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 ebook and the string of fictional motion pictures — was not hungry to supply a sequel.
However she’s getting one anyway. At this time, it could be known as: “Gidget Goes Homeless.” Nevertheless it appears extra seemingly in the long term to finish up as: “Gidget: Queen of the Shore Again.”
Kathy Zuckerman and her surfboard at Malibu Surfrider Seaside, circa 1959.
(Courtesy of Kathy Zuckerman)
The pioneer lady surfer of the Nineteen Fifties, who made the scene at Surfrider Seaside in Malibu and different locales, misplaced her Pacific Palisades residence of about six many years 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 authentic 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 mentioned. “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 by means of 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 clients, identified pictures of her in her teenage browsing days and usually tried to imbue the place with the spirit of “aloha.”
Zuckerman mentioned Duke’s house owners contacted her not lengthy after the fireplace took her residence, 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 many years previous normal 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 accomplished, one other gambit to stay “bright and cheery” within the face of loss.
She has additionally heard from browsing large names reminiscent of Jack McCoy, a famend filmmaker, and Randy Rarick, who helped discovered an early skilled browsing league. One other surf-world buddy has provided to provide her a pc. John Leininger, a South Bay browsing authentic 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 mentioned she doesn’t worry the longer term.
“With all these calls, I have reentered a world that I left a long time ago,” she mentioned, “and that community has been just incredible to me.”
