Did Malibu Barbie Get Her Start in Myrtle Beach?

Perhaps she did. Urban legend claims that the inspiration for Mattel’s Malibu Barbie that was first released in 1971, was the gorgeous, blonde, skydiver character named Malibu in MGM’s 1967 film, Don’t Make Waves.

There is nothing to substantiate the claim, but it continues to be perpetuated.  The doll itself was one of the most popular in Mattel’s history. It marked a significant change in the design in that it used the face sculpt of Stacey rather than the traditional Barbie.  Malibu Barbie’s eyes now faced forward replacing the sideways coy glance of before which irked the feminists of the day.  She also featured a smile with pearly white teeth and sun-kissed skin with no makeup.  Produced until 1977, Malibu Barbie embodied the California surfer girl and defined the brand for most of the decade.

A renewed interest in Barbie came in the wake of the Barbie movie premiere, but it is another movie premiere that links Malibu Barbie with Myrtle Beach.  On June 9th, 1967, Myrtle Beach hosted its first (and only one to this day) world premiere of a movie by a major motion picture studio.  MGM introduced Don’t Make Waves at our annual Sun Fun Festival. 

That history was made at the Rivoli Theater on Chester Street near 9th Avenue North and North Ocean Boulevard.  The building is now owned by the City of Myrtle Beach and is rented to Ground Zero, a Christian youth organization.  They sublet it to the Carolina Country Music Festival each June to become the CCMF’s administrative headquarters. 

The Don’t Make Waves premiere is regarded as the highlight of the former movie theater’s history.  While Tony Curtis and Claudia Cardinale were the stars, the movie’s promotional tour centered around the supporting actors (who were the scene-stealers every time they were on screen).  They were Sharon Tate, who played Malibu, and Dave Draper, who portrayed Malibu’s body-building boyfriend.  

In fact, the actor was the reigning Mr. Universe at the time of filming.  When he passed away in 2021, The New York Times obituary quoted a subsequent Mr. Universe, “In Austria, I kept his cover of Muscle Builder magazine on the wall above my bed for motivation,” Mr. Schwarzenegger said in a statement after Mr. Draper’s death, “and when I saw him starring in ‘Don’t Make Waves,’ I thought, ‘My dreams are possible.’”

There was a welcome message to the two co-stars on the Rivoli’s marquee.  In addition, five rows of what appeared to be banner plane banners completely covering the front of building from the roof down to the marquee spelled out the announcement:  WORLD PREMIERE / MARTIN RANSOHOFF’S / “DON’T MAKE WAVES” / SHARON TATE / DAVID DRAPER. 

There was a stage set up on the sidewalk in front of the theater’s entrance.  The pre-premiere ceremonies included what was described by one newspaper man as “a rather lengthy and involved activity during which the 16 contestants of the ‘Miss Waves’ pageant were introduced to the audience.” The winner had been crowned that morning at the Thunderbird Inn and won a trip to New York and a screen test by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The 8 p.m. premiere was also preceded by the introduction of three out-of-state beauty queens and the “crowning of Miss Sun Fun which [saw] Alma Lynn Thompson take the title held for [that] past year by Jan Poster. Little Miss Myrtle Beach led off the whole contingent.”

“Prior to this stage extravaganza, a spotlighted theatre-front event, liberally seasoned with television and news cameras, provided for the general public a glimpse of the stars and other celebrities as they alighted from open convertibles for the showing.” They were to appear in two shows in front of the Rivoli theater at 7:45 p.m. and 10 p.m. and on the stage before the world premiere. Dave Draper sported a tuxedo with bow tie while Sharon Tate wore a sleeveless, cocktail dress that draped above the knee. Don’t Make Waves was not the first movie that she had made, but it was the first of Sharon Tate’s to be released, making this her first premiere.  

If not inside the Rivoli’s lobby at the premiere, certainly in countless others across the country when the film was released, movie patrons were greeted by a life-size cutout of a bikini-clad Sharon in character as Malibu, the skydiving beach beauty who resuscitates Tony Curtis’ character after pulling him from the ocean.  That was in conjunction with the suntan lotion company, Coppertone, who launched a nationwide cross-promotion featuring Sharon.  There were print ads of her in a seafoam green bikini lying on a surfboard being held by four men with bronzed skin at the beach.  The caption read, “Sharon Tate, Co-starring in Martin Ransohoff’s ‘Don’t Make Waves’ says… ‘Coppertone gives you a better tan.’” 

There was also a radio interview conducted by famed Variety columnist, Army Archerd, who also had his own regional television and radio shows. It was a brief radio spot that plugged both the movie and reiterated the tag lines from Coppertone’s print ad.  It concluded with a Coppertone jingle sung by crooner Vic Damone.  The commercial in its entirety can be heard on YouTube.  

It is thought that all of that promotion for both the movie and the lotion influenced Mattel to base their new version of their already popular doll on Sharon Tate's Malibu character.  That speculation is enhanced more than fifty years later when the actress who portrayed Barbie in the movie of the same name, Margot Robbie, portrayed a fictionalized version of Sharon Tate four years earlier in another movie. 

It may also have been that Coppertone campaign that was the catalyst for this once-in-a-lifetime event to occur in Myrtle Beach.  The Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce no longer has the records from the 1967 Sun Fun Festival and my research has turned up very little in the way of proof of why we were able to host MGM for the world premiere.  What we do have is the text of a press release that was sent to the media in April of 1967 from the Sun Fun Festival Chairman, John Thorne. 

In it, he announced that, “a world premiere of a major motion picture will highlight the Sun Fun Festival for the first time in the festival's 16-year history.  The film is Metro - Goldwyn- Mayer's Don't Make Waves which will receive its world’s first screening on June 9, during Sun Fun Week. The success of last year’s regional premiere prompted us to go big time with a major world premiere. This film was selected because of its beach theme as well as the caliber of its stars.  Don't Make Waves stars Tony Curtis, Claudia Cardinale and Sharon Tate. The film was produced by John Calley and Martin Ransohoff. It is our aim -- working in close cooperation with MGM executives -- to key the entire festival to the several beach themes in this movie e.g. surfing, skiing, swimming and so on.”

The regional premiere held the year before to which Thorne referred was the 1966 remake of the 1939 western classic, Stagecoach.  The actor, Slim Pickens, drove an actual stagecoach through Myrtle Beach for the event. 

The cast included a young Stefanie Powers.  I knew of her later in the early eighties when she portrayed a glamorous detective with her television husband in Hart to Hart.   She too was featured in a Coppertone print campaign in the summer of ’66 which cross-promoted Stagecoach with the suntan lotion.  The only link that I can find between Myrtle Beach’s Sun Fun Festival and those two movies is Coppertone.  

I did that research years ago when I was writing my self-published book, Myrtle Beach Movies.  I have a picture of Sharon Tate at the premiere on the book's cover and other photos of her in the first chapter.  All were taken by beloved local photographer and historian, Jack Thompson.  It was the first time he had allowed those pictures to be published.  I got his permission to do so and had to go through the attorneys for Sharon Tate's estate for the ability to use her image.  Her sister, Debra Tate, is very protective of how her sister is remembered.  Not only did I get approval, Debra sent word to me through the attorneys that she was excited for my project.