Elvis never made it to Acapulco — he’d been declared persona non grata by the authorities in Mexico after riots in
cinemas showing his previous movies — but it hardly mattered that he’d had to shoot his scenes in Los Angeles; the
critics bypassed the stars and the somewhat rudimentary plot (a pair of rival lifeguards get into a dive-off to win
Andress’s hand) and focused instead on the scenery. The New York Times called it “an attractive travel
poster for the famed Mexican resort”, and Variety acclaimed “Acapulco’s Technicolorful glory”. They weren’t
the first to have had their heads turned: word of Acapulco’s allure had been disseminated among the great and the
good after the Duke of Windsor made a visit in 1920 and gave the place his proto-influencer approbation. By the
1930s, enterprising hoteliers like Carlos Bernard and Albert Pullen were breaking ground on pioneering resorts like
El Mirador and Las Americas, and foreign investment was starting to build.
It was the 1950s and sixties, however, that saw Acapulco elevated to gilded playground status, with the north end of
the bay living up to its name as the Zona Dorada. “The resort is becoming the new sun spa for the international big
rich and their attendant swingers,” reported a breathless Time magazine in 1966, which went on to
comprehensively elucidate: “Already, Baron and Baroness Guy de Rothschild have bought a house, the Loel Guinnesses
have just built one, the Clint Murchisons are just finishing one, the Samuel Newhouses are renting one, and the
Douglas Fairbankses Jr. are looking for one. Mexican millionaire Melchior Perusquia Jr. is spending $5,000,000 to
build a private development for what he calls ‘the best people in the world’, including Walt Disney and Frank
Sinatra, who last month bought another Acapulco house.”
Vacationers that year apparently included “Lynda Bird Johnson (relaxing) and Anne Ford (honeymooning)”, while “last
week the chic league was further congested by Italian designer Emilio Pucci, who arrived bringing the season’s first
rainstorm and leading a glossy swirl of journalists and society’s beautiful people — Mary Cushing, Caterine
Milinaire, Aurora Hitchcock — on a swinging junket to celebrate his new perfume, Vivara. All of this, on top of a
regular tourist season that will probably see 1,560,000 visitors stream in and out of a resort town of 100,000, has
Acapulco full to bursting.”
Read the full feature in Issue 82 of The Rake – on newsstands now.
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