Gidget is a fictional character created by author Frederick Kohner (based on his teenage daughter, Kathy) in his 1957 novel, Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas . The novel follows the adventures of a teenage girl and her surfing friends on the beach at Malibu. The name Gidget is a portmanteau word of "girl and midget". [1] Following the novel's publication, the character appeared in several films, television series and telemovies.

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Novels

The original Gidget was created by Frederick Kohner in his 1957 novel Gidget, The Little Girl With Big Ideas (reprinted numerous times under the shortened title Gidget , by which it is more widely known), written in the first person and based on the accounts of his daughter Kathy (now Kathy Kohner-Zuckerman) of the surf culture of Malibu Point. Kohner, a prolific screenwriter with one Academy Award nomination, published seven sequels to this novel, five of them original novels: Cher Papa ^[2] (1959), The Affairs of Gidget ^[3] (1963), Gidget in Love ^[4] (1965), Gidget Goes Parisienne ^[5] (1966) and Gidget Goes New York ^[6](1968), plus two novelizations: Gidget Goes Hawaiian ^[7] (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome ^[8] (1963), adapted by Kohner from films of the same titles, based on original stories by Ruth Brooks Flippin.

Frederick Kohner

Kohner, a Czechoslovakian Jew, worked in the German film industry as a screenwriter until 1933 when he emigrated to Hollywood after the Nazis started removing Jewish credits from films. Over the coming decades Kohner and his wife Franzie raised their two daughters by the beach while he toiled as a screenwriter for Columbia Pictures. As his children grew into American teenagers he observantly noticed that his daughter Kathy in particular was drawn into a very specific, regional, contemporary slice of American teenage culture - the surf culture.

Surfing was a then minor youth movement that built its foundation around a sport, love of the beach, and distinct colloquial phrases that must have proved a challenge to an Eastern European immigrant. But, the details fascinated Kohner, who also found he was empathetic with his daughter's feminist intention to participate in a "boys-only" sport. A book was conceived and Kathy became her father's muse as he delved into the surfing world with his daughter as his guide. Over a six week period Kohner wove the stories she told into a novel, which he titled upon completion with her nickname, Gidget.

In the original novel, Gidget gives her name as follows:

"It's Franzie," I said. "From Franziska. It's a German name. After my grandmother." ^[1]

She does not give us her last name. In subsequent novels, her name is Franzie Hofer. In the films in which she appears her name is changed to a more English sounding Frances Lawrence, and the names of some other characters are changed as well. In the 1960's television series (episode 16, Now There's a Face ) Gidget gives her full name as Frances Elizabeth Lawrence. ^[10]

Kohner also wrote other novels about the experiences of different teenaged girls, including The Continental Kick , Mister Will You Marry Me? , and The Gremmie , as well as non-fiction books such as the biographies Kiki of Montparnasse and The Magician of Sunset Boulevard .

Films

Kohner sold the movie rights to Columbia Pictures (through the William Morris Agency) for $50,000, then giving five percent of this to his daughter Kathy. ^[11]

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the character Gidget (the prototypical beach bunny) was adapted for three films, all directed by Paul Wendkos and released by Columbia Pictures:

• Gidget (1959), starring Sandra Dee.
• Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), starring Deborah Walley.
• Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), starring Cindy Carol.

The first film also featured a young Yvonne Craig and Tom Laughlin, years before he became known as Billy Jack. Although the later two films were billed as sequels to the first, there was little attempt at continuity other than in the plot. Only James Darren, playing Gidget's boyfriend Moondoggie, has the same major role in all three films. For Gidget Goes Hawaiian , some scenes from the first film were re-shot with the new cast, to be used as flashbacks.

