Finally! The weather here in New England has begun to break, and we’re heading into summer. I even managed to get some beach time in today. TCM beat me to the punch when they aired BEACH PARTY as part of their month-long salute to American International Pictures, a blast from the past filled with sand, surf, teenage sex, and plenty of good ol’ rock’n’roll! BEACH PARTY spawned a series of films and a whole slew of imitators , but AIP did ’em first and best.
Teen idol Frankie Avalon and ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello starred in most of the AIP’s, using the same plot over and over. Frankie wants sex, but Annette wants to wait for marriage. They fight, and try to make each other jealous by dating someone new, but wind up together by film’s end. Simple, and rehashed using gimmicks like bodybuilding, drag racing, sky diving, and skiing to make things seem fresh…
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Through the Shattered Lens 
Back in the 1960s a group of surfers and high school students pooled their money and hired some lawyers to file a class action lawsuit against AIP for gross defamation of character.
Unfortunately, on the night before our trial began we partied way too hard at Blue Wall and overslept the next morning. Our civil suit was dismissed as a result, and the rest is history.
We tried our best to save the planet from decades of hearing millions of groms, all screaming “Outside!” whenever they saw a ripple, cheered on by bleached blonde squeezes with hair that defied gravity.
Anyway, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the dudes and goddesses and goddess-ettes whose lives we altered, forever.
Stay tubular, and … locals only!
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