Trip down memory lane; Belize at the Fair 1984
You know by now that Open Your Eyes, Channel Five’s immensely popular breakfast show, is now airing from our headquarters on Coney Drive. The line-up of guests and issues has been phenomenal. In keeping with the theme of the celebrations, next week, on Tuesday Allison Hinds will take the couch with William Neal and I. Hinds is one of the biggest names in Soca Music. On Wednesday, we will be joined by local Punta icon, Chico Ramos for another morning filled with entertainment. But first, we’ll take a trip down memory lane and bring you a classic local production, Belize at the Fair. The man behind the masterpiece, Stewart Krohn, was a guest on this morning’s Open Your Eyes and he recalled what it was like back in 1984 when the piece was produced.
Stewart Krohn
“Back in those times world fairs were a big thing so every four years there was another worlds fair in some city. It so happened that in 1984, the host of the worlds fair was New Orleans. There was and still is a very large Belizean community in New Orleans and the community up there was dead set on having Belize establish a pavilion there. So they prevailed upon government and the private sector. It was the Chamber of Commerce that led the effort with the backing of the government to establish a pavilion there in New Orleans at the fair and it so happens that I was one of the people on the committee. So because I was working on it, I thought well we’re doing all this work, what would really be nice is to somehow document this on video cause we had just started our production company. But we thought instead of doing just a regular documentary, ‘blah, blah, blah’, we said lets turn it into more entertainment. And Ray Gongora, who many people this generation don’t know, but Ray was one of the most fabulous actors of this country. We simply created a character, kind of a country bumpkin named Wooldrick. He wins a—there’s a raffle and he wins an all expense paid trip to the World Fair in New Orleans and we simply follow him along the way.”
Belize at the Fair airs this Sunday morning at ten and repeats at nine p.m.
