0:00:02 > 0:00:04In the 1930s
0:00:04 > 0:00:07film exploded into colour.
0:00:07 > 0:00:10New photographic technologies really came of age
0:00:10 > 0:00:15enabling film-makers to capture the vibrant hues of our world.
0:00:16 > 0:00:18Colour film was expensive.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21But money was no object for the American steel magnate
0:00:21 > 0:00:24Harry Wright and his brother, Bolling.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27They were wealthy enough to indulge their twin passions
0:00:27 > 0:00:30for travel and film-making.
0:00:30 > 0:00:34Throughout the Thirties they shot or acquired many films
0:00:34 > 0:00:37that record the world at a pivotal moment in history.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43It was the golden age of ocean travel
0:00:43 > 0:00:46when those with the means could escape the Great Depression
0:00:46 > 0:00:49and take their cameras to the ends of the Earth.
0:00:51 > 0:00:54Early colour films in the Wright collection, many of which
0:00:54 > 0:00:56have never been broadcast before,
0:00:56 > 0:00:59take us to Paradise Islands in the Pacific...
0:01:01 > 0:01:05..Europe as it braces itself for war...
0:01:05 > 0:01:09..and America, as it looks forward to a brighter future.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12But the sea,
0:01:12 > 0:01:17the rich man's playground, would be turned into a battleground
0:01:17 > 0:01:22as the places and people captured in the Wright brothers' films
0:01:22 > 0:01:26became embroiled in the bloodiest war in history.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Born in 1876,
0:01:44 > 0:01:49Harry Wright was the son of a tobacco producer from Virginia.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52But in the early years of the 20th century
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Harry and his younger brother, Bolling, created a business empire
0:01:56 > 0:02:00of their own by establishing a steel business in Mexico City.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Soon they were millionaires.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06The Wright brothers' wealth allowed them to indulge
0:02:06 > 0:02:10in what was the very expensive hobby of amateur film making.
0:02:10 > 0:02:15They acquired lightweight, portable, 16mm film cameras
0:02:15 > 0:02:17and loaded them with new Kodachrome film,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20a technology that allowed them to capture the world in colour.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27Both men installed private cinemas in their own homes
0:02:27 > 0:02:29where they would entertain guests
0:02:29 > 0:02:32with their treasured film collection.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35They boasted that their 1,500 reels covered every subject
0:02:35 > 0:02:40and featured every country under the sun.
0:02:40 > 0:02:43The Wright brothers' film travelogues contain some
0:02:43 > 0:02:47of the earliest known colour footage of many remote parts of the world.
0:02:47 > 0:02:52From the comfort of their cinema seats guests could be transported
0:02:52 > 0:02:54on ocean voyages to the most intriguing
0:02:54 > 0:02:57and romantic places on Earth.
0:03:01 > 0:03:07On 19th January 1937 the Stella Polaris left New York to begin
0:03:07 > 0:03:10a four-month round-the-world cruise
0:03:10 > 0:03:15which would stop at 38 ports during a journey of 30,000 miles.
0:03:17 > 0:03:21Together with footage from other ocean liners, the Wright collection
0:03:21 > 0:03:24contains film of the entire voyage,
0:03:24 > 0:03:27showing the luxurious surroundings passengers enjoyed on board.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The Stella Polaris was one of the world's first luxury cruise ships.
0:03:40 > 0:03:47She was very select. 165 passengers with 165 crew, one-to-one ratio.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51She was elegant and beautiful, looked like she should belong to the king
0:03:51 > 0:03:55of Zamboanga or some exotic place. She was just gorgeous.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59This was a grand era of travel in the highest style when the finest
0:03:59 > 0:04:03of service and the best decor and ambience existed
0:04:03 > 0:04:06on these great moving palaces of the sea.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12Carefree and comfortable on board
0:04:12 > 0:04:15passengers embraced the holiday spirit.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20Many seemed oblivious to the fact the world
0:04:20 > 0:04:24they were circumnavigating was in crisis.
0:04:25 > 0:04:30The world of the late 1930s was a world in turmoil, for two reasons.
0:04:30 > 0:04:36The Depression was said to be the worst crisis to afflict
0:04:36 > 0:04:39the world since the Black Death.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44It had torn at the social fabric of the entire world. And there was
0:04:44 > 0:04:49a sense of impending doom because the military dictatorships in Japan
0:04:49 > 0:04:53and in Germany and in Italy were on the move.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56The threat of war was in the air.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01And yet at the same time, while this was going on and perhaps
0:05:01 > 0:05:05BECAUSE it was going on, there were people who were escaping from it.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08People with money who could escape from the Depression,
0:05:08 > 0:05:11who could blot out the prospect of war.
0:05:11 > 0:05:18A cruise on the Stella Polaris cost 2,500, or around two years pay
0:05:18 > 0:05:21for the average working American.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25It was a small fortune but it took you to some of the world's
0:05:25 > 0:05:28most alluring places, including the South Pacific,
0:05:28 > 0:05:33the Dutch East Indies and southern Africa, before heading to Europe.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39To reach the Pacific Ocean she first had to pass
0:05:39 > 0:05:41through the Panama Canal.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Completed in 1914, this 51-mile channel
0:05:44 > 0:05:47had revolutionised ocean travel.
0:05:49 > 0:05:52The Panama Canal was absolutely vital to a world cruise
0:05:52 > 0:05:55because it opened up the idea that you didn't have to go
0:05:55 > 0:05:57around South America, you could pass through this
0:05:57 > 0:06:01eight-hour passage through a series of three locks which moved you
0:06:01 > 0:06:05from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and this was a wonderful selling point.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09People loved the engineering genius of the Panama Canal.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18People setting out on a world cruise would have the marvellous excitement
0:06:18 > 0:06:21of going through this
0:06:21 > 0:06:26very dramatic scenery and yet reality was catching up with them
0:06:26 > 0:06:30even as they escaped from it, because the Panama Canal
0:06:30 > 0:06:34was a strategic channel and it was at that very moment being widened
0:06:34 > 0:06:39to accommodate the gigantic warships that the Americans were building
0:06:39 > 0:06:44to fend off the menace of Japan and Nazi Germany.
0:06:50 > 0:06:56What we see is the blasting away of the sides of the canal, in order
0:06:56 > 0:06:59to accommodate these huge battleships America was building.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17500 miles west of Panama passengers waded ashore to Cocos Island,
0:07:17 > 0:07:21a place steeped in pirate lore and tales of buried treasure.
0:07:24 > 0:07:28Influenced by representations in books and films from the period,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31many in the West believed the Pacific Islands
0:07:31 > 0:07:33to be an unspoiled paradise.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35The 1930s travellers
0:07:35 > 0:07:38going to the Pacific would have been informed by a series
0:07:38 > 0:07:40of travel narratives which started coming out
0:07:40 > 0:07:42just after the First World War.
