December 2, 2002- March 3, 2003
Hang Ten!
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Hollywood Hangs Ten The genre known as "surf movies" began in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1953 Bud Browne made Hawaiian Surfing Movie, the first commercial surf film to be shown to a general public. John Severson and Bruce Brown came up with the standard style of modern surf movie, usually consisting of silly comedy sketches without a real plot. In those days, the filmmakers spent half of the year traveling and shooting surfing footage on 16mm film. When they had enough footage to fill an hour and a half, they would add comedy routines, an intermission, and show it at high school auditoriums, beach town theaters and community halls. They would put on the whole show themselves, setting up, running the projector, narrating the film and then packing it all up for the next city. These authentic surf films catered to a growing group of enthusiastic and loud surfers. Posters and handbills were the primary way to advertise the next showing of the surf movies. Often, the filmmakers themselves plastered the handbills on car windows and tacked them to telephone poles. The surf movie posters documented an era of the 1950s and 1960s when surfing was a "culture." The movies highlighted the best young surfers of the era, many of whom have become legends today. Most poster sizes were variations of 8" x 11", 9" x 12"
or 11" x 14.
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The Endless Summer |
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Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas. A novel by Frederick Kohner. |
Gidget |
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Beach Movies |
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