Beach Blanket Bingo
Encyclopedia
Beach Blanket Bingo is an American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...

 beach party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

, released in 1965 and was directed by William Asher
William Asher
William Asher is an American television and film producer, film director, and screenwriter. He was one of the most prolific early directors in the budding television industry, producing or directing over two dozen of the leading television series.With television in its infancy, he introduced the...

. It is the fifth film in the beach party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

 series. The film starred Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

 and Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

 and also featured cameos by Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...

, Don Rickles
Don Rickles
Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....

 and Buster Keaton
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

.

The other films in this series are Beach Party
Beach Party
Beach Party was the first of several beach party films from American International Pictures aimed at a teen audience. It was directed by William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. The main actors included Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, and Annette Funicello...

 (1963), Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party
Muscle Beach Party is the second of seven beach party films produced by American International Pictures. It was made in 1964 and was directed by William Asher, who also directed four other films in this series...

 (1964), Bikini Beach
Bikini Beach
Bikini Beach is a 1964 teen film directed by William Asher and starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The film belongs to the beach party genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in a series of seven films produced by American International Pictures .-Plot:School is out and...

 (1964), Pajama Party
Pajama Party (film)
Pajama Party is a 1964 beach party film starring Tommy Kirk and Annette Funicello. This is the fourth in a series of seven beach films produced by American International Pictures...

 (1964), How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a 1965 beach party film from American International Pictures. The sixth entry in a seven-film series, the movie features Mickey Rooney, Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, and Beverly Adams...

 (1965), and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...

 (1966).

Plot

A singer, Sugar Kane (Linda Evans
Linda Evans
Linda Evans is an American actress. She is known primarily for her roles on television, and rose to fame playing Audra Barkley in the 1960s Western TV series, The Big Valley...

), is unwittingly being used for publicity stunts for her latest album by her agent (Paul Lynde
Paul Lynde
Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...

), for example, faking a sky diving stunt, actually performed by Bonnie (Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley was an American actress.-Biographical Information:Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She...

). Meanwhile, Frankie (Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

), (duped into thinking he rescued Sugar Kane), takes up skydiving, prompted by Bonnie, who secretly wants to make her boyfriend, Steve (John Ashley
John Ashley
John Ashley may refer to:*John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John James Ashley , organist...

) jealous. This, of course, prompts Dee Dee (Annette Funicello
Annette Funicello
Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

) to also try free-falling. Eric Von Zipper and his Malibu Rat Pack bikers also show up, with Von Zipper falling madly in love with Sugar Kane. To top all this, Bonehead (Jody McCrea
Jody McCrea
Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea was an American film and television actor; son of veteran film actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, who were married from 1933 until Joel McCrea's death in 1990. The eldest of three, his brothers are David McCrea and Peter McCrea.-Career:Jody McCrea served in the United...

) falls in love with a mermaid (Marta Kristen
Marta Kristen
Marta Kristen is an American actress.The naturally blonde-haired Kristen is best-known for her role as Guy Williams's and June Lockhart's beautiful daughter, Judy Robinson, in the television series Lost in Space...

). Eventually, Von Zipper "puts the snatch" on Sugar Kane. The film takes a The Perils of Pauline
The Perils of Pauline (1914 serial)
The Perils of Pauline is a motion picture serial shown in weekly installments featuring Pearl White as the title character. Pauline has often been cited as a famous example of a damsel in distress, although some analyses hold that her character was more resourceful and less helpless than the...

-like twist, with the evil South Dakota Slim (Timothy Carey
Timothy Carey
Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television actor....

) kidnapping Sugar and tying her to a buzz-saw.

Movie tie-in

Dell Comics
Dell Comics
Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing, which got its start in pulp magazines. It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium...

 published a 12 cent comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...

 version of Beach Blanket Bingo in conjunction with the movie's release.

Cast

This is Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon
Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

's last "starring role" in the Beach Party film
Beach Party film
Beach party movies were an American 1960s genre of feature films created by American International Pictures with their surprise 1963 hit, Beach Party, and copied by virtually every other studio...

s. He appears for only a few minutes in the next film, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini
How to Stuff a Wild Bikini is a 1965 beach party film from American International Pictures. The sixth entry in a seven-film series, the movie features Mickey Rooney, Annette Funicello, Dwayne Hickman, Brian Donlevy, and Beverly Adams...