0:07:42 > 0:07:45A lot of these were turned into popular films.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48These films extolled the beauties of the South Pacific
0:07:48 > 0:07:52as an unspoilt paradise, there were even theories
0:07:52 > 0:07:57which suggested that the South Pacific was the true Eden, cut off,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02isolated, therefore untouched in a way by Western civilisation.
0:08:02 > 0:08:08Travellers were in a sense trying to get away from the technology
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and the mechanisation of the West.
0:08:11 > 0:08:12They were seeking a simpler life.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14A more unspoilt life.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27But in reality, for over 150 years life in the Pacific Isles had been
0:08:27 > 0:08:30transformed by the presence of Christian missionaries
0:08:30 > 0:08:33and Europe's colonial powers.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37In the Marquesas Islands paradise was already lost.
0:08:38 > 0:08:43The Marquesas were associated with the notion of the fatal impact.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47And the idea of the fatal impact was that Western diseases
0:08:47 > 0:08:51and Western technology had brought destruction to the islands.
0:08:51 > 0:08:53In many cases like the Marquesas,
0:08:53 > 0:08:56there had been great depopulation, early explorers estimated
0:08:56 > 0:09:01there might have been 100,000 people occupying the Marquesas Islands.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05By the 1930s, estimates were there were around 2,000.
0:09:05 > 0:09:09After France colonised the Marquesas in the 19th century
0:09:09 > 0:09:14the indigenous culture was virtually annihilated.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17They banned tattooing, singing and dancing,
0:09:17 > 0:09:21while the Catholic mission stamped out its traditional religion.
0:09:34 > 0:09:36Three days sail from the Marquesas
0:09:36 > 0:09:41lay an island which epitomised the myth and romance of the South Seas.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53Tahiti became famous after the crew of the HMS Bounty mutinied
0:09:53 > 0:09:57shortly after leaving the island in 1789.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02By the mid-1930s, a successful book and film based on the story
0:10:02 > 0:10:07had put the island, or at least a Hollywood image of it, on the map.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Hollywood constructed the islands
0:10:10 > 0:10:13and the lives of islanders, so I think this is one way
0:10:13 > 0:10:17in which this colour film from this voyage becomes important
0:10:17 > 0:10:21because we're not seeing a Hollywood construction of what islanders do.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24What we are seeing is islanders very much carrying on with their lives
0:10:24 > 0:10:27and they are doing their thing.
0:10:38 > 0:10:40In the capital, Papeete,
0:10:40 > 0:10:42islanders were filmed loading copra.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45Made from dried coconut kernels,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48the product was the mainstay of the Tahitian economy.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52Copra was one of the really, really important crops of French Polynesia
0:10:52 > 0:10:54for many, many years.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58The way it is made is the coconut is cut in half, and then the meat
0:10:58 > 0:11:01is left to dry for about four or five hours,
0:11:01 > 0:11:03just enough that it can be loosened from the shell.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07Then it is cut into small bits. And the oil made from that
0:11:07 > 0:11:11was very important in Europe for candles during the 1800s.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14And after about 1900 it was really important as a cooking oil.
0:11:14 > 0:11:18Since that time copra has declined in its importance,
0:11:18 > 0:11:22we really don't see this in the port of Papeete right now.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25Tourism has since displaced copra production
0:11:25 > 0:11:28as Tahiti's most important economic activity.
0:11:28 > 0:11:34But in the 1930s only a handful of cruise ships visited each year.
0:11:34 > 0:11:36It was a big deal when the boat came.
0:11:36 > 0:11:42The whole town would show up with flowers and things to sell
0:11:42 > 0:11:44and it was a wonderful time.
0:11:44 > 0:11:50Tahitians are known for their really warm welcomes, they are
0:11:50 > 0:11:55known for using music to create an ambience, to set a good tone.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Dance in Tahiti's for entertainment
0:12:02 > 0:12:06but it's also to reinforce gender roles. What we see
0:12:06 > 0:12:10very clearly is that there is a specific way of dancing for men,
0:12:10 > 0:12:14it's a flapping in and out of the knees in a scissors-like motion.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18And I'm interested in seeing that the women were using the circular
0:12:18 > 0:12:20hip movements here, because oral tradition
0:12:20 > 0:12:24of Tahiti says that in these years women didn't do this,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27they only move their hips side to side
0:12:27 > 0:12:31because otherwise it was considered something good girls didn't do.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35And so I'm kind of happy to put that myth to rest.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40The allure of the dance was so powerful
0:12:40 > 0:12:42that often Westerners joined in.
0:12:44 > 0:12:49Dance in particular was one way in which a tourist could safely
0:12:49 > 0:12:54indulge in the visibility of the so-called native body.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57They were particularly struck by both the sensuality of the movement
0:12:57 > 0:12:59but also the lack of inhibition.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05All of these things, I think, were things that people
0:13:05 > 0:13:09coming from the West felt they weren't able to achieve at home.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20The Stella Polaris continued onwards
0:13:20 > 0:13:24towards one of the areas of the world least familiar to the West.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29The boat anchored at Port Moresby, the capital of what
0:13:29 > 0:13:33is now Papua New Guinea. A former British colony,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37it was administered by its Australian governor, Hubert Murray.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40He was determined to limit the impact of Western values
0:13:40 > 0:13:43on traditional Papuan culture.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50Many people thought he was a very enlightened administrator
0:13:50 > 0:13:53who cared for the Papuans greatly
0:13:53 > 0:13:58but at the same time he carried on from previous administrators
0:13:58 > 0:14:00a series of native regulations
0:14:00 > 0:14:03that really kept the Papuans in their place.
0:14:03 > 0:14:06There was over 50 different native regulations.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10One piece of legislation particularly was about the banning of wearing
0:14:10 > 0:14:15dress on the upper part of the body, which applied to both men and women.
0:14:17 > 0:14:22On the one hand Murray wanted to preserve the culture of these people,
0:14:22 > 0:14:27but the underlying idea was in many ways what we would call today racist,
0:14:27 > 0:14:31because the regulations were really intent on maintaining
0:14:31 > 0:14:36a very clear separation between the Papuan and the white person.
0:14:36 > 0:14:38So I think when we look at these pictures,
0:14:38 > 0:14:42although they look very traditional we have to see them in the context
0:14:42 > 0:14:48of quite extreme laws that prevent the Papuan from doing many things
0:14:48 > 0:14:51that Europeans at the time were allowed.
