The wonders of San Juan, Puerto Rico are presented in “Island Splendor,” a color travelogue film from 1965. This thinly-veiled advertisement for Pan Am Airlines is narrated by Stan Z. Burns (a veteran New York City broadcaster), the film opens on an Pan American jet unloading passengers onto the tarmac at San Juan International Airport. Most of the traffic in and out of the airport, Burns says, “is strictly an American affair” as residents arrive for both business and pleasure. Mark 01:00 takes the viewer to monuments honoring Christopher Columbus and Ponce de Leon (who served as the first governor of Puerto Rico in 1510, as San Juan is touted as America’s “newest and plushest resort” as we see relaxing beachside scenes and views of sugar cane fields, (Much of the increase in tourism, we are told, was linked to Fidel Castro’s 1959 rise of power in Cuba, as tourists searched for other Caribbean locales). The film also shows happy tourists shopping in local outdoor markets at mark 02:33 before returning focus to the “lush, lavish, and luxurious” nature of San Juan resorts as men and women are shown frolicking in the pool or feasting from a seemingly endless buffet. At mark 03:42, the focus switches to the political nature of Puerto Rico, as Burns explains how in 1952 it became a free, self-governing commonwealth and its residents enjoys the protection of the United States without having to pay federal income tax. As we see scenes of the island’s shopping and business districts, we also learn of Operation Bootstrap, the name given to a series of projects which transformed the economy of Puerto Rico into an industrial and developed one. Although the viewer learn at mark 06:14 of the reluctance of some residents to embrace modernization out of fear of losing the island’s Hispanic culture, the viewer is assured that artifacts such as the 400-year-old Morro Castle, designed to guard the entrance to San Juan Bay, remain as a reminder of that heritage. The film closes with several shots of of the outdoor beauty of the island, including colorful flowers and trees swaying in the breeze, and the simple way of life of the people of Puerto Rico.
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