ALOHA BAKER
We have uncovered the forgotten archive of one of the most amazing stories of the twentieth century -- the story of a woman who documented an around the world race, by car, in the early 1920's, when she was still in her teens. ALOHA BAKER, was finishing her studies in a French convent when she read an ad in the International Herald Tribune: "Brains, Beauty and Breeches -- World Tour offer for a lucky young woman." Wanderlust struck and she joined the trek around the globe.
Speaking seven languages, she became the chief translator and since they needed someone to operate the newsreel camera, she started shooting. Thousands of feet of 35 mm AGFA stock rolled through her camera as she captured the trials and travails of the auto explorers who rambled through 43 countries on four continents.
Traveling in specially built Model T Fords (a car you could find parts for almost anywhere) they bounced through the East African bush -- it was the first car and the first white woman that had ever been there; camped by the Sphinx in Egypt and bribed their way onto a steamer to escape; witnessed the poverty of Calcutta and the beauty of the Taj Mahal; saw Chinese soldiers battle with peasants; trudged over the snow covered Carpathian mountains; roamed through Amsterdam and road triumphantly into America upon completion of their exhausting journey.
It was the adventure of a life time. All captured on well preserved and now indexed motion picture film and with a Graflex news camera for stills. Aloha's twenty books and journals provide a moving and eloquent text that brings the images to life. It is a unique and exciting story that will inspire audiences around the world.
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