0:14:52 > 0:14:55But as the film shows, there was one aspect of British culture
0:14:55 > 0:14:57that the people WERE allowed to embrace.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04Yeah, I found it very amusing and odd.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08I first thought it was a kind of set-up,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12for the titillation of the European or American audience
0:15:12 > 0:15:14But actually if one looks at it more closely,
0:15:14 > 0:15:18one realises that these women do know how to play cricket.
0:15:18 > 0:15:21There's a lot of anthropological value to the image
0:15:21 > 0:15:25because although it's been well documented that women
0:15:25 > 0:15:28were playing cricket after the Second World War
0:15:28 > 0:15:32there's been virtually no documentation of this
0:15:32 > 0:15:36prior to that period, so the clip of film offers
0:15:36 > 0:15:41a very interesting insight into village life
0:15:41 > 0:15:44that we actually didn't know that much about.
0:15:47 > 0:15:51The film captures a moment in Papuan society.
0:15:56 > 0:15:58During the Second World War,
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Papuan soldiers fought alongside Allied forces against the Japanese
0:16:02 > 0:16:05as they conducted their campaign in New Guinea.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07When the war was over,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11the Papuans were no longer prepared to submit to colonial rule.
0:16:11 > 0:16:16With the end of Word War Two, the whole situation for the Papuan
0:16:16 > 0:16:22changes tremendously. Their sense of equality with the white people
0:16:22 > 0:16:24becomes ever greater
0:16:24 > 0:16:29and there are moves afoot to increase labour migration,
0:16:29 > 0:16:32economic development and eventually move
0:16:32 > 0:16:34towards self-government and independence.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44On 6th March 1937, the Stella Polaris left the Pacific
0:16:44 > 0:16:47and entered the waters surrounding the Dutch East Indies,
0:16:47 > 0:16:49the country now known as Indonesia.
0:16:51 > 0:16:53She dropped anchor at Bali,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57an island still largely untouched by tourism.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01In the late '30s, it received fewer than 250 visitors per month.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06Today Bali is established as Indonesia's most important
0:17:06 > 0:17:09holiday destination.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13They steamed on to Java, where the Dutch colonialists
0:17:13 > 0:17:16had tried to turn the capital, Jakarta,
0:17:16 > 0:17:20into the Amsterdam of the East by building a network of canals.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26But the canals brought malaria, cholera and dysentery to the city,
0:17:26 > 0:17:28causing tens of thousands of deaths
0:17:28 > 0:17:31among Dutch workers and the local population.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37Nearby was a place that had proven an even greater challenge
0:17:37 > 0:17:41to colonise - Nias, a location described
0:17:41 > 0:17:46in the film's inter-title as "The island of savages in armour."
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Nias had a particularly bad reputation among the Dutch
0:17:53 > 0:17:55as a tough place.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58They'd sent a ship there in the mid 19th century
0:17:58 > 0:18:03and the ship had been stormed by the Niasans and the crew beheaded.
0:18:03 > 0:18:07So this was a... a dangerous place to go.
0:18:07 > 0:18:12The Dutch finally conquered the island completely in 1906
0:18:12 > 0:18:16but 15, 20 years before this film was shot,
0:18:16 > 0:18:20these people were still living the heroic life of warriors.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Raiding enemy villages, capturing hostages
0:18:24 > 0:18:26and hunting for heads.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29THEY CHANT
0:18:33 > 0:18:36They saw their whole world destroyed
0:18:36 > 0:18:41and then they're asked to put on dances which mimic that world.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48We see the chief in his ceremonial costume.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52But in fact he had very little power by this time because the Dutch
0:18:52 > 0:18:57had taken away most of his powers of patronage and jurisdiction.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01These pictures are quite tragic to me
0:19:01 > 0:19:06because they show people who have lost their world completely.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09All of their values were overturned.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12Everything that they believed was right about the world
0:19:12 > 0:19:15was suddenly wrong. Um, sinful.
0:19:15 > 0:19:20And their heroic warrior ethos was suddenly devalued
0:19:20 > 0:19:24as something terrible and a crime.
0:19:26 > 0:19:30And yet they're standing there in their warrior outfits
0:19:30 > 0:19:35with their guns and not surprisingly they look very sour.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37Who wouldn't?
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Next, the Stella Polaris steamed across the Indian Ocean
0:19:48 > 0:19:51towards South Africa.
0:19:53 > 0:19:57The country had not yet enshrined in law the structures of apartheid
0:19:57 > 0:20:00that would turn it into an international pariah.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03But in practice South Africa was already
0:20:03 > 0:20:05a racially-segregated society,
0:20:05 > 0:20:08as travellers from the Polaris discovered
0:20:08 > 0:20:12when they visited the famous Indian market in Durban.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15This market scene is really very interesting
0:20:15 > 0:20:18because it illustrates many of the tensions
0:20:18 > 0:20:23in Durban society at the time. Behind this benign scene
0:20:23 > 0:20:27are all the social divisions, the white lady buying the flowers
0:20:27 > 0:20:28and looking slightly aloof,
0:20:28 > 0:20:34the Indian flower seller assisted by a black assistant.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38Indians in general were viewed with a great deal of hostility
0:20:38 > 0:20:42by whites in South Africa, in fact in the 1920s there was even
0:20:42 > 0:20:48an attempt by white florists to prevent Indians from selling flowers
0:20:48 > 0:20:53in Durban because they wanted to keep the trade in their hands.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56In the front of this picture are two men
0:20:56 > 0:21:01wearing short trousers and tunics who are evidently house boys.
0:21:01 > 0:21:08They were Zulu men from the famous Zulu kingdom, renowned as warriors,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11not least because they defeated the British in the Anglo-Zulu War
0:21:11 > 0:21:15of 1879, and now they've been transformed
0:21:15 > 0:21:20into not simply domestic servants but house boys,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25and the term "boy" was, of course, applied to African men
0:21:25 > 0:21:29in the service of whites whatever their age.
0:21:30 > 0:21:33The three Zulu women in the picture
0:21:33 > 0:21:37seem to be formally asked to walk into the camera.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40This is not entirely traditional dress.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43From the 19th century, Africans had to come into the city
0:21:43 > 0:21:49with their bodies suitably covered, both because of Victorian scruples
0:21:49 > 0:21:52about the naked body
0:21:52 > 0:21:55and because it suited British textile manufacturers
0:21:55 > 0:21:58to sell their cloth in Africa.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05They've skimmed the surface,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08they went round the edges of the places they visited.
