From Frankie and Annette beach party films to the Beach Boys singing “Surfin’ U.S.A,”— it all started because of one book: Gidget by Frederick Kohner.

Published in 1957, Kohner based the book on the summer adventures of his daughter, Kathy.

Kohner was a Hollywood screenwriter who left his home of Austria-Hungary when the Nazis invaded. Some of his screenwriting credits include MAD ABOUT MUSIC (1938) and IT’S A DATE (1940). One day, while riding in the car with her father, Kathy said she wanted to write a story about her days at the beach, Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman told Comet Over Hollywood in a 2015 interview.

“I told him, ‘There is a guy who lives in a shack,’” Zuckerman said. “Dad said, ‘Well, you aren’t a writer, but I know you keep diaries, and I’ll write the story. Sounds like fun.’ I told my dad pretty much everything; I had a very good relationship with him. I still have those diary pages.”

Screenwriter Frederick Kohner with his daughter Kathy, who served as inspiration for Gidget.

From her diary and conversations together, Frederick Kohner wrote the best-selling novel “Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas.” The main character, Franzie, becomes interested in surfing and tries to break into a male-dominated sport. Because of her short stature, the guys nickname her Gidget, short for girl midget. As she learns to shoot the curl, Franzie has a crush on one of the surfers, Jeff, nicknamed Moondoggie.

The book is filled with surfer slang and nicknames and includes some truths. For example, while Kathy had a crush on one of the surfers, she never dated any of them, like Gidget and Moondoggie. The name Franzie was also inspired by Kathy’s mother, according to Comet’s 2015 interview with Kohner-Zuckerman.

“Most of our friends were shocked when we let Kathy go around with those surfers, and sometimes I was shocked too,” Frederick Kohner said in a 1957 LIFE magazine interview. “But she isn’t the sort of girl who can hide anything, and she would come home and tell us everything she had done. The more I heard, the more interested I became.”

While some of the book is primarily fiction, a good bit is based on actual events.

“There was someone who lived in a shack, I did have a big crush on one of the surfers, I did buy a board with a totem pole on it, I did learn how to surf, I did get tonsillitis a lot, I did bring food to the beach for the guys, I did try very hard to be liked,” she said in the 2015 interview. “But as for the big crush, I don’t know whether it was reciprocated or not. I think sometimes he did like me, and other times he thought I was a kid sister. There was no big romance, but I was definitely charged on Bill. That was his name.”

The book was an immediate success, and Kohner-Zuckerman worried what the other surfers would say. While Kathy received national attention, including a LIFE magazine article in the Oct. 28, 1957, issue, she never felt the success was hers.

“It was my father’s success,” she told Comet in 2015.

Gidget on screen
“Published this month, it already has been sold to the movies,” Life magazine said in the Oct. 28, 1957, article.

The book was brought to the screen in 1959, starring Sandra Dee in the title role. While the film version of “Gidget” and the novel are similar, there are several differences. In general, Kohner’s Gidget is a bit more street savvy, clever, and a bit of a smart ass. Sandra Dee’s Gidget is sweet and demure. Here are other differences:
• The film begins with Gidget reluctantly going on a “manhunt” with her friends. There isn’t a manhunt in the book, just a division with her friends. She keeps surfing a secret from both her family and friends.
• The book Gidget is bright but not as academic as Sandra Dee.
• Surfing is a secret from her friends and family.
• In the book, Gidget’s parents aren’t home when she leaves for the luau. The luau plot is entirely different: Gidget attends alone, Moondoggie is mad about it, and there is a fire because the guys surf with torches.
• The Kahuna isn’t so sensitive in the book. He doesn’t have a bird and doesn’t become a pilot. Maybe this was because the movie didn’t encourage people to become surf bums.
• Moondoggie has a steady girlfriend.

Elements that are the same:
• Gidget does bring food for the other surfers, though more regularly, and legs of lamb are mentioned.
• Gidget does have tonsillitis.
• Gidget stays overnight in Kahuna’s shack after the luau, but it’s because she can’t get home after the fire. It doesn’t play out the same and is innocent.

Interestingly, other plot points in the book that aren’t used in the 1959 film are used in the 1965 Sally Field TV show. Like on the TV show, in the book, Gidget has a friend named LaRue who loves horses (there is a whole episode about her love of horses). Also, like on the TV show, Gidget has a sister and a psychologist brother-in-law named Larry in the novel.

While there are several differences, I think Cliff Robertson is well-cast as the easygoing Kahuna, and James Darren fits the bill for the moody Moondoggie.

While there are several differences, I love both the book and the film. This was my fourth time reading the book, and I enjoyed revisiting it every time. And both the book and the film were incredibly important to the surf craze.

Kohner-Zuckerman remembers meeting the cast and seeing the film.

“It’s odd being that person and watching the films about what Gidget does,” she told Comet in 2015. “Sandra Dee is Gidget. There’s me, the real person, but she was great as the character. In the Sally Field TV show- that wasn’t my life. She got involved in high school and the band and journalism. As cute as it was, that wasn’t me. I wanted to be one of the gang or one of the guys. I didn’t like high school. I wanted to be in Malibu.”

Most of all, Kohner-Zuckerman still loves the story because it’s about a young girl having the guts to buck societal standards and do what she wants.

“A large element of the Gidget story is having the attitude to pursue what you want.”

This article is part of the 2023 Classic Film Summer Reading Challenge hosted by Out of the Past.

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