Trivia / Beach Party

• Billing Displacement: Robert Cummings and Dorothy Malone are top-billed, despite Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello playing the leads.
• Cast the Expert: Jody McCrea was the only one of the actors playing the teens who actually knew how to surf.
• Christmas Rushed: The film was hurriedly shot in three weeks, with Frankie Avalon claiming they did "28 set-ups a day".
• Contractual Purity: Sort of. Annette Funicello was always the first choice for Dolores, but because she was under contract to Disney, they had to approve the thirty pages of script that were available at the time. AIP had to assure him there "wouldn't be anything that would offend." Walt Disney did personally ask Annette not to expose her navel on camera.
• Dawson Casting: Frankie Avalon was 22 playing a teenager, Annette Funicello was 23. John Ashley (Ken) and Jody McCrea take the cake - they were nearly thirty!
• The Danza:
  • Robert Orville "Bob" Cummings as Dr. Robert Orville Sutwell.
  • Frankie Avalon as Frankie.
  • Eva Six also plays Ava.
• Irony as She Is Cast: Bob Cummings plays a dorky professor who has to be taught how to surf. He actually had surfing experience, and had done so for television in the past.
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: The story became a musical comedy after the first draft was shown to William Asher, who agreed to direct under these conditions.
• Playing Against Type: Jody McCrea had been a serious method actor who'd studied under Sanford Meisner, playing various cops, marshals and soldiers. The role of the Dumb Muscle Deadhead (renamed Bonehead in Beach Blanket Bingo) was different for him, and marked a more comedic turn.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: The long standing rumor was that Annette Funicello was forbidden from wearing a bikini. While Walt Disney did ask her not to expose her navel, she wears a two-piece in this film, and shows her navel in Muscle Beach Party. She wears a bikini in Bikini Beach as well.
• Production Posse: William Asher had worked with Frankie Avalon on multiple television specials before, and the latter had worked with Lou Rousoff on Panic in the Year Zero. John Ashley had likewise made numerous films for AIP before. William Asher had also directed Robert Cummings earlier in his career.
• Sleeper Hit: A film shot quickly over three weeks, seen as light fluff that the cast were just told to have fun with, became AIP's highest grossing release; earning a ridiculous amount in its opening weekend alone. Its unexpected success led to eleven sequels, and numerous other copycats from other studios.
• Star-Making Role: Frankie Avalon was a rising star beforehand, but this made him famous.
• Stunt Casting: Vincent Price cameos as a way of cross-promoting the AIP film The Haunted Palace - which was released only weeks after Beach Party.
• Talent Double: Mickey Dora doubled for Bob Cummings in the long shots of him surfing.
• Uncredited Role: The original script was written by Lou Rousoff and, although rewrites were done by William Asher and Robert Dillon, they were asked not to take credit since Rousoff was dying of brain cancer.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The first draft focused more on the idea of children getting in trouble with their parents. The rewrites emphasized the teens having fun, and not getting in trouble.
  • Fabian Forte was the first choice to play Frankie, but he was under contract to 20th Century Fox and they refused to loan him out, so Frankie Avalon was cast instead. Annette Funicello however was always the first choice for Dolores.

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