Since October 2009, ElvisBlog has run 50th Anniversary Pictorials each time an Elvis movie reached that historical milestone. Looks like EPE saw the value of these tributes and decided to celebrate Viva Las Vegas themselves. The picture below is from the News Feed at the website Graceland.com, a spin-off of Elvis.com.
The Elvis Insiders email newsletter of May 23 announced the release of a new Premium Blu-Ray Digibook version of Viva Las Vegas.
Also, you can go to a link to see photos of some sites used for the filming of the movie, or to an exhibit of original Viva Las Vegas posters in various languages.
And finally, Graceland.com offers a look at the original preview trailer for Viva Las Vegas.
Wow, after a blitz like that from EPE, it seemed like something more than the usual ElvisBlog movie pictorial was in order. So instead we will do a retrospective of blog posts done over the years that featured Viva Las Vegas. There were sixteen starting back in 2005, the first year for ElvisBlog. Here are the best.
Viva Las Star Wars: Posted July 8, 2008
A very original post on The Film Frontier website compared the similarities of the race scenes in Viva Las Vegas and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. My friend Troy Yeary graciously allowed me to reproduce his very time-consuming analysis on ElvisBlog. Troy matched up frames from Elvis racing in the Las Vegas Grand Prix and young Anikin Skywalker at the controls of a pod racer in the Boonta Eve Classic podrace in the Tatooine desert.
Here’s our two racers. Although these photos don’t show it, both vehicles were silver-grey while their mail rivals had orange-red.
Here are shots of supporters of the two racers looking on with mounting dread.
Elvis at the Clinton Presidential Library: Posted May 3, 2012
From its beginning over a decade ago, the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock has always contained dozens of Elvis items. They were accumulated over the years by Bill Clinton, a self-proclaimed lifelong fan of Elvis. Then in 2011, a large exhibit of Elvis memorabilia from the Graceland archives was loaned to the library. The framed lobby poster below was one of three Viva Las Vegas items.
The other two shown below are the original script and a red shirt Elvis wore in the movie.
Dancing Elvis (In the Movies): Posted March 11, 2012
This pictorial essay showed photos of Elvis dancing with a number of leading ladies in his movies. This one from Viva Las Vegas is probably my favorite, as you can see by the comments under the photo.
Elvis Clothing at the Most Recent Auction: Posted May 8, 2011
The auction mentioned was the March 2012 Rock & Roll Pop Culture Auction from Gotta Have It Auctions. It was loaded with articles of Elvis clothing and thirteen were featured in the blog article.
Note: Even though the colors are the same, this is not the item on display at the Clinton Library. However, the yellow version of this jacket is worn in the dancing picture above.
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Turner Classic Movies Delivers an Elvis Bonanza on August 16: Posted August 10, 2012
As a treat for fans during Elvis Week 2012, cable channel TCM offered fourteen consecutive Elvis movies. I thought it would be interesting to show the rankings and comments for each in the book Hollywood Rock by Marshall Crenshaw.
Here’s the book’s ratings for Viva Las Vegas in three categories, plus its choice for the favorite scene in the movie.
According to the total of the multiple stars rating system, Viva Las Vegas tied Kissin’ Cousins tied for the highest rating. ElvisBlog agreed, but said Viva should have four stars for Music.
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Elvis Movie Bloopers: Posted June 16, 2012
The inspiration (and many of the photos) for this blog post came from the wonderful website Too Much Monkey Business. There were two bloopers from Viva Las Vegas, including this one with Elvis wearing that yellow coat again.
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Strange Google Searches that Brought People to ElvisBlog: Posted April 26, 2009
The original blog platform for ElvisBlog had a neat feature. It enabled you to trace back to Google and see what people were searching for when they clicked on the link to ElvisBlog. There were several about Viva Las Vegas, and this one seemed too stupid to be true.
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The Elvis / Star Trek Connection: Posted August 23, 2009
This blog post featured actresses that appeared in both Star Trek episodes and Elvis movies. Teri Garr starred in Star Trek episode # 55 titled “Assignment Earth.” For years before this she was a dancer trying to break into acting. She appeared in six Elvis movies, including Viva Las Vegas.
Can you pick her out? Second girl from the left.
Fans Speak Out on Product Tie-Ins: Posted July 29, 2007
I regularly read the News link on Elvis.com, and frequently the news is about new Elvis tie-in products. It is sometimes interesting to read the thoughts of Elvis fans on Comments, such as these concerning the commercial where the Elvis’ famous song lyrics were changed from “Viva Las Vegas” to “Viva Viagra.”
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Caption Contest # 4 Winner: Posted December 8, 2008
This is probably my favorite shot from Viva Las Vegas.
Bonus Picture:
I found this on the internet recently. It was new to me, so it may the same for other fans.
That’s it. Hope you enjoyed our 50th anniversary tribute to Viva Las Vegas.
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