Television

In 1965, the character was adapted for television in the sitcom series Gidget , starring Sally Field. ^[12] The series reintroduced Larue, a timid, awkward girl who often accompanied Gidget on her zany escapades, and an older married sister Anne Cooper ("Ann Cooper" in the novels), both of whom appear in the original 1957 novel but are absent from the motion pictures. Gidget's brother in law, who appeared in the novels as Larry Cooper, an intellegent but condescending child psychiatrist was reinvented in the TV series as John Cooper, an obtuse but lovable psychology student. In the TV series, Gidget regarded both her sister and brother-in-law as clueless squares. In one of the first episodes, the producers sent Gidget's boyfriend Moondoggie east to college with the convenient understanding that both were free to date others while separated, thus opening plots to a variety of complications and guest stars. The sitcom essentially focused on the father-daughter relationship with Gidget receiving moral instruction from her father at episode's end and growing a little wiser from it. The sitcom ran for only one season, but spawned a devoted cult following.

There is some thinking that the series was written as a sequel to the films. Arguments in favor of this theory include its use (for the most part) of character names from the films that were changed from those in the novels, the casting of Don Porter as Gidget's father in both Gidget Goes to Rome and the ABC sitcom Gidget , and the fact that it (the sitcom) occasionally refers to events in the original 1959 film. Arguments against this theory include Gidget's age (sixteen through nineteen in the films, but only "fifteen and a half" in the sitcom), the complete absence of Gidget's sister Anne (a principal character of the sitcom) from all three Hollywood films, and the portrayal of Gidget's acquaintance with the "Kahuna"--events leading to her close friendship with him in the 1959 film are repeated as though for the first time in episode three (The Great Kahuna ) of the sitcom.



Sally Field's brown hair completed the hat trick for Gidget's natural hair color. Sandra Dee and Cindy Carol were blondes, and Deborah Walley a redhead. In the novels, Gidget tells us in Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas and The Affairs of Gidget that she is a natural blonde; in Gidget Goes Parisienne she states that she has black hair, but never says that she is a natural brunette. Nowhere in the novels is she ever said to be a redhead.

In 1969, Karen Valentine starred as Gidget in the telemovie Gidget Grows Up , freely adapted from the 1968 novel Gidget Goes New York , but also functioning as a sequel to the 1965 sitcom series. ^[13]

In 1972, another telemovie was made titled Gidget Gets Married , in which Gidget finally married longtime boyfriend Moondoggie. Monie Ellis played the title role. ^[14] This incarnation of Gidget is unique in that it gives Moondoggie's real name as "Jeff Stevens." In the novels, the other telemovies and The New Gidget he is "Geoffrey H. Griffin" (the middle initial is mentoned only in the first novel); in the Hollywood films and the sitcom Gidget he is "Jeffrey Matthews." Later that year, Hanna-Barbera produced a 60 minute animated feature for television, Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection , with Kathy Gori as the voice of Gidget. ^[15] It was broadcast as part of the Saturday morning series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie .

In 1985, a follow-up of the 1965 sitcom series was launched with the telemovie Gidget's Summer Reunion , starring Caryn Richman as a grown version of the character played by Sally Field. ^[16] This was followed by a sitcom series The New Gidget , which ran for two seasons 1986-1988. ^[17]

The Gidget/Bewitched connection

The 1959 Columbia Pictures' Gidget filmed on location at a real home in Santa Monica (at 267 18th Street) as seen in the film. The blueprint design of this home was later reversed and replicated as a house facade attached to an existing garage on the backlot of Columbia's Ranch. The reversed Gidget house was primarily used on the Columbia/Screen Gems hit television show Bewitched which premiered in 1964. The patio and living room sets seen in Columbia's Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) were soon adapted for the permanent Bewitched set for 1964. In the TV series from 1965–66, Gidget (played by Sally Field) is often shown with a "Samantha" doll in her bedroom (a merchandise cross promotion for the other Columbia TV show), and in 1986's The New Gidget (produced by Columbia executive and producer Harry Ackerman) the facade used in shots for her home is the reversed Gidget house (better known by TV audiences from those subsequent decades of reruns as Samantha's home on Bewitched ). ^[18]

There are other examples of Screen Gems reusing resources from different productions. For instance, the exterior and kitchen sets of the 1965 television series starring Sally Field had been previously employed in the Screen Gems' sitcom Hazel starring Shirley Booth.

