Beach Blanket Bingo (American International Pictures) (1965)

Debbie “Gidget” Walley Joins Beach Party Gang for ‘Bingo’ “Beach Blanket Bingo” opening in color and Panavision ............ at (hess = Theatre. Which means that petite, redhaired -Deborah Walley stars with Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Harvey Lembeck, Jody McCrea, John Ashley, Donna Loren, Don Rickles and the rest of the surfing gang who are responsible for the success of AIP’s series of musical comedy hits. Also new to the group in the newest film are Marta Kristen, Linda Evans, Paul Lynde, Buster Keaton, Bobbi Shaw and Earl Wilson. For Deborah, who rocketed to stardom in her very first screen appearance in the title role of “Gidget Goes Hawaiian’, “Beach Blanket Bingo’’ is only the first of many pictures to come under her new long term contract with A.I.P. Her next will be “Ski Party” in which she will co-star with Avalon. She was born in Hartford, Conn., the daughter of “The Walleys’” (Nate and Edith) —a famed skating team which starred for many years with the Ice Capades. Deborah took to skates at the age of three and soon delighted audiences by appearing with her parents on the ice. When she was only four, she was the subject of a multi-page photo spread in Life Magazine. Then, and all through her life she has had only one ambition —to be in show business...a goal obtained by participating in dramatics throughout her private school days and culminating in enrollment in the famed American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. While attending the Academy she appeared in numerous school plays and finally broke out to appear in an off-Broadway production of Chekhov’s “The Three Sisters’. Next came DEBORAH WALLEY stars with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in American International’s color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket BinPBR 25 1, 1 gene EIS eater at [I] RY See eck a os Sanyo aa ER a Theatre. 1 COL. SCENE MAT 1-B her TV debut, in a tooth paste commercial, then important assignments in top series including “Naked City” and ‘Route 66”, and two valuable seasons in summer stock. During this time she was spotted and came to California for her big break as “Gidget”. Her performance won Walt Disney’s attention and she starred thereafter in “Bon Voyage” and “Summer Magic’. Deborah married actor John Ashley, long an AIP contract star, on April 28, 1962, and she gave birth to her first and only child, Anthony Brooks, on May 4, 1963. The couple live in a spacious ranch-type home in Encino, in the San Fernando Valley just outside of Hollywood. If she had to make another choice for a career, she would choose painting and sculpture—which is her avocation between film and _housekeeping chores. She also is an expert sportswoman and an avid reader and classical music listener. Her oné hobby is collecting old playbills and theater programs. Her impressive collection includes programs dating back to the 1700's. TALL FILM GALS PREFER SHORTIES Violating all of the accepted rules of reason, tall, blonde beach bunnies Mary Hughes and Mary Sturdivant, featured players in American International’s new color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo’, prefer to date fellows on the short side. Mary Hughes is 20 and stands 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Mary Sturdivant is 19 and stands 5 feet 814 inches tall. Neither finds her height a disadvantage. On the contrary, Mary S. is convinced that tall girls have all the best of it. “You can wear more things and look better in them even carrying 10 pounds of overweight,’ she says. Mary S. weighs 123 pounds. “It’s quite an advantage,’ says Mary H. “When I walk in some place, everyone sees me immediately, and I can also see them. What's more, a girl with long legs can wear things other girls wouldn’t dare put on. Mary H. prefers sportswear, with a strong leaning to pants and bikini bathing suits. “A girl with long legs likes to show them off,’ she confides. Both beauties say they have rarely dated a boy as tall or taller than they though they admit that most modern youngsters are growing taller and larger than their forebearers. But Mary S. gives some provincial insight into their reasoning when she says, “In Hollywood the boys tend to be so strikingly handsome a girl needs something to make her stand out so she doesn’t get an inferiority complex.” CHILLY WEATHER TURNS FILM MERMAID INTO A COLD FISH Norwegian-born Marta Kristen agreed to play the role of a mermaid in American International’s new musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo” because she is an actress not averse to hiding her shapely limbs in an articifial fish fin. But filming of AIP’s fifth sequel to its record breaking “Beach Party” at Malibu Beach in midDecember found Marta up to her pretty blonde pigtails in water testing out at a frigid 43 degrees. A former Detroit fashion model who harbors no nostalgia for its winters, Marta observed: “No girl really likes to have her legs hidden and you can bet I never dreamed when taking this part as a California mermaid that I'd wind up such a cold fish. No more fish roles for me.” “Beach Blanket Bingo” opens at the Theatre star ring Frankie Avalon, Annette Fu nicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, Jody McCrea, John Ash ley, Donna Loren, Linda Evans and the “Beach Party” gang. FRANKIE AVALON stars with Annette Funicello in American International’s new musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo,” a Color and Panavision production RINE 32, cho clita ayes at the 1 COL. SCENE MAT 1-N SKY DIVING ANYBODY? — Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon seem wary about their first try at sky diving despite background encouragement from Don Rickles (center) in scene from American International’s “Beach Blanket Bingo”, opening. ............2..::::s:0+ abe thee -sseceeee 2 eccceseee, eo ee ee Beach Party Gang On Fourth Musical Romp Frankie, DeeDee, Eric Von Zipper and all the rest of the popular “Beach Party Gang” return for their fourth round of musical merrymaking and romance in American International’s “Beach Blanket Bingo”, opening soon atitheres ...1 ieee. oleae et Theatre. The color and Panavision musical comedy, successor to “Beach Party’, “Muscle Beach Party” and “Bikini Beach’, stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Donna Loren, Marta Kristen and Linda Evans. Co-starring are Don Rickles as “Big Drop”, Paul Lynde as “Bullets” and cameo guest stars Buster Keaton, Earl Wilson and Bobbi Shaw. It’s the first “Beach” picture for Miss Walley, Miss Kristen, Miss Evans, Lynde, Keaton and Wilson. This time the surfing youngsters add sky diving to muscle building and drag racing as the background for their fun and advenures. Add a mermaid, a beautiful blonde singer and her conniving press agent to the goings-on and the result is the latest and best of all the AIP young-atheart musical comedies, Once more, too, romance, songs and dancing enliven the proceedings with the music written by the writers of the hit songs of the earlier films, Guy Hemric and Jerry Styner. Comedy, and there’s plenty of it as in the other romps, is furnished by old standbys Harvey Lembeck and _ his rats and mice, Jody McCrea, Don Rickles and new faces Buster Keaton, Paul Lynde and Bobbi Shaw. Cinderella Girl Is Mermaid For ‘Beach Blanket Bingo” Those fairy tale stories of Hollywood success are true life stories as far as lovely blue-eyed blonde Marta Kristen is concerned. Just turned twenty, she’s finished her second top starring film role as the mermaid in American International’s “Beach Blanket Bingo’ opening........ Sete atethes= = sess. neatre, The color and scope musical comedy also stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley, Harvey Lembeck and other luminaries. As for Marta’s firm belief in movieland fairy tales, just look at how she made her way to film stardom. Brought to this country from her native Norway in 1949 as a four and a half-year-old war orphan, she came to Hollywood at 15 and — just like many stories she had read — was “discovered” in a restaurant by a top producer. The producer was Jimmy Harris, and he approached her as she was eating a hamburger with a boy friend and asked her if she'd like to try out for the title role of “Lolita”. Suspicious, she checked Harris out and when she found his offer was real, she read for the part but her mother made her withdraw because of the nature of the role. Harris, however, thought so much of Marta that he started her on her career by placing her into the hands of an actor’s agent who immediately got her a featured role in “The Loretta Young Show.” Thereafter, top TV parts came along one after the other and the Nordic beauty’s acting career was in full bloom —truly Cinderella-like. Marta was brought to the United States from her Norwegian orphanage home as the adopted daughter of Professor and Mrs. Harold Soderquist of Detroit, Michigan. He was a teacher of Philosophy at Wayne University in the Motor City and her new parents helped Marta learn English and adjust to the customs of this country. She entered Farmington Elementary School near Detroit, where her parents have a large farm home, and as a ten-year-old fourth grader she starred in an original play which she wrote with two classmates. Later, at Farmington Junior High School, she was a straight “A” student and a soloist in the school choir. A colleague of her father’s recommended Marta to the famous WillO-Way Theatre in Birmingham, Michigan, where she received dramatic training and parts in summer stock plays—all at the age of 14. Her appetite for acting was properly whetted and she made up her mind to try for an acting career when she accompanied her family to California in 1959 on her father’s sabbatical leave. She studied at Santa Monica High School for a year and got her folks’ permission to stay on in California when they returned to Michigan. She stayed with a guardian, finished high school at 16 at Hollywood Professional School and soon afterward went on that fateful drive-in date where she was spotted by producer Harris. After her successful TV debut and succession of starring video roles, it MARTA KRISTEN stars as a Mermaid in American International’s color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket. Binge. OIE oF Geo at the 1 COL. SCENE MAT 1-C was only natural that Marta should get a crack at motion pictures. She made her first feature picture for Disney, opposite Tommy Kirk in “Savage Sam’ and then came _ her casting as AIP’s mermaid. Marta was married to Terence Treadwell, whom she calls ‘the most wonderful man on earth’, in Las Vegas on January 25, 1964. He is working for his Masters Degree in Psychology at San Fernando Valley State College and is a teaching assistant in the school’s phychology department. Her hobbies are riding, swimming, surfing, bicycle riding or “anything outdoors.” She is an avid reader and determined to “be a really good actress’— an ambition she furthers by studying people, such as fellow passengers on a bus, and then trying to emulate them.