Cinema Shows
p. 91 · Read in the full issue
For The
S. Pacific Islands
MR. W. M. BARRETT, Australian director of Columbia Pictures, who has been examining film require ments in Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, Cook Islands and New Caledonia, told reporters on his return to Sydney that Pacific island natives have developed a liking for film shows since the war, but they frown on boogie-woogie musicals and jib at the classics. Their taste in entertainment lies somewhere in between —and they will go a long way to see a cowboy picture.
Mr. Barrett said the Islanders see their shows in wayside villages, and their cinemas are usually mobile projectors provided by travelling traders. One man
who is always welcome is Mr. D. C. Brown, of Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
Mr. Brown cruises among the islands collecting copra and bringing the Holly wood touch to his patrons. Admission fee to these touring talkies, said Mr, Bar rett, is very often one coconut—which adds to the traders’ copra cargos.
Because American is not generally un derstood by island audiences, an inter preter often translates for them as the drama unfolds. He has to shout to beat the volume of the talkie equipment—but nobody seems to mind this minor distrac tion.
Since the development of the 16 mm. film, the cinema is rapidly becoming standard village entertainment in Poly nesia; and the big film distributors — notably, MGM and Columbia —are show ing a keen interest in the new industry.
Sister Betty Crouch joined the staff of the Lutheran Hospital, Finschhafen, NG, in July.