Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969

Surfers loathed them, teenagers flocked to them, critics dismissed them, producers banked on them—surf and beach movies. For a short time in the 1960s they were extremely popular with younger audiences—mainly because of the shirtless surfer boys and bikini-clad beach girls, the musical performers, and the wild surfing footage.

This lavishly illustrated filmography details 32 sizzling fun-in-the-sun teenage epics from Gidget to the Beach Party movies with Frankie and Annette to The Sweet Rid...