DON BLANDING
in Hollywood
It's 1895, and Donald Blanding is just a year old. The Lumiere
brothers publicly project a motion picture onto a screen for the first time in a Paris
cafe. A year later Thomas Edison presents the first public projected motion picture on a
screen in the United States at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City with his
latest invention, the projecting kinetoscope. By 1907 there are about 5,000 nickelodeons
in existence throughout the United States, and it's very probable that thirteen-year-old
Donald Blanding spent some of his allowance attending one in Lawton, Oklahoma. When sound
was first introduced to film in 1926, Blanding was well known as a poet in the Hawaiian
Territory, but was still a nobody in his new Hollywood studio. By 1929, Blanding was in
New York, had published Vagabond's House, and was well on his way to becoming the
"Vagabond Poet" of fame. Movie theaters were rushing to install sound equipment,
as public enthusiasm for these "talking films" had caused movie attendances to
increase to 110 million, almost double the movie attendance from a few years back.
Finally, in 1932, the first motion picture filmed in "Glorious Technicolor" is
produced while Blanding is working on his next major book.
By 1933, Blanding was again living in Hollywood, and was no doubt being influenced by the hoopla surrounding the big budget film productions and movie stars of the time. In Let Us Dream appear the following poems, which were originally published in the Movie Mirror magazine: "Hollywood Premiere," " Character Woman," "Movie Villain," " Vampire," and "Extra Girl."
Blanding was writing for a movie magazine, when he was given the assignment of interviewing the actress Joan Crawford, who was working on the set of a movie. Blanding had an appointment with her during one of the shooting breaks, and as he entered the room where Miss Crawford was waiting she looked at him and grinned in a friendly way. "Hello, Don Blanding," she said, "Do you know that you once saved my life?" Blanding just gave her a blank stare.
Billie Cassin, aka Joan Crawford
in Lawton, Oklahoma, ca. 1913
As a child, the actress had lived across the street from Blanding at 804 'D' Avenue in Lawton, Oklahoma, although her name then was Billie Cassin. Blanding had found her lying in a pool of blood after jumping barefoot off of a porch onto a broken bottle. He bound her foot and carried her to the doctor, possibly preventing her from bleeding to death.
Blanding and Crawford caught up on old times for an hour or so, and when Blanding went home he wrote the poem "The Little Girl Across the Street," which was later published in Memory Room. He would also draw, and present her with a portrait, based on her costume in Dancing Lady (1933). There are indications that the two kept in touch, and a few years later Joan would send Blanding a signed photo of herself from the movie The Gorgeous Hussy.
THE LITTLE GIRL ACROSS THE STREET She was just
the little girl who lived across the street, |
Blanding officially enters the film industry in 1934, narrating a film for the Hawaiian Tourist Bureau and producers Curtis F. Nagel and Palmer Miller. The Island of Oahu was a short tourist film which covered topics such as downtown Honolulu, flowers, trees & fish of Hawaii, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Sacred Falls, the pineapple business, and surfing. This production was reportedly the first color film made in the Hawaiian Islands.
Pualani Mokimana in Song of the Islands
Song of the Islands, another Miller-Nagel Production, was a forty-minute drama made in the same year, and screened in many mainland theatres and on cruise ships. Blanding wrote the screenplay and provided narration, and the Hawaiian cast consisted of Sam Kapu, Pualani Mokimana, James Kamakaiwi, and Joe Kamakau. Music was provided by Harry Owens and his Royal Hawaiian Orchestra, Bob Cutter, the Hawaiian Girls Glee Club, Ray Kinney and his Hawaiians, the Joe Kamakau Singers, and Minerva Patten.
| As a steamer departs for the mainland, a woman asks Hawaiian resident Don Blanding to explain the custom of throwing leis into the water. Blanding explains that its roots lay in a story of Old Hawaii: Princess Pualani, whose name means "Flowers of Heaven," is an island girl who loves Moku, a young native who is not of royal blood. Like all Hawaiians, Moku and Pualani love the water. They spend their time together like happy children and Moku makes a lei of shells for Pualani, a symbol of their eternal love. In those days, the Hawaiians practiced the old crafts, including weaving, netting and carving cocoanuts. One day, large canoes approach the island and Pualani's father, the chief of the village, greets a prince traveling from a neighboring island. The prince, who is looking for a wife, and has heard stories of Pualani's beauty, wants her for his bride. The chief accepts the prince's gifts and tells his daughter that she must marry him. She does notwant to marry the prince and leave her home, but her father insists that it is her duty. Even though Pualani knows that she will one day be a queen, she still loves Moku. Though her heart is broken, Pualani returns the lei to Moku. During a sumptuous wedding feast, traditional foods are served, including fish and poi, which is made from Taro root and prepared by the men. The pig brought by the prince has been wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in a pit for three days. As Pualani dances the traditional Hula, Moku can no longer bear to watch the ceremony and leaves. Later, he makes a special lei for her and gives it to her as she departs in the prince's canoe. As the canoe goes further away from the island, Pualani lovingly kisses the lei and places it in the water. For hours Moku sadly looks toward the sea until the lei drifts onto the shore. Now knowing that Pualani still loves him, Moku prays to the gods that, like the lei, Pualani will someday return to him. At the end of the story, Blanding tells his companion that it explains the reason why tourists throw leis into the water as they sail away from Hawaii, promising that someday they will return. |
Blanding's next book, Memory Room (1935), would again show the influences of Tinseltown, with the poems "Spirit of Hollywood," " Movie Magic," " Hollywood Love Lyrics," " Hollywood Courtship," and "Extra Man." In the 1935 film Star Night at the Cocoanut Grove, actor Leo Carillo would recite Don's poem "Hollywood," taken from Vagabond's House.
| Hollywood...Hollywood... Fabulous Follywood... Celluloid Babylon, glorius, glamorous, City delirious, Frivolous, serious, Goal of ambitions and vicious and clamorous. |
Bobby Breen and Ned Sparks in Hawaii Calls
In 1937, Hollywood producer Sol Lesser was vacationing in Honolulu, hoping to get away from anything work related and just relax. He wished to find something to read on the beach and happened upon the book Stowaways in Paradise, by Don Blanding. The title and cover art attracted him, so Lesser bought a copy, and halfway through the book he decided it would be ideal for Bobby Breens next starring vehicle. He called the hotel desk, the desk called the newspaper, and the newspaper called the police station in search of Blanding. The police knew that Blanding was in town, and that a big luau was being held - and where there was a feast they knew they would find Don. By the next morning the film rights were sold and Blanding was hired on as a Hawaiian technical advisor. Bobby Breen agreed to the role, along with a newcomer, Pua Lani, who was said to be a discovery. Actors Ned Sparks and Irvin S. Cobb were also cast, as well as Auggie Auld, who Blanding had directed in musicals years ago. Blanding worked with screenwriter Wanda Tuchock, who had written the film adaptation for The Bird of Paradise a few years previously. The director was Edward F. Cline, and production went from the 5th of November to Mid December, 1937. So as to avoid confusion, the title Stowaways in Paradise was scrapped because of a recent Shirley Temple movie entitled Stowaway. Hawaii Calls was opted for, which was inspired by the radio station K.G.M.B. in Honolulu. The movie would not be released until November 3rd of 1938, to mixed reviews.
Copyright ©2007 by Keith Emmons Design. All rights reserved.