the making of Viva Las Vegas

Director George Sidney,Elvis and Ann Margret at the MGM studios ,1963,for announcement of the production of 'Viva Las Vegas'
Ann Margret stated ""When I signed the contract to the Elvis-film, at the same time I signed for 'Say it With Music', if I wouldn't get the first, I wouldn't take the other".
The two met in the beginning of July in 1963. Elvis was 28, Ann-Margret 22. Both were on top of the world. For the first time Elvis and the Colonel had agreed to have a "leading lady" starring with Elvis in a film.
The first meeting between Elvis and Ann-Margret was well planned by the publicity department for the upcoming film "Viva Las Vegas". Director George Sidney, who himself was pretty keen on Ann-Margret, introduced the two stars to each other at the MGM studios. Both were formally dressed, Elvis in a suit and tie, Ann-Margret in double-buttoned white turtleneck, her hair up.
They said a few polite phrases. A photographer took some shots, then it was over.
They met again on July 11. This time to work together. The place was Radio Recorders Studio on 7000 Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles. Elvis had the days before recorded six of the songs for the film, now it was time for a couple of duets with Ann-Margret: "The Lady Loves Me" and "You're The Boss".^
They found each other instantly. They were on the same wavelength. They sparkled.
From the book "Elvis - King Of Sweden" by Borje Lundberg, 1997

"From day one, when we gathered around the piano to run through the film's songs, Elvis and I knew that it was going to be serious. That day, we discovered two things about each other. Once the music started, neither of us could stand still. Music ignited a fiery pent-up passion inside Elvis and inside me. It was an odd, embarrassing, funny, inspiring, and wonderful sensation. We looked at each other move and saw virtual mirror images. When Elvis thrust his pelvis, mine slammed forward too. When his shoulder dropped, I was down there with him. When he whirled, I was already on my heel. 'It's uncanny,' I said. He grinned. Whatever it was, Elvis liked it and so did I."
Ann-Margret G.P. Putnam's Sons


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"It was just like meeting anyone", Ann-Margret says smiling. "Well, almost anyway. I met him while doing 'Viva Las Vegas', in which we're both starring. We were running through the songs we would sing together in the film. He came in, and I felt so shy that I could hardly smile. He just came up and said 'Hi', and I said 'Hi' back". But it didn't stop with that 'Hi'.

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Director George Sidney,Elvis,Ann Margret,Calvin Jackson MGM assistant musical director, and George Stoll MGM Musical director,arranger and musical score conductor .(*)
http://calvinjacksonjazz.org/index.html
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/participant.js ... apid=59486


"The Lady Loves Me" may be the new title of "Viva Las Vegas," MGM movie currently being filmed here.
Reason for the change, a studio spokesman on the set attests, is because of a budding romance visible even to casual onlookers, between the stars of the flicker, Elvis and Ann-Margret.
The boy who owns the only Rolls-Royce in the world with Tennessee license plates and the girl who billed herself as the "Female Elvis Presley" at the start of her career, make a torrid combination, on or off the screen.
And the 109 degree temperature on the set was upped several degrees when the stars did a scene on the parking lot of the Sahara Hotel.
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8.Ann Margret,Director George Sidney and Elvis.

Until one has visited an "on location filming," it is difficult to comprehend how little glamour it really entails. Rather, the one word which aptly describes the entire process is "work."
For the more than 200 actors, cameramen, stand-ins, make-up artists, technicians and other specialists necessary for making the movie, the workday begins at 6 a.m.
Work, work, work.