Hollywood That Was

This very happy look­ing young man is New Zeal­ander Ron Tonkins (pic­tured with Mar­garet Chap­man) who trav­elled to Hol­ly­wood in 1946 and worked as a pub­li­city pho­to­graph­er.

Inter­est­ing thing is, dur­ing his time in Hol­ly­wood he shot reels and reels of Super 8 film foot­age like any usu­al tour­ist. Com­pletely Bizarre thing is, he had unlim­ited access to the stars of the day and the major Hol­ly­wood lots (includ­ing Hopa­long Cas­sidy). All without a secur­ity guard in sight.

Come and watch this “back­stage” look at Hol­ly­wood, shot by a plucky Kiwi and nar­rated with his own recol­lec­tions, “Here’s Mar­lene Diet­rich and she’s ask­ing me, ‘What’s New Zea­l­and like Ron?’ ??!?!

I kid you not, this rare record of Kiwi ingenu­ity must be seen to be believed.

Screen­ing Thursday 12 and Fri­day 13 March, 7pm. FREE ADMISSSION at the Film Archive.