0:22:13 > 0:22:18It's intriguing that this sequence in Port Elizabeth
0:22:18 > 0:22:22seems to be almost the longest of any sequence on South Africa.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26The tourists were obviously fascinated by the snake farm.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32One can't help feeling that their knowledge of Africa
0:22:32 > 0:22:36was really not much better, and perhaps not as good as,
0:22:36 > 0:22:40the image that the first Portuguese voyagers round the coasts of Africa
0:22:40 > 0:22:44would have got. And their maps, for the centre of Africa, had,
0:22:44 > 0:22:50"There be dragons." And for these voyagers too, one can't help feeling
0:22:50 > 0:22:52that the interior of Africa
0:22:52 > 0:22:57and African life was really still the life of darkest Africa.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15In Cape Town, home to the South African parliament,
0:23:15 > 0:23:18the film captured the memorial
0:23:18 > 0:23:22to the industrialist and former prime minister, Cecil Rhodes.
0:23:22 > 0:23:25Rhodes became one of the world's richest men
0:23:25 > 0:23:28through his ruthless control of diamond mines
0:23:28 > 0:23:31and the use of African forced labour.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35He was such an ardent believer in colonialism
0:23:35 > 0:23:39that he claimed he would "annex the planets" if he could.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42In the film, an inter-title describes him
0:23:42 > 0:23:45as the Union of South Africa's "greatest citizen".
0:23:45 > 0:23:50I doubt if many would give him that title today.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54Even in his day, Rhodes was an extremely controversial figure.
0:23:54 > 0:23:59Rhodes, of course, was behind the great expansion of white settlement
0:23:59 > 0:24:01in South Africa.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04He was responsible, really,
0:24:04 > 0:24:09for the development of a migrant labour system on the mines,
0:24:09 > 0:24:15and the very strict control of Africans in closed compounds
0:24:15 > 0:24:17on the diamond mines.
0:24:17 > 0:24:23He was in alliance with the Afrikaner political party in the Cape Colony,
0:24:23 > 0:24:26which supported flogging bills,
0:24:26 > 0:24:33which supported the intensified segregation of Africans.
0:24:34 > 0:24:39We see in this picture Rhodes's home, Groote Schuur.
0:24:39 > 0:24:43When Rhodes died he left his estate to the state
0:24:43 > 0:24:49and the house was occupied by heads of government in South Africa,
0:24:49 > 0:24:51including Nelson Mandela
0:24:51 > 0:24:56when he became the first black president of South Africa in 1994.
0:25:01 > 0:25:05And one really wonders what Rhodes would have made of that!
0:25:13 > 0:25:17After a final stop at Gibraltar, the Stella Polaris headed
0:25:17 > 0:25:21across the Atlantic to complete her circumnavigation of the globe.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25She had scarcely touched Europe
0:25:25 > 0:25:29at what was a critical moment in its history.
0:25:29 > 0:25:33But another film in the Wright collection was shot on the Continent
0:25:33 > 0:25:35just before the Second World War,
0:25:35 > 0:25:39a film produced by Bolling Wright himself.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43In February 1939 Bolling and his family embarked
0:25:43 > 0:25:46on a three-month-long Mediterranean cruise.
0:25:48 > 0:25:52He captured their journey on film, edited it together, and presented it
0:25:52 > 0:25:56under the name of his own production company, Bomar Travels.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00'It is wonderful to see my grandmother and my grandfather
0:26:00 > 0:26:03'and my aunt and uncle looking so expectantly
0:26:03 > 0:26:06'while they're about to go on this Mediterranean cruise,
0:26:06 > 0:26:09'and to see them looking so young and so dapper, and my grandfather'
0:26:09 > 0:26:14smiling a broad smile. And you could just tell they were very excited.
0:26:33 > 0:26:38By 1939, Bolling Wright was wealthy enough to travel the world
0:26:38 > 0:26:41and film his experiences for posterity.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45But life for the Wright family had not always been so comfortable.
0:26:47 > 0:26:50My grandfather was born and raised in Bedford, Virginia.
0:26:50 > 0:26:53They were a fairly well-to-do family,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57but after his father died, then the family hit on hard times.
0:26:57 > 0:27:03The four younger children had to stop going to school at an early age
0:27:03 > 0:27:06and were forced to go to work.
0:27:06 > 0:27:10And I would say that my grandfather was probably 10 or 11 years old
0:27:10 > 0:27:14when this happened, so his formal education ended
0:27:14 > 0:27:16at that point in his life.
0:27:20 > 0:27:24Travelling was very important, particularly for Bolling,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27because it sort of substituted for a lot of the things
0:27:27 > 0:27:30that he wasn't able to learn at school.
0:27:30 > 0:27:33His travelogues have a lot of inter-titles
0:27:33 > 0:27:35with lots of information.
0:27:35 > 0:27:40You feel that he has a need to capture everything,
0:27:40 > 0:27:45every single detail, of every building, of every place.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49So I think there was this need to sort of learn more,
0:27:49 > 0:27:54become more educated, more cultured, through travel.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01Many Americans were doing what the British aristocrats had done
0:28:01 > 0:28:05in the 18th century, going on a grand tour in search of culture.
0:28:05 > 0:28:09And they were looking for an exotic world -
0:28:09 > 0:28:12a world that took them back in time,
0:28:12 > 0:28:16well away from the realities that they knew at home,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19the industrial civilisation of America.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23The Wright family's cruise gave them the opportunity to encounter
0:28:23 > 0:28:27one of North Africa's most intriguing cultures.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31Casablanca was their port of entry into Morocco,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33which was still a French colony.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45The French came to North Africa very much to carry out what they descibed
0:28:45 > 0:28:48as the "mission civilisatrice",
0:28:48 > 0:28:51a sort of obligation similar to the British Empire's obsession
0:28:51 > 0:28:55with the "white man's burden", this idea of Europeans going out
0:28:55 > 0:28:58and improving, if you like, the rest of the world.
0:28:58 > 0:29:02Providing education, better economic circumstances,
0:29:02 > 0:29:04development of all kinds
0:29:04 > 0:29:09to people who couldn't quite achieve that on their own.
0:29:10 > 0:29:14But it's very clear from some of the images we see in the film
0:29:14 > 0:29:19that there was a considerable amount of poverty across North Africa.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24Scenes of deprivation were most apparent
0:29:24 > 0:29:28when the travellers visited the old city of Fez, which Bolling called
0:29:28 > 0:29:30the 'native quarter'.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36What we're actually looking at is an entire medieval city -
0:29:36 > 0:29:37it's hardly just a quarter.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42The French adopted a sort of urban apartheid.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46They created what they tended to describe as a 'cordon sanitaire'
0:29:46 > 0:29:50between their new city and the old city.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53This has sometimes been presented in quite a positive light
0:29:53 > 0:29:59in terms of preserving the architectural heritage of Morocco
0:29:59 > 0:30:02and keeping the old city intact,
0:30:02 > 0:30:05but the other side of it for the people who lived there was also that
0:30:05 > 0:30:09the French didn't want to mix with the locals,
0:30:09 > 0:30:12they saw them as dirty, unhealthy.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17The French colonial city became the hub of political life, economic life,
0:30:17 > 0:30:18social life.