, and not at all in the last film The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini
The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini is the seventh of the American International Pictures beach party films and was released in 1966. The entire film takes place in and around a haunted house with no beach in sight, with the teenage gang instead cavorting in and around it and the adjacent swimming...

.

Jody McCrea
Jody McCrea
Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea was an American film and television actor; son of veteran film actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, who were married from 1933 until Joel McCrea's death in 1990. The eldest of three, his brothers are David McCrea and Peter McCrea.-Career:Jody McCrea served in the United...

, who played "Deadhead" in Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, is now called "Bonehead" in this film, as AIP had decided the term "Deadhead" was a so-called 'bankable noun' and had decided to cast Avalon as the title character of their upcoming Sergeant Dead Head.

John Ashley
John Ashley
John Ashley may refer to:*John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John James Ashley , organist...

, who played "Ken" in Beach Party, and "Johnny" in both Muscle Beach Party and Bikini Beach, returns in this film as "Steve," playing opposite his real-life wife Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley
Deborah Walley was an American actress.-Biographical Information:Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She...

.

Rat Pack leader Harvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...

 (Eric Von Zipper) is given more screen time than ever before in this third film to feature his character. He even gets to sing his own song titled "Follow Your Leader" (which he reprises as "I Am My Ideal" for the follow-up How to Stuff a Wild Bikini).

The part of Sugar Kane, played by Linda Evans
Linda Evans
Linda Evans is an American actress. She is known primarily for her roles on television, and rose to fame playing Audra Barkley in the 1960s Western TV series, The Big Valley...

, was originally intended for Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sinatra
Nancy Sandra Sinatra is an American singer and actress. She is the daughter of singer/actor Frank Sinatra, and remains best known for her 1966 signature hit "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'"....

. This change was due in part to the fact that the plot involved a kidnapping, which was somewhat reminiscent of her brother Frank Sinatra, Jr.
Frank Sinatra, Jr.
Franklin Wayne Sinatra , professionally known as Frank Sinatra, Jr., is an American singer, songwriter and conductor....

's kidnapping a few months before shooting began and it made her uncomfortable causing her to drop out.

Donna Michelle
Donna Michelle
Donna Michelle was the adopted name of Donna M. Ronne, an American model, actress, and photographer. She was Playboy magazine's December 1963 Playmate of the Month and 1964 Playmate of the Year. Her centerfold was by Pompeo Posar and Edmund Leja...

, who portrays Animal, was Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

 magazine's Playmate of the Year for 1964.

Deleted sequences and songs

  • After Frankie sings “These Are The Good Times”:
Dee Dee leaves the beach club and sings “I’ll Never Change Him” by herself on the beach.

(This sequence can still be seen in 16mm prints and television broadcasts of Beach Blanket Bingo, but the Region 1 MGM DVD omits it. See Music section below)
  • After Frankie completes his skydiving jump:

Bonehead asks Frankie if Lorelei and himself can double-date with Frankie and Dee Dee;

Bonehead then goes to a dress shop to get Lorelei’s clothes – where an older saleslady flirts with him as he tries to illustrate Lorelei’s dress size;

A strolling Frankie and Dee Dee see Bonehead with his arms around the older saleslady and figure she must be his date;

  • After Bonehead brings Lorelei her clothes and shoes:

Frankie and Dee Dee arrive to pick them up, and the four of them sing “A Surfer’s Life For Me” as they drive to the beach club in Frankie’s hot rod coupe. Then, as seen in the release print, the two couples arrive together at the beach club as the Hondells are performing “The Cycle Set.”

Music

The score for this fifth film, like the four preceding it, was composed by Les Baxter
Les Baxter
Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...

.

Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner wrote seven songs for the film: “Beach Blanket Bingo” sung by Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello with the cast; the duet “I Think You Think” performed by Avalon and Funicello; “These Are the Good Times” sung by Avalon; “It Only Hurts When I Cry” sung by Donna Loren
Donna Loren
Donna Loren is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, commenciong while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International...

