Well, of course it was more popular than On The Road
Okay, I can't actually find my copy of Gidget, but I remember it as a jolly good read and one that did not succumb to Ro-mance at the end, ending with Our Heroine shooting the perfect curl rather than smooching one of the surfer dudes who formed the amorous interest.
It was, we may say, a good deal better than the movie, however nostalgic people may wax about that: The surf classic ‘Gidget’ is 60 this year, and it remains the ‘absolute ultimate’.
I find that this opus is actually freely available online, and while I haven't yet taken the time to watch the whole thing, I've fast forwarded to the end, and, instead of Gidget leaving Moondoggie and the Kahuna flexing their dudely muscles at one another on the beach while she takes her surf-board out when she spots the ultimate wave, she goes drippily walking hand in hand on the beach gazing at the ocean with Moondoggie, who has turned out to be the entirely respectable and eligible son of a family friend about to go to college, and even 'pins' her in the what I suppose is now an entirely obsolete courtship ritual.
Barf.
We concede that Hollywood was probably not yet ready for a heroine who preferred the wind in her hair and the surf under her feet to snogging the male lead or fighting off the advances of the raffish slightly older man, but honestly, is it not time for a remake which is actually about the affair between a girl and her surfboard and the call of the running tide? This entry was originally posted at https://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2957697.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
comments.