Rare 1920s and 1930s Footage from Aloha Wanderwell Baker
This rarely seen footage of adventure filmmaker Aloha Wanderwell Baker, the first woman to travel around the world by car, was recently preserved by the Academy Film Archive. The Aloha Wanderwell Film Collection at the Archive is a unique assortment of 16mm and 35mm films, revealing the story of Aloha’s around-the-globe adventures that captured the people, cultures and historical landmarks of five continents from the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in Canada as Idris Hall, Aloha was drawn to adventure and the thrill of traveling across uncharted roads in faraway lands very early in life. In 1922, with her mother’s permission, the precocious 14-year-old left school in the south of France to answer a newspaper ad seeking a secretary for a round-the-world expedition. She joined the Work Around the World Educational Club (WAWEC), created by self-proclaimed “Captain” Walter Wanderwell in 1919, which served to promote the newly formed League of Nations. Idris Hall took the stage name Aloha Wanderwell and become known as “the world’s most traveled girl.”
Aloha Wanderwell Baker’s only sound film, The River of Death (1934), can now be seen online at the Library of Congress: http://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2015/03/the-films-of-aloha-wanderwell-baker-an-archival-collaboration/
Read the full story of Aloha Wanderwell Baker and this footage at our site: http://www.oscars.org/news/across-world-and-back-rare-1920s-and-1930s-footage-aloha-wanderwell-baker
