It Happened at the World's Fair

Kurt Russell, in his screen debut, plays the boy who kicks Elvis Presley's shins. Recalling the scene years later, Russell says that he didn't want to do it, as Elvis was such a huge star and Russell was a fan of his. He says that finally Elvis paid him $5 to do it. Russell would later go on to play Elvis in the TV movie, Elvis (1979).

One of four films that Elvis Presley and Kurt Russell have in common. Russell appeared in the Elvis movie "It Happened At The World's Fair" (1963), he portrayed Presley in the TV movie "Elvis" (1979), he portrayed Presley again (voice only) in "Forrest Gump" (1994), and he played an Elvis impersonator in "3000 Miles to Graceland" (2001). In "It Happened at the World's Fair," Elvis asks Russell (who was a young boy at the time), to kick him hard in the shin for which Elvis pays him 25 cents. In "3000 Miles to Graceland," this scene is parodied when a young boy runs on screen and kicks Russell (in full Elvis attire) in the shin.

Elvis' script from the movie is included in his exhibit at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The script is open at the page where Kurt Russell's character kicks Elvis in the shins.

The "futuristic" car in which Elvis finds Sue-Lin asleep is a General Motors Firebird III. Designed with a titanium steel skin, a "double bubble" canopy, and gull-wing doors, it was one of the world's first self-driving cars, and could be driven remotely using a joystick device. The Firebird III was displayed at the 1962 World's Fair, in the Washington State Pavilion (now known as Climate Pledge Arena), which was later the home of the Seattle Supersonics NBA basketball team, and is now the home of the Seattle Kraken NHL hockey team.

Vicky Tiu, the child actress who plays "Sue Lin" grew up to marry Ben Cayetano (Democratic Party), the fifth governor of the State of Hawaii in 1997. Tiu later said that, while Elvis Presley was a joy to work with, she hated working with director Norman Taurog. For a scene where Sue-Lin cries, Taurog got real tears from Vicky by telling her that her beloved grandmother had just died. (While directing the movie Skippy (1931), for which he won an Oscar, Taurog used a similar dirty trick to get real tears from his nephew, Jackie Cooper, by having his assistant pretend to shoot Cooper's dog.)