"SURF FILM HAS UPS AND DOWNS," REVIEW FOR CURT MASTALKA'S "HAWAII'S OWN" (1967)
Phil Mayer's review of Hawaii's Own, Curt Mastalka's debut surf movie, ran in the August 17 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
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The surf was up—and on time—last night at the Waikiki Shell.
The evening before, the premiere of a new surfing film, “Hawaii’s Own," shot in Hawaii by Californian Curt Mastalka, was delayed until 10 p.m. by trouble with the motion picture projector.
Tuesday’s screening was to have started at 8 p.m.—as it did last night. But a wrong-sized mounting had been fitted to the projector and the large lens needed to show the film at the Shell couldn’t be mated to it on time.
It took the firm which had been hired to provide the projector, operator and sound system, more than 90 minutes to get the right mounting and work out focusing problems which marred the first part of the first showing.
About 60 first-nighters asked for refunds or exchanged their tickets for those to last night’s showing. Shell officials estimated each night’s audience at about 600.
The film did not have a soundtrack. It was narrated by Mastalka from the stage and a tape-recorded musical score composed and played by Harry Sonoda, an 18-year-old Honolulu entertainer, was run off simultaneously.
Dick Howard, the City's department of auditoriums chief, said he had advised the sponsors of the show against showing a film in the Shell: “It just isn’t right for movies. And they didn’t come the night before the opening to check out their equipment. The City has no projection equipment for use at the Shell.”
Howard, who was in the middle of last week’s fuss involving complaints that two recent performances of rock and roll shows had gone on past midnight and were too noisy, reported—with obvious amusement—that several persons who attended the surfing movies had their own complaints about other people’s noise.
They told our users that they couldn't hear the narration and music because the drums from the nearby Queen's Surf Polynesian show were too laud, Howard said.
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NOTE: Ten days before the Hawaii's Own screenings, the first Hawaii Pop Rock Festival was held at the Waikiki Shell, the 1956-built outdoor venue that already hosted acts like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys. Pop Festival headliners Canned Head were supported by Country Joe and the Fish and the above-mentioned Tony Sonoda, among others. The festival poster was featured the cover image from a recent issue of SURFER Magazine and was designed by San Francisco psychedelic-art pioneer Victor Moscoso.