Gidget timeline

• 1941 Kathy Kohner born.
• 1956 Kathy Kohner learns to surf and is nicknamed "Gidget".
• 1957 Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas published.
• 1959 Motion picture Gidget released, Cher Papa published.
• 1961 Motion picture Gidget Goes Hawaiian released, novelization Gidget Goes Hawaiian published.
• 1963 The Affairs of Gidget published, motion picture Gidget Goes to Rome released, novelization Gidget Goes to Rome published.
• 1965 Gidget in Love published, TV sitcom Gidget first airs.
• 1966 Gidget Goes Parisienne published, TV sitcom Gidget canceled.
• 1968 Gidget Goes New York published.
• 1969 Telemovie Gidget Grows Up airs.
• 1972 Telemovie Gidget Gets Married airs, animated feature Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection airs.
• 1985 Telemovie Gidget's Summer Reunion airs.
• 1986 Frederick Kohner dies, TV sitcom The New Gidget airs.
• 1988 TV sitcom The New Gidget canceled.

In popular culture

• The names "Gidget" and "Moondoggie" were also used for two characters of the anime series Eureka Seven , among many other nods to surf culture.
• In 1979, the Southern Californian punk rock group Suburban Lawns had a small cult hit with the parody single "Gidget Goes To Hell".
• Ex-Marilyn Manson bassist Brad Stewart took the first part of his stage name, Gidget Gein, from Gidget, and the second half from serial killer Ed Gein.
• In 1995 Fred Reiss published a novel titled Gidget Must Die: a Killer Surf Novel , about the darker side of surf culture. ^[19] Except for her name in the title, the book has nothing to do with the character Gidget or her spinoffs.
• Gidget was spoofed in Charles Busch's off-Broadway play (1987) and film (2000), Psycho Beach Party . The play was originally titled Gidget Goes Psychotic , but changed due to copyright concerns. In the original 1987 production, Charles Busch played the role of a Gidget-like beach teen, "Chicklet". Deciding that he might not be believable on film in the role of a sixteen-year-old girl ("while I can still manage, with the aid of a sympathetic cameraman, to play a sophisticated 25, 16 would be a stretch"), he added and portrayed the character of Monica Stark to the film. Stark is a female police officer investigating a series of bizarre murders among the surfer crowd.
• The Brunettes have a song titled Too Big For Gidget . ^[20]
• In 2001 Brian Gillogly began work on an independent documentary: Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget Story . It was first shown in Malibu in 2006.
• In 2007 Terry McCabe and Marissa McKown adapted a stage play Gidget from Kohner's 1957 novel. It was performed at City Lit Theater in Chicago in May and June 2007, directed by Marissa McKown and starred Sabrina Kramnich as Gidget. ^[21]

Notes

1. ''Gidget''(2001) by Frederick Kohner, Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY (first edition 1957)
2. "Cher Papa" (1959) by Frederick Kohner, Putnam Books, New York, NY
3. "The Affairs of Gidget" (1963) by Frederick Kohner, Bantam Books, NewYork, NY
4. ''Gidget in Love'' (1965) by Frederick Kohner, Dell Books, New York, NY
5. ''Gidget Goes Parisienne''(1966) by Frederick Kohner, Dell Books, New York, NY
6. ''Gidget Goes New York''(1968) by Frederick Kohner, Dell Books, New York, NY
7. ''Gidget Goes Hawaiian'' (1961) by Frederick Kohner, Bantam Books, New York, NY
8. ''Gidget Goes To Rome''(1963) by Frederick Kohner, Bantam Books, New York, NY
9. ''Gidget''(2001) by Frederick Kohner, Berkley Publishing Group, New York, NY (first edition 1957)
11. info on the film deal
12. ''Gidget: The Complete Series'' [1] (2006). set. New York: Sony Pictures.
13. IMDb credits for ''Gidget Grows Up''
14. IMDb credits for ''Gidget Gets Married''
15. Saturday Superstar Movies 2: Hanna-Barbera Productions, ''Gidget Makes the Wrong Connection''
16. IMDb credits for ''Gidget's Summer Reunion''
17. IMDb credits for ''The New Gidget''
18. info on the Santa Monica home replicated
19. Fred Reiss: Gidget Must Die: a Killer Surf Novel (1995) Fred Reiss Comedy.
20. discography from Brunettes home page
21. Review of stage play ''Gidget''