The Cokes at Vanatuan

At the end of World War Two the United States left the Vanatuan islands off Australia, after occupying most of them as a base during World War II. In doing so we were forced to leave behind  roads, buildings and runways.

The base at Espiritu De Santos was established as a  supply base, naval harbor and airfield after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the remainder of the war it was used as a launch site to attack the Japanese fleet. Parts of Vanuatu were still under British and French colonization.

But, in leaving,  we were also were going to leave behind millions of dollars of goods in the form of tanks, jeeps, heavy equipment etc. We offered to sell it to the French and English at the rate of 6 cents on the dollar. They refused, believing that the Americans would simply abandon the items and then they could be gotten for free. But, that's not how it worked out.

Instead, the United States spent 2 days and nights dumping everything they could into the sea. And when they were done with that, they drove the tanks, jeeps and  heavy equipment off the piers at "Million Dollar Point". Today it is a popular destination for scuba divers to marvel at this veritable underwater museum of World WarTwo hardware. Mixed in with all of this are tons of cases of Coca Cola bottles. Even these were dumped into the ocean off "Million Dollar Point." But remember, they had orders to do so.

Meantime, halfway around the world, at Adaban in the Arabian desert, American War Correspondent Howard Fast wrote the far different story about the fate of the Coca Cola bottles filling the C-46 he was flying aboard when leaving the Middle East.

In his 5 page short story, aptly titled "Coca Cola," Howard Fast tells us about the plane not being able to gain enough altitude, instead barely skimming the tops of sand dunes as they flew towards their destination.  Time and again he asked, and then demanded that the pilot dump these tens of thousands of empty Coke bottles in order to gain altitude.

The pilot informed him that since they were private property he had no authority to do so. Now, had they been jeeps or tanks; no problem. But since he had no authorization to do so, they would continue the journey at the dangerously low altitude, simply hoping for the best. And, miraculously, they made it.

The whole episide reminds me of the scene in "Dr. Stranglove" when Peter Sellers needs 20 cents to avert a nuclear war by phoning the White House. His only hope is to have Keenan Wynn shoot the lock off the Coca Cola machine. The folliwing clip is a pretty realistic potrayal of the military mind set involved in such an endeavor.

https://youtu.be/RZ9B7owHxMQ

Frank "Sugar Chile" Robinson

I ran across this while looking for something else. Frank Robinson is often mistakenly identified as a young Little Richard Penniman. He is not. But his story is unique.

Frank Robinson was born in 1938 in Detroit. He was a child prodigy by age two, later working with such luminaries as Lionel Hampton and Frankie Carle, who were master pianists themselves. He performed for President Truman at age seven and also appeared in the movie "No Leave, No Love" with Keenan Wynn the following year in 1946 when he was eight years old. This clip is from that film.

He is most remembered for his versions of "Numbers Boogie", which shot to #4, and the classic blues number "Caledonia", which reached #14. By 1952, at the age of 14, he stopped playing professionally to concentrate on his schoolwork. He is quoted in Wikipedia as having said in later years, "I wanted to go to school... I wanted some school background in me and I asked my Dad if I could stop, and I went to school because I honestly wanted my college diploma."

He went on to earn his Ph.D. in psychology at the University of Michigan, before returning briefly to the music business, setting up new labels in Detroit during the 1960's.

Still very much alive, Mr. Robinson made an appearance promoting Detroit music in 2002, and later, in 2009, he traveled to England to appear in a rock and roll revival concert.