Vegas” tune thrives. Simply staged in the movie, it begins with hands thumping on bongo drums to a lively beat. The camera pans as Elvis opens a set of saloon door props, bobbing briskly through as he sings the opening lyrics about bright lights setting his soul on fire.

Meanwhile, Elvis sets millions of fans on fire, looking hot in skintight black slacks and an open red shirt, a “V” revealing his chest, with a matador-style black jacket broadening his shoulders and narrowing his waist. Rather than dance, he bounces to the song’s beat, moving left to glide with a showgirl in lacy black and pink, then switching to the right and a different girl in a glittering gold bodice and towering white feathered hat. Two other showgirls join the mix, adding mauve to the limited color palate of vivid hues.

Written by Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, the song went to number twenty-nine on the Billboard record charts, the flip side of the more heavily promoted “What’d I Say.” Frequently covered by other musicians, “Viva Las Vegas” paints an iconic image of the city, with its references to neon, one-arm bandits, and a place that turns day into night and vice versa.

As for Ann-Margret, she sings strongly, but her most memorable number comes with her moves. Wearing a simple ensemble of black tights and orange top, she shimmies to an instrumental, jazzy dance set in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas gym. Another highlight joins her with Elvis in a bantering duet called “The Lady Loves Me,” easing smoothly through the Flamingo Hotel pool area.

The setting lets Ann-Margret start by wearing a red one-piece bathing suit, with white buttons down the chest to draw the eyes of those who initially fail to notice her fine form. As the sport-coated Elvis strums the guitar he just happens to be carrying, Ann-Margret moves behind a screen to change into a yellow undergarment, carrying out a matching wraparound skirt to finish the scene. Both sexy and warm, Ann-Margret matches Elvis’s intense screen magnetism.

“She was on fire,” recalled Sidney.

That chemistry makes Viva Las Vegas stand apart from other Elvis pictures, according to Esposito.

“It was a hot movie. It’s definitely one of his best,” said The King’s friend, quickly adding, “Of course, a lot were terrible.”

Decades after its release, Viva Las Vegas remains fun and entertaining to watch, with the title evolving into an iconic catchphrase for the city.

Elvis reached a movie zenith with Viva as his top-grossing film. Meanwhile, his singing career headed downward, as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and other Brits invaded America with number-one releases. Rather than surrender, Elvis reinvented himself by returning to the risk-taking city that embraces change, Las Vegas.

Elvis: That’s the Way It Is explores how Presley developed his landmark show, first seen at the International Hotel, now the Westgate. Released in 1970, the documentary comes in several forms, including the original theatrical release on videocassette. A severely edited version aired on television in 2007 as Kingdom: Elvis in Vegas. A 2000 remastering bests the others by changing 40 percent of the material from the theatrical version.

The revised documentary improves the project by eliminating talking-head shots of enraptured fans crying “Elvis! Elvis! Elvis!” Instead, rehearsal footage shows the singer and his skeleton band as top-rate musicians who love their work. Their clever melding of “Little Sister” and “Get Back” stands out with raw, forthright musical honesty. The medley grabs an Elvis hit and one from the competing Beatles, forming a perfect union with a lean band that lets Elvis’s rich vocals shine.

Before getting to music, the movie opens with a shot of the International Hotel and a stunningly empty Las Vegas Strip. Action backtracks to rehearsals, next focusing on shows taking place over a span of six different performances in Las Vegas. Fans and newcomers can’t help falling in love with the Elvis presented here, a beautiful man in top form and voice. His new white jumpsuit highlights his martial arts skills and love for superhero costumes. Trimmed to a thirty-two-inch waist, Elvis mixes a fashion model body with movie-star hotness. Best of all, he exudes excitement about breaking new ground with energetic covers of sixties pop songs.

That energy goes missing in a one-hour 2007 British documentary called Elvis: Destination Vegas. With no material from the Elvis Presley Estate or authorized sources, the program features remarkably poor, grainy footage.

