Historic Hawke’s Bay: It was thought there was no surviving footage of a movie about Hastings – then I got a call

Daisy Truman, Hastings' own movie star, in 1925. Photo / Elsie McInnes

Pioneering New Zealand film-maker Rudall Hayward knew of the success of community-based films in Australia and the United States.

The formula was simple. Travel to a town, find actors: the prettiest girl, the handsomest male and a villainous newspaper reporter, and involve a background cast of hundreds (in fact the whole town if you can). Then film them in the town’s best locations and have the plot climax with a car and horse chase, then the hero rescues the pretty girl from the dastardly villain. Book the biggest picture theatre in town and fill it with crowds who would hopefully catch a glimpse of themselves on the same silver screen Al Jolson, Louise Brooks or Charlie Chaplin had been on the week before.

One of the 23 towns filmed by Rudall Hayward was Hastings in October 1928 (he had filmed Natalie of Napier in September).

Daisy Truman, 23, was chosen to star as the pretty young schoolteacher (who doesn’t seem to have been named in the credits). Donald Campbell was the handsome Bill Cowcocky (the fiancé of the schoolteacher) and Freddy Fishface the villainous newspaper reporter who kidnaps the schoolteacher.

Scenes were filmed outside the Grand Hotel (now Bollywood Stars) in Heretaunga St East and the garden party scene was shot at St George’s Rd North at “Eastella”, the homestead of “Mr G. Pharazyn”. The grand chase climax scene was on St George’s Rd North.

At Eastella, 40 members of the Hawke’s Bay Hunt Club were also filmed giving chase to a rabbit – and, as they did in those days, the hounds were filmed catching and making short work of the hapless animal.

Like Natalie of Napier, it was thought there was no surviving footage of A Daughter of Hastings. But two weeks ago, I was contacted by a person saying part of the movie had been found. This was confirmed by Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision staff this week, who hope to have it on their website in the middle of May 2025. The scene is of the Hunt Club at Eastella, and does apparently show the destruction of the rabbit, so may not be to everyone’s curiosity.

The final scene of the movie involved Donald Campbell (Bill Cowcocky) riding a horse along St George’s Rd and then jumping from it into an open-top tourer car travelling at 32km/h. It wasn’t uncommon for the horse rider – as had happened in – to land right on top of the schoolteacher, requiring the scene to be filmed again. Campbell, however, was “sensational” in his dismount into the car – which then stopped after he had caught Freddy Fishface. The Hawke’s Bay Hunt Club were not far behind and together with Bill Cowcocky, they took turns in giving Freddy Fishface a good old fashion bit of “biffo” on the side of St George’s Rd.

A Daughter of Hastings showed for three nights from November 7-9, 1928 at the Hastings Municipal Theatre (the Hawke’s Bay Opera House). And of course the advertising played on getting the Hastings community “coming and having a look at yourself, for many scenes were taken when you were not aware”.

Rudall Hayward was particularly pleased with Daisy Truman, and that “her blonde colouring has photographed excellently” (black-and-white film). He also liked the Hastings Fire Brigade’s part and the unfortunate dismembering of the rabbit by the hounds. He thought the filming of the countryside of Hastings “turned out excellently”.

How did Hastings react? The community loved it, as reported by the Hawke’s Bay Tribune.

Hollywood fever had come to Hastings!

Daisy Salon (nee Truman) with her son Leon Salon in 1939. Photo / Elsie McInnes

All the three main actors had “performed their work well”. “If the continuity was a bit ragged at times, no one spoke adversely of that, for they realised it was an amateur production and it had done its work of advertising Hastings and giving much pleasure.”

After the Hastings showings, the film then went on tour around New Zealand.

Daisy Truman “had taken everyone’s fancy. She looked attractive, photographs well, acted commendably and even in the rather terrifying business of close-ups retained all her self-possession”.

Without wanting to sound like David Lomas, of television fame who finds lost relatives, I became curious about Truman – what happened to her after her silver screen appearance?

She went to Hastings Convent School and was a bright student who was very musical, passing her Royal College of Music exams. She then attended the Hastings Technical High School.

After leaving school, she can be traced to working at Roach’s Limited – then Hawke’s Bay largest department store (where Farmers is now in Heretaunga St).

Her father Joseph Truman died in early 1928 and her mother took over the running of the Carlton Hotel, and Daisy and younger sister Josie moved with her. The girls had an older brother, Joe, born in England before their parents immigrated to New Zealand.

It is thought that not long after the filming of A Daughter of Hastings, she met Robert Salon, an Australian, who was staying at the Grand Hotel near where she lived. They got engaged in January 1929.

A grand party was held in her honour at the Hastings Band Room in June 1929 before she left the next week to be married in Wellington, where Robert Salon was living. It was spoken of how much the town “regretted her departure from Hastings to Australia”.

Her wedding in Wellington attracted widespread interest in Hawke’s Bay and the bride was said to be very charming “in a model of blue georgette and beige. Her bodice was tight-fitting and the skirt long and flared”.

It appears the couple settled in Hastings and did not go to Australia immediately. Her mother Nellie had bought the Empire Hotel in Napier in 1929, and Daisy, with sister Josie, was there on February 3, 1931 – the day of the 7.8 magnitude Hawke’s Bay earthquake.

Nellie was badly injured and fractured her leg. The two girls were out walking and were uninjured.

Soon after this, Daisy and Robert Salon went to live in Sydney.

She would come back regularly to Napier to visit her mother and siblings.

Daisy and Robert’s only child, Leon, was born in Sydney in 1935.

Tragically, Daisy’s mother would in 1938 bury her daughter Josie, aged 23, the same age as her sister was in A Daughter of Hastings.

Nellie Truman died in 1956.

In 2008, I wanted to find out if Daisy’s son Leon was still alive. I called every Salon in the Sydney phone book. I found Leon.

As expected, he was very surprised at a Kiwi calling him and knew nothing of his mother’s film stardom, but was delighted to hear of it.

He told me she spoke often of the trauma of being in the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake.

She was the best mum, Salon told me, and loved him dearly.

Daisy passed away in 1967, also dying at a comparatively young age of 62.

Leon Salon died aged 86 in 2022 at Bondi Junction, Sydney. He was married for 58 years to Barbara and had three children, and four grandchildren.

The blood and guts of the hunt scene aside (at least it’s black and white), I await with anticipation to hopefully see Hastings’ own silver screen star, Daisy Truman, in A Daughter of Hastings when the film is released in a few weeks’ time.

– Michael Fowler is a contracted Hawke’s Bay author and historian. Contact him on mfhistory@gmail.com.