; “Follow Your Leader” sung by Harvey Lembeck with the “Rat Pack;” and the two songs “New Love” and “Fly Boy” – both of which were sung by studio call vocalist Jackie Ward off-screen – and lip-synched by Linda Evans onscreen.

Gary Usher
Gary Usher
Gary Usher was an American surf rock musician, songwriter, and record producer.-Biography:Usher's early life was spent in Grafton, Massachusetts. He attended Norcross Grammar School with his sister, Sandra, who was in the same class and was likely his twin. Gary was kiddingly called "Chicken Feed"...

 and Roger Christian wrote three songs, “Cycle Set” and the instrumental “Freeway” - both performed by the Hondells; and “I'll Never Change Him” performed by Annette Funicello. (“I'll Never Change Him” was included in initial prints, but later excised for wide release when the decision was made to feature the song as "We'll Never Change Them" in Ski Party
Ski Party
Ski Party is a B-movie, directed by Alan Rafkin, and released in 1965 by American International Pictures. Ski Party is part of the 1960s Beach Party film genre, with a change of setting from the beach to the slopes - although the final scene places everyone back at the beach...

.)

Legacy

  • The title of this film inspired the title for Steve Silver's 1974 play, Beach Blanket Babylon
    Beach Blanket Babylon
    Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon is America's longest-running musical revue. The show began its run in 1974, at Club Savoy Tivoli and has since moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco...

    , which has become America's longest-running musical revue.

  • In the 1983 film The Outsiders
    The Outsiders (film)
    The Outsiders is a 1983 American drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola, an adaptation of the novel The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton. The film was released in March 1983...

    , set in the mid 1960s, Beach Blanket Bingo is shown playing at a drive-in.

  • An excerpt from the title song and a partial scene from Beach Blanket Bingo, dubbed into Vietnamese, feature in the 1987 film, Good Morning, Vietnam
    Good Morning, Vietnam
    Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 American comedy-drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Service , who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call...

    .

Cast

  • Frankie Avalon
    Frankie Avalon
    Frankie Avalon is an American actor, singer, playwright, and former teen idol.-Career:By the time he was 12, Avalon was on U.S. television playing his trumpet. As a teenager he played with Bobby Rydell in Rocco and the Saints...

     as Frankie
  • Annette Funicello
    Annette Funicello
    Annette Joanne Funicello is an American singer and actress. She was Walt Disney's most popular cast member of the original Mickey Mouse Club, and went on to appear in a series of beach party films.-Early life and early stardom:...

     as Dee Dee
  • Harvey Lembeck
    Harvey Lembeck
    Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in the beach party movie series during the 1960s...

     as Eric Von Zipper
  • John Ashley
    John Ashley
    John Ashley may refer to:*John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John Ashley *John James Ashley , organist...

     as Steve
  • Deborah Walley
    Deborah Walley
    Deborah Walley was an American actress.-Biographical Information:Deborah Walley was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to Ice Capades skating stars and choreographers Nathan and Edith Walley. She attended Central High School in Bridgeport. At fourteen she was playing summer-stock theatre. She...

     as Bonnie
  • Jody McCrea
    Jody McCrea
    Joel Dee "Jody" McCrea was an American film and television actor; son of veteran film actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, who were married from 1933 until Joel McCrea's death in 1990. The eldest of three, his brothers are David McCrea and Peter McCrea.-Career:Jody McCrea served in the United...

     as Bonehead
  • Marta Kristen
    Marta Kristen
    Marta Kristen is an American actress.The naturally blonde-haired Kristen is best-known for her role as Guy Williams's and June Lockhart's beautiful daughter, Judy Robinson, in the television series Lost in Space...

     as Lorelei
  • Linda Evans
    Linda Evans
    Linda Evans is an American actress. She is known primarily for her roles on television, and rose to fame playing Audra Barkley in the 1960s Western TV series, The Big Valley...

