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Hey folks. I’m back from my extended hiatus. Needed a break from writing but I am refreshed and ready to go again. For anyone in the Memphis area, I will be signing copies of my book at the Memphis Film Festival on June 17 and 18. Stop by the McFarland table and say hi. 60s B-movie celebrities in attendance will be Fantasy Femme Lana Wood from The Girls on the Beach and Diamonds Are Forever; tough guy William Smith of biker films Angels Die Hard and C.C. and Company; hunky Ty Hardin of TV’s Bronco and Palm Springs Weekend; and Denny “Tarzan” Miller.

Brian Walker does a great job with his web site Brian’s Drive-in Theater. Check it out for his great new page on Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies cover boy Aron Kincaid. There are some really unique photos on it directly from Aron’s personal collection.

Finally, those Daytime Emmy awards pissed me off once again with their laughable choices. This is why the Daytime Emmy’s get no respect and do nothing for a actor’s career. Anyone remember past Emmy winners such as Monti Sharp, Kevin Mambo and Melissa Hayden? I think not. To give Best Supporting Actress to some giggling twit from General Hospital over Ilene Kristen as Roxy on One Life to Live was jaw dropping insulting. But I guess that has been the fun of the Daytime Emmy’s for years laughing at their moronic choices. The fact that General Hospital a 4th rate Soparanos wanna-be wins Best Show and Guiding Light wasn’t even nominated proves the point.

Bye for now!

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It has been awhile since my last post and I will now be posting again on a more regular basis. I am happy to report that my new book Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969 is now available. It features profiles with reviews and plot summaries on such movies as Gidget, Where the Boys Are, Blue Hawaii, Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Ride the Wide Surf, Beach Blanket Bingo, Girl Happy, Ski Party, Winter a-Go-Go, The Endless Summer, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini and The Sweet Ride, among others.

Actor profiles include John Ashley, Frankie Avalon, James Darren, Sandra Dee, Annette Funicello, Tommy Kirk and Deborah Walley. What I hope makes the book standout are the behind-the-scenes gossip shared by the people I interviewed including Shelley Fabares, Jody McCrea “Deadhead” from the Beach Party flicks, Kathy Kohner the real Gidget, Aron Kincaid, Chris Noel, William Wellman, Jr., Quinn O’Hara, Peter Brown and Bobby “Boris Pickett, among others.

For more details or to purchase a copy visit my web site www.sixtiescinema.com.

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An update to this BLog of last week.

A Blog or two ago I mentioned the 3-Girls-3 TV series Bracken’s World (1969-1971). This was a sort of waterdowned version of Valley of the Dolls that looked at life at a Hollywood movie studio through the eyes of 3 struggling actresses: Karen Jensen as the grasping glamour girl, Laraine Stephens as the icy sophisticate, and Linda Harrison as the put-upon ingenue. The studio was replete with the work-alcoholic director (Peter Haskell), the dedicated assistant to the studio head (Eleanor Parker), the lonely talent school coordinator (Elizabeth Allen), the arrogant leading man (Dennis Cole), and the domineering mother (Jeanne Cooper).

Karen Jensen (above) wowwed the producers at her audition. Though she auditioned for the rich girl, she was offered the bad girl part. She at first did not want to play such a vile character but she relented. “Rachel Holt was every actress’s dream role,” remarked Karen in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema. “Rachel was very ambitious and would do anything to get a part. As the series progressed, the character stayed bitchy but they tried to show why she was like that—she had a terrible childhood living with foster parents and came from a very poor background. Her vulnerability began to surface, which I thought was interesting. I learned after doing the role that the bad girls are the best parts. I’m glad I got that part.”

Linda Harrison (see pic below) recalled in Fantasy Femmes of Sixties Cinema the shock of going from playing mute Nova in the Planet of the Apes movies to Bracken’s World. “I quickly agreed to do this series because I could be dressed beautifully and I could speak! I finally had lines and could be more diversified. But I remember clearly having to go from Beneath the Planet of the Apes with essentially no lines to having lots of dialogue in Bracken’s World. I was not prepared my first day of shooting and got a verbal reprimand by my producer. That entire weekend Dick Zanuck [Fox studio head and Linda’s boyfriend] rehearsed my lines with me.”

As a footnote, Celeste Yarnall won the role of the rich girl but real-life studio politics played a part in her not getting to do it. Per Celeste, producer David Gerber maneuvered his then girlfriend (and later his wife) Laraine Stephens into the role.

Bracken’s World should have a been a very popular camp fest riot but it seems the producers did not have faith in the talented cast. Instead each week’s contained episode focused on a big name guest star rather than the regular cast ala Peyton Place. Eleanor Parker quickly became dissatisfied and quit the show mid-season. Leslie Nielsen was brought in at the start of season two as the previously unseen studio head but he was not able to help Bracken’s World conquer its competition Love, American Style and the series came to an end in January 1971.

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With great sadness, I have to report the death of Sandra Dee on Feb. 20, 2005 from kidney disease. Our sweet little Gidget has caught her last wave. I was never a huge fan of Dee‘s because she usually came off as too icky sweet for my tastes in drivel like the Tammy movies and her romantic comedies with Bobby Darin whom she wed and then divorced. But there were exceptions.

I enjoy that camp classic A Summer Place (1959) with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue thrown together on an island off the Maine coast while her adulterous father (Richard Egan) hits the sheets with his neglected mother (Dorothy McGuire). And who can forget Constance Ford as Dee‘s icy steely-eyed mother who calls in a doctor to make sure Dee is still a virgin after she spends the night on the beach with Donahue after a boating accident. Dee was the envy of every girl (and gay boy) in America as she got to cavort with the gorgeous blonde hottie Troy Donahue on the sandy shores of Maine with Max Steiner‘s lush musical score as background.

Dee is very funny in Take Her, She’s Mine (1963) as a rambunctious coed who makes life difficult for her put-upon father, Jimmy Stewart. And finally Dee‘s most memorable role has to be Gidget (1959). Only fourteen at the time, she is just adorable as the girl-midget who is determined to surf because she just wants to belong.

For years Sandra was dealing with a drinking problem but with the birth of her granddaughter a few years ago had been sober a number of years and was finally getting her life back in order.

So here’s to you Sandra Dee. You may have not been a Carol Lynley or Pamela Tiffin in my eyes but you made a swell Gidget. You’ll be missed!