After the original “Gidget” movie, in 1959, Hollywood churned out any number of sequels.
“Gidget Grows Up.” “Gidget Goes to Rome.” “Gidget Gets Married.” And so on.
Half a century later, the onetime real-life surfer girl heroine — who was the basis of a nonfiction book and the string of fictional movies — was not hungry to produce a sequel.
But she’s getting one anyway. Today, it might be called: “Gidget Goes Homeless.” But it seems more likely in the long run to end up as: “Gidget: Queen of the Shore Again.”
Kathy Zuckerman and her surfboard at Malibu Surfrider Beach, circa 1959.
(Courtesy of Kathy Zuckerman)
The pioneer woman surfer of the 1950s, who made the scene at Surfrider Beach in Malibu and other locales, lost her Pacific Palisades home of about six decades in last week’s wildfire.
Kathy “Gidget” Kohner Zuckerman and her husband, Yiddish scholar Marvin Zuckerman, have safely relocated to a temporary rental in Santa Monica. Aided by their two sons, they’re plotting their next move.
Not to worry, America’s original Gidget (as in girl-midget) appears to be approaching her new reality with all the pluck and good cheer that made the character she inspired an American symbol in the 1960s, and a basis for films and TV shows starring Sandra Dee and Sally Fields.
“At my age, imagine it: The house is gone, the neighborhood is gone, the community is gone,” Zuckerman said. “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 through the Palisades wildfire. The landmark Pacific Coast Highway eatery, at the base of Las Flores Canyon, was named after Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku. It employed Zuckerman for many years as its “Ambassador of Aloha.” She schmoozed with customers, pointed out photos of her in her teenage surfing days and generally tried to imbue the place with the spirit of “aloha.”
Zuckerman said Duke’s owners contacted her not long after the fire took her home, not far from Marquez Elementary School. They let her know that, as soon as they reopen, they will welcome her back to her job, one she continues despite being a couple of decades past standard retirement age.
Zuckerman and her husband sat in Palisades Park atop the Santa Monica bluffs on Sunday, catching some warm California rays. On Monday, she was having her nails done, another gambit to remain “bright and cheery” in the face of loss.
She has also heard from surfing big names such as Jack McCoy, a renowned filmmaker, and Randy Rarick, who helped found an early professional surfing league. Another surf-world friend has offered to give her a computer. John Leininger, a South Bay surfing original from the 1950s and longtime surf shop operator, came to Santa Monica to deliver clothes to his fellow surf pioneer and her husband.
In light of that, and the support of her family, Zuckerman said she does not fear the future.
“With all these calls, I have reentered a world that I left a long time ago,” she said, “and that community has been just incredible to me.”
