Gidget

Gidget Lawrence, fifteen and a half years old, falls in love with Jeff, a college student, and takes up surfing to be with him. Gidget has a healthy, trusting relationship with her widowed father, Russell Lawrence, an English professor. However, Gidget's married sister, Anne, constantly checks on Gidget. In this, Anne is abetted by her husband, John Cooper, a student psychiatrist. Anne comes u...

Gidget tells Russ she hasn't a date for Saturday's Luau. Suddenly both seize on John, Anne's husband, as the logical last minute choice as an escort. Gidget's appeal for sisterly help puts Anne in a generous mood. She overrules John's protests, convincing him he could use his research at the Luau for a term paper. Before the Luau, Anne begins to worry when she sees how mature some of Gidget's ...

Twenty-eight year old Cass Cobb, known to the surfing set as the Great Kahuna, takes up with Gidget to fend off Buff, a blonde beauty who has followed him from Hawaii. Not only does her relationship with the older man fill her waking hours, but Gidget dreams of an idyllic life with him on a native island. Russ goes to the beach to meet Kahuna. To Gidget's disgust, they become friendly. Russ ge...

Professor Russell Lawrence complains that surfing has become an obsession with Gidget. Pointing to his involvement in his professional duties, Gidget persuades her father to spend time at the beach with her. There Russ meets Sally Combs, an attractive woman in her mid-thirties. Gidget becomes alarmed by her father's interest in Sally, especially when Larue refers to Sally as a gold digger. Whe...

Anne leaves John, claiming that he is so involved in his studies that he completely ignores her. With Anne taking over her room, constantly criticizing her and tying up the phone, Gidget searches for a way to get Anne to return to John. Mark Hillman tries to enroll Gidget in a dance course. Gidget arranges for Mark to give Anne a dance lesson, and phones John to come to the Lawrence home while...

Gidget decides that the purchase of a hearse owned by King Mannix will make her independent of waiting for lifts to the beach. Although King wants $300 for the hearse, he accepts $6.23 as a down payment. When Russ points out that the old car will be in the repair shop most of the time, Gidget enrolls in the auto shop course at school. Later she learns that Jack Collins and his friends have poo...

Donald Hardy, Gidget's English teacher, was a pupil of her father. Gidget complains that Hardy marks her papers according to the way he thinks Russ' daughter should have written them. Gidget is assigned to write a theme on outdoor observation. Finishing her own composition, Gidget decides to trap Hardy by handing her father's paper in. She tries to retrieve it, but both papers wind up on Hardy...

On a blind date, Gidget falls for Roger Haines, Larue's cousin. She is mortified when he buys a junior ticket for her at the movies. Meanwhile, Mary Haliday, an adoring co-ed, is haunting Russell, who is her English professor. Russ surprises Gidget with a new formal. Gidget feels the dress, chosen by Anne, is too juvenile to impress Roger with her maturity. Observing Russ' reaction when Mary a...

Anne and John announce they have arranged a scholarship for Gidget at a school in Paris where she can become a sophisticated young lady. John tells Russ he is so dependent on Gidget that he will probably never marry and in time will be an elderly parent with a spinster daughter. Impressed, Russ decides to send Gidget abroad. Gidget tells Larue she can't understand why. Associate Professor Jerr...

Elected president of her school Civics Club, Gidget decides to fight injustice by opposing the local movie's plan to raise prices for the early Saturday night show. After Gidget, Larue and Bernard's picketing fails to impress Mr. Lefferts, the theatre manager, Gidget asks Billy Roy Soames, a bearded folk singer of songs of protest to champion her cause. Although Billy Roy is surprised by Gidge...

Stung by Dolly's criticism of Larue's appearance, Gidget starts a campaign to do her friend over. After telling Russ that Gidget is wasting her time trying to improve her, Larue adds she is really only unhappy when people she cares for are unhappy about her. Russ tells her she is a rare, wonderful girl. Larue tells Russ her only passion is to own an old horse named Snowball. Russ tells Larue t...

Observing how nervously Gidget waits for Mark to pick her up, Russ tells her, in his day, wooing the girl was half the fun and he is sorry for the boys, who, by taking the girls for granted, are missing the excitement of the chase. Taking this to heart, Gidget leads Larue and her other friends into subtly getting the boys to be more chivalrous. Knowing the boys are not asking for dates until r...

Gidget, Bret and their friends find an isolated cove at the beach. When Larry, Darcy and four of their friends arrive, war breaks out between the two groups. The girls of both groups accept Gidget's proposal that they refrain from dating the boys until they call a truce. Gidget leads the girls to the beach to accept the boys' surrender, but finds them with six new girls. Gidget finds that Patt...

