Rob Price
Gutbrain Records
rob + gutbrain.com = email

2011 January 21 • Friday

Dick Dale is in Beach Party. The first time we see him in the movie he is, in fact, at a beach party.

But he and his band also play at the local coffeehouse.

Who else are you likely to find at a coffeehouse in a movie from the early 1960s? Beatniks, of course!

That's Morey Amsterdam, owner of the coffeehouse, reciting intentionally ridiculous "beat" poetry. Dick Dale is even obliged to take a turn on the bongos before he can pick up his guitar.

The main beatnik figure is the legendary Big Daddy, a beat poet and guru who's always seen like this:

Big Daddy remains passed out, and his companions engrossed in their meditation, until the very end of the movie when Big Daddy is revealed to be Vincent Price.

There's always somebody smoking marijuana at these beatnik coffeehouses. Who would have thought it would be Frankie Avalon and his pals?

They look pretty stoned to me!