King of the Road: Five Great Elvis Travel Movies

Lists: Eva Holland and Eli Ellison go traveling with The King on his 75th birthday.

It Happened at the World’s Fair (1963)

A Trip Fit for The King: Down-on-their-luck crop duster pilots Mike Edwards (Elvis) and Danny (Gary Lockwood) hit the road to find work. Hitching a ride with a Chinese farmer and his little niece Sue-Lin (Vicky Tiu), they wind up at the World’s Fair in Seattle. When the little girl’s uncle leaves on an urgent business errand, Mike takes Sue-Lin to the fair and we’re soon faced with a beyond-silly plot involving child welfare services and a fur smuggling operation.

Love Me Tender: The King falls for lovely Diane Warren (Joan O’Brien), a nurse who dreams of working in the NASA space program.

Best Song: Elvis straps on a guitar and sings One Broken Heart for Sale while strolling through a Seattle mobile home park.

Worst Song: Cotton Candy Land, a syrupy lullaby sung to little Sue-Lin. The question on our minds: “Who is this imposter, and what have you done with the King of Rock-n-Roll?”

Does Elvis Leave The Building? “World’s Fair” was filmed on the MGM lot and on location in Seattle at the 1962 Century 21 Exposition. Elvis rides the monorail and goes to the top of the Space Needle, making for a nice, early ‘60s Seattle travel time capsule.

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Eva Holland is co-editor of World Hum. She is a former associate editor at Up Here and Up Here Business magazines, and a contributor to Vela. She's based in Canada's Yukon territory.

Eli Ellison


2 Comments for King of the Road: Five Great Elvis Travel Movies

Matt 02.01.10 | 4:56 PM ET

Surely you forgot the most important Elvis travel movie of all! http://www.theelvisproject.com/home.html

Eli 02.05.10 | 2:15 AM ET

Elvis battles Royal Mounties and Hustler magazine? Sounds like a winner to me. Thank for the tip, Matt.

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