Narration befuddles. At one point, a voiceover says that Elvis’s Vegas performances of mainstream songs represent career low points. The narrator then acknowledges that millions adore lush covers of “My Way” and a repertoire of material developed at Elvis’s casino shows.

The program also features questionable math. The documentary says our world includes 80,000 people registered as Elvis impersonators.

“If that trend continues,” intones the worried narrator, “then one out of every three people will be an Elvis impersonator by the year 2030.”

Scary but . . . really? After all, most households have two parents and maybe one or two children, so the movie predicts an Elvis impersonator in every household. Compared to Elvis: Destination Vegas, the documentary Elvis: That’s the Way It Is remains the most insightful look at the pairing between man and place. Esposito helped promote That’s the Way It Is, but lists his favorite documentary as 1981’s This Is Elvis, for which he served as technical consultant. The project features Esposito throughout, including having fun as he and Elvis goof off by riding tiny cycles on the film set.

The documentary contains sequences with performers reenacting events, narrated in first person by an impersonator and interspersed with real footage, like Elvis wearing a tux and singing to a hound dog on Steve Allen’s show. A friendly overview, scenes half-heartedly acknowledge the singer’s womanizing, drug problems, and weight issues.

“We tried to make sure it was as real as possible. It showed good and bad and talked about Elvis’s problems,” said Esposito.

Besides the International Hotel concerts, Las Vegas plays a role when Elvis marries his longtime fiancée, Priscilla, at the Aladdin with Esposito as co-best man. The union proved short-lived.

“Being married to a big star is not easy,” said Esposito, continuing, “I understand why they broke up. We were all out there being a bunch of wild guys. That’s why his marriage ended.”

The marriage serves as fodder for a two-part, 1988 television movie, Elvis and Me, based on Priscilla Presley’s memoir and listing Las Vegas as one of its filming locations.

By the time Elvis and Me aired, the biographical picture (“biopic”) genre regarded The King as fodder deserving regular chewing. The singer’s first major biopic came just two years after his 1977 death with the broadcast of the ABC Movie of the Week, Elvis.

The program starts with highway shots over title credits, quickly flashing on the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. Actor Kurt Russell, hair dyed black and combed big, twitches nervously while waiting to go on stage at the International Hotel. With no big venue performances in nine years and record sales melting, Elvis realizes he faces the choice between comeback or failure as he flashes back on his life.

Director John Carpenter uses that International show as framework for the Elvis legend and the capricious nature of stardom. Vegas represents the make-it or break-it gamble, the chance for Elvis to reclaim his crown as The King or fade off as just another name on old fifties hits.

Kurt Russell fully embodies Elvis, whom he worked with during It Happened at the World’s Fair. Russell jokes that he got a kick out of the job, literally, because one scene has him nailing Elvis in the shin.

Though just a boy in that movie, Russell absorbed a lot about Elvis’s day-to-day style, transforming the experience into in a dynamic, Emmy-nominated performance. Russell speaks the famous Elvis drawl, repeating words the real man said in published interviews. But when it comes to music, the voice belongs to country hit-maker Ronnie McDowell, who reached the charts with Elvis intonations in a tribute song called “The King Is Gone.” Russell lip-syncs naturally, and his work impresses those in the know.

“Russell was the best Elvis,” said Esposito, with a fond smile.

Esposito liked the Elvis biopic and saw himself played by an up-and-coming actor named Joe Mantegna, later known to millions for the television show Criminal Minds.

Esposito barely shows up in the 2005 two-part CBS Movie of the Week called Elvis: The Miniseries. Vegas takes a backseat, too. Instead of the Las Vegas International Hotel show, Elvis: The Miniseries frames its story around a 1968 televised “Comeback Special.” The story includes Elvis’s affair with Ann-Margret during Viva Las Vegas and shows his wedding party, without mentioning that it took place at Aladdin Hotel Casino. Aside from a stock shot of the old Vegas skyline, Elvis uses the city in name only, with most location work done in Louisiana. As the program ends, Elvis plans to tour Las Vegas.

The newer television movie differs f...