United Artists, 1967. A Levy-Gardner-Laven Production

Movie Details

* This was Elvis' 25th film in 11 years. It was no secter that he had become tired of the same old formula.

* The original title was "Too Big For Texas."

* Pre-production scenes were filmed in Miami, a double was used for several scenes. All Of Elvis' appearances were filmed in Los Angeles.

* "Clambake" opened nationally on November 22, 1967.

* Cast; Elvis Presley, Shelley Fabares, Bill Bixby.

Synopsis; Rich and bored, Scott Hayward (Elvis) heads off to see the world, and also to see if he can do something that doesn’t require the family fortune. Heading south, he lands in Miami Beach where, on a lark, he trades places with Tom Wilson (Will Hutchins), a water-ski instructor at a local hotel. Quickly he starts to see life from the other side. His very first water skier is a woman by the name od Dianne Carter (Shelley Fabares), who is in Miami for one reason only, she wants to find a rich husband. She’s already decided on super-rich James Jamison (Bill Bixby), who’s in town for the season and the races. Scott likes Dianne very much, and doesn’t want to fall back on his personal fortune, but tries to win Dianne’s hart the hard way. Scott meets Sam Burton, who has designed a power boat with blazing speed, the only touble is that the boat tears itself apart at high speed. They deceide to go into business together. They need a new coating for the boat that can stand high speeds. Scott remembers a hardening agent he once developped at his father’s R & D facility when he was fooling around. When he contacts the lab and asks for the chemical, the family finds out where he is and his father Duster Hayward (James Gregory), flies to Florida and discovers that his son

 has some gumption after all. The chemical arrives late and the race is scheduled to start before the required hardening time. There’s no time to test it under racing conditions. He takes a big risk, but wins the race, the respect of his family and the love of a very sweat woman.

Elvis jokely mentioned  this movie as his “Wedding Cake” film “ because, he said, it helped  pay for my  wedding to Priscilla.”  

In the early 90’s, Bill Bixby hosted two television specials relating to Elvis. One claiming that Elvis was alive and in hiding because of work he had done for the FBI, and the other disputing claims that Elvis was still alive. Bixby died in 1993.  

Songs; Clambake, Who Needs Money, A House That Has Everything, Confidence, You Don't Know Me, Hey Hey Hey, The Girl I Never Loved, How Can You Loose What You Never Had