Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL) comissioned Auckland artist Arthur Thompson to create a series of "Fly TEAL" posters promoting it's Pacific destinations in the 1950s. These included stops on TEAL's famous Coral Route, such as Fiji, Samoa and Tahiti, as well as New Zealand, Australia, and Norfolk Island. Below is a selection of my favourite images.
I like the use of colour and the simple graphics. Somehow each poster seems playful and slightly mysterious. Of course, they play to 1950s perceptions of the 'exotic other' that wealthy air travellers might have imagined could be found at each destination.
The weather has been bad lately. This week I watched a rare snowfall from my office window. We may be on a little island in the south Pacific, but the winters are cold. Despite the consolations of winter - such as warmed sake and clear mornings with snow covered hills - the mind turns to warmer times and places across the Pacific.
I was reading about the 'Coral Route' run by TEAL, a forerunner of Air New Zealand. From 1951 to 1960, their Solent 'flying boats' skipped across the south Pacific, from Auckland to Fiji (Suva), to Samoa (Apia), to Aitutaki to Bora Bora in Tahiti and back again on a fortnightly run. How romantic is that! Island hopping and landing on a lagoon inside the reef, with the plane swaying with the waves. I imagine stopping for a swim in the warm waters at Aitukaki while the plane refuels nearby. No immigration or customs. Back on board, a full service awaits with drinks before dinner while the captain sets course for Bora Bora and another day in the warmth of the sun.
In 1967 Ishihara Yujiro (石原 裕次郎), Japan's premier male film star and enka singer, went to Hawaii to record an album, Holiday in Hawaii (裕ちゃんのホリデイ・イン・ハワイ). The cover features Yu-chan by the beach at Waikiki with a winsome local lady. Clear blue skies and coconut palms, lei necklace and ukulele, and... Hawaii!! An image of international jet-setting sophistication for aspiring and newly wealthy Japanese audiences back home.
The opening track, a Japanese language version of "On A Tropic Night" (南国の夜), clips along at a fair pace with bongos, ukulele and some blistering Hawaiian-style steel guitar from "Buckie Shirakata and His Aloha Hawaiians". Ishihara, in a reverbed Elvis-like croon, seems assured with the Japanese lyrics and uptempo rhythm. The album mixes such small group tracks with lusher numbers recorded with syrupy strings, marimba and perfunctory ukulele backing. The material ranges from Hawaiian standards sung in English ("Beyond the Reef" and a credible "Blue Hawaii") and Hawaiian to a reworking of an earlier enka hit "Kurutta Kajitsu" (狂った果実 or Crazed Fruit).
Despite those strings and a sometimes slurred accent, the album's vibe of Hawaii through a Japanese lens is ideal for relaxing on a warm night over a drink. Or play it before bed and drift off to sleep dreaming of some Japanesque Hawaiian holiday in the 1960s.
I've come to love the solid civic-ness of the National Library building. Perched on a corner on the slope of Molesworth St, its brutalist, cast-concrete looms out in distinctive shape and texture unlike anything else around town. Designed between 1971-75 and opened in 1987, the upper structure comprises angled blocks that interlock around three levels in a subtlely-shifting geometric pattern. The upper levels taper down and in before being undercut by an entrance level that rests on a podium base of charcoal grey textured concrete. From a distance, it reminds me of an inverted pyramid plunged into slab of a granite. A fortress-like treasure house for protecting books and other taonga from the elements.
Plans were afoot in 2008-09 to vandalise the exterior and replace it with sheets of glass, a misguided attempt to modernise in theme-park fashion in the hope of attracting foot traffic. Fortunately, that ill-advised project was rescinded on grounds of excessive cost. It would have been a pointless and expensive mistake. Sadly, the relevant Cabinet paper, released on the Library's website shows that the government was not even advised of the heritage value or architectural merits of this purpose-designed building. Nevertheless, it looks like the scaled-back refurbishment will keep the exterior intact. We'll be able to enjoy this remarkable-looking building for some time to come yet.
I went to see Elia Kazan's Wild River (1960) last night as part of the NZ film festival. I'd seen it on the small screen and knew it as a highly-watchable tale about forced land sales along the Tennesee River in the 1930s. Montgomery Clift plays the liberal government man sent to get hard-bitten matriarch Jo Van Fleet off her family's island plantation before its flooded by a new hydro dam. So I couldn't miss the opportunity to see this under-appreciated film on the big screen. The brochure described it succinctly: "Glorious new restoration of a neglected 1960 masterpiece by Elia Kazan (On the Waterfront) with legendary performances by Jo Van Fleet and Lee Remick and Hollywood icon Montgomery Clift".
It looked wonderful on the big screen, the restored print showing the autumnal colours in Cinemascope. The silent raft trip across the river to the mysterious island is captivating, as are the confrontations with Van Fleet who simply won't budge, and the skill of Clift in subtlely mixing some bemused light humour with the drama. It's great to see that Wild River has been re-screened at film festivals around the world. It deserves more recognition, not only for the fine performances of the three leads and the quirky character actors, but for telling an entertaining story that touches on some big themes - the tension between progress and tradition, civil rights in the American South, and fear of committing to a relationship.
