Beach Blanket Bingo (American International Pictures) (1965)

No Career Problems For The John Ashleys Poll the actresses in Hollywood and you will find strong opinions both for and against marriage to an actor. There are girls like Diane McBain who prefer to date men outside show business. But Connie Stevens rarely dated non-actors and married actor Jim Stacy. Susan Seaforth thinks actors are too vain to make good marriage partners while Asa Maynor married actor Edd Byrnes. Annette Funicello recently married an actor's agent. Suzanne Pleshette, who had an illstarred union with Troy Donahue, says her next may be a doctor, lawyer or Indian Chief but never another person connected with show business. The pattern is a crazy quilt of divergent opinions and actions but for American International’s new star-crossed lovers John Ashley and Deborah Walley being married and in show business poses no problems —not many, that is! Wed for three blissful, tranquil years, the Ashleys are an ideal couple who appear on screen together for the first time in AIP’s new color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo’, opening.................... at thetna ee ok eee theatre. And although they battle from the opening scene to the end titles in the picture, the model young Hollywoodites contend that an actor or actress married to someone in the same profession has all the best of it. “If your wife is in the same business, she understands the demands the profession makes on you,” says Ashley. “She realizes a film company may shoot far into the night and spoil her 6 o'clock dinner. She understands the long absences from home that public appearances require. A girl in another field might find these things hard to take.” Agreeing yet taking another viewpoint, Deborah says many of the normal tensions of marriage are eased by a union with a person in the same profession. “Every marriage is an endless period of adjustment as I see it,’ she says. “Add to that the uncertainties of the acting profession and the situation is plenty explosive. “John and I keep our emotional TNT dampened by refusing to let petty jealousies affect us. A couple in this business can’t be career jealous. That is disastrous. The only thing that bothers me are his kissing scenes with other girls. I refuse to watch them. I cover my eyes.” Those kissing scenes, incidentally, also have their effect upon the spouse. “They don’t upset me,” John says, but when it’s your wife a guy is kissing you're not exactly delighted. I guess my reaction is that of any normal. husband. Being in show business doesn’t make you get used to another guy kissing your gal. You’re in trouble if it doesn’t bother you.” Novel in divorce-frequent Hollywood, the happy Ashleys aren’t in trouble. LOVERS’ QUARREL — Happily wedded in real life, John Ashley and Deborah Walley have a spat in scene from American International’s color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo”, opening .....0.0.002.. at th Get cee cat egeen a ik heatre. 2 COL. SCENE MAT 2-K SURPRISE AT THE BEACH — Frankie Avalon (from left), Annette Funicello, Mike Nader and Mary Hughes react to surprise sky dive jump in scene from American International’s color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo”, opening ....00.0.0.0 0. Abr tnGi ace eran ite eh Theatre. 2 COL. SCENE MAT 2-L Teenaged Beach Gang Explores A New Sport Today's nuclear and space age younger generation has taken a new and daring sport to heart, both directly and vicariously. The sport is sky diving and it has swept America, with its first introduction to movie fans coming in American International's “Beach Blanket Bingo”. The color and scope musical-comedy, sOpening 02... at theese Ae ee ee er tain Theatre, takes stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and the ‘Beach Party” gang from surfing to the exciting world of parachute sky diving and planes. As a sport sky diving is but a little over ten years old with present techniques initially developed in France and later spreading to the United States and the Soviet Union. Because of its apparent danger and the considerable expense involved in jumping, vicarious lovers of sky diving far outnumber its participants. As of the year 1964, there were 8,000 members of the recognized national organization devoted to the sport and, it is estimated, perhaps as many sky divers who are unaffiliated. The group, The Parachute Club of America, has 120 clubs in different cities and it records 300 non-affiliated clubs devoted to the sport. The experienced sky diver will fly to a height of about three miles and then jump. The big accomplishment is to fall free for two miles at a speed averaging 128 miles per hour and then to pull the ripcord to open the parachute at about 2,000 feet altitude for a safe landing. Such a fall can last as long as sixty seconds depending upon how skillful the sky diver is in slowing his rate of fall. The slowing maneuvers are modeled upon the actions of birds, with adroit use of arms and legs to brake the air. While veteran sky divers claim the risk involved is less than that of other sports or driving a car, the narrow margin between life and death inherent in the jump has captured the fancy of all young Americans. NIGHT CLUB COMIC TAKES OUTING WITH BEACH BUNNIES After his fourth “young-at-heart’ musical comedy for American International Pictures, the latest being “Beach Blanket Bingo’, Don Rickles can rightfully boast that his starring roles became “big” and stayed that way. Don's first AIP role was as Jack Fanny in “Muscle Beach Party” and he then moved up to “Big Drag” in “Bikini Beach’. In the third, ‘Pajama Party’, he was “Big Bang” and in “Beach Blanket Bingo’, Don is the proprietor of a sky diving school, called “Big Drop”. Next . . .2??? Also starring in the new color and Panavision musical