If all American literature comes from Huckleberry Finn, all American surf culture comes from Gidget, the ostensible diary of Kathy Kohner, a teensy, gutsy teenage girl who crashed the all-male scene at Malibu Beach north of L.A. in 1957 and earned, from Moondoggie and others, the nickname Gidget, which meant "Girl Midget." Her father, the German immigrant screenwriter Frederick Kohner, fascinated by the beach-shack counterculture, interviewed his perky daughter at length, eavesdropped with permission on her phone calls, fictionalized her adventures, and batted out this influential bestseller. He nailed a tiny subculture's new form of speech ("If you want to know what goes on in Loveville ... Dig Number One: being gone on a boy is more important than having a boy gone on you.") and made it a pop-culture staple. Newly reissued with the real Gidget's picture on the cover (as on the original hardback), the book is very slim (appropriately enough) and historically beguiling. You'll like her--you'll really like her! --Tim Appelo

if you havent figured it out yet, gidget was jewish.
- bill 2-21-2006 6:14 pm [add a comment]

Your moondoggie link goes elsewhere. Didn't know those were Jensen's roots. Didn't know he was west coast!
I met someone in Dallas years ago who described seeing Moondoggie on the streets of NY. I knew she meant Moondog, but wondered where she got the other. Mystery solved.
- tom moody 2-21-2006 6:42 pm [add a comment]

its fixed now. ive mistakenly been thinking that it was billy al bengston who was moondoggie. wrong. id say the accuracy % is still running around 99.999 percent pure irrefutable truth (DAVE! who asked my brother about my B.S.% this weekend).
- bill 2-21-2006 7:10 pm [add a comment]

I'm pretty sure it's not the same Bill Jensen. The Mary Boone Bill Jensen is upper midwest (University of Minnesota), shows on 57th Street till Boone picked him up in '93.
One article describes the Gidget Jensen as "still surfing."
- tom moody 2-21-2006 7:24 pm [add a comment]

ok, 99.998
- bill 2-21-2006 7:34 pm [add a comment]

jury is out on this

Creating a counterculture of sorts, surfers not only promoted their sport but a way of life as well. This surfer lifestyle included Hawaiian "palapas," or palm-frond huts appearing on California beaches, with after-surf barbeques and campouts serving to bind this community together. Surfer magazine appeared in 1960 to inform the surfing community of events, products, developments, and achievements. Surfing films portrayed spectacular rides from Hawaii and Australia to California and vice versa, but these documentaries, shot on 16mm film, received little attention outside of the surfing community. Bud Browne, the pioneer of the surf documentary, presented The Big Surf, Hawaiian Surfing Memories, and Trip to Makaha, all in the 1950s. This subculture was too small to have an impact on mainstream culture until writer Frederick Kohner penned a 1956 novel based on some of the exploits of his daughter Kathy on a Malibu beach where she "hung out" with several prominent surfers including Mickey Dora (one of the sport's first superstars), Billy Al Bengston (aka "Moondoggie"), and Terry "Tubesteak" Tracey. Tubesteak began calling Kathy a "girl-midget" since she was around five feet tall, and the name quickly transformed into "Gidget." The film Gidget, based on these stories, appeared in 1959, starring Sandra Dee and James Darren. Numerous sequels and knockoffs followed, such as Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961), Beach Party and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1964), Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini (1965).

california fetish finish

This exhibition explores the confluence between surfing and avant-garde art practices through works of art by surfers and artists influenced by surfing. Works range from an 1850s painting of surfers on Hilo Bay, Hawai‘i, to works by contemporary artists such as Raymond Pettibon, Ashley Bickerton and Gary Hill. The California "Fetish Finish" movement of the 1960s-70s is represented by artists Billy Al Bengston, DeWain Valentine, Craig Kaufman and John McCracken, who adapted surfboard materials and construction techniques to contemporary sculptural practice.

Since Moondoggie is a fictional creation probably a lot of people could claim "Hey that was me!" (Except the abtractionist/realtor.)
- tom moody 2-21-2006 7:48 pm [add a comment]

Other notable pieces include an Andy Warhol photo of surfer John Jay Gould, a Dennis Hopper portrait of Billy Al Bengston (aka "Moondoggie"), and a photo of Francis Ford Coppola taken by Mike Salisbury on the set of Apocalypse Now in 1976. Old movie posters, personal scrapbooks, and almost 60 surfboards round out the exhibition-some of the boards are so finely crafted and ornate (one gleams with sparkling abalone-shell inlays) they fit better in a museum than in the water.

I think we are looking for The Moondoggie. since it is mentioned in the book which Kathy is associated with Im giving weight to that strain of history. Im curious why billy al bengston is glomming onto the The (moondoggie) mythos.
- bill 2-21-2006 7:56 pm [add a comment]

It's fiction, though, not a documentary. Gidget's dad "based it" on her experiences. He probably made up a lot of the names. "Tubesteak"?
- tom moody 2-21-2006 7:58 pm [add a comment]