Can't think of anything nice to say about "Pearl Harbor"? How about this? At least it carries on a proud tradition. Then again, the tradition it carries on is one of inaccurately depicting the lives and struggles of Hawaii residents, as a chat with film historian Steven Fredrick recently disclosed.
A benefit film series offers a rare
glimpse of how the silver screen has
cast Hawaii in tones exotic,
romantic -- and wrongBy Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com"It's been a joke," he said of Hawaii's movie history, putting it bluntly. "And 'Pearl Harbor' still continues with that joke, to be perfectly honest. It's not true; it's not accurate."
It also isn't a particularly novel achievement in that regard, Hawaii having long ago been transmogrified by Hollywood into something unrecognizable by island residents. Or comically exotic. Or unendurably glamorous.
"It started right at the beginning of movies," continued Fredrick, whose personal collection of features, shorts, travelogues and commercials forms the basis of "Hawaii in the Movies," a film series that begins tonight at the Sheraton Moana and continues through December."The first Hawaiian movies were shot by the Edison Co. in 1898, and then came Hollywood in the 1920s, with its adventure films and 'the mystery of the South Seas.' That sort of thing. I think a little bit of Hollywood in the '20s followed a pattern that Don Blanding started with his books and illustrations: the romantic young couple with the moon in the background and the swaying palm trees. It's corny as hell and people still love it."
As anyone knows who's watched the tourists swooning in Waikiki, Fredrick is indeed right, and Hawaii's popularity as a traveler's destination owes much to the movies' myth-making. For this reason, "Hawaii in the Movies" ought to be a required course for anyone seeking a greater understanding of the islands' charm to outsiders (e.g., tourism officials), not to mention the downside of said charm (e.g., everyone else).
In addition, it's a chance to view excerpts from what has been called the largest private collection of vintage Hawaiian films in existence, and one not a few local institutions would love to get their hands on. "I feel like Bela Lugosi," said Fredrick. "The collection's brought me notoriety, but it's also kind of like a little bit of a curse. It follows me around."
He's intimately familiar with the Bishop Museum's holdings ("mine definitely surpasses theirs"), and as for the University of Hawaii, well -- "they've been chasing me for a couple of years to give them my entire collection. And I said, 'No way.'"Fredrick claims he doesn't like to brag, but you can hardly blame him. His impressive library includes everything from standard home video stuff like "Blue Hawaii" and "Waikiki Wedding" to vintage surfing documentaries and rare '20s silent films starring Duke Kahanamoku.
"After the '24 Olympics, I think, (Kahanamoku) befriended Douglas Fairbanks, and he got about a five-year contract. It's never really been documented." And though the Hawaiian legend began his film work in the '20s and made more than 25 films in his lifetime, he didn't play a Polynesian character until at least the '40s. "He was always an Indian or an Arab or a sheik -- someone foreign."
Tonight's program is an hourlong grab-bag of sorts, beginning with silent footage of Waikiki Beach in 1938 and continuing with an early surfing documentary from the '60s ("The Surfer") that chronicles the wintertime migration from California to the North Shore. Interspersed throughout are what Fredrick calls "surprises," a potpourri of '50s pineapple commercials, a 1968 "fly the friendly skies to Hawaii" United Airlines commercial, a "Hawaii Five-O" teaser with Jack Lord, and more.
Both Fredrick's age ("I'm in my 40s, and that's all I'm going to say") and methods of amassing such an impressive film collection are closely guarded secrets ("I don't give out my sources"). Still, as you might expect, a significant emotional and financial investment is involved.
"I have the passion and the love and the patience to find this stuff. And with the amount of money that I spent putting together this collection, I could have bought myself a condo. I live very modestly in order to support the collection and keep it going. I have lots of things I'm still searching for, and I keep discovering things by accident."Among the items Fredrick is pursuing are episodes of bandleader Harry Owens' old television shows. The Oscar-winning composer of "Sweet Leilani" (from "Waikiki Wedding") had a regular program from 1948 to 1957, and some of the later broadcasts in particular may have been preserved on film. Among his recent discoveries is some footage shot by a sailor during the attack on Pearl Harbor (not the Michael Bay version), which nicely supplements his collection of newsreels of the Japanese bombing.
But the bulk of "Hawaii in the Movies," the proceeds of which benefit the Shriners Hospital for Children, is centered around lighter moments (e.g., Sonja Henie ice skating to the hula, a '60s "American Bandstand"-type program shot on Waikiki Beach with Bobby Sherman surrounded by a bevy of bikini-clad teenyboppers).
Yet while Fredrick has been charmed by this hokum, as have we all, he hopes to one day program a series of documentaries and other films that more seriously examine the Hawaii experience. This is entirely appropriate for a man who, when pressed to admit his choice for the best-ever celluloid evocation of island culture, chooses "Molokai: The Story of Father Damien" without hesitation. Paul Cox's 1999 film about the Catholic priest's struggles to aid victims of leprosy is, said Fredrick, a rare example of accuracy in a genre too often suffused with myth and glamour.
"Hawaiian culture was not glamorized. It was very realistic. It was very heart-wrenching. It showed the struggle of the people. It showed the conflict between the missionaries and the Hawaiians and how they had to learn to trust one another and believe in one another, how one culture helped another culture, and how one man sacrificed his life and well-being for the sake of a group of people. It's an incredible film."
Where: Sheraton Moana Surfrider Hotel 'Hawaii in the Movies'
When: 6:30 p.m. today; also Thursday at 6:30 and various dates through December
Cost: $5
Call: 922-3111
Click for online
calendars and events.
