Gidget
Maker
Columbia Pictures Corporation
(American, founded 1924)
Maker
National Screen Service
(American, 1920 - 2000)
Date1959
Object number00008566
NameLobby card
MediumColour print on paper
DimensionsOverall: 277 x 355 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis cinema lobby card for the film 'Gidget', was produced by Columbia Pictures in 1959. The film starred Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, James Darren and Arthur O’Connell. As with many lobby cards, which were displayed in theatre lobbies, a still from the film is the main feature of the design. This image features a group of men carrying a surfboard with a young woman sitting on it.HistoryDuring the 1950s and 1960s Hollywood developed the beach party movie as a genre. Plots usually centered on teenage gangs that lived around beach. The appeal of surfing in popular culture was in part due to the 1957 publication of Frederick Kohner's novel 'Gidget'. The novel was based on stories told to Kohner by his teenage daughter Kathy about a group of surfers at Malibu Point in California. Kohner was hired by Columbia Pictures to write a script for a film of the novel. The film 'Gidget' was released in March 1959, and was followed by sequels and television series created over the next three decades.SignificanceThe lobby card is representative of cinema advertising from the 1950s and 1960s.