A Day on Treasure Island

This James Fitzpatrick Traveltalk sends the Technicolor cameras from Los Angeles all the way to San Francisco to take a look at Treasure Island. Built up from a sand bar in San Francisco Bay in 1936 and 1937, it was intended for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition and remains today as a neighborhood in the city.

The print I saw this evening was in good condition, and the images are quite lovely, given the international flavor of the architecture. I am annoyed, as usual, by Mr. Fitzpatrick's peppy drivel, but what can you do when he talks about the Colombian exhibit concerning the "interesting history of coffee"? Enjoy the nice pictures and the background music or turn down the volume.

Day on Treasure Island, A (1939)

*** (out of 4)

Nice entry in MGM's TravelTalks series takes us to San Francisco where we learn the history of Treasure Island. We start off learning that originally you could only see the sand on low-tide but $50 million dollars was spent to build it up into an island, which today holds all sorts of arts and crafts. We're shown the garden of the island, which wraps all around the place and we also get to see other special places including the Tower of the Sun and the Court of the Seven Seas. We're also shown a section where people can view the houses and architecture from other places including Japan and New Zealand. In the background there's a shop called "Daydreams" that promises a "girl show" but we don't get to go in there, which is a shame. As usual, the Technicolor is certainly a major plus but James A. Fitzpatrick's narration is also spot-on. This here is certainly one of the better episodes as we're given a pretty good history of the island and get to see just about everything you'd want to. I will admit that I would have been more interested in how they actually made the island but I'm sure there are plenty of documentaries out there on this.

It's San Francisco. TravelTalks visits Treasure Island. A sand bar has been filled to be the "World's Fair of the West". It's 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

I've never heard of this event. I've never seen it either. This is interesting. I've been to San Francisco once and I don't think that I visited Treasure Island. Apparently, it became a military base and later film stages. This short is the definition of a time capsule. This place existed within a short time in a specific place. Now, it exists only in films like this. The only drawback is the lack of significance. Another Exposition is all the same.