The Hollywood version of the beach was a tantalizing fiction. The pairing of Annette Funicello, a former Disney Mousekateer, with Teen Heartthrob, Frankie Avalon was a great beach fantasy that meant some great box office receipts for the low budget exploitation kings at American International Pictures. Normally a company that seized upon the most lurid and lascivious aspects of a film's potential, they were bound by Annette Funicello's Disney contract to sanitize their narrative approach. Seen in no less than a one piece swim suit, Annette's beach world was to contain no foul language, no smoking, no drinking, no drugs and no talk of pregnancy or sex. These were activities that were already being explored in an intense fashion by a sixteen year old kid from Hawthorne named Dennis Wilson, who ran away to the beach as often as possible as a kid and eventually died from a drug and alcohol related drowning. He was the problem child/drummer of the Beach Boys. Other films, such as the landmark Gidget and Bruce Brown's Endless Summer introduced surfing to the inlanders who then began to invade the beaches and surfspots in hordes, serving in the era of crowded beaches and the cry of, "My wave".
As early as February 8, 1962 the United States Army began to organize a 5,000 troop of Military Advisers to aid South Vietnamese regulars. That was the same day that the Beach Boys entered World-Pacific Studios to record follow ups to their hit "Surfin". Racial strife and a struggle for equality had begun for all. The question of relevance had begun to erode the basis of the Hollywood illusion of life on the beach. The party was still on, but it had taken a new turn. Big Wednesday was the first of the films on surf culture that referenced something as unpleasant as the Vietnam War.