Bikini Beach
Encyclopedia
Bikini Beach is a 1964 teen film
Teen film
Teen films is a film genre targeted at teenagers and young adults in which the plot is based upon the special interests of teenagers, such as coming of age, first love, rebellion, conflict with parents, teen angst, and alienation...

 directed by William Asher
William Asher
William Asher is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early directors in the budding television industry, producing or directing over two dozen of the leading television series.With television in its infancy, he introduced the...

 and starring Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

 and Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

. The film belongs to the beach party
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

 genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in a series of seven films produced by American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...

 (AIP).

Plot

School is out and the teenagers head for the beach. All is well until millionaire Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III (Wynn) comes around, convinced that the beachgoers are so senselessly obsessed with sex
Sex
In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

 that their mentality is below that of a primate
Primate
A primate is a mammal of the order Primates , which contains prosimians and simians. Primates arose from ancestors that lived in the trees of tropical forests; many primate characteristics represent adaptations to life in this challenging three-dimensional environment...

 – especially Honeywagon's wunderkind pet chimp
Chimpanzee
Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...

 Clyde, who can surf, drive, and watusi
The Watusi
The Watusi is a solo dance that enjoyed brief popularity during the early 1960s. It was the second-most popular dance craze in the 1960s in the United States, after the Twist...

 better than anyone on the beach. With the teenagers demoralized and discredited, Honeywagon plans to turn Bikini Beach into a senior citizens retirement home
Retirement home
A retirement home is a multi-residence housing facility intended for senior citizens. Typically each person or couple in the home has an apartment-style room or suite of rooms. Additional facilities are provided within the building, including facilities for meals, gathering, recreation, and some...

.

Meanwhile, foppish British rocker and drag racer Peter Royce Bentley, better known as "The Potato Bug" (played by Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

 in a dual role
Dual role
Dual role refers to one actor playing two or more roles, which may be deliberately scripted in a play or film, or merely be a by-product of a low budget. In a theatrical production where more than one actor plays multiple characters, it is sometimes referred to as an "Ironman" cast...

), has taken up residence on Bikini Beach. Annoyed by Frankie's reluctance to start their relationship towards marriage, Dee Dee becomes receptive to Potato Bug's advances. In a jealous rage, Frankie challenges The Potato Bug to a drag race, in hopes of winning Dee Dee back.

Music

The original score for this film, like Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party is the second of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. It was made in 1964 and was directed by William Asher, who also directed four other films in this series...

before it, was composed by Les Baxter
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...

.

Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote several songs for the film: "Bikini Beach" performed by the cast; "Love's a Secret Weapon" sung by Donna Loren
Donna Loren
Donna Loren is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, commenciong while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International...

; "Gimmie Your Love" sung by Avalon; "This Time It's Love" sung by Funicello; "Because You're You" sung by Avalon and Funicello.

Hemric and Styner also wrote two songs that featured The Pyramids
The Pyramids (band)
The Pyramids were an American surf group from Long Beach, California, who formed in 1961. In early 1964, they made the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 with their instrumental "Penetration." It proved to be the final major instrumental surf hit....

 doing back up: "How About That?," sung as a duet by Avalon; and "Happy Feelin’ (Dance and Shout)" sung by Little Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

.

The Pyramids performed two additional songs – both which were written by Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...

 and Roger Christian for the film: “Record Run” and the instrumental "Bikini Drag."

Candy Johnson
Candy Johnson
Candy Johnson is an American singer and dancer who appeared in several films in the 1960s.She was born in San Gabriel, and graduated from San Gabriel High School...

’s band, The Exciters
The Exciters
The Exciters were an American pop music group of the 1960s. They were originally a girl group, although a male member was added later. The group consisted of lead singer Brenda Reid, her husband Herb Rooney, Carolyn Johnson and Lillian Walker....

, perform "Gotcha Where I Wantcha," written by Jack Merrill and Red Gilson.

Script

In a FILMFAXplus (April/June 2004) interview, director William Asher revealed that the script was originally written for The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. According to Asher's claim, the group had agreed to act in the film but later dropped out as their rapidly growing fame (especially after their 1964 appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....

) caused their fee to exceed the film's budget. Asher was forced to rework the script. Frankie Avalon's dual role as an English singer named "The Potato Bug" was created to replace the four Beatles in the story.

Cast

Pop singer Donna Loren
Donna Loren
Donna Loren is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, commenciong while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International...

 appears for the second time. She was previously in Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party is the second of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. It was made in 1964 and was directed by William Asher, who also directed four other films in this series...

, and also appeared in Pajama Party
Pajama Party
Pajama party or Sleepover may refer to:*Sleepover, an overnight party*Pajama Party, a 1964 film*Sleepover, a 2004 film*Pajama Party , an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse...

and Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the beach party film series...

. She sang at least one solo in each movie. Little Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

, also from Muscle Beach Party returned for a bit part as well.

Unusual character actor Timothy Carey
Timothy Carey
Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television actor....

 appears briefly in this film as "South Dakota Slim," and has a larger part as the same character in Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo
Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the beach party film series...

. His character is replaced by "North Dakota Pete" (played by Len Lesser) in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a 1965 beach party film from American International Pictures. The sixth entry in a seven-film series, the movie features Mickey Rooney, Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, and Beverly Adams...

.


Nineteen-year-old Val Warren, who is billed as Teenage Werewolf in the film’s closing credits, was the first prize winner in Forest Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland
Famous Monsters of Filmland
Famous Monsters of Filmland is a genre-specific film magazine started in 1958 by publisher James Warren and editor Forrest J Ackerman.-Magazine history :...

magazine's National Horror Makeup Contest (beating out Rick Baker, who would later go on to win three Oscars for makeup artistry). Included in first prize was a trip to Hollywood and an appearance in Bikini Beach. Warren stated in a reply to the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....

report of Ackerman’s death, “When director William Asher
William Asher
William Asher is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early directors in the budding television industry, producing or directing over two dozen of the leading television series.With television in its infancy, he introduced the...

 requested that I growl during my brief sequence, my ever-protective agent, 'Uncle' Forry quickly reminded him that said role had now become a 'speaking part' and, as such, I was entitled to a cast credit as well as the Screen Actors Guild
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...

 pay standard of an additional 250 bucks. When Asher consented, Forry, like the big kid he was, expressed his delight by turning to face me with a beaming smile and an exaggerated wink.”

Props

The dragsters used in the drag racing scenes (shot at Pomona Raceway) were very popular - and successful - at the time. They include: Dean Jeffries' "Manta Ray," Larry Stellings' "Britannica," the Greer, Black and Prudhomme fuel dragster "Freida" - driven by Don Prudhomme
Don Prudhomme
Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme, is an American drag racer.-Racing career:In 1962, Prudhomme was a partner in the Greer-Black-Prudhomme digger, which earned the best win record in NHRA history, before switching to Funny Car. He would win the NHRA FC championship four times in his thirty-five-year career...

, 'TV' Tommy Ivo
Tommy Ivo
Tommy Ivo , also known as "TV Tommy", is an actor and drag racer, who was active in the 1960s racing community. In the late 1950s, Ivo raced a twin Nailhead Buick engined dragster which was the first Gasoline Powered dragster to break the nine-second barrier. The car held the Drag News Standard...

's fuel dragster and four-Buick-engined "Showboat" dragster - the one Clyde drives to a new speed record. Ivo was also a technical advisor for the film, as well as go-kart
Go-kart
thumb|A [[Kart racing|racing kart]] at the [[Commission Internationale de Karting|CIK-FIA]] European Championship 2008A go-kart is a small four-wheeled vehicle...

 champ Von Deming - billed in the credits with the title, "West Coast Go-Kart Champion."

The surfboards used in this film (as well as the earlier Muscle Beach Party) were by Phil of Downey, California - aka Phil Sauer, the maker of "Surfboards of the Stars." Sauer was also the stunt coordinator for another beach party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

 that used his surfboards, Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...

' Ride the Wild Surf
Ride the Wild Surf
Ride the Wild Surf is romantic drama in the beach party style. It was filmed in 1963 and distributed in 1964. Unlike most films in the genre, it is known for its exceptional big wave surf footage – a common sight in surf movies of the time, but a rarity in beach party films...

, which was released the following month. Sauer was even portrayed in that film as a character by Mark LaBuse.

Films in the series

  • Beach Party
    Beach Party
    Beach Party was the first of several beach party films from American International Pictures aimed at a teen audience. It was directed by William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. The main actors included Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, and Annette Funicello...

    (1963)
  • Muscle Beach Party
    Muscle Beach Party
    Muscle Beach Party is the second of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. It was made in 1964 and was directed by William Asher, who also directed four other films in this series...

    (1964)
  • Bikini Beach (1964)
  • Pajama Party
    Pajama Party (film)
    Pajama Party is a 1964 beach party film starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. This is the fourth in a series of seven beach films produced by American International Pictures...

    (1964)
  • Beach Blanket Bingo
    Beach Blanket Bingo
    Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures beach party film, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher. It is the fifth film in the beach party film series...

    (1965)
  • How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
    How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
    How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a 1965 beach party film from American International Pictures. The sixth entry in a seven-film series, the movie features Mickey Rooney, Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, and Beverly Adams...

    (1965)
  • The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
    The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
    The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...

    (1966)

Cultural references

  • The Potato Bug name is a not-so-subtle reference to The Beatles. The character is a permutation
    Permutation
    In mathematics, the notion of permutation is used with several slightly different meanings, all related to the act of permuting objects or values. Informally, a permutation of a set of objects is an arrangement of those objects into a particular order...

     of John Lennon
    John Lennon
    John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...

    , albeit with a persona based on British stereotypes as perceived by Americans, and made popular by English comics like Terry-Thomas
    Terry-Thomas
    Thomas Terry Hoar Stevens was a distinctive English comic actor, known as Terry-Thomas. He was famous for his portrayal of disreputable members of the upper classes, especially cads and toffs, with the trademark gap in his front teeth, cigarette holder, smoking jacket, and catch-phrases such as...