0:30:18 > 0:30:21So as a result the old city was, if you like,
0:30:21 > 0:30:23frozen in time and began to die.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38When the party come to Fez,
0:30:38 > 0:30:40they set their camera up at the gate which is in some ways
0:30:40 > 0:30:44the crossing point between the native and the modern quarters
0:30:44 > 0:30:46and the camera captures in brilliant colour
0:30:46 > 0:30:50all these very interesting faces and distinct costumes
0:30:50 > 0:30:52and people doing strange things.
0:30:52 > 0:30:54So there's a kind of ethnographic quality here,
0:30:54 > 0:30:56a fascination with the exotic.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58And it even when it comes down to the pictures
0:30:58 > 0:31:01that they attempt to take of one young man
0:31:01 > 0:31:04whose hair had captured their attention, they describe him as -
0:31:08 > 0:31:10This little boy thought being filmed
0:31:10 > 0:31:11would keep him from going to heaven,
0:31:11 > 0:31:14because at every opportunity he ducks the gaze of the camera.
0:31:19 > 0:31:23Even today in North Africa, people can feel uncomfortable
0:31:23 > 0:31:26about being photographed or filmed.
0:31:26 > 0:31:30Visitors, particularly Westerners tended to completely disregard.
0:31:30 > 0:31:34They felt as if North Africa and the other countries that they visited
0:31:34 > 0:31:37in North Africa, or the Orient or elsewhere,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40were just there for them to view.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57I think we see it more poignantly with the little girl in Tunisia
0:31:57 > 0:32:01who's standing there, and she doesn't have the confidence to say
0:32:01 > 0:32:04"No, go away" or to walk away.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08She's sort of totally disempowered by the camera.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16This footage really does show how poor a lot of people were.
0:32:16 > 0:32:19You see the tattered clothes with holes,
0:32:19 > 0:32:22the children look dirty, they look unkempt...
0:32:22 > 0:32:24they don't look happy.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27It's a very sad picture really.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35When the nationalist movements began to gather speed across North Africa
0:32:35 > 0:32:37at this period in the 1930s,
0:32:37 > 0:32:41one of the main criticisms of colonialism
0:32:41 > 0:32:43which indigenous people put forward was
0:32:43 > 0:32:44that it had impoverished them,
0:32:44 > 0:32:49that colonialists had come in and taken the wealth of their country,
0:32:49 > 0:32:50exploited the country,
0:32:50 > 0:32:54whilst they themselves had not been given the kind of benefits
0:32:54 > 0:32:58that they might have expected, such as citizenship, education,
0:32:58 > 0:33:00opportunities for employment.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04The only kind of opportunities they had were sort of at the lower levels
0:33:04 > 0:33:07of the administration, or in the army.
0:33:09 > 0:33:13The presence of African troops fascinated Bolling Wright.
0:33:13 > 0:33:14In the capital, Rabat,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18he filmed several men recruited from the French colonies of West Africa.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22These red-clad soldiers actually came from Senegal,
0:33:22 > 0:33:26but they were part of a huge contingent of African soldiers
0:33:26 > 0:33:28that the French drew on in WWII,
0:33:28 > 0:33:31and shortly they were to be fighting the Germans.
0:33:31 > 0:33:35The French needed African recruits for the very simple reason that
0:33:35 > 0:33:39the French suffered the most appalling slaughter in WWI.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43So these African soldiers were going to fight
0:33:43 > 0:33:46for the soul of France in Europe.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50What their involvement did trigger was a strong sense
0:33:50 > 0:33:52that they should be considered as equal.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56Their argument was "if our blood is equal to a Frenchmen's
0:33:56 > 0:33:59"and we can die on the battlefield for France,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02why should we not be granted equal political rights
0:34:02 > 0:34:04"and independence, if we wish it?"
0:34:06 > 0:34:10The movement for independence would gain momentum
0:34:10 > 0:34:12across North Africa after the war.
0:34:12 > 0:34:16But in another Arab land, one under British control,
0:34:16 > 0:34:19the fight for self-determination was well under way.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24Palestine wasn't on the Wright family's itinerary
0:34:24 > 0:34:27but it appears in another film in their collection
0:34:27 > 0:34:29that was also shot in 1939.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34It paints an extraordinary picture of a troubled land.
0:34:34 > 0:34:36The film opens with a musical sequence
0:34:36 > 0:34:40where the music itself is meant to impart a kind of sense of
0:34:40 > 0:34:43bucolic joy and happiness, and peace in our time.
0:34:44 > 0:34:47- NARRATOR ON FILM:- When springtime comes to Palestine,
0:34:47 > 0:34:49it colours all the contrasts of this ancient country
0:34:49 > 0:34:53and hovers over the walls of ancient Jericho,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56as it did when the Israelites came 3,000 years ago.
0:34:57 > 0:35:04There's the voiceover of a very reassuring English accent
0:35:04 > 0:35:07that tells you that things in Palestine,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10or the Holy Land as he calls it, are as good as they've always been
0:35:10 > 0:35:13since biblical times and very little has changed since.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16The scriptures come to life.
0:35:16 > 0:35:20Jacobs and Davids tend their flock and lead their simple lives.
0:35:20 > 0:35:24What's really striking is the way in which the film maker
0:35:24 > 0:35:29has treated the Palestinian people as extras on a biblical film.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34We see no notion of Palestinian doctors or lawyers or modern people.
0:35:34 > 0:35:38The Palestinians are these vestiges of the biblical past.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45The most extraordinary thing about the film is what it doesn't show.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50Taken in 1939, had the camera been diverted a couple of degrees,
0:35:50 > 0:35:54it would have shown you a Palestine that had been completely destroyed
0:35:54 > 0:35:57by three years of rebellion of the Palestinian Arab community
0:35:57 > 0:36:02against both the Jewish settlers and the British colonial presence.
0:36:02 > 0:36:06Palestine would have been a fractured landscape of roadblocks,
0:36:06 > 0:36:11of search points, of police presence, of military presence.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25There were concentration camps, collective punishments.
0:36:25 > 0:36:27Houses were destroyed.
0:36:27 > 0:36:29Towns had been laid low.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35The country was flooded with British troops.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38It's remarkable that they could film Palestine at this moment,
0:36:38 > 0:36:43without having a single British soldier or policeman in the frame.
0:36:43 > 0:36:47British control of Palestine was cemented in 1920,
0:36:47 > 0:36:51when it was granted mandated powers over the territory
0:36:51 > 0:36:52by the League of Nations.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56By then, the British government had already pledged to create
0:36:56 > 0:36:59a Jewish national home in Palestine.
