Gidget (film)

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Gidget is a 1959 American CinemaScope comedy film directed by Paul Wendkos and starring Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, James Darren, Arthur O'Connell, and the Four Preps. The film is about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her romance with a young surfer. The film was the first of many screen appearances by the character Gidget, created by Hollywood writer Frederick Kohner (based on his daughter Kathy). The screenplay was written by Gillian Houghton, who was then head writer of the soap opera The Secret Storm, using the pen name Gabrielle Upton. This would be Upton's sole contribution to the Gidget canon. The story was based on Kohner's 1957 novel Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas. The film, which received one award nomination, not only inspired various sequel films, a television series, and television films, but is also considered the beginning of the entire "beach party film" genre. Gidget is credited by numerous sources (Stoked! A History of Surf Culture...

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