After the unique “Gidget” film, in 1959, Hollywood churned out any variety of sequels.
“Gidget Grows Up.” “Gidget Goes to Rome.” “Gidget Gets Married.” And so forth.
Half a century later, the onetime real-life surfer lady heroine — who was the idea of a nonfiction e-book and the string of fictional films — was not hungry to provide a sequel.
However she’s getting one anyway. At present, it could be referred to as: “Gidget Goes Homeless.” However it appears extra possible in the long term to finish up as: “Gidget: Queen of the Shore Again.”
Kathy Zuckerman and her surfboard at Malibu Surfrider Seashore, circa 1959.
(Courtesy of Kathy Zuckerman)
The pioneer lady surfer of the Nineteen Fifties, who made the scene at Surfrider Seashore in Malibu and different locales, misplaced her Pacific Palisades dwelling of about six a long time in final week’s wildfire.
Kathy “Gidget” Kohner Zuckerman and her husband, Yiddish scholar Marvin Zuckerman, have safely relocated to a brief rental in Santa Monica. Aided by their two sons, they’re plotting their subsequent transfer.
To not fear, America’s unique Gidget (as in girl-midget) seems to be approaching her new actuality with all of the pluck and good cheer that made the character she impressed an American image within the Nineteen Sixties, and a foundation for movies and TV exhibits starring Sandra Dee and Sally Fields.
“At my age, imagine it: The house is gone, the neighborhood is gone, the community is gone,” Zuckerman stated. “But the diamond in the rough is that the Duke’s family and the surfing community have all rallied around. I am so appreciative.”
Duke’s is the Malibu restaurant that made it via the Palisades wildfire. The landmark Pacific Coast Freeway eatery, on the base of Las Flores Canyon, was named after Hawaiian browsing legend Duke Kahanamoku. It employed Zuckerman for a few years as its “Ambassador of Aloha.” She schmoozed with prospects, identified images of her in her teenage browsing days and usually tried to imbue the place with the spirit of “aloha.”
Zuckerman stated Duke’s house owners contacted her not lengthy after the hearth took her dwelling, not removed from Marquez Elementary College. They let her know that, as quickly as they reopen, they may welcome her again to her job, one she continues regardless of being a few a long time previous customary retirement age.
Zuckerman and her husband sat in Palisades Park atop the Santa Monica bluffs on Sunday, catching some heat California rays. On Monday, she was having her nails performed, one other gambit to stay “bright and cheery” within the face of loss.
She has additionally heard from browsing massive names comparable to Jack McCoy, a famend filmmaker, and Randy Rarick, who helped discovered an early skilled browsing league. One other surf-world buddy has supplied to offer her a pc. John Leininger, a South Bay browsing unique from the Nineteen Fifties and longtime surf store operator, got here to Santa Monica to ship garments to his fellow surf pioneer and her husband.
In gentle of that, and the help of her household, Zuckerman stated she doesn’t concern the longer term.
“With all these calls, I have reentered a world that I left a long time ago,” she stated, “and that community has been just incredible to me.”