     as Sugar Kane
  • Don Rickles
    Don Rickles
    Donald Jay "Don" Rickles is an American stand-up comedian and actor. A frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Rickles has acted in comedic and dramatic roles, but is best known as an insult comic....

     as Big Drop
  • Paul Lynde
    Paul Lynde
    Paul Edward Lynde was an American comedian and actor. A noted character actor, Lynde was well known for his roles as Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and Harry MacAfee, the befuddled father in Bye Bye Birdie...

     as Bullets
  • Donna Loren
    Donna Loren
    Donna Loren is a singer and actress. A very prolific performer in the 1960s, commenciong while still attending Venice High School in western Los Angeles, she was the Dr Pepper spokesperson from 1963–1968, prolific vocalist on ABC-TV’s Shindig, and a cast member of the American International...

     as Donna
  • Timothy Carey
    Timothy Carey
    Timothy Agoglia Carey was an American film and television actor....

     as South Dakota Slim
  • Buster Keaton
    Buster Keaton
    Joseph Frank "Buster" Keaton was an American comic actor, filmmaker, producer and writer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a consistently stoic, deadpan expression, earning him the nickname "The Great Stone Face".Keaton was recognized as the...

     as Buster
  • Bobbi Shaw as Bobbi
  • Earl Wilson
    Earl Wilson (columnist)
    Earl Wilson , born Harvey Earl Wilson, was an American journalist, gossip columnist and author, perhaps best known for his nationally syndicated column, It Happened Last Night....

     as Himself
  • Michael Nader
    Michael Nader
    Michael Nader is an American actor of Lebanese descent, known for his role on the ABC primetime soap opera Dynasty from 1983 to 1989 as Farnsworth "Dex" Dexter, the third husband of Alexis Colby .Nader's first soap opera role was opposite actress Marie Masters playing the character of Kevin...

     as Butch
  • Donna Michelle
    Donna Michelle
    Donna Michelle was the adopted name of Donna M. Ronne, an American model, actress, and photographer. She was Playboy magazine's December 1963 Playmate of the Month and 1964 Playmate of the Year. Her centerfold was by Pompeo Posar and Edmund Leja...

     as Animal
  • Patti Chandler as Patti
  • Andy Romano
    Andy Romano
    Andy Romano is an American actor, known for playing "J.D." in the 1960s Beach Party movies ....

     as J.D.
  • Alberta Nelson
    Alberta Nelson
    Alberta Nelson was an American television and film actress. She was born on August 14, 1937, and attended Villa Maria Academy and later graduated from Andrews High School for Girls in Willoughby, Ohio...

     as Puss
  • Myrna Ross as Boots
  • Chris Cranston
    Chris Cranston
    Chris Cranston is an American model and actress. She is best known for being Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for its April 1971 issue. Her centerfold was photographed by Mario Casilli....

     as a Beach Girl

Crew

  • Samuel Z. Arkoff
    Samuel Z. Arkoff
    Samuel Zachary Arkoff was an American producer of B movies.-Life and career:Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa to a Russian Jewish family, Arkoff first studied to be a lawyer. Along with business partner James H. Nicholson and producer-director Roger Corman, he produced eighteen films...

     - producer
  • Anthony Carras - co-producer
  • James H. Nicholson
    James H. Nicholson
    James Harvey Nicholson was an American film producer. He is best known as the co-founder, with Samuel Z. Arkoff, of American International Pictures.-Biography:...

     - producer
  • Floyd D.Crosby - cinematographer
  • Bill Paxton - art director
  • Howard Campbell - art director
  • Eve Newman - editor
  • Les Baxter
    Les Baxter
    Les Baxter was an American musician and composer.Baxter studied piano at the Detroit Conservatory before moving to Los Angeles for further studies at Pepperdine College. Abandoning a concert career as a pianist, he turned to popular music as a singer...

     - Original music

Cultural references

  • The scene where Sugar Kane gets bitten in the leg by the mermaid, and the bite mark is acknowledged as a human bite are references to the film Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
    Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid
    Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid is a 1948 fantasy film starring William Powell and Ann Blyth in the title roles. Irene Hervey played Mr. Peabody's wife.- Plot :...

    (1948).
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