Girl + midget = Gidget

When the new documentary “Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget Story” makes its North American debut today at the Newport Beach Film Festival, it will culminate a decade’s worth of work for filmmaker Brian Gillogly.

The 60-minute film takes a look at the life of Kathy Zuckerman, the real woman behind Gidget, the mythic teen-girl surfer character from books, television and film.

“She didn’t set out to be an influential or noteworthy person, but she was,” Gillogly said.

Zuckerman grew up riding the waves off Malibu in the 1950s.

Her father, writer Frederick Kohner, immortalized her surfing adventures in the 1957 novel “Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas.”

The Gidget story would propel a whole generation of surfers to Southern California beaches after a series of films and television shows were made based on the character.

“It was a very unusual lifestyle back then — and everybody had nicknames,” Zuckerman said. Her nickname, Gidget, was a combination of the words “girl” and “midget.”

“At the time, I was the only teenage girl bebopping my way down the sand; nobody in my high school knew what surfing was,” Zuckerman said.

Now approaching 70, Zuckerman has been known to surf on occasion, but she stays close to shore. She still lives near her beloved Malibu and gives inspirational talks to seniors about her surfing experiences.

Gillogly, an Emmy award-winning writer, director and producer, first interviewed Zuckerman in the early 1980s for an article on surfing culture that he wrote for Surfer Magazine.

He came up with the idea of making a documentary about Zuckerman and her influence on surfing culture in 1999.

Zuckerman was reticent to get involved at first, but eventually agreed. Gillogly followed Zuckerman during a 2001 book tour following the rerelease of her father’s book. He also interviewed many of the surfers from the early Malibu surfing scene.

The film also includes interviews with Sally Field, who played Gidget on the 1960s television series by the same name.

Gillogly also was able to interview the late Paul Wendkos, who directed many of the early Gidget films.

It was one of the Wendkos’ last interviews before his death in 2009.

Gillogly’s project was almost derailed in 2006 after running into copyright issues with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, which own the rights to the Gidget films and television series.

Gillogly could not afford the licensing fees to use some of the footage.

The film was re-edited in 2008 with the help of a USC law professor so that it would meet the fair use standards in its use of some of the old Gidget film and TV footage.

Gillogly said he hopes people come away from the film feeling inspired about what one woman with a surfboard can accomplish.

“This is really a feel-good documentary,” he said. “I think it’s a really good film for women to see — I also kind of want my daughter to feel like she can do anything she wants.”

If You Go

What: “Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget Story”

When: 4 p.m. today

Where: Edwards Island 3, 999 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.

More information: The screening is sold out, but additional tickets may be available at the box office before the show.

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