Gunner Malstrom brings his fiancée, Inge Lindner, to the Lawrence home as a houseguest until the university opens. Subservient to her husband-to-be, Inge insists on getting to her studies at once. Determined to bring Inge into the modern world, Gidget persuades her to study at the beach. Inge learns quickly how to get on with the boys they meet. Gidget realizes what she has done when Mark, her...

Although annoyed at first, Gidget becomes quite interested when Tom Brighton, aged twenty-four, snaps photos of her at the beach. Gidget tells Russ that Anne and John are right in assuming she has fallen for Tom, but adds there is no problem, since Tom doesn't love her. Gidget poses for a magazine cover, Tom's first paid assignment. Unaware Tom is discussing the photo over the phone with someo...

Although cousins, football captain Tate Cook and basketball captain Corky Cook are bitter enemies. Unwittingly dating both on the same night, Gidget tries to placate the Cooks by giving them separate dates. Then she learns she has dated them both for the Founders Day Dance and that Jeff will be home for the affair too. Unable to break her date with the Cooks, Gidget hires Jimmy Speer to cycle ...

With Jeff back at Princeton, Gidget prepares for a lonely existence. Then she becomes attracted to a handsome surfer in his late twenties. The surfer finally realizes the extent of Gidget's interest. However, everything he says to prove that she is too good for him only convinces Gidget that a perfect romance is in the making. Entering her math class with Larue the following Monday, Gidget dis...

Gidget's surfboard is stolen. Gidget and Larue discover it in front of the trailer of Zangara, a female fortuneteller. When Gidget retrieves the board, Zangara puts a hex on her. Then a series of mishaps plague Gidget. Scoffing at her, Russ gives her some anthropology books to read to see how foolish superstition can be. Later, Russ finds Gidget performing a rite described in the book to exorc...

Determined to push Larue into popularity, Gidget gets her involved with Paul and Doug who are forming a singing group. Later, Peter Stone joins the group. Although Gidget insists the boys keep Larue, they definitely want Gidget, even of she only bangs a tambourine. Gidget writes to Rick Farmer, an M.C., calling his attention to the group. Impressed by their fresh appearance, Farmer auditions t...

Norman Durfner, a teenage nervous wreck, is known as "Durf the Drag" to his female classmates. To build up his self-esteem, Gidget dates him for the Spinsters Hop. Then she discovers that Russ is helping Chuck Batson, a gorgeous six-foot-three, to master grammar so he'll be eligible to quarterback the college team. Gidget's interest in Durf's ego drops rapidly as she schemes to get Chuck to ta...

Gidget receives a letter from Jeff asking her to get in touch with his parents, Jim and Laura Matthews, who are stopping for a short time at the local hotel. He also sends a letter to his parents to prepare for Gidget's visit. Both Gidget and the Matthews conclude Jeff must have matrimony in mind. Made conscious of their age, the youthful looking Matthews await the girl they have never met. Ac...

Gidget starts worrying when her boy friend, Toby, criticizes her close relationship with her father. Discussing it with Larue, Gidget concludes she might be jealous of her father's dates. To prove she doesn't mind Russ dating Barbara Leeds, Gidget insists on preparing dinner for both of them at home. When everything goes wrong and the dinner ends in disaster, Gidget faces the horrible truth of...

The "Shaggy Dog," a hamburger shack, is the hangout for Gidget's crowd, because its owner, Henry B. Socrates, known as Socks, understands young people's problems. Larue tells Gidget that a committee is raising funds to buy out Socks and Gidget learns her father heads the group. Although Russ shows Gidget plans for a small art museum to replace "The Shaggy Dog," Gidget enlists her friends to sa...

Gidget and Larue join the screaming fans to welcome the Dingbats, Herbie and Arthur. When John says that the teenage adulation of the entertainers is a revolt against their parents, Gidget determines to test if this is so. By the time she reaches the estate where the Dingbats are hiding, many of her friends know where they are. When Gidget hears Arthur on TV, pleading with his fans to give him...

Russ entrusts Gidget to Anne and John while he goes on a fishing trip. Gidget is surprised when they allow her to attend the weekend surfing championships, unaware that Anne and John have given Scott Baker, a UCLA halfback, twenty-five dollars to watch over her. Gidget is surprised when Scott asks her to be his date for the weekend. When Sally Blake, Scott's girl friend, arrives unexpectedly, ...