The Carib Gold Girls in all their glory in front of the Strand. Identified in the press only as "Key West residents", the names of these four beautiful young women are not now known.

Made in Key West

Caribe Gold

Sunday, September 20, 1956, was a hot night in Key West. Yet the steam wasn't just in the air, but also down in front of the Strand and Monroe Theaters, where the world premiere of Carib Gold was in progress.

The film had been shot in its entirety here in 1955 (it was heralded as the first film to do so, although underwater scenes were shot at the Miami Seaquarium.) The script had even been written here, by former Navy man Charles Gossett. A production of Splendora Films (about which nothing seems to be known,) the cast included major film and stage star Ethel Waters and a young, just starting out, Cicely Tyson. Featured in the cast were Geoffery Holder, Scoogie Brown and the Trinadad Dancers.

The plot concerned daily life for shrimpers out of Key West. Playing the White shrimp boat captain was William Hill, a veteran character actor and Key West resident. The majority of the cast, including the shrimp boat crew, was Negro (or colored, the terms and capitalization reflecting those used in press releases of the day). The accidental discovery by the shrimp boat crew of sunken gold while doing net repairs starts a series of events including murder and revenge, with the bad guy brought to justice in the end.

But the biggest production of Carib Gold seems to have been that world premiere. Both the Strand and Monroe Theaters were conscripted for the event­ the Strand for Whites and the Monroe for Negroes. The four "Miss Carib Gold" girls were fitted for their gold lame bathing suits and matching mules, then given net bags of gold "coins" to hand out to VIP's. (The "coins" were imported from Belgium. Chocolate, perhaps?) There were klieg lights on Duval Street, and cameras recorded people being interviewed, from the Mayor down to the Conch-on-the-street. With all the out-of-town press coverage, who could guess where in the world Key West and its movie premiere would be shown in a neighborhood movie theater as part of the Movietone News?

Locals' comments post-viewing seemed to center on reassuring America that there really weren't voodoo rites in Key West like those shown in the movie.

(Left) Ethel Waters, relaxing on the front porch of the Carib Gold set, in a photo by Don Pinder for The Key West Citizen, and standing on the shrimp docks in a still from the film.

Premiere night must have concluded with a great party or two­ one for Whites and one for Negroes, of course, but the press of the time doesn't tell us that. After the huge event, the film played two more days at each theater. And then, for all intents and purposes, Carib Gold fell off the end of the earth. Like last issue's Escape from Hell Island (#14,) no evidence of the film exists.

One thing is for sure as regards both films. If Escape from Hell Island and Carib Gold could be found and booked into a Key West theater today, the Whites and the Negroes­ now known as equal members of One Human Family, could all sit staring at the same movie screen and throw popcorn at it together.

Coley Wallace, playing Waters' son and the shrimper whose dive down to repair the shrimp nets instead yields the discovery of gold, is shown in a scene from the movie.