Clip description
This is a collection of mute colour and black-and-white footage shot by members of the Australian delegation to the 1945 UNCIO Conference in San Francisco, and shot in Hawaii during the delegates’ stopover on the way home.
Curator’s notes
The clip starts with a collection of mute colour segments shot in and around San Francisco during the two months of the UNCIO Conference from 25 April to 26 June 1945. There’s night footage filmed in the entertainment district, including billboards featuring performers of the time and a theatre advertising itself as exclusively for conference delegates.
The daylight footage shows city views and conference buildings displaying flags from the represented nations. There’s a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken presumably as the Australian party depart San Francisco for home. This is followed by both colour and black-and-white mute footage shot in Hawaii – a necessary stopover at the time in the US-to-Australia flight. There are beach shots and Mr and Mrs Forde buy leis. The Hawaiian streets brim with services personnel and, with the end of the war imminent, the clip has a feeling of optimism and elation.
The Fordes arrived back in Sydney on 2 July 1945. Four days later Prime Minister John Curtin died and Forde was sworn in for a brief term as prime minister.