I Dream of Jeannie Day - Cocoa Beach

'Jeannie Day' celebration Saturday in Cocoa Beach

FLORIDA TODAY

Celebrate the 40th anniversary of "Jeannie Day" -- when “I Dream of Jeannie” star Barbara Eden visited Brevard County — during a multimedia presentation Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. at The Surf, 2 S. Atlantic Ave., Cocoa Beach.

Author Ray Osborne will present pictures and video and reminisce about Space Coast pop culture and space history.

Admission is free; pay for your own lunch. To have a chance to win a Jeannie Bottle by Mario, e-mail Osborne today with your name and address at [email protected].

For more information, call 243-8097.

We had a good celebration on the Jeannie Day 40th anniversary. I was able to obtain more
interesting facts and more rare pictures and now have my ebook completed. The book is
called "I Dream Of Jeannie Days" and a preview of it is at Google Books.

I was there and although I appreciated the break from yardwork, the event struck me as short and dry. If you are looking at doing it again next year, I would definitely look at punching it up. You definitely need to work on putting the whole event into the context of the period. I mean, have you ever watched an episode of "I Dream of Jeannie"? How completely wacky was that whole thing?

And Cocoa Beach in June 1969? One of the primary reasons that NASA picked the area to base the program was that there was nothing there. And it went from a sleeply little town to the center off the universe in less than a decade.

And talk about a party town! Las Vegas had nothing on Lee Caron and other nightclubs in the area. They had a sunken bar with mermaids just like the Shipwreck Bar in Ft. Lauderdale. And astronauts! And people pretending to be astronauts! Very very wild stuff. And now, less than a month from the launch of Apollo 11 and putting a man on the moon, they get a visit from Jeannie herself Barbara Eden. How exciting!

So some suggestions for next year:

• The event has to be about "I Dream of Jeannie" as much as it is about the visit itself. As far as I can tell, there is no festival devoted to "I Dream of Jeannie". Just look at the festivals centered around Star Trek, Star Wars or even The Big Lebowski. Focus on one or two aspects of the series and do something fun with it. For example, can you see any influence of the tiki style in the series? How about women's fashions from the day? How about shots of Cocoa Beach that appeared in the show and what do they look like today? How about cocktails in the show? Music? Cars? How did the show affect the culture of the time? How about its lasting effect on culture today?

• You can focus on Cocoa Beach and what it was like in the day. Showcase the wild night life of the day. The location of Ron Jon's used to be a great tiki bar/restaurant named The Somoa. What about the astronauts and some of their after-work adventures? What about the surfing/beach culture at the time?

• And in the spirit of Tiki Central: cocktails, lots of tropical cocktails.

On 2009-09-08 11:33, TikiHardBop wrote:

And Cocoa Beach in June 1969? One of the primary reasons that NASA picked the area to base the program was that there was nothing there. And it went from a sleeply little town to the center off the universe in less than a decade.

And talk about a party town! Las Vegas had nothing on Lee Caron and other nightclubs in the area. They had a sunken bar with mermaids just like the Shipwreck Bar in Ft. Lauderdale. And astronauts! And people pretending to be astronauts! Very very wild stuff. And now, less than a month from the launch of Apollo 11 and putting a man on the moon, they get a visit from Jeannie herself Barbara Eden. How exciting!

So some suggestions for next year:

• The event has to be about "I Dream of Jeannie" as much as it is about the visit itself. As far as I can tell, there is no festival devoted to "I Dream of Jeannie". Just look at the festivals centered around Star Trek, Star Wars or even The Big Lebowski. Focus on one or two aspects of the series and do something fun with it. For example, can you see any influence of the tiki style in the series? How about women's fashions from the day? How about shots of Cocoa Beach that appeared in the show and what do they look like today? How about cocktails in the show? Music? Cars? How did the show affect the culture of the time? How about its lasting effect on culture today?

• You can focus on Cocoa Beach and what it was like in the day. Showcase the wild night life of the day. The location of Ron Jon's used to be a great tiki bar/restaurant named The Somoa. What about the astronauts and some of their after-work adventures? What about the surfing/beach culture at the time?

• And in the spirit of Tiki Central: cocktails, lots of tropical cocktails.

Well that may just happen. We are planning some more events around Jeannie's visits. Notice I say 'we', now there are other people involved. There is just so much one person can do but our last event was
a good start. November marks the 40th anniversary of the mock wedding with Jeannie and Major Nelson so
watch out for our next upcoming event, "Those were the days."

-Ray Osborne

Let me know if you need any help promoting the event...

I hope it happens! My mom (who lives in St. Augustine) can come in the Jeannie costume I made for her for last Hollowe'en: