The Lively Set explores the Beach Party phenomenon

Patty Duke
I became friendly with Harriet MacGibbon after working with her on Our Man Higgins. I played her son. We'd go to lunch often in this great Italian restaurant called the Napoli. This place was across the street from Columbia Pictures. I remember I was doing The Patty Duke Show and I went over there by myself. I loved their pasta with tons of garlic. I had way too much garlic and when I came back to the set this prop man came over to me and said, 'Miss Duke would appreciate it if you'd take these breath mints.' I went over to her and said, 'Patty you should have just said something. I am really sorry.' She just whirled around and screamed at the guy, 'God damn you, Harry! I told you that you weren't supposed to mention my name!' She just gave the guy a tongue-lashing. I learned then don't mess with Miss Duke, boy!"

Annette Funicello
I had taken Annette out a couple of times before I did any of the Beach Party movies. I took her to a Hollywood premiere and some other thing. She was just the most natural, shy, sweet girl you could imagine. I'm sure she has been all along. But I didn't have any contact with Annette the entire time I was at AIP. We appeared in two movies together but we were never in a single scene. She had her two best girlfriends, Donna Corcoran and Shelley Fabares, and she had her family. Annette didn't fit in with the other girls. Salli Sachse, Patti Chandler and the rest of them were part of that beach and Hollywood crowd. Annette wasn't that way. She was more evening Vespers and confession.

Ski Party Cast

Frankie Avalon was aloof. He had an amazing career as a young person for that era. He was probably one of just a handful of American males who were able to achieve fame on a worldwide basis. I don't think he was aloof in a hurtful manner. I think it was just built in at that point. I think he just wanted to do his work and go home. In Frankie's case, he has more children than Katherine Hepburn has freckles.

Dwayne Hickman was also very reserved towards me during the filming of the movie. Yet he wrote in his book, Forever Dobie, only the most praise-worthy comments about me. I couldn't believe it. I thought, 'Was I on a different set?' Maybe it was just because they were more intensely involved in the motion picture process than I was. For me, making a film was serious but it was also fun. I felt like I was on vacation. I was more a fan than a performer.

I dated Deborah Walley for a short period after the movie but even then I was treated more like her pool boy or gardener than her escort. Yvonne Craig was polite but she was dating older guys like Mort Sahl so I don't think I had anything to warrant her interest. I didn't hold [their aloofness] against any of them but it just would have been fun to have a little more camaraderie with them. I did get along great with the kids who weren't the stars - Salli Sachse, Patti Chandler, Mary Hughes, Luree Holmes, Mike Nader and Ed Garner - and the crew.

Salli Sachse
Salli Sachse was just a real sweet down-to-earth girl who had a knockout body, a lovely disposition and a way of delivering a line in her slow, slurred, sleepy way. I used to pick her up and take her to work everyday because she had only one car and her husband, Pete, needed it. I'd drive over to her garden court apartment in Hollywood and Salli would run out with her cup of coffee. We'd drive off to the set doing our little share of gossiping about the different people and stuff. She was fun.

Mary Hughes
Mary Hughes was wonderful in that she had this detached Brigitte Bardot attitude. Mary was very naive in a lot of ways - not in life but with PR and things like that. She'd make these little comments in the most inappropriate times. When we had the Beach Party reunion, Mary came in and everybody just went, 'Whoa!' She looked amazing wearing this skintight black see-through gown. She had an even better body than she had in the beach movies. She came with her husband and she was quite the picture of sophistication and success.

Patti Chandler
Patti Chandler was like a kid sister - half brat and half angel. She had this horrible little Yorkshire Terrier that was just covered with fleas. She always brought it to work and it was in her trailer. She was always coming up with these new plans for everybody. She was a slaphappy kid racing about the set. I enjoyed her and always had a good relationship with her but at the same time I was smart enough to keep my distance.

Ed Garner
Ed Garner is a good friend and we have lunch together about every five months or so. He was in more beach films than Frankie and Annette. To my knowledge he was only given one line and that was in The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini. They cut it out because Ed could not deliver a line. But there he was getting billing and appearing in all the fan magazines. It didn't matter to him. He had no ego for the acting thing. It was just a job and they used him in everything.

Mike Nader
Mike Nader is a very good actor. He had that great speaking voice that he still has today. I remember at the time he was in an effort to bring the spotlight on himself so he was telling everyone that he was the nephew of George Nader.