And so on. Half a century later, the onetime real-life surfer girl heroine — who was the basis of a nonfiction book and the string of fictional movies — was not hungry to produce a sequel.

In her youth, she was a real-life surfer girl heroine who inspired the “Gidget” movies, TV show and a book. Among the actors to portray Gidget were Sandra Dee and Sally Field. After the ...