Hermie Friends
Iconic Beach Girl #2: Jennifer O’neill
Ah, the summer of ’42. No matter what year of your birth, who hasn’t fallen head over dunes in love with that film, that haunting score by Michel Legrand, and that tousled haired brunette bride, Jennifer O’Neill?
The film was made in 1971 and follows the typical ‘coming of age’ genre of a young man facing adult experiences that transform him. Autobiographical in nature, the story tells of a summer spent on Nantucket island during WWII (re-named Patchett island for the film), when the author Herman Raucher was 14. The central character ‘Hermie’ embarks on an unrequited infatuation with an older recently-married woman Dorothy whose new husband has gone off to war. Hermie and his teen-aged pals see the newly-weds as the groom carries his lovely new Mrs. into their honeymoon cottage. Hermie is love-struck, and despite unsuccessful fumbling and bumbling along with other teen-aged girls on the island, at the cinema and on the beach, Hermie develops deep romantic feelings for Dorothy. She befriends him and he does odd-jobs for her, moving boxes up into her attic, when he learns her husband has been deployed. Hermie ignores his friends, and visits Dorothy one night, finding her home dark and quiet, a telegram on the downstairs table stating Dorothy’s husband has been shot down and killed over France an hour earlier. Dorothy appears, turns on the film’s theme score on her phonograph and they dance, slowly and embracing and begin to kiss. You can guess the rest… Hermie dresses afterwards, while Dorothy, now in her bathrobe smokes a cigarette out on her porch, staring out into the night sky–all she can say is ‘good night’ and Hermie leaves, never to see her again. He wanders all night in shock. When he returns the next day the cottage is empty, Dorothy is gone and has left him a hand-written note on the door expressing her regrets and hoping that Hermie can forgive her. Hermie is depleted and sorrowful but has made the journey from teenhood to adulthood all in the space of one night. The real Herman Raucher wrote this story some 30 years later after that apotheosis, and after its rousing success at the box-office, a book soon followed with equal clamor. After an appearance on television, no less than 12 women claiming to be the ‘real’ Dorothy wrote in. Raucher recognized the handwriting from Dorothy who again exressed her apologies, mentioning details only she could have known, hoping that the event had not traumatised him, and asked him to leave the matter in the past with no further contact. Again, Hermie lost sight of his first-love, the evanescent Dorothy. Dorothy was played by Jennifer O’Neill, who was only 22 at the time. She eschewed doing any nude scenes as a condition of shooting the unknown film against her parents’ advice, so that the love shots were done tastefully with more longing suggested than explicit portrayal.
With her picture-perfect features her face exudes the ‘girl next door’ image, the stuff of daydreams and nostalgia, of summer loves lost and passed. Every man could relate to Hermie falling hopelessly in love with her, and understand even why, 30 years later, he was still yearning to catch even a glimpse of her again. Jennifer O’Neill is one of the world’s great beauties, whose face has graced the pages of the world’s leading magaazines as a model for CoverGirl cosmetics for the last 30 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she is a tireless actress of more than 30 films, author of 3 books, speaker and pro-life campaigner, she has survived a string of bad marriages (8), miscarriages (9) and real estate deals gone sour. She has inspired others with her deep spirituality and drive, but it is her dreamy beauty that leads others to her, and holds them enthralled. Hermie, and us, can see the sea in her eyes, the mist in her hair and the summer lingers on, timeless, and deeply formative, with that undecipherable tinge of melancholy. .
About the Author
Kikidoll is the eternal beachgirl, and takes her inspiration from the awesome elegance and pristine simplicity of beaches and waves everywhere. She muses on islands, oceans, beaches, shells, flowers, tropical living, travel, design and style, swimming, surfing, her beloved Hawaii nei, the spirit of aloha, iconic symbols and of course the fleeting ‘endless summer’. Most importantly, she frets over what to wear at the beach!
Hermie & Friends short: Antonio Caterpilla.
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