comedy, opening URS esas eR ON atanhe Sys peer: Theatre, are Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello, Deborah Walley and Harvey Lembeck. “Beach Blanket Bingo’ Director Reveals the Secret of His Success The series of motion pictures aimed at the $12 billion-a-year youth market by American International Pictures comes off as boxoffice hits because they are examples of a film-making philosophy that content is not the end-all of the motion picture art, according to Director Bill Asher. He was interviewed on the set of AIP’s newest musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo: | Opening: cee Oi pe at CRC ees ee ere eee eS ee theater. “The sequels to the initial hit ‘Beach Party’ are no great world shakers, no psychological probers or stirring bearers of social cautions. They are just simple little stories about kids having fun,’ he states. Their prime purpose, he explains, is tO entertain young moviegoers and to send them out of the theaters in a gay mood, whistling the songs heard in the picture. To accomplish this, American International has contracted the services of popular actor-singer Frankie Avalon and ex-Mouseketeer Annette Funicello (one of Hollywood’s top recipients of fan mail) as sweethearts and leaders of a group of handsome youngsters who prefer beach play to book bending. They launched their recurring romps at the beach in “Beach Party’, a musical comedy about the now internationally popular sport of surfing, with Annette’s insistence upon being wed before being smooched as a subplot. They continued their tongue-incheek survey of recreational activities among youngsters with a lampoon of the health faddists who are the muscle men of American beaches in “Muscle Beach Party”. When The Beatles invaded our shores, alert AIP script writers created a love triangle in “Bikini Beach” by having Frankie play a dual role as himself and a Beatle-wigged English CHUTELESS CHUTER FEATURED IN FILM Current hero of sky divers alt over the world is one of their number who jumped from a plane from over 10,000 feet up WITHOUT a parachute and lived to tell about it! He’s Rod Pack and he accompplished the miraculous feat by receiving a chute from a co-jumper (with parachute) in mid-air and donning same, also in mid-air, to enable him to land safely. Rod’s feat made headlines all over the world and he shows off his sky skill — with chute — for the first time in motion pictures in American International’s “Beach Blanket Bingo”. The color and scope musical comedy, opening the tells what happens when AIP’s “Beach Party Gang’ puts aside their surfboards for sky diving helmets and chutes. “Beach Blanket Bingo” stars Frankie Avalon, Annette Funicello and the rest of the “gang”. visitor who attracted Annette’s attention. Emphasis was also placed upon the nationally popular teen sport of drag racing and the teen fashion fad of wearing the abbreviated bikini bathing suit. Now, the gay, uninhibited youngsters have turned their attention to the burgeoning sport of sky diving in “Beach Blanket Bingo’? which is filmed in color and Panavision. Frankie is back and Annette has him, with Deborah Walley, who is best known for her role as “Gidget”, joining the beach gang as love interest of her true-to-life husband John Ashley. Asher, who directed all of the Beach films, admits to utilizing many cinematic tricks and film techniques adapted so successfully by Tony Richardson in “Tom Jones’. There are fast cut aways, frozen action, asides to the audience, hilarious chase sequences and pie-throwing | slapstick comedy. “You might say these pictures prove that something of value can be created out of nothing of significance”, Asher declares. “We think of them as clever presentation of minor matter; not much for the intellect, but like fairy tales, captivating!” The emphasis is on beauty, action and latest fads. Filmed in glorious color and richly interwoven with pop songs, rock’ n roll tunes and the latest teenage dances, American International’s continually successful beach films may very well upset every age-old theory of what is drama and prove that what an actor does is more important than what is said. PIDIDOOIOD SOO DOO IOODDOON Beach Film Beauties Boast Amazing Figures Statistically speaking, the bunnies featured in American International's blockbusting series of beach films are hard to beat. Their figures are amazing both to calculate and to contemplate as movie fans viewing AIP’s newest color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo” opening .................... ate the sseesee aor eee aa Theatre will readily agree. Take blonde Linda Opie and brunette Salli Sachse, the look-alike bunnies known as The Bookends. Both native of sun-splashed La Jolla, California, their vital statistics are a breathtaking 35-22-36 and 36-23-36, respectively. And tall, blonde beauties Mary Hughes and Mary Sturdivant, both indigenous to Malibu Beach, tape out at an exciting 36-22-35 and 36-2335, respectively. Chris Cranston, still another beauty discovered at a Las Vegas ringside table by Buddy Hackett and making her film debut in “Beach Blanket Bingo”, measures a well-rounded 3522-36. Eyepopper of them all, however, is lush Bobbi Shaw, comedy partner to veteran comedian Buster Keaton in the AIP films, whose amazing measurements are 38-22-36. Fifth sequel to last summer’s record-breaking “Beach Party’, the new musical “Beach Blanket Bingo’ stars Frankie Avalon, Annette (36-23-36) Funicello, Harvey Lembeck, Deborah Walley, Jody McCrea, Marta Kristen, Donna Loren, Linda Evans, The Hondels and the “Beach Party” gang. SURFERS TO THE RESCUE — Frankie Avalon (center) and Annette Funicello are rescued from the ocean by surfers in scene from American International’s color and Panavision musical comedy “Beach Blanket Bingo”, opening... at the 2 COL. SCENE MAT 2-H