It Happened At The World’s Fair (1963)

The livelihood of crop dusters Mike (Elvis Presley) and Danny (Gary Lockwood) is stolen away from them when a sheriff impounds their plane because of Danny’s gambling debts.

The grounded pair hitch-hike to the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle, where Danny tries to earn the money back playing poker and Mike ends up looking after a little Chinese girl, Sue-Lin (Vicky Tiu, pictured below) who loses her uncle at the fair, romancing pretty nurse Diane Warren (Joan O’Brien) and getting kicked in the shins by little Kurt Russell, who would grow up to portray Elvis himself on screen in the biopic Elvis – the Movie.

Complications arise when Mike appoints himself as Sue-Lin’s guardian while her uncle is missing and she is taken away from him by the welfare people. To add to his woes, Sue-Lin runs away from the custody of the welfare people at the same time that Danny finds himself involved in a smuggling deal.

But as with all good musicals, there’s a happy ending. In fact, there’s a rousing happy ending with a song called “Happy Ending” as Mike walks Diane through the fair grounds leading a military band.

Between the opening and closing songs, Elvis manages to work in another eight songs. His big song from this film, One Broken Heart for Sale, was one of the few Presley singles not to reach the top ten. One of the big romantic tunes is I’m Falling In Love Tonight with which Mike serenades Diane in the revolving restaurant on top of the fair’s big showpiece, the Space needle.

Mike Edwards
Elvis Presley
Diane Warren
Joan O’Brien
Danny Burke
Gary Lockwood
Sue-Lin
Vicky Tiu
Vince Bradley
H M Wynant
Miss Steuben
Edith Atwater
Miss Ettinger
Dorothy Green
Barney Thatcher
Guy Raymond
Walter Ling
Tong Kam
Dorothy Johnson
Yvonne Craig

Director
Norman Taurog