This color reel of home movie footage documents a 1950s tourist vacation to Hawaii, offering glimpses of the big island around the time of its statehood,revealing a colorful, relatively undeveloped land of beauty as well as a taste of the familiar tourist attractions that would later come to dominate the region (TRT: 12:46).
Leader and punched holes. A group of yachts on a sunlit, sparkling panorama (0:05). A waterfront resort hotel. Grass huts, a weather vane, docks. Medium shot of a man in a printed shirt and sunglasses riding on a boat (0:13). A view from a motorized boat, cruising around the island’s coast. Waves crash over rocky shorelines (0:34). Distant mountains rise into the clouds (0:49). A white pillar is seen in the distance (1:12). Halemaʻumaʻu, a pit crater within the much larger Kīlauea Caldera at the summit of Kīlauea volcano on the island of Hawaiʻi, now Volcanoes National Park (1:25). Steam rises from the volcano (1:47). Close looks at the eroding sides of the crater’s walls (2:11). Igneous rocks and barren, scorched earth (2:26). Tropical trees in a lush, green, forested park (2:46). A panorama from a scenic vista (3:10). Stone masonry near a quiet riverbed lined with trees and ferns. The camera tilts up to reveal a massive peak towering overhead (3:41). A tour bus and 1950s cars parked in a parking lot below the scenic vantage point (4:02). Landscaped views from a hotel resort. A beachfront golf course. Circular architecture and a look around the surrounding areas (4:33). A hula performance featuring dancers wearing grass skirts and leis. A woman strums a guitar. Others play ukulele (5:20). An older dancer wearing a red floral print dress does a solo dance performance (5:30). The hula girls return with Pu’ili bamboo sticks and pom poms (5:50). A different group of dancers take center stage with Tahitian style tassels. Tourists point cameras toward the action (6:03). Surfers paddle out in a view from a passing boat (6:26). Lawn bowling on a trimmed green (6:58). Traditional indigeonous architecture (7:12). A musical performance and dance by a woman in a bright red dress (7:20).
