Bikini Beach
Maker
National Screen Service
(American, 1920 - 2000)
Date1964
Object number00008576
NameLobby card
MediumColour lithographic print on paper.
DimensionsOverall: 280 x 355 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionThis cinema lobby card for the film 'Bikini Beach', was produced by American International Pictures in 1964. The film starred Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Martha Hyer, Harvey Lembeck, Don Rickles, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Candy Johnson, Little Stevie Wonder, The Pyramids. Keenan Wynn starred as the special guest. 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 people watching a gorilla carrying a surfboard along the beach.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' and subsequent 'Gidget' films and television series.
American International Pictures, following on from the appeal of 'Gidget', produced the surprise hit 'Beach Party' in 1963, helping to popularise surfing and surf music in films. 'Bikini Beach' was the third in a series of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. The storylines of each of the seven films usually centred around boyfriend Frankie Avalon and girlfriend Annette Funicello and the adventures they got up to with their friends, both on and off the beach.SignificanceThe lobby card is representative of cinema advertising from the 1950s and 1960s.