0:36:59 > 0:37:01Britain had assured the Arab population
0:37:01 > 0:37:04that nothing would be done to disadvantage them.
0:37:04 > 0:37:07But that promise wasn't kept.
0:37:10 > 0:37:12Really across the 1920s and '30s,
0:37:12 > 0:37:17there had been a massive expansion of the Jewish presence in Palestine.
0:37:21 > 0:37:26The Jewish colonies were a source of grievance with Palestinian Arabs,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29who had believed that their lands
0:37:29 > 0:37:32were being taken over by foreign people,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36that there was restriction on their own access to land,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39and this becomes a real source of tension between the two communities.
0:37:39 > 0:37:44The film appears to show both communities working side by side.
0:37:44 > 0:37:48But a close inspection reveals that Arabs and Jews
0:37:48 > 0:37:50never appear in the same shot.
0:37:51 > 0:37:55Man and women, Arab and Jew,
0:37:55 > 0:37:57old and young, here is work for them all
0:37:57 > 0:38:02in raising oranges that grow sweeter and juicier in this famous soil.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06One of the main objectives of this film
0:38:06 > 0:38:10was to serve as a commercial for the Jaffa orange.
0:38:11 > 0:38:12The Palestine Post ran a story
0:38:12 > 0:38:16that there had been a special screening of this film
0:38:16 > 0:38:18attended by British officials
0:38:18 > 0:38:22as well as the officials of the Palestine Citrus Board.
0:38:22 > 0:38:26Clearly, we see who the main protagonists behind the film were.
0:38:26 > 0:38:29So what, at first viewing, comes across
0:38:29 > 0:38:32as a fairly benign portrayal of a peaceful land
0:38:32 > 0:38:35with biblical associations, is actually something quite sinister.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39From the perspective of the British authorities, it is clearly
0:38:39 > 0:38:42a propaganda film that's trying to demonstrate
0:38:42 > 0:38:45that they're in full control of their Palestine mandate.
0:38:45 > 0:38:50For the Jaffa Citrus Board, this is a piece of commercial propaganda.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53It's designed to convince consumers around the world
0:38:53 > 0:38:56that their product was untainted by association
0:38:56 > 0:38:58with the violence of the recent conflict.
0:39:02 > 0:39:07And so what we see is a total disregard of the realities
0:39:07 > 0:39:08of Palestine in 1939,
0:39:08 > 0:39:13in the interests of promoting imperialism and the economy.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22In February 1939, the Wright family were visiting countries
0:39:22 > 0:39:24that were similarly fractured and volatile.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29In their film, signs of trouble in Europe
0:39:29 > 0:39:32are first evident in the Canary islands.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35When the Wrights disembarked here,
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Spain was still embroiled in a bloody civil war.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48It was to Tenerife that General Francisco Franco had been sidelined,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51amid fears that he might plot against the newly elected
0:39:51 > 0:39:53Popular Front government of Spain.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59In July 1936, the man who would become Spain's fascist dictator
0:39:59 > 0:40:01left Tenerife for Spanish Morocco,
0:40:01 > 0:40:03to initiate the military coup
0:40:03 > 0:40:07that would plunge the country into three years of civil war.
0:40:10 > 0:40:14Like all civil wars, the Spanish Civil War was viciously fought,
0:40:14 > 0:40:19it was brutal and Franco was more brutal than I think
0:40:19 > 0:40:21almost anybody else in Spain.
0:40:21 > 0:40:26You had terrible atrocities taking place.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29You had torture, you had massacres and murders.
0:40:29 > 0:40:32It was a cruel and brutal event.
0:40:38 > 0:40:41Conservative estimates suggest
0:40:41 > 0:40:43that in the course of the Spanish Civil War,
0:40:43 > 0:40:46around 350,000 people were killed.
0:40:49 > 0:40:53The Canary Islands were being used both as a recruiting station
0:40:53 > 0:40:56for Franco's side
0:40:56 > 0:40:59and also as a base to treat wounded Spanish soldiers.
0:41:01 > 0:41:06We see patriotic signs, "Viva Franco" and "Arriba Espania",
0:41:06 > 0:41:10celebrating the victory of the authoritarian forces
0:41:10 > 0:41:13in the Spanish Civil War and also showing
0:41:13 > 0:41:17and demonstrating the Canary Island as loyalty for Franco
0:41:17 > 0:41:19and for the new government that's being imposed in Spain.
0:41:22 > 0:41:24One of the most powerful instruments
0:41:24 > 0:41:27of fascist repression was the Guardia Civil.
0:41:27 > 0:41:33We see them with their strange kind of hats which the poet Garcia Lorca
0:41:33 > 0:41:35compared to enamelled coffins -
0:41:35 > 0:41:39obviously a metaphor for their own kind of murderous brutality.
0:41:46 > 0:41:50The dictatorship of Franco crushed the poor, who were very poor indeed.
0:41:50 > 0:41:54The situation in Spain and in the Canary Islands
0:41:54 > 0:41:57was almost medieval in its poverty.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02And the Canary Islands faced a bleak future under the heel of fascism.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18The Wright family's journey took them to another country
0:42:18 > 0:42:21that was being transformed by fascist rule.
0:42:21 > 0:42:25Their contact with Mussolini's Italy began in Rome,
0:42:25 > 0:42:28where, in an ambitious programme of demolition,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30construction and renovation,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33the Eternal City was being rebuilt
0:42:33 > 0:42:36to embrace modernity and to glorify the past.
0:42:38 > 0:42:41Rome was to be the stage on which the dictator
0:42:41 > 0:42:45would attempt to showcase the power of fascism.
0:42:45 > 0:42:49MUSSOLINI ADDRESSES CROWD
0:42:49 > 0:42:55Mussolini seeks to legitimate his fascist rule
0:42:55 > 0:42:59by connecting and identifying himself as a Roman Emperor
0:42:59 > 0:43:02and the Italian fascist regime
0:43:02 > 0:43:06as the legitimate heirs of Roman civilisation.
0:43:10 > 0:43:14As far as Mussolini was concerned, he was the master of Rome.
0:43:14 > 0:43:18And he wanted to create a kind of Mussolini-like Rome of his own.
0:43:18 > 0:43:23And so we see his main creation, which was to emulate
0:43:23 > 0:43:27the Forum of ancient Rome, and this Forum was a great open space.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30It was a place where people gathered,
0:43:30 > 0:43:33and it was surrounded by marble statues showing the human form,
0:43:33 > 0:43:37the fascist form, which Mussolini himself often showed,
0:43:37 > 0:43:40because he liked to strip off his shirt
0:43:40 > 0:43:44and to take part in sporting activities and athletic displays
0:43:44 > 0:43:47and horsemanship and sword fighting and all that,
0:43:47 > 0:43:49to show off his own virility and vigour.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56Mussolini constantly came back to himself with this phrase
0:43:56 > 0:44:00that he loved, "Duce, Duce, Duce". CROWD CHANTS
0:44:00 > 0:44:02And "Duce" meant "leader".
