Going Surfin' - a new film by Bud Browne
Maker
Jim Evans Co
Date1973
Object number00017309
NamePoster
MediumColour print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 520 x 305 mm, 0.016 kg
ClassificationsPosters and postcards
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis promotional poster was produced for the movie 'Going Surfin'' by Bud Browne. The artwork, by Jim Evans, features a 'Woodie' with long haired 1970s surfers. Woodie's were a type of car in which the rear bodywork was made out of a wood framework and filled in with wooden panels. They were popular in the United States, especially during the 1950s.HistoryBy the 1970s surfing films had shifted from 1960s Hollywood beach party musicals produced for the broader community, to the 'soul-surfing' exploration of counterculture lifestyles. During this era films were either created in a documentary style, which targeted the surfing enthusiast, or as a fictional feature film with the focus on the reality of surfing.
Bud Browne was the first filmmaker to show surf movies commercially. Born in Boston, Browne learnt to surf in the 1930s while studying at the University of Southern California. In the 1940s he began to film surfers during a holiday in Hawaii, and in 1953 produced his first film, 'Hawaiian Surfing Movie'. Other films by Browne included 'Hawaiian Holiday' (1954), 'Hawaiian Surf Movie' (1955), 'Trek to Makaha' (1956), 'The Big Surf' (1957), 'Surf Down Under' (1958), 'Cat on a Hot Foam Board' (1959), 'Surf Happy' (1960), 'Spinning Boards' (1961), 'Cavalcade of Surf' (1962), 'Gun Ho!' (1963), 'Locked In!' (1964), 'You'll Dance in Tahiti' (1967) and 'Going Surfin' (1973).
Browne films generally followed a simple formula that involved loosely strung-together montages of surfing action in California and Hawaii, intertwined with comedic moments and on-the-road vignettes. Costing less than $US5,000 on average, the films were relatively inexpensive to make, and the publicity was fairly rudimentary, consisting of nailing up hand-made posters on telegraph poles.SignificanceThis poster is an example of the types of material used to promote surfing movies during the 1970s. 'Going Surfin' was shown in Australia.
