Where the Boys Are

One spring break in 1959, Professor Glendon Swarthout took off with a bunch of his English Honors students from Michigan State University as they motored south from the winters' chill to the beaches of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, to soak up some sun, sand, suds, and sex. What he found there during two weeks of "research" became the basis of one of the funniest collegiate novels of all time. But let's leave it to the narrator, Merritt, who describes herself as five feet nine in heels, weighing in at 136 lbs. "My statistics are 37-28-38. I wear an eight and a half B shoe. I may not be feminine but I am damn ample. We all are. It is ridiculous nowadays for girls to be seductive. Companies go on about advertising creams and mists and gossamer underthings when what we should really be in the market for is stuff like electric razors and Charles Atlas courses and jock straps, etc." Merritt further describes what her book is about -- "Why do they (college kids) come to Florida? Physically to get a tan. Also, they are pooped. Many have mono. Psychologically, to get away. And besides, what else is there to do except go home (for spring break)and further foul up the parent-child relationship? Biologically, they come to Florida to check the talent. You've seen those movie travelogues of the beaches on the Pribilof Islands where the seals tool in once a year to pair off and reproduce. The beach at Lauderdale has a similar function. Not that reproduction occurs, of course, but when you attract thousands of kids to one place there is apt to be a smattering of sexual activity." Where The Boys Are was much more than a novel, it became a national phenomenon! This New York Times top ten bestseller, which was well-reviewed in almost every national publication, who then sent reporters down to south Florida the next spring to cover this annual college pilgrimage and beach bash they'd somehow overlooked, including the riots which occurred in spring of '61 in Lauderdale. MGM quickly snapped up the film rights and turned this college tale into the biggest grossing, low-budget film up to that time in the fabled history of that studio. The title Where The Boys Are moved into the national lexicon; Connie Francis' theme song became her biggest selling record ever; and the novel and film became the grandmother of all the week-long MTV Live Spring Breaks to follow. Countless college