After the original Gidget movie was released in 1959, Hollywood produced countless sequels.
“Gidget grows up.” “Gidget goes to Rome.” “Gidget gets married.” etc.
Half a century later, the once-real-life surfer girl heroine, the basis of a nonfiction book and a series of fiction films, wasn’t hungry for a sequel.
But she’s getting it anyway. Today, it might be called “Gidget Goes Homeless.” However, in the long run, it seems more likely that it will be “Gidget: Queen of the Coast Again.”
Kathy Zuckerman and her surfboard, Malibu Surfrider Beach, circa 1959.
(Courtesy of Kathy Zuckerman)
The pioneering female surfer who was popular at Malibu’s Surfrider Beach and other areas in the 1950s lost her Pacific Palisades home of nearly 60 years in last week’s wildfires.
Kathy “Gidget” Corner Zuckerman and her husband, Yiddish linguist Marvin Zuckerman, have safely moved into a temporary rental home in Santa Monica. With the help of their two sons, they plan their next move.
Don’t worry, America’s original Gidget (like the dwarf girl) has all the features that made the character she inspired an American symbol in the 1960s and the basis for starring movies and TV shows. Sandra Dee and Sally Fields seem to be approaching their new reality with courage and hilarity.
“Imagine at my age, you lost your home, you lost your neighborhood, you lost your community,” Zuckerman said. “But the diamond in the rough is that the Duke family and the surfing community all came together. We are so grateful.”
Duke’s is a Malibu restaurant that survived the Palisades wildfires. The landmark Pacific Coast Highway restaurant at the base of Las Flores Canyon is named after Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku. The company employed Mr. Zuckerman as an “ambassador of aloha” for many years. She chatted with customers, showed them photos from her teenage years surfing, and tried to inject an “aloha” spirit into the place.
Zuckerman said Duke’s owner contacted him shortly after the fire brought Duke home to his home near Marquez Elementary School. They told her they would welcome her back to work as soon as it reopened, and she continues to work despite being decades past standard retirement age.
Zuckerman and her husband sat in Palisades Park on a Santa Monica bluff Sunday, soaking up the warm California sunshine. On Monday, she was getting her nails done. This was another way to remain “cheerful and cheerful” in the face of loss.
She also heard from some of the biggest names in the surfing world, including famed filmmaker Jack McCoy and Randy Rarick, who helped found the early professional surfing leagues. Another surfing friend offered to give her a computer. John Leininger, a 1950s South Bay surfing original and longtime surf shop owner, came to Santa Monica to deliver clothes to a fellow surf pioneer and her husband.
Given that and the support of his family, Zuckerman said he’s not afraid of the future.
“All these calls allowed me to re-enter a world that I left a long time ago, and that community has been incredible to me,” she said.
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