Week Four Entry: Kohner & Wolfe

So this week some of the articles I read were Tom Wolfe’s article “Pump House Gang” and Frederick Kohner’s “Gidget”.   Wolfe’s article first appeared in a 1966 issue of the New York World Journal discussing his viewpoints on Southern California culture. Two years later, it was published in a book with the same title.  The article was basically about the life of surfing kids from the ages of 16-25.  They would take off from home and go to one of the beaches and most of the times live in garages with other kids down by the beach. These young teenagers made surfing their lives. They did not have to worry about money because when they needed it they would just ask panthers (I believe they mean older adults) for some spare change and they would just hand it over. None of these kids had struggling household lives, such as being poor.  Many were from upper middle class families tire of the “hubby-mommy household” and decided to get away from it all and start a “New Order”.  They believed it was a good life out there with lots of interesting people and things.  Many of these young adults were afraid to hit the age 26 and on because then they would not be allowed to be in that beach lifestyle anymore.  That was “The Life” for them. They thought that the life they were living between the ages of 16-25 was all they had to live for. These kids didn’t want to grow up and become panthers. It’s sad to think that they didn’t believe that there was so much more to life outside the beach and a life past 25.  A couple, Leonard Anderson (18) and Donna Blanchard (21), even took there own lives and many don’t know the true reason behind it; but assume it was because they “had The Life as far as it would go and now it was running out”. 

I really enjoyed reading Frederick Kohner’s article “Gidget”.  Kohner studied at Sorbonne and received a PHD in psychology from the University of Vienna. Later he moved to Southern California and began working in Hollywood.  He wrote screenplays and on of them, “Mad about Music “ was nominated for an Academy Award.  “Gidget” was written in six weeks about stories his 15-year-old daughter told him about learning how to surf in Malibu.  (Okay, after further research I found out he actually read her diary!!) It was published in 1957 and in ’59 Kohner wrote the script for the movie as well as sequel books.  It also became a national phenomenon and help the surfing world enter the pop culture world. She was named No. 7 in Surfer Magazine's 25 Most Influential People in Surfing.  She was also a woman of the year inductee to the Surfing Walk of Fame.  This was a very great article and even though her dad read her diary, it did help influence the surfing culture so it’s all good!

<----------P.S. I really enjoyed this film!!! In a sense it kinda related to the Wolfe article. Not in every aspect but in the way they were living their lives on the beach and how Frankie was so carefree and loved his life on the beach and thought there was nothing better than that lifestyle.