12:5

It won and Davis collected $300, which he donated to the board. Thus Poet's Bridge, now painted a somewhat incongruous red, was built. In 1957 the area between Pukekura Park and the meticulously kept Newton King estate, Brooklands, was still an undeveloped swamp. In that year Eric Hanbury breezed into New Plymouth from Sheffield to take on the new post of public relations officer. It was like Harold Hill in The Music Man descending on River City. He set the town on its ears with his far-out schemes to promote business-and tourism. Tourism, a fledgling industry, was a quick and easy way of making money, he said, and New Plymouth, with its lush beauty, was an ideal place to promote it. Within a year he and more than 500 volunteers had created the Bowl of Brooklands, hailed as one of the most visually beautiful theatrical arenas in the world. In 1956 the first Festival of the Pines-'the place where stars entertain under the stars'-was held. They were big stars: among them, Lulu, Cilla Black, Glen Campbell, the Seekers (and later the New Seekers), Roger Whittaker, Kiri Te Kanawa and Taranaki's Malvina Major; and thousands flocked to hear them. There were several grand occasions. At the official opening of the first festival, Rear-Admiral George J. Dufek, commander of the United States Operation Deepfreeze, the first American to set foot at the South Pole and the first man to land there by aircraft, officiated. Hanbury asked him to come in his personal aircraft-New Plymouth had never seen a Sky master.

Officials complained that the aircraft was too heavy to land at the airport, so the admiral had it modified with a special undercarriage and wide tyres, and hundreds of people watched the biggest aeroplane they had ever seen land at the airport, the highlight of a special aerial pageant. The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John Hopkins, gave two concerts; Patrick O'Hagen sang; Shaw's Androcles and the Lion was performed by local amateurs, and the newly-installed Miss Brooklands floated on a giant swan across the lake fronting the stage. And so for 15 years the Festival of the Pines held the spotlight for the country's entertainment circuit-enthusiasts compared it with the Bowl of Hollywood-drawing an average of 43,000 people each season. 1971 the Bowl of Brooklands won the highest accolade from the New Zealand tourist industry, the travel enterprises award for outstanding contribution to tourism. But changing social habits, television, and the soaring costs of maintaining the Bowl and of meeting fees of top line artists took their toll. Although summertime concerts and fireworks displays were still held in 1980, the spark had gone. Some called the Festival of the Pines folly; ifso it was magnificent folly while it lasted. But show business is unpredictable, and there are many people in New Plymouth who believe the phoenix will arise.