Where/What is Manakoora?

I love the song MOON OF MANAKOORA.

Is Manakoora a real place? Is it a god? I've tried google just to get a search list about the song. Has anybody seen THE HURRICANE, which featured this song?

Aloha,
TC

THE MOON OF MANAKOORA

© 1937
Lyrics: Frank Loesser Music: Alfred Newman
Introduced by Dorothy Lamour in the non-musical film, THE HURRICANE.

The moon of Manakoora filled the night
With magic Polynesian charms
The moon of Manakoora came in sight
And brought you to my eager arms

The moon of Manakoora soon will rise again
Above the island shore
Then I'll behold it in your dusky eyes
And you'll be in my arms once more

[ Edited by: Tiki Chris on 2004-01-31 11:13 ]

Hey T-Chris,
I had the same trouble getting info on "manakoora." I named a painting after the song and wanted more info on it.
You can see my painting here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=6861&forum=7&12

There is a sailboat with the name "Manakoora III" However, As far as I can tell it is a completely fictional place. I could not find it in any atlas or search that I did.
Chongolio

I just searched Google for "isle of manakoora" "manakoora bay" "manakoora island" "manakoora -music -moon" nothing. The closet I came to something real was a ship that sank off the coast of California in the late 30's with tha name. I even tried MapQuest.com and went through the island nations up to Fiji when I gave up.

The Moon of Manakoora is in between my left and right speakers. It's light pierces a dark rum haze and drifts a soft glow across my living room.

Sorry, couldn't help it. I love that song too.

On 2004-02-03 19:53, Kilikopela wrote:
The Moon of Manakoora is in between my left and right speakers ...

Exactly!

Did you try alternate spellings like Manakura?

http://www.virtualtourist.com/vt/185113/

I don't think this is the place - probably a coincidence - it is off Guyana, not the South Seas... but here is Manakura Island anyway.

Both Arthur Lyman and the Ventures did versions of that song.

I have seen the film, quite a while ago. If I'm not mistaken, Manakoora (should probably be spelled Manakura) was one of the small islands destroyed in "The Hurricane". I'm recalling that she sings it when she is rendevousing with the leading man at some remote area as they are not supposed to be seen together. It might be the name of the lagoon...?

Unga Bunga - once again you come through with da kine! You must be tapped into the tiki cultural trivia muthuload.

On 2004-02-06 19:51, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
Unga Bunga - once again you come through with da kine! You must be tapped into the tiki cultural trivia muthuload.

actually, i think just did a google image search:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=manakoora&sa=N&tab=wi

On 2004-02-06 20:31, Tiki Chris wrote:

On 2004-02-06 19:51, Shipwreckjoey wrote:
Unga Bunga - once again you come through with da kine! You must be tapped into the tiki cultural trivia muthuload.

actually, i think just did a google image search:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=manakoora&sa=N&tab=wi

:-?

oh...I knew that. I just wanted to see if you guys did.

Hee Hee...

Tiki Chris, I just googled Manakoora, trying to find out info on it, and this thread came up at the top of the results...

I guess Manakoora exists on TC!!!

I've always loved the melody to this tune, but a lot of the exotica versions I've heard have fallen short.

This is my all-time favorite version (at least that I've heard so far), from Axel Stordahl's Jasmine and Jade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIH9UMYQXKU

[ Edited by: OnyaBirri 2012-06-04 17:30 ]

Damn shame there is only one copy of that on amazon, and it is in bad condition (with skips on several tracks)..I would have bought it bought it for sure.

It is an overlooked exotica gem.

Eric - too true!
The Moon of Manