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Girl Happy, 1 - 3
Elvis Presley's seventeenth film was the 1965 MGM movie "Girl
Happy," whose setting was the annual spring break festivities on the
beaches of Fort Lauderdale, FL.
Elvis reported to Radio Recorders in Hollywood on June 10, 1964 for
soundtrack recordings. On June 11th, after 36 frustrating takes on
the song "Do Not Disturb," Elvis left the studio disillusioned about
the quality of the music. After these sessions he would not record
again for eight months.
"Girl Happy" was produced by Joe Pasternak, who had started his
career as a studio food service worker.
Working his way up to producer, he received three Academy Award
nominations and 10 Golden Laurel nominations.
He had made the beach film "Where The Boys Are" about Ft.
Lauderdale, FL
and wanted the same setting for an Elvis movie.
Harvey Bullock and R. S. Allen were the screen writing team.
Together they had written for TV comedy series such as "The Andy
Griffith Show,"
"The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."
The director was three-time Emmy nominee Boris Sagal. Much of his
career was spent working in television.
He was killed in 1982 in a helicopter accident while working on the
TV film "World War III."
The choreographer David Winters had worked on "Viva Las Vegas" and
was asked to choreograph a dance to the song "Do The Clam." During
this time period in American music "dance songs" were very popular.
There had been dances invented such as The Twist, The Mashed Potato,
The Pony, The Jerk, The S-W-I-M,
The Freddie, The Bird and The Monkey to name a few.
RCA and MGM were hoping to start a new dance craze with The
Clam, but it didn't go over.
The song "Do the Clam" was on the charts for 8 weeks, peaking at
#21, and the dance never caught on.
This was the first of three Elvis films in which Shelley Fabares
would play Elvis's leading lady. The two follow-ups, "Spinout" and
"Clambake," came soon after. She had been a regular as the daughter
on the popular TV series "The Donna Reed Show" and had recorded the
hit record "Johnny Angel," which was knocked out of the #1 spot in
1962 by Elvis's "Good Luck Charm." She went on to appear in many
films and TV series,
most notably co-staring in the 1990s TV series "Coach,"
for which she received two Emmy Award nominations.
She is married to actor Mike Farrell and has been battling an
auto-immune disease,
for which she received a lifesaving liver transplant in 2000. |
