Scenes at Grand Canyon, America. Views of mountainous terrain. Woman in car, palm trees. People working on roadside. Two women and child beside beach [Honolulu]. Family on board walk. Man and child on deck, child walking on deck. Views of coastline from boat. Woman [Mrs Strickland] and child in pool. Woman and toddler standing against hand rail.
[Scenes in Honolulu] Large ship from across bay. Mrs Strickland and toddler walking across grass. Locals in park. Men with outrigger canoe and dinghy. Street market. Toddler and local children in outrigger canoe. Large ship leaving harbour. Local children and boys climbing coconut trees. Men performing traditional dance. Roadside market. Panning view from tall radio transmission tower along coastline. [Scenes in Fiji] Group of local villagers gathered around. Views of traditional houses. Eileen Strickland on deck. Morris Strickland putting life ring around son marked ‘S.S. Monterey San Francisco’.
Scenes in New Zealand. Group of of people in street. View over Auckland to Rangitoto panning down into crater of extinct volcano. Family and toddler visiting trig station. Family members walking along residential street with toddler [Auckland]. Family and children at public park pushing children on swings, looking at pond. Toddler outside house, playing in wicker pram.
[Scenes in Fiji]. Eileen Strickland walking with toddler along commercial street. Various views of locals. Family looking at flora.
Cataloguer’s note: Morris Strickland was a world top 10 heavyweight for several years in the late 1930s. He was born in Wairoa in 1913, and won the Wellington amateur titles in 1930 and 1931, and the national heavyweight crown in 1932. He then turned pro and moved to Australia. After a year he returned to NZ and there won the professional heavyweight title. Then his manager Billy Crawford arranged for him to go to England, and he left with his new wife Eileen. After mixed results, he was bought by manager Bill Daly who organised his US campaign, and also fights at Wembley. Notable opponents in his career include Tommy Loughran and Bob Pastor.Strickland features as himself in the British boxing drama film ‘Excuse My Glove’ (1936). He returned to NZ ca1939 and had a handful more fights, the last in 1942. Strickland took an anti-war stance in the early 1940s, then bought a chicken farm in Hawke’s Bay to escape conscription. He took his family to Canada and returned to Auckland in 1950. He worked as a wharfie and was involved in the 1951 ‘lockout’. He later worked as a taxi driver. He lived in Devonport with his wife Eileen and four sons.