Those cradle robbing surfers...

"Girls were often pushed to date college men, because after all if you went to college you must be an all around good guy, please LOL but that was the thing back then."

It also had to do with the fact that girls were expected to find husbands at an earlier age, and thus dating older men was more the norm. An older guy in college meant he had money (since back then if you were going to college, it meant your parents were pretty affluent) and that his education would mean a good job and a secure future. Most girls back then got married in their late teens, early '20's, so Gidget (in the movie) was fastly approaching that age and thus encouraged to start dating an older college guy.

The ironic thing about Miss Sandra Dee was that in Gidget, she was playing this girl that was sort of the "runt" of her crowd, she was in fact overdeveloped physically. While her character did the bust exercises, she was taping hers down.

8 years? How in the world did you come up with that? There is no way Moondoggie is 8 years older than Gidget. It is stated in the film that Gidget is going into her senior year which should put her at 17. Moondoggie was a college guy and it was never really said what year he was in. All we know for sure is that he was in college before the summer started and he's supposed to go back to college in the fall and he's still in college for the rest of the movies and it is hinted at in Gidget Goes to Rome that he's in his senior year. Going by that he should be going into his sophmore year when he meets Gidget. Most sophmores in college are 19 going on 20. That puts the age difference at about two years. That's nothing. Heck, my parents were four years apart.

I'm a big tough girl. I tie my own sandals and everything.

Haha. I think it was just fine. Nothing wrong with it, unless your very old fashioned. I didn't really like her being alone with Kahuna though.. even I didn't like that. Haha. But I did understand that it was supposed to be funny, so it didn't bother me -that- much. But I did wonder what kind of example it would set for younger girls. LIKE MY LITTLE SISTER (I would never let her watch that part of the movie, because she already got caught inviting a boy over while no one was home!)! But anyways.. I think it was all just fine. What's all this about it being 'racy'? *shakes head* Too funny.

~_Kris_~

It should be pointed out that in 1960, a year after this film was released, Sandra Dee married Bobby Darin, who was born in 1936, as were James Darren and Troy Donahue; John Saxon was born in 1935. They were all in their early 20s when they worked with her. And depending on which birthdate you go by, Sandra was either 16 or 18 when she got married in real life. It wasn't uncommon in those days for girls to marry at age sixteen.

And just to clarify, Sandra Dee did a screen test with John Saxon for "The Restless Years" in 1957, but that was not her first film. She was loaned out to MGM first to appear in "Until They Sail", then she returned to Universal (where she was put under contract) and filmed "The Restless Years".

It's also interesting to note that both Darren and Saxon had romantic interest in Sandra when they worked with her. Watching "Gidget" now, it's quite obvious that Darren was smitten with Dee, and I've felt the same way watching Sandra's films with Saxon, "The Restless Years" (1958), "The Reluctant Debutante" (also 1958) and "Portrait In Black" (1960). I don't think I'd be assuming too much to say that many of Dee's leading men probably had a crush on her to some degree. And why not? She was adorable!

In the film, Moondoggie is only supposed to be a few years older than Gidget.