Elvis and Ann-Margret ‘crawled like cats’ in private show of ‘fiery passion’

Elvis Presley made a load of bad movies, but a few of them are true classics with Viva Las Vegas, which started shooting 60 years ago today, being perhaps the greatest of all.

Back in 1963, The King met his match in co-star Ann-Margret, who was seen as the female answer to the music icon and the duo soon hit it off after he soon got over his initial shyness.

Speaking previously with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Ann-Margret said that working on Viva Las Vegas with Elvis was “one of the happiest times of my life”.

“We were friends for a long time, EP and I. We met on the movie, we had several things in common, including a love for Las Vegas. We dated, and we just had a great time together. What can I say?

“Yes, certainly admired and respected him. We were a lot alike and made a great movie together.”

Above all, they bonded over their shared love of music, which led them to give a spontaneous and strange performance.

Ann-Margret admitted: “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.”

Alongside The King, the Viva Las Vegas leading lady got on so well with his Memphis Mafia that they started to nickname her by her character’s name Rusty.

According to Peter Guralnick’s Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley, one night the two stars spontaneously decided to sing Jimmy Reed’s Baby What You Want Me to Do in a bizarre way for the guys who were watching TV.

Ann-Margret remembered: “We snuck out of the living room. Then, without warning, he pushed open the big double glass doors.

“Everyone turned and looked. We were both on the ground, stretched out like cats, and in a husky growl he sang, ‘You got me runnin’.’ I answered in a similar voice, ‘You got me hidin’.’

“As we traded lyrics, we crawled across the carpeted room in time with the music while everyone clapped and laughed.”