Sunday, March 02, 2014

February 02 - Gail Gerber Passed Away

Gail Gerber (actress in both "Girl Happy" and "Harum Scarum", 1965) died from complications of lung cancer in Sharon, Conn., on March 2. She was 76. 

She was a successful Canadian ballet dancer before moving to Hollywood in 1963. As Gail Gilmore, she made guest appearances on TV shows before landing a part as one of the college kids in "Girl Happy", the one Jimmy Hawkins' character is chasing until she dumps him. 

She has this to say about working with Elvis that first time: "On the set, Elvis' guys in his entourage kept inviting me to his house and I kept declining because I was still doing "Under the Yum Yum Tree" on stage at night. But even if I could have gone I wouldn't have. I wasn't familiar with Elvis Presley's music and wasn't interested in hearing it. Not knowing much about him (except that he was very friendly and polite to me), I wasn't aware of his importance at the time." 

In "Harum Scarum", Gail played Sapphire, one of the three gypsy dancers who become part of Elvis' extended family, sort of, and along the way Gail gets to teach the King a thing or two: "I had so much fun working with Elvis on this movie. The film's finale also was a big production number set in Las Vegas and I danced again with Elvis as he sang, "Harem Holiday"." 

Charts: Elvis in Canada 

Top Catalogue Albums Week Ending March 9 2014
No|Artist|Title|TW|%|LW|RTD
66 Elvis Presley 30 No. 1 Hits 201 -17 241 655,028

Canada Top Albums Week Ending March 9 2014
No|Artist|Title|TW|%|LW|RTD
179 Elvis Presley Collection 3 Pack 231 26 184 4,685x3=14,055

Top Catalogue Albums: Week Ending March 16, 2014
No|Artist|Title|TW|%|LW|RTD
68 Elvis Presley 30 No. 1 Hits 212 5 201 655,240

111 Elvis Presley The Gospel Collection 163 87 87 6,439

(Source: ElvisMatters / FECC)