Weekend Cinema Spotlight: Gidget

"Gidget" (1959)

The word Gidget is a blend of the word "girl" and "midget", basically referring to a young girl. The novelist Frederick Kohner first had his story about Gidget published in 1957. Afterwards, it was spawned into three films and in 1965 became a television series starring a very young Sally Field. 

Kohner based his "Gidget" stories on his daughter's own experiences surfing and often included her own personal stories within his novels. He later nicknamed her "Gidget".

Gidget stars Sandra Dee in the title role, Cliff Robertson as "The Big Kahuna", and James Darren as "Moondoggie". Darren is the only surviving member of the main characters of this film. 

The end scenes from the film "Gidget"

The story begins with seventeen year old Gidget feeling the pressure from her friends to go man hunting. She meets Moondoggie but he has no interest in her and she ends up finding surfing more appealing than man hunting. She befriends the surfer boys led by The Big Kahuna and starts to fall in love with Moondoggie. She attempts to make him jealous but it backfires on her. Eventually she gets grounded by her parents for the rest of the summer and they tell her she is to go out with a young man named "Jeffery Matthews" who ends up being Moondoggie himself.

Sandra Dee played Gidget with spunk, innocence, passion, and charm. Dee became a household name in the 1950's and 1960's especially after she married Bobby Darin. She became an icon because of her girlish sweetness that she will be forever remembered in the song from Grease called "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" sung by Rizzo. 

"Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from Grease (1978)

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