It was Mark Twain that we can attribute that familiar credo, 'write what you know' and it was Frederick Kohner that put the advice/admonition to good use when he decided to pen his work Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas back in 1957. It was in fact the life and times of his dear daughter Kathy, in which the octet of Gidget novels were inspired. Kathy, a wise beyond her years Malibu teenager took to socializing like a butterfly and surfing like a Sufi and in turn had a torrent of tales of her derring do's to bring home to the supper table where doting dad Frederick would record each one of them in his mind and ultimately compile them for parchment - and presto chango, a Gidget series was born.
Not long after the release of Kohner's first novel of the set - Columbia Pictures were soon calling and the author would sell the rights of his works to the film company for fifty-thousand dollars, a sum that would be equivalent to just under half a million dollars if the transaction were made today. In the freshman feature Sandra Dee would be aptly cast as the seaside sweetie(Gidget,1959). There were two subsequent efforts and although Dee was stellar - she would not be recast. Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol were the respective girl wonders in Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963)
 |
| Well this little surfer girl was hardly ever board. |
And although the films have their significant place in their zeitgeist rota, it was the televisual adaptation courtesy of the Screen Gems plant in 1965 that truly brought justice to Kohner's series, it starred a pert Sally Field as the titular teen, and although there were only a paltry thirty-two episodes during its one season run on the ABC network. Sally Field's Gidget was by far the most paradoxical. And this Gidget was absolutely the most self-aware fifteen-year old the world could have been privy too. In any given episode you are bound to find a moral dilemma, however innocuous considering the political climate (brr) with that looming Cold War, but life still wasn't necessarily a beach on television either - and the endless episodic quandaries are ultimately resolved by Gidget and with that magnifique moxie of hers she could charm the birds from their branches. And yes there were some considerable values instilled by her liberal (in the child rearing sense) father (Don Porter) and even her meddlesome brother-in-law (the late Pete Duel). But Gidget could still pull herself from her own bootstraps or flip flops if you will - hers was an old soul wrapped in new skin. Gidget was far from anemic in the conscience department after all and always seemed to know precisely what the sketch was. And she knew implicitly - much in the adult way she conducts her relationships, with 'implicit trust,' and when early on in the unsold pilot episode a university-bound Moondoggie Jeff' expresses interest in having an open-relationship but the all-or-nothing Gidge stands firmly by her conviction and issues him an emphatic no-can do.(well at least until the third episode)but then again Gidget did have bigger fish to fry when only the chairman of the surf board himself, Kahuna (Martin Milner) who was clearly the biggest Kahuna ever, actually remembers her name - indubitably a sign that Johnny really, really likes her (and in just three more years imagine what will be? One thing you can be guaranteed; Gidget mapping out their whole future together).
 |
| Sally Field as Gidget circa 1965 |
In the episode All of the Best Diseases Are Taken' Frances Elizabeth 'Gidget' Lawrence cleverly inveigles a protesting songsmith named Billy Ray Soames (a character portrayed by British stage actor Henry Jaglom) to assist her fight against the exorbitant cost of cinema tickets. When the trillin' troubadour comes home to meet daddy Russell, we are treated to some good ol' horse's mouth sign'o the times they are a'changin' generation gap debating between the pair and in the clinching moment as the angry young man hops on his motorcycle en route to nowhere (which is most likely somewhere west - to the usual places angry young men decamp) it is at this moment we get the confirmation of Gidget's father being just as hip to the tricks and promises to grow a poet's beard sometime in the future. Clearly this series never shies away from subverting I tell you - and don't be surprised if you discover some sleeper episodes that are downright companions to Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground and hey - wasn't it Descartes who famously quipped ' I surf, therefore I am? Holy Minestrone, I think I got it!