    .
  • Keenan Wynn's character's surname, "Honeywagon" is a reference to the so-named portable toilet
    Honeywagon
    "Honey wagon" is a facetious traditional general term for "a wagon or truck for collecting and carrying excrement or manure", such as a cesspool emptier, which serves as a sanitation system including at campgrounds and marinas. The operator connects a hose to the discharge outlet on the...

    s used in the film and television industry and at campgrounds and marinas - thus Frankie's reply upon hearing Honeywagon's name: "I'd keep that quiet if I were you."
  • Timothy Carey's pool-playing character's name "South Dakota Slim" is a play on the pool shark character "Minnesota Fats
    Minnesota Fats
    Rudolf Walter Wanderone, Jr. was an American professional pocket billiards player, best known as "Minnesota Fats"...

    " that Jackie Gleason
    Jackie Gleason
    Jackie Gleason was an American comedian, actor and musician. He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy style, especially by his character Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, a situation-comedy television series. His most noted film roles were as Minnesota Fats in the drama film The...

     played three years previous in the film, The Hustler
    The Hustler
    The Hustler is a 1959 novel by American writer Walter Tevis. It tells the story of a young pool hustler, Edward "Fast Eddie" Felson, who challenges the legendary Minnesota Fats .The Hustler was adapted into a 1961 film of the same title, starring Paul...

    .
  • Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff
    William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

    's cameo (seen only from behind until the end) is a riff on Vincent Price
    Vincent Price
    Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

    's commercials for "the Vincent Price Collection of Fine Art" being offered at Sears at the time. Price wore a similar costume (red cape, black hat) in his commercials, and after appearing in Beach Party
    Beach Party
    Beach Party was the first of several beach party films from American International Pictures aimed at a teen audience. It was directed by William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. The main actors included Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, and Annette Funicello...

    doing a similar gag (and a few other AIP films over the last year), the audience would assume they would be seeing Price again, thus creating a punchline when fellow spookster Karloff is revealed.

Cast

  • Annette Funicello
    Annette Funicello
    Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

     as Dee Dee
  • Frankie Avalon
    Frankie Avalon
    Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

     as Frankie / Potato Bug (née Peter Royce Bentley)
  • Keenan Wynn
    Keenan Wynn
    Keenan Wynn was an American character actor. His bristling mustache and expressive face were his stock in trade, and though he rarely had a lead role, he got prominent billing in most of his film and TV parts....

     as Harvey Huntington Honeywagon III
  • Martha Hyer
    Martha Hyer
    Martha Hyer is an American actress.She attended Northwestern University and was a member of Pi Beta Phi fraternity. After completing her education, she next appeared in The Locket in 1946...

     as Vivian Clements
  • Harvey Lembeck
    Harvey Lembeck
    Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...

     as Eric Von Zipper
  • Don Rickles
    Don Rickles
    Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....

     as Big Drag
  • John Ashley
    John Ashley (actor)
    John Ashley was an actor who appeared in many films, most notably the American International Pictures' "Beach Party" films...

     as Johnny
  • Jody McCrea
    Jody McCrea
    Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea was an American film and television actor; son of veteran film actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, who were married from 1933 until Joel McCrea's death in 1990. The eldest of three, his brothers are David McCrea and Peter McCrea.-Career:Jody McCrea served in the United...

     as Deadhead
  • Candy Johnson
    Candy Johnson
    Candy Johnson is an American singer and dancer who appeared in several films in the 1960s.She was born in San Gabriel, and graduated from San Gabriel High School...

     as Candy
  • Danielle Aubry as Yvonne, the Lady Bug
  • Elizabeth Montgomery
    Elizabeth Montgomery
    Elizabeth Victoria Montgomery was an American film and television actress whose career spanned five decades. She is perhaps best remembered for her roles as Samantha Stephens in Bewitched, as Ellen Harrod in A Case of Rape and as Lizzie Borden in The Legend of Lizzie Borden.-Early life:Born in Los...

     as the Voice of Yvonne, the Lady Bug
  • Meredith MacRae
    Meredith MacRae
    Meredith Lynn MacRae was an American actress and singer.-Life and career:MacRae was best known for her television roles as Billie Jo on Petticoat Junction and as Sally Ann in My Three Sons...

     as Animal
  • Delores Wells
    Delores Wells
    Delores Wells is an American model and actress. She was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1960 issue....

     as Sniffles
  • Donna Loren
    Donna Loren
    Donna Loren is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, commenciong while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International...

     as Donna
  • Janos Prohaska
    Janos Prohaska
    Janos Prohaska was a Hungarian United States based actor and stunt performer on American television from the 1960s. He usually played the roles of animals or monsters....

     as Clyde
  • Timothy Carey
    Timothy Carey
    Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television actor....

     as South Dakota Slim
  • Little Stevie Wonder
    Stevie Wonder
    Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...

     as Himself
  • Alberta Nelson
    Alberta Nelson
    Alberta Nelson was an American television and film actress. She was born on August 14, 1937, and attended Villa Maria Academy and later graduated from Andrews High School for Girls in Willoughby, Ohio...

     as Puss / Alberta
  • Boris Karloff
    Boris Karloff
    William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...

    as Art Dealer

External links

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