Vitals

Frankie Avalon as Frankie, lovestruck surfer

Malibu, California, Summer 1963

Film: Beach Party
Release Date: August 7, 1963
Director: William Asher
Costume Design: Marjorie Corso & Renié

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Four years after Gidget launched the beach party subgenre, the formula was refined with less morals and more midriffs in the simply titled Beach Party. Released 63 years ago today on August 7, 1963, Beach Party was the first of about a dozen similar movies released by American International Pictures that occasionally veered from the beach into ski country or the race track but almost always featured pop singers Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello in leading roles.

Filmed across the beaches of Southern California over three weeks in the spring of 1963, Beach Party established a blueprint that most of its successors would follow: a score by exotica stalwart Les Baxter supplemented by the surf rock stylings of Dick Dale and his Del-Tones; a supporting cast of older, most established stars—like Bob Cummings, Dorothy Malone, and Morey Amsterdam in this first film; and the easy chemistry between Frankie and Annette.

Frankie and Annette played essentially the same teen lovers driven apart by an easily explained misunderstanding that is invariably resolved by the close of each approximately 90-minute runtime. In Beach Party, it’s Dolores’ hesitation that drives Frankie away—straight into the arms of the buxom “Hungarian goulash” Ava (Eva Six), one of the women whom he serenades with “Don’t Stop Now” during the raucous party at Big Daddy’s.

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What’d He Wear?

When not riding the waves in his swimwear, Frankie tends to favor solid button-ups and sweaters but he wears a much bolder shirt to Big Daddy’s. This short-sleeved sport shirt has a bright red base, patterned with an all-over black-and-gold paisley print that stops at the solid red sleeve-ends and hem, which is solid red below the gold squared border before the paisley medallion print surrounds the hem’s edge. Four unique golden bullet-like toggle buttons fasten up the front to mid-chest, left intentionally open at the neck with its sporty one-piece collar. Short, pointed tabs on each side toward the back of the waistband fasten through identical buttons.

Frankie’s wardrobe reflects the character’s loose inspiration from Elvis Presley’s cinematic roles, as the King typically wore tailored sports shirts with tight, solid-colored trousers and boots. Aside from scenes where he’s swimming or surfing, Frankie exclusively follows this template. His ice-white flat-front trousers at Big Daddy’s have button-tab side adjusters in lieu of a belt, cut trim and straight through the legs down to plain-hemmed bottoms. They have frogmouth-style full-top front pockets and a single button-through pocket on the right side of the seat.

Even when reveling at actual beach parties that would perhaps call for lighter footwear in the sand, Frankie wears his usual black leather Chelsea boots and black socks. Their contemporary nomenclature evolved in the mid-20th century when the boots gained a fashionable resurgence among trendy mods in the Chelsea area of swinging London, though their development dates back more than a century earlier to the early 1840s. Queen Victoria’s shoemaker Joseph Sparkes Hall is credited with the design that he marketed as “Patent Elastic Ankle Boots”, characterized by elastic gussets. Frankie’s all-black leather boots follow the classic design, albeit with slightly shorter shafts that may have aided his dancing in sequences like this.

Unlike the stodgy Professor R.O. Sutwell (Bob Cummings), who arrives at the party wearing a Calrad covert microphone watch to record his findings, Frankie never wears a watch. And he wouldn’t, would he?

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What to Imbibe

The voluptuous Marilyn Monroe-lookalike Ava refills Frankie’s beer, which is unidentified in this scene but may be intended to be the Hamm’s often seen in the background of other scenes. Though the Hamm brewery was founded in Minnesota in 1865, it expanded beyond a regional brew under William C. Figge Jr.’s leadership and became the fifth largest brewery in the United States by the 1950s. Its West Coast operations included breweries in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

The original independently run operations are now defunct, but the Hamm’s label endures as a budget brand under Molson Coors’ oversight.

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How to Get the Look

I can’t promise I’ll be dressed exactly like this during my own beach vacation this week, but Frankie Avalon certainly makes the case for a summer-ready statement shirt.

• Red and black-and-gold paisley-printed short-sleeved sport shirt with one-piece collar, four gold toggle buttons, and straight hem with toggle-button adjuster tabs
• Ice-white flat-front trousers with button-tab side adjusters, frogmouth full-top front pockets, button-through back-right pocket, and plain-hemmed bottoms
• Black leather Chelsea boots
• Black socks

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie. And dance, swing, live… remember that tomorrow may be the day after today.