Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/260044
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AP PHOTO O stensibly happy couple Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens were scheduled to perform in Las Vegas in 1969 when they posed for this back-to-back buddy-style photo, pointing to their competing marquees at Caesars and the Flamingo. But while a picture may be worth a thousand words, this one doesn't tell the full story. The two filed for divorce just days later, on April 23. By then, Fisher and Stevens had both seen their share of Hollywood fame and scandal. He had been a teen idol and pop singer in the early 1950s and went on to star in films and his own TV show. While married to actress Debbie Reynolds, he had an affair with "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" (and Reynolds's best friend), Elizabeth Taylor, which led to a bitter and very public divorce. He quickly became the fourth "Mr. Taylor," and the two stayed married for five years. Stevens had a childhood fraught with personal tragedy: She witnessed her parents' divorce, her grandmother's death, a murder, and the devastation of her town in the 1951 f looding of the Missouri River, all by age 13. At the height of her fame as a singer and actress, she had high-profile relationships with actor Glenn Ford and the King himself, Elvis Presley. A previous marriage, to actor James Stacey, failed before she wed Fisher in 1967. Despite the tension that was soon to boil over at the time of this photo, these two consummate professionals stayed true to the show-business edict and their per- formances went on as scheduled. In the universe of Sin City scandals, their divorce was barely a blip on the radar. V Prelude to a Kiss-Off THE FRIENDLY RIVALRY IMPLIED BY THE DUELING MARQUEES OF HUSBAND AND WIFE EDDIE FISHER AND CONNIE STEVENS WOULD SOON TURN A LITTLE LESS JOCULAR. BY NICOLE RUPERSBURG Eddie Fisher and Connie Stevens both played Vegas in 1969, but the engagements would outlast their marriage. 16 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM F ront Runners 016_V_FOB_FR_Spring14.indd 16 2/10/14 4:49 PM