Life’s a Beach
From Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello’s Beach Blanket Bingo hanky-panky—to a group of California boys and their “Little Surfer Girl,” the 1960s was a certified beach party. It started with Sandra Dee’s Gidget in 1959, and the cultural phenomenon continued all the way through Elvis’s Blue Hawaii and up to the Beach Boys’ look back, “Do It Again,” in 1968. In a tribute to the tiki-friendly decade, Vanity Fair revisits some quintessential sandy snapshots—itty-bitty teeny-weeny bikinis and all.
Friends congregate for some co-ed beach fun.
A couple playing leapfrog, 60s style.
Surfers catching an Oahu wave in 1963.
Grecian sunbathers in 1964.
Exhibit A of how-to-lounge-on-a-beach in 1962.
A blonde taking it easy in 1963.
Sunbathers in Cannes, France. Attention, film buffs: the famed Promenade de la Croisette—site of the town’s eponymous film festival—runs alongside the beach.
Reaching new heights on the beach.
A couple frolics in the surf.
A scene from 1965’s Beach Blanket Bingo, the fifth movie in the 60s “beach party” film genre.
Sunbathing on a New England beach in 1967.
Tiki-torch time!
European beach umbrellas.
