Gideon Adlon is desperate to throw herself a bat mitzvah. Having grown up going to an all girls Jewish summer camp, Adlon had planned on having one when she was 13. But when her parents split up shortly before her birthday, those plans went out the window. “I went to Camp Pembroke for 10 summers in a row so I know all of my prayers,” she tells me. “I’ve done Hebrew lessons in the past and I feel like know some haftarah already.” But Adlon is now determined to do “the whole fucking thing.”
While Adlon, 23, has kept busy during quarantine — her film The Craft: Legacy premiered in October and her next movie, Witch Hunt, will be released in the U.K in March — she’s also spent a lot of it daydreaming about her future soiree. Though The Society star still debating which theme to go with (it’s currently between Victorian masquerade ball and Renaissance Fair), she has many of the essential details on lock. “Everybody would have to dress fancy for the service in the morning. Then I want to rent out a cool old mansion. I want the mansion to be very wooden, not marble,” she explains. “I want to play old music from musicals, along with doo-wop, rock and everything. And I want people to come dressed up as their favorite movie characters.”
But what’s most important to Adlon is that the party honors all of those summers at Camp Pembroke. “I still have a group chat with my girlfriends from sleepaway camp and I bet you if all of this shit stops, they would fly out for my bat mitzvah,” she says.
Below Adlon reflects on her life at 13 — from her first kiss to her love of Betsey Johnson dresses.
On her 13th birthday celebration:
I really wanted my bat mitzvah but my parents split up and my dad actually left the country and moved back to Germany the year I was supposed to have it. My family was fucking torn up so for my 13th birthday my mom surprised me and took me to Seattle. She literally drove me to the airport and I had no idea where we were going. She took me to see the Black Eyed Peas, LMFAO, and Ludacris. So that’s what I did for my 13th birthday instead of having a bat mitzvah.
On going to her camp friend’s bat mitzvah:
I was invited to all of my camp friend’s bat mitzvahs on the East Coast, but I only went to my friend Jessie Bodner’s. It was at a hotel in Massachusetts and I remember we walked in and they were playing “Tik Tok.” It was actually the first time I ever got acrylic nails and I painted them black. I wore the same dress that I wore to my fifth grade graduation, a black silk bubble dress, and people at the party freaked out that I was from LA. I remember the whole thing was so fun because all of my girlfriends from sleepaway camp were there and we got to have a sleepover. It was just amazing.
On coveting Betsey Johnson dresses:
One of the reasons why I wanted to have a bat mitzvah so badly is because I really wanted a Betsy Johnson dress. All of my girlfriends that had bat mitzvahs got to wear Betsy Johnson dresses and all I wanted was one of those fucking teal, hideous dresses. I have very fond memories of this mall in my neighborhood called Sherman Oaks Fashion Square Mall (now the Westfield Fashion Square) that had a Betsy Johnson store. I would go in there and try on the dresses and I was like, “There is no way I could ever get one of these.” But it was maybe for the best.
On her 13-year-old identity:
I had worse than braces. I started off with an underbite and a lisp and had to get speech therapy. I had to get spacers because I had to get expanders and then head gear to pull my jaw forward and then I had four phases of braces. All of my sisters had braces, but I had the worst. I got my braces off when I was 17.
I was very much obsessive at that age. I was obsessed with vintage clothing. I went to a school that was basically the Island of Misfit Toys. It’s called the Topanga Mountain school. There were only 26 kids in the whole entire school so all of us were weirdos. I was definitely sheltered from the industry so I was never like really a part of that scene growing up. I was a little nerd but everybody says “nerd” like it’s a bad thing. I think it’s awesome.
Adlon with her sister, Odessa, and camp friend Jessie Bodner.
On scoring her first kiss at a camp social:
I had my first kiss with a boy from Camp Avoda. I was wearing a Hot Lips tank top and Abercrombie jean shorts. We were grinding and then we were like front grinding. (We’d learned how to grind on broomsticks. Our counselors would teach us.) So he went for a kiss and my heart started racing so fast. Then he just stuck his tongue in my mouth. I ran away and went back to the bunk where I washed my mouth out and cried. I wrote my mom a letter saying that I’d had my first kiss and that I really didn’t like it. I was like, “He put his tongue in my mouth!!”
The whole entire morning after dances would be all of the girls sitting at different tables in the mess hall screaming dedications saying “mazel tov” if someone hooked up with a boy. So the next morning after my first dance we were like, “Dear Table 7 to Giddy from Table 9: mazel tov, we love you! Love, Shelly and Brooke!” Odessa also had her first kiss the summer after I had my first kiss and I got to do a dedication to her when it happened. I was like, “mazel tov!”
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Loved reading this Samantha, along with your other "spiels"! This brings back my Pembroke memories from the 1970s and 1980s. I just shared this with my daughter who also went to Pembroke. You're a great writer!!
Another winner. I have to admit I had to look up Betsy Johnson and TickTock but otherwise was a great read. Keep them coming.