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6 spring break movies from the 1960s to make you feel like a teen again
Fort Lauderdale was the hot spot for sun, surf, Elvis, boys and girls.
The most unheralded performer in 1960s cinema is sand. Never before or since had the beach played such a prominant role in movie plots. Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon built a beach franchise — a beach empire — for American International Pictures.
But because of the season, we are going to focus on a more specific type of beach flick — the spring break movie. The practice of spring break partying exploded in the 1960s, mostly due to the first film below. Teenagers and college kids had cars, free time and an itch to surf. Fort Lauderdale was the place to be.
Which was your favorite spring break movie? Where did you go with your friends to vacation? Sing along now, "Wheeeerrrrre the booooys are…"
1. Where the Boys Are (1960)
No piece of entertainment had a more profound effect on the vacation habits of 20th century college students. Fort Lauderdale was the original spring break destination, dating back to the 1930s, when Colgate University swimmers would flock to the Florida city for warm weather training. By the end of the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale had become such a hot spot that a Michigan State professor wrote a novel about its spring break scene, Where the Boys Are. The film adaptation hit theaters at the close of 1960, and when spring break rolled around three months later, 50,000 college kids flooded the town. George Hamilton's bronze tan and Connie Francis' theme song would inspire countless adolescents. Heck, even the Yankees started coming to Fort Lauderdale for spring training starting in 1962, making party locales like the Elbo Room and Pier 66 Hotel tourist landmarks.
2. Palm Springs Weekend (1963)
For students on the West Coast, Fort Lauderdale was too far a trek. California kids, already spoiled by the beach, instead went inland to Palm Springs. Where the Boys Are clearly inspired this flick, which cast its own Connie (Stevens) and used the tagline "It's where the boys and the girls are." As one dapper character says in the trailer, "Palm Springs is where it swings." He says this in between Jerry Van Dyke excitedly proclaiming, "Girls!" Weekend was also Dawn Wells' movie debut. You can also spot a young Bill Mumy.
3. Ride the Wild Surf (1964)
Three young men head to Hawaii's Waimea Bay for an annual surf competition. The filming of the action in the waves is stunning, as the surf was particularly meaty during production. Pop singers Fabian and Shelley Fabares were cast as leads, yet the two oddly never croon a tune. Wild Surf takes itself a little more seriously than most other beach blanket bingos. The Jan & Dean theme is fantastic. Television lovers will take note of Barbara Eden a year before she slipped inside the Jeannie bottle.
4. Girl Happy (1965)
Of course Elvis was going to ride this wave, too. He heads to Fort Lauderdale (that place again) with Shelley Fabares (her again) for some love in the sun. Teen fans of the King would perhaps leave disappointed, as Presley never once takes off his shirt, hitting the beach and long sleeves and even water skiing with his top on. The soundtrack's "Puppet on a String" and "Do the Clam" would both chart.
5. The Girls on the Beach (1965)
Alpha Beta girls go to great lengths to save their sorority house. Half a decade later, movie trailers were still relying on the lure of "Where the Boys Are! Where the Girls Are!" This 1965 big screen party was built around pop, and that is fine by us, because the combination of the Beach Boys, Lesley Gore and the Crickets delivered the best music of this movie micro-genre. "Yeah, coyotes, your favorite foxes will wig when they see this flick!" the preview proclaims, in perhaps the most 1960s sentence ever.
6. Mondo Daytona (1968)
By the end of the decade, Fort Lauderdale was overrun and the party had moved a bit north. This underground obscurity was far bolder in showing what happened on the Atlantic shores of Florida in March. It's a rock & roll film filled with bikers, necking and Grand Funk Railroad.
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Another fun summer movie was "Hello Down There" from Ivan Tors. Not a Disney film, but would have fit there. Tony Randall invents an undersea house, and takes the family down to test it. The kids have a band, that includes Richard Dreyfuss. A lot of classic tv actors.
Of course, Jacques Cousteau had such undersea houses on his special around then.
I didn't see many movies until I was sixteen. At least not in theatres. So comic books and yes, those Scholastic Books, and Little Golden Books brought them to me. Later, I'd find Scholastic Books at used book sales, I have onetied to the Sacco & Vanzetti film (an odd choice for kids) and another for the SF film Silent Running. One year I even got one that previewed the coming tv season, at least for kids, I think for 1974.
Jaws (I was on the threshold of being 14). Logan's Run & Star Wars (New Hope). Those were the last movies I saw at the drive-in (which only operated during summer) before it closed in 1978. Any Disney cartoon. In a sense, any movie at the drive-in was a "summer" movie.
They are an odd mix. Not overly explicit, but not prudish like I thought they'd be. The young women have a better sense of themselves. And the music so current at the time.
Just a thought......
I'm still not sure if I've seen all of them.
Village of the Giants is sen as an almost Beach Party film, it's played on Svengoolie.
Michael played Max, Jukie's husband on One Day at a Time.
I'm sure I noticed Don Rickles first on Get Smart, his old army buddy Sid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eRAZAhU4eA
Would show these Movies.
1 The Rocky Horror Picture Show
2 Beetlejuice
3 Attack Of The Crab Monsters
4 This Island Earth
5 Gremlins
6 Fiend Without A Face
7 Monster On The Campus
8 Ten Little Indians
9 Clue
10 Munster Go Home
I think Clue is on DVD too.
Tim, wherever you are, I hope you're getting better.
Fifty years ago, no spring break. But I recall grttinga week? at Easter. So closer to spring, but often not too warm here.
Most if tbese I've barely heard of. Seems too restrictive to limit to "spring break". Beach movies seem more interesting, I've been watching the beach party movies. And finally saw Clambake, which is ok but no real clambake (they don't dig a pit) and it's a one song scene. Elvis did a lot of films around the water.
I did watch recently a Stooges version of "Around the World in 80 Days". A descendent of Phineas Fogg (the name I knew from the Classics Illustrated version) has to do it again, but without spending money. The Stooges are his valets. A variant of the story, it was better than the recent Masterpiece Theatre version.
Marx were BIG Broadway stars. THAT's the difference!