0:44:02 > 0:44:04So we see "Duce"
0:44:04 > 0:44:07on the tiling of the Forum.
0:44:07 > 0:44:10He's there, everywhere. He's inescapable.
0:44:10 > 0:44:15He is the animating force and spirit of fascism.
0:44:22 > 0:44:26Even religion was exploited to confer spurious legitimacy
0:44:26 > 0:44:27on Mussolini's regime.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31In Florence, Wright filmed an Easter procession,
0:44:31 > 0:44:36in which fascists and Roman Catholics marched side by side.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41This procession is a kind of living metaphor
0:44:41 > 0:44:44of the unity of church and state in Italy.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46There had been a concordat, an agreement,
0:44:46 > 0:44:51between Mussolini and the Pope in 1929.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55The irony was, actually Mussolini was an atheist at heart
0:44:55 > 0:44:58and he had no time for the Pope at all.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00But he realised how powerful the Pope was,
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and he realised that that it was important
0:45:03 > 0:45:05for him to get the Church on side.
0:45:12 > 0:45:17This vast sea of ecclesiastics parading
0:45:17 > 0:45:19in and out of the cathedral,
0:45:19 > 0:45:22is surrounded by the forces of the state,
0:45:22 > 0:45:26the military forces, the Black Shirts.
0:45:26 > 0:45:29The two are entwined.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33They are part of a single entity which is fascist Italy.
0:45:33 > 0:45:39And what is interesting about the alliance between Church and state
0:45:39 > 0:45:42is how much they have in common.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49There was a conscious effort on Mussolini's part
0:45:49 > 0:45:52to mimic religious procession in his processions.
0:45:52 > 0:45:56They have the same sense of ritual, the same sense of observance,
0:45:56 > 0:45:58which of course gives his regime,
0:45:58 > 0:46:02which is a new regime, the sense that it is steeped in history.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10It's a way of provoking emotion, rather than reason,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13on the part of the participants and the audience.
0:46:19 > 0:46:23When the Wright family left Italy and headed towards northern Europe,
0:46:23 > 0:46:27fascism seemed everywhere in the ascendancy.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37But if the changes unfolding elsewhere in Europe seemed menacing,
0:46:37 > 0:46:39the Wrights found little to disturb them
0:46:39 > 0:46:44when they reached the peaceful town of Volendam in Holland.
0:46:48 > 0:46:53Here, many of the residents still wore traditional Dutch dress,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56including pointed bonnets and wooden clogs.
0:47:01 > 0:47:04The clothes worn by the people on the streets of Volendam
0:47:04 > 0:47:07were very different from those on the boulevards of a city
0:47:07 > 0:47:10that by the 1930s had become synonymous
0:47:10 > 0:47:13with the most up-to-date couture.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18In Paris, Bolling took his camera to the sights,
0:47:18 > 0:47:20unaware that in less than a year,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23The City of Lights would find itself plunged into
0:47:23 > 0:47:26the long night of Nazi occupation.
0:47:27 > 0:47:31As any tourist would, Bolling Wright films the Eiffel Tower.
0:47:31 > 0:47:35And there's a poignancy about this shot,
0:47:35 > 0:47:40because this is the last spring, as we now know, of peace.
0:47:40 > 0:47:45And a year later Hitler himself, after the success of the Blitzkrieg,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49the extraordinary invasion of France in six weeks,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52find himself walking under the Eiffel Tower.
0:47:56 > 0:48:00He stands there with his acolytes around him,
0:48:00 > 0:48:05triumphing over the defeat of Germany's ancient foe.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09This is a moment of supreme joy for the Fuhrer,
0:48:09 > 0:48:12here at the base of the Eiffel tower.
0:48:19 > 0:48:24On the other side of the English Channel, life continued as normal,
0:48:24 > 0:48:28though by that spring, war was looming.
0:48:28 > 0:48:31London proceeds, as London has always proceeded,
0:48:31 > 0:48:33with the Changing of the Guard.
0:48:33 > 0:48:38And this is a typical British traditional pageant,
0:48:38 > 0:48:42which contrasts with its jingling spurs
0:48:42 > 0:48:45and its old-fashioned accoutrements,
0:48:45 > 0:48:52with the brutal, mechanised jack booted pageants of the Nazis.
0:48:54 > 0:48:56It's a cosy world in some ways.
0:48:56 > 0:48:59It's a cosy world of red buses and blue policemen
0:48:59 > 0:49:02and perhaps it's a world that hasn't yet woken up to the danger.
0:49:02 > 0:49:04Although the danger is there
0:49:04 > 0:49:08and it must be constantly in the background.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10And of course, the holiday party catch a glimpse
0:49:10 > 0:49:15of the anxieties that are gnawing away at British hearts.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19They see that the odds on peace are diminishing.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33The Wright family left Europe and sailed back to an America
0:49:33 > 0:49:37that was still neutral, and anxious to avoid being drawn into
0:49:37 > 0:49:39a war that was now all but inevitable.
0:49:47 > 0:49:51Already, New York was one of the world's great cities.
0:49:51 > 0:49:54But Manhattan was very different from the metropolis we know today.
0:49:56 > 0:49:59The city had suffered during the Depression,
0:49:59 > 0:50:03but now its citizens were invited to look with hope to the future,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07with the opening of the 1939 World Fair.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15Here was the new city of tomorrow, untouched by poverty or war.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18Corporate pavilions sold visions of a future
0:50:18 > 0:50:22filled with consumer products that promised a better world.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26International exhibits stood side by side,
0:50:26 > 0:50:29seeming to represent the ideal of world peace.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32It is striking to see the pavilions of different countries
0:50:32 > 0:50:35that will soon enough be at war with one another.
0:50:35 > 0:50:39Yet the idea of a Worlds Fair is to emphasise a different
0:50:39 > 0:50:43kind of world - a world of cooperation, a world of peace.
0:50:43 > 0:50:47And not a place where we're gonna sacrifice millions of lives.
0:50:49 > 0:50:54It seems odd to us now, on the very eve of World War Two,
0:50:54 > 0:50:57most people were kind of blithely putting that out of their mind.
0:50:57 > 0:51:01They come upon this futuristic World's Fair
0:51:01 > 0:51:04when everything looks new.
0:51:04 > 0:51:07So by the time you think of TV, air-conditioning,
0:51:07 > 0:51:11new modern automobiles, modernistic, futuristic cities...
0:51:11 > 0:51:13The world is becoming a better place,
0:51:13 > 0:51:15and isn't it wonderful where we going?
0:51:20 > 0:51:23And all the things which they celebrate,
0:51:23 > 0:51:26all that is soon going to be put on hold.
0:51:26 > 0:51:29Because all those factories that are making clothes
0:51:29 > 0:51:30will now be making uniforms.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34Factories that are making automobiles will be making tanks.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37Everything is going to be shifted to a wartime footing.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39The whole economy is going to be changed -
0:51:39 > 0:51:42not in the way they had envisaged, of a cleaner,
0:51:42 > 0:51:47more modern, more prosperous world - but of a frightening,
0:51:47 > 0:51:50dark period of loneliness and fright.
0:52:02 > 0:52:05Around the same time, on the West Coast of America,
0:52:05 > 0:52:09Bolling Wright's brother Harry watched the night skies
0:52:09 > 0:52:13illuminated spectacularly by the Golden Gate Exposition
0:52:13 > 0:52:16on Treasure Island - San Francisco's own World Fair.
0:52:21 > 0:52:27It was a thrill every time you'd come across the bridge or the ferry.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30There was just something about it,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33that just got the old goosebumps going
0:52:33 > 0:52:36because you knew you were in for something new.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40It's just like out of nowhere, grew this wonderland.
0:52:42 > 0:52:45For three years, an army of workers had toiled
0:52:45 > 0:52:47to build this 400 acre island
0:52:47 > 0:52:51from the mud and sand of San Francisco bay.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54Like the city's new bridges, Treasure Island
0:52:54 > 0:52:57was one of the major New Deal public works projects
0:52:57 > 0:52:59which the government funded
0:52:59 > 0:53:02to generate work for America's millions of unemployed.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06The authorities planned to build
0:53:06 > 0:53:08an international airport on Treasure Island.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10But first, the site would host a World Fair -
0:53:10 > 0:53:12an event that symbolised
0:53:12 > 0:53:15the nation's hopes for a brighter tomorrow.
0:53:15 > 0:53:19At the time while the island was going, the people and their hopes
0:53:19 > 0:53:23were there, it was like a dream coming true.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27The end of all the bad times that we had and went through,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30and the Depression, and it gave you a feeling
0:53:30 > 0:53:33of... "good times are coming".
0:53:35 > 0:53:39On Treasure Island, good times always prevailed,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42especially along the so-called "Gayway" -
0:53:42 > 0:53:44the main pleasure-ground of the fair -
0:53:44 > 0:53:48where some of the attractions were surprisingly risque.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51# I sailed away
0:53:51 > 0:53:54# To Treasure Island
0:53:54 > 0:53:59# And my heart stood still when I landed on the silvery shore... #
0:53:59 > 0:54:03I was a swimmer in the Aquacade, Billy Rose's Aquacade.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05I was 20-years-old.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10And this was my first and only taste of show business at that time.
0:54:10 > 0:54:14We'd be out on stage and then we'd dive in to the music.
0:54:14 > 0:54:17Then pretty soon you'd blend together
0:54:17 > 0:54:20and start swimming together stroke for stroke.
0:54:20 > 0:54:24It was just a thrill there every time you did a show.
0:54:43 > 0:54:46The Fair had the atmosphere of a carnival,
0:54:46 > 0:54:49but it also had more lofty aims.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57At the centre of Treasure Island stood Pacifica,
0:54:57 > 0:54:59an 80-foot-high mythical goddess
0:54:59 > 0:55:02which symbolised the goal of peace and unity
0:55:02 > 0:55:04among the nations of the Pacific.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10But by the time Fair closed in September 1940,
0:55:10 > 0:55:13war in the Pacific was inevitable.
0:55:13 > 0:55:19Eventually, the United States Navy took possession of Treasure Island,
0:55:19 > 0:55:21and turned its exhibition halls into barracks.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26Even the Fair's great symbol of peace, Pacifica, fell victim to war.
0:55:29 > 0:55:33The navy moved in and started tearing things down.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38They put a cable round the statue
0:55:38 > 0:55:42and they took some tractors and pulled it down.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47And when it hit the ground, it just burst into pieces.
0:55:47 > 0:55:52It was the feeling of hope, of things turning round,
0:55:52 > 0:55:55then all of sudden you've got that feeling, "What's going on?"
0:55:57 > 0:56:00We weren't sure,
0:56:00 > 0:56:04you could only hear rumours, that we were going to go to war pretty soon.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7th December, 1941,
0:56:11 > 0:56:15forced the United States into the Second World War.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19In the attack, nearly 2,400 personnel were killed
0:56:19 > 0:56:23and over eleven hundred others were injured.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Once the playground of the rich, the oceans became a battleground.
0:56:27 > 0:56:31The cruise liners that had carried the Wright family around the world
0:56:31 > 0:56:35were commandeered and used as troop transports.
0:56:35 > 0:56:39A Golden Age of ocean travel had abruptly come to an end.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43What we are seeing in this wonderful colour footage
0:56:43 > 0:56:45is the last of a grand era.
0:56:45 > 0:56:46The curtain was closing
0:56:46 > 0:56:49and we didn't know that it would be locked forever.
0:56:49 > 0:56:53One third of the ships would be destroyed in the Second World War,
0:56:53 > 0:56:55but more importantly, the way we felt,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58the way we looked at things, changed forever.
0:56:58 > 0:57:00I don't think people were ever quite the same,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03the style of travel was ever the same -
0:57:03 > 0:57:07the same deep indulgence that we had in those 1930s escapist years.
0:57:10 > 0:57:14In the years after the war, the Wright brothers
0:57:14 > 0:57:15travelled less frequently,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19as age and infirmity gradually took their toll.
0:57:19 > 0:57:24After a long illness, Harry Wright died in Mexico City in 1954.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28And Bolling passed away in 1975.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31But in their extraordinary collection of films,
0:57:31 > 0:57:34which shed light and colour
0:57:34 > 0:57:39on one of the most momentous decades of the 20th Century,
0:57:39 > 0:57:41the Wright brothers live on.
0:57:43 > 0:57:47This tourist footage is fascinating for a number of reasons.
0:57:47 > 0:57:50It illuminates the...
0:57:50 > 0:57:55dark valley of the 1930s in the most vivid way.
0:57:55 > 0:57:57It brings to technicolour life
0:57:57 > 0:58:02a world which we have seen only in terms of black and white.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07It gives us a sense that this tourist idyll
0:58:07 > 0:58:09is actually about to come to an end
0:58:09 > 0:58:12with the sound of the dropping of bombs.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:29 > 0:58:32E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk