The 1959 Columbia feature film Gidget encapsulates the tale of a classic teenage summer; dense with adolescent romance and the levity of an endless vacation, tied together with the perils of self discovery and the hardships of the teenage experience. Directed by Paul Wenkos, the film begins by following the teenage, blonde, and bubbly protagonist Francie Lawrence in Southern California. Upon being forced into making plans with her friends to scope out boys on the beach, Francie is disinterested in her friend’s asinine attempts to get a group of surfer boys to even look their way, and opts for swimming. However, once she needs saving by a surfer boy named “Moondoggie” (James Darren), Francie becomes hooked on the thrill of “shooting the curl” on a surfboard; therefore, after, being rudely dismissed by him as a “dame” who could not possibly be cut out for the surfing lifestyle, she gets the money from her concerned yet willing father (Arthur O’Connell) to purchase a surfboard from local vendor,…show more content… In the film, the romantic lifestyle shown by the teens is dismissed as illegitimate. For example, when Gidget’s father sets her up on a date with a man he approves of, who turns out to be Moondoggie, it symbolically shows that the old generation has the final say: the summer has to end sometime, and all must return to their responsibilities. This is also symbolically shown when the Big Kahuna, the former leader and most rebellious of all, tears down his beach shack and takes up employment: his careless lifestyle cannot lead him to the American Dream. Shortly after, where Gidget accepts Moondoggie’s class pin, he leaves his mindless surfing behind for a college education. The romantic aspects of the counterculture prove to be insubstantial for attaining the dominant and evidently “successful” way of life, and therefore must be abandoned like the summer left
