Bank of Books Malibu will welcome Palisadian Kathy Kohner Zuckerman – AKA Gidget – to the store on Saturday, Jan. 31 for their 10:30 storytime. The surfing legend will greet customers, sign copies of Gidget and pose for photos until 3:30 p.m.
Number 7 on Surfer magazine’s list of the “25 Most Influential People in Surfing,” 15-year-old Kohner was one of the few girls to brave the waves in the macho male surf culture of 1950s Malibu. The guys on the beach adopted the petite teenager as one of their own, giving her the nickname “Gidget,” short for “girl midget.”
Photo courtesy of Bank of Books
When Kathy Kohner’s dad, screenwriter Frederick Kohner, heard his bubbly daughter’s stories about the then-exotic sport of “surfing,” he spun her tales into the best-selling book Gidget, which in turn spawned a series of blockbuster movies and a hit TV show and Malibu became Ground Zero for the 1960s surfing craze.
Now a married grandmother living in Pacific Palisades, the irrepressible Gidget remains the sport’s premier ambassador.
Bank of Books Malibu is located in the Point Dume Village, at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Heathercliff Road. For further information, call 310-457-5699.
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