Finding Hollywood in the Outback
B R O O M E, Australia, July 24 -- The small coastal town of Broome, in northwest Australia, is an outpost in the vast Outback.
There are no traffic jams and hardly any roads. There is only the massive Australian wilderness, where some houses are 500 miles apart and some driveways are 50 miles long.
There seem to be only two main sources of entertainment out here: the sunset at the beach and Sun Pictures.
Sun Pictures is a very different movie theater. The seats are park benches and deck chairs, but you're also welcome to sit on the grass.
It is the world's oldest outdoor movie garden. Sun Pictures was built in 1916 on the other side of the globe from Hollywood. All the big films were shipped here and the lonely Outback was dazzled.
Broome resident Pearl Hamaguchi has never traveled far from home. But in the Sun Pictures chairs, under the deep blue night sky, she has been almost everywhere.
"And we came back swooning over Gregory Peck," she recalled.
Two Sets of Stars
This is one of the few places left in the world where you can see two sets of stars at the same time.
"That was the only input we got from the rest of the world: Hollywood," said Hamaguchi, laughing, remembering what Sun Pictures meant during her childhood. "Of course, we all exchanged seats after the lights went off. [We were] smooching and holding hands."
And sometimes more than smooching, as Sun Pictures manager Ross de Wit said: "A young fella, probably a teenager, came through, and said, 'I think you should let me in for nothing.'" When asked why, the teen said, "Because my mom and dad conceived me here about 17 years ago in the back row."
Each night, dozens of people from around the world line up at the old wooden booth, with no computer in sight, and buy their tickets to the latest escape.
Sun Pictures is also a museum, exhibiting projectors that date back to the silent films, a portrait gallery of the celebrities who never knew about this place — even though they came here all the time.
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