Where the Boys (and Girls) Were!: The Fun and Sun History of Fort Lauderdale Beach

Book excerpt: Once upon a time there was a sleepy oceanside town in South Florida that came to life for only two weeks every springtime. Then a midwestern English professor wrote a cheeky novel based on his observations of college guys and girls on Spring Break 1959 as they chased each other across the surf and sand in search of that perfect someone. When the novel Where the Boys Are was released in early 1960 and the movie version debuted at the end of that year, it put Fort Lauderdale on the lips and to-do lists of millions of North American college students and other fun-seekers for much of the next three decades. The city dubbed "The Venice of America" welcomed everyone and the party still hasn't stopped!