Progress Bulletin from Pomona, California • Page 88

THE SHOW GOES ON FOR ANN-MARGRET WHEREVER YOU LOOK YOU SEE ELVIS' The show, as the saying goes, must go on. Ann-Margret knows all about that. To begin with, returning to television following her near-fatal fall last September when she plunged from a 22-foot platform at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. The impact fractured her face in five places, broke her jaw and her left arm. Her jaw was wired, forcing her on a liquid diet, which caused her to lose 15 pounds.

Ten weeks later she was making her show business comeback to a standing-room-only audience at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. Now she returns in her first headliner performance on TV since she was hospitalized, in a one-hour special, on NBC, Wednesday at 10PM. The special was not without its mishaps. Slated as guests were Jack Benny and George Burns, whose running theme was a mock- quarrel as to who discovered Ann-Margret first and gave her her break. A specialty number, Taught Her Everything She was to be one of the highlights.

This part of the show was to be taped in Las Vegas. At the last minute, Benny came down with the flu. Fortunately, another show business tradition came into of one entertainer helping out his fellow entertainer. In this case Bob Hope flew in for the flu- stricken Benny. The substitution worked without having to change the script radically, which might have proved insurmountable.

It true that Burns and Benny made a major professional difference in the life of Ann-Margret, but so did Hope. performance in a big set and wherever you look it spells ELVIS. First of all, Elvis himself, entertaining, on camera, for the whole 90-minute concert. Then there are the mirrors, reflecting Elvis. And there are the signs, spelling Elvis in half a dozen different languages, flashing on and off.

Thirteen of them. Finally, there is the 16 by 20-foot silhouette of Elvis in action, outlined in flashing light bulbs. This Is the versatile set covered from every angle by three stationary cameras, one crane camera and two when NBC presents Aloha From Wednesday at The set was built specially for this purpose at the Honolulu International Center. It resembles gigantic shadow box 50 feet high and 72 feet across. school) give us the spelling and double check the Klausen explained.

The letters were built various high school and college musical productions led to her first professional job as a singer with a new young band. Burns saw the act in Las Vegas and immediately signed A-M to appear with him at the Sahara Hotel as his personal discovery. Jack Benny saw the act and asked her to make her national TV debut on his show. This led to a screen test by 20th Century- Fox and a starring role in Rodgers and Frank Capra then signed her to play Bette daughter in his film, "A Pocketful of As a rising young motion picture personality, Ann-Margret was asked to sing one of the five nominated songs at the Academy Awards. Her electrifying appearance on that telecast singing, in to master of ceremonies Bob Hope, is now legendary.

The next day Ann-Margret became the most sought-after new personality in Hollywood. Her TV special is designed to show the many facets of Ann- Olsson, the girl who came to America from Sweden with her parents when she was five years old; Ann-Margret, the star; and Ann- Margret Smith, wife of Roger Smith. The show, indeed, must go on. idea was said art director Ray Klausen. to make an impact that would support Elvis and two, to give Marty Pasetta) as manv combination shots to work with as possible and create a look unique.

In keeping with the global nature of the show (it was beamed by satellite around the world when it was taped in Honolulu Jan. 14), Klausen used different alphabets to spell out There are 13 such signs in English, Greek, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. had Berlitz (language at the NBC Color Studios in Burbank (Calif.) and shipped to Honolulu, with the rest of the set built there, including the giant 16 by 20-foot high silhouette of Elvis. The show represents a combined effort between the Hollywood crew and the Honolulu local (665). The essential effect is that of a light show, dominated by the sight and sound of Elvis singing.

used 2,200 colored, 6- watt bulbs alone in the foreign signs spelling said electrician Felix Canamar. used 1.000 6-watt bulbs for the giant letters (six-feet high and 16-feet wide) spelling out There are 600 miniature bulbs which serve as stars, plus giant, 140 500-watt bulbs all around the stage, in addition to 96 150-watt reflector bulbs along the ramp, and 1,000 15-watt bulbs for the Elvis more than 5.000 light bulbs! The point of it all, said art director Klausen, is to the star and the director. Good art direction is a supportive type of thing. not there to upstage the no question that the star is Elvis, dominating the show from beginning to end. Page 15.