proof that a 95-pound teenager could invent the surf industry and still make it home for dinner.
means a plucky, diminutive girl who muscles her way into a male-dominated world through sheer nerve, originally a 1950s surfer girl in malibu.
from portmanteau of girl and midget, coined by malibu surfers to tease kathy kohner, a tiny 15-year-old who begged her way into their lineup in 1957; her surfer-turned-writer dad frederick kohner novelized her summer into the 1957 book gidget, and hollywood never let go.
gidget 1959 film — sandra dee played her, box office hit that sparked sequels
kathy kohner zuckerman — the actual gidget, still lives in pacific palisades
gidget the chihuahua — taco bell mascot borrowed the name for pure attitude
new gidget tv series — 1986 sally field spin-off decades after the original