Frederick Kohner penned a novel about his young daughter, who was emersed in the growing surfing community as a teen in the 1950s. Her summer experiences inspired the book. Kohner likely never imagined that his book would spawn a cultural phenomenon. It did just that. The book eventually spawned a franchise of films and television projects that brought viewers on Francie ‘Gidget’ Lawrence’s summer adventures. Over the years, several actors have taken on the role of Gidget. Do you remember them all?
Sandra Dee was the first actor to portray the famed character
Sandra Dee was the first actor to take on the role of Gidget. She appeared in the first film adaptation of the bestselling book. By the time Dee landed the role in Gidget, she was a veteran in the entertainment industry. According to The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties, Dee earned the equivalent...
Sandra Dee was the first actor to portray the famed character
Sandra Dee was the first actor to take on the role of Gidget. She appeared in the first film adaptation of the bestselling book. By the time Dee landed the role in Gidget, she was a veteran in the entertainment industry. According to The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties, Dee earned the equivalent...
- 5/20/2023
- by Andrea Francese
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Screen Actors Guild presented legendary comic actor Eddie Cantor with the first annual Life Achievement Award back in 1962. Over the past six decades, the award for ‘outstanding achievement in fostering ideals of the acting profession” has been given to such Hollywood icons as Stan Laurel, Bob Hope, Barbara Stanwyck, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Stewart, Frank Sinatra, James Cagney, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. More recently, Mary Tyler Moore, Charles Durning, Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno, Carol Burnett, Helen Mirren and Robert De Niro have received the honor.
Two-time Oscar and three-time Emmy Award winning Sally Field is the latest recipient of the Life Achievement Award. The 76-year-old actress, who came to fame as the ultimate teenager “Gidget” in the 1965-66 ABC sitcom, is currently starring with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in the hit feature comedy “80 for Brady.” She appeared with Jim Parsons last year in the drama...
Two-time Oscar and three-time Emmy Award winning Sally Field is the latest recipient of the Life Achievement Award. The 76-year-old actress, who came to fame as the ultimate teenager “Gidget” in the 1965-66 ABC sitcom, is currently starring with Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Rita Moreno in the hit feature comedy “80 for Brady.” She appeared with Jim Parsons last year in the drama...
- 2/22/2023
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
1966: The final episode of Never Too Young aired on ABC.
1983: Guiding Light's Nola & Quint were married.
1987: As the World Turns' Iva blurted out the truth about Lily.
1999: A gorilla plotted to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network. The show had always run in the mornings previously. It would remain in this new timeslot until...
1983: Guiding Light's Nola & Quint were married.
1987: As the World Turns' Iva blurted out the truth about Lily.
1999: A gorilla plotted to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."History speaks to artists. It changes the artist's thinking and is constantly reshaping it into different and unexpected images."
― Anselm Kiefer
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network. The show had always run in the mornings previously. It would remain in this new timeslot until...
- 6/26/2019
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
1966: Final episode of ABC's Never Too Young. 1983: Guiding
Light's Nola & Quint were married. 1987: As the World Turns'
Iva blurted out the truth about Lily. 1999: A gorilla plotted
to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."
― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network.
Light's Nola & Quint were married. 1987: As the World Turns'
Iva blurted out the truth about Lily. 1999: A gorilla plotted
to interrupt Cass & Lila's wedding on Another World."All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut."
― Anne Brontë in "Agnes Grey"
"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.
On this date in...
1946: Procter & Gamble radio soap opera Life Can Be Beautiful moved to the 3 p.m. Et timeslot on the NBC Radio network.
- 6/24/2018
- by Roger Newcomb
- We Love Soaps
Here's a brief look – to be expanded – at Turner Classic Movies' June 2017 European Vacation Movie Series this evening, June 23. Tonight's destination of choice is Italy. Starring Suzanne Pleshette and Troy Donahue as the opposite of Ugly Americans who find romance and heartbreak in the Italian capital, Delmer Daves' Rome Adventure (1962) was one of the key romantic movies of the 1960s. Angie Dickinson and Rossano Brazzi co-star. In all, Rome Adventure is the sort of movie that should please fans of Daves' Technicolor melodramas like A Summer Place, Parrish, and Susan Slade. Fans of his poetic Westerns – e.g., 3:10 to Yuma, The Hanging Tree – may (or may not) be disappointed with this particular Daves effort. As an aside, Rome Adventure was, for whatever reason, a sizable hit in … Brazil. Who knows, maybe that's why Rome Adventure co-star Brazzi would find himself playing a Brazilian – a macho, traditionalist coffee plantation owner,...
- 6/24/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Christian movies: Starring Nicolas Cage, the widely panned 2014 apocalyptic thriller 'Left Behind' was a box office bomb – unlike (relatively) recent popular 'faith movies' such as 'Heaven Is for Real,' 'Son of God' and 'War Room.' A thought on the New Christian American Cinema: Tired of the blatant propaganda found in 'mainstream' Christian movies Two films that might be called “Christian movies” opened last week, and I decided that I wouldn't watch them, write about them, or review them – at least directly. I'm not even going to mention their titles here because I don't promote propaganda films, and that's what this recent advent of Christian movies has become: propaganda. After all, since nearly all American cinema is Christian cinema, the New Christian American Cinema is in fact pure propaganda – not cinema. Worse yet, it bores me. So, here's the thing about what we've come to call...
- 4/14/2017
- by Tim Cogshell
- Alt Film Guide
Film and TV director made famous by his 'Gidget' surf movies
Despite a long and varied career, in which he made several excellent films noirs, westerns, thrillers and war dramas, and a fair number of superior television movies, it was the wry fate of the film and television director Paul Wendkos, who has died of a lung infection aged 87, that his death was announced widely with the words "Gidget director dies".
The popular teen surf movies – Gidget (1959), Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) – directed by Wendkos, are interesting documents of pre-hippy conservative California youth culture. Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget, is the nickname of a 16-year-old adolescent (played in succession by Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) trying to cope with the problems of growing up, mainly defined by her relationship with her boyfriend, Moondoggie (James Darren).
According to the Variety review of...
Despite a long and varied career, in which he made several excellent films noirs, westerns, thrillers and war dramas, and a fair number of superior television movies, it was the wry fate of the film and television director Paul Wendkos, who has died of a lung infection aged 87, that his death was announced widely with the words "Gidget director dies".
The popular teen surf movies – Gidget (1959), Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) – directed by Wendkos, are interesting documents of pre-hippy conservative California youth culture. Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget, is the nickname of a 16-year-old adolescent (played in succession by Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) trying to cope with the problems of growing up, mainly defined by her relationship with her boyfriend, Moondoggie (James Darren).
According to the Variety review of...
- 12/1/2009
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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