I was recently walking my sister Susan's dog Blackberry, and passed one of those Little Free Libraries along the way, where I picked up a paperback copy of Tales of the South Pacific, by James A. Michener. It made me wonder if this book was the basis for the television series Adventures in Paradise, which I watched with my parents when I was growing up in our home in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago. It turns out that the book was actually the basis for the Broadway play and movie South Pacific, and that Michener came up with the idea for the television show Adventures in Paradise separately. It was a popular series about a Korean War veteran who falls in love with the South Pacific, and moves to Pape'ete, Tahiti, where he buys a sailing ship and takes passengers and cargo between the Polynesian islands, having exciting adventures every week. When I did a little research, I found a web site (https://www.adventuresinparadisetv.com/) dedicated to the show and run by a fellow Chicagoan, about my age, who is obsessed by the series, which is where I got the photo on the left of series star Gardner McKay at the wheel of the Tiki, his sailing ship. I remember liking the series a lot, but I do remember my parents telling me that McKay was such a horrible actor, the producers made him take acting lessons the entire time the series ran. It must be true - my parents wouldn't have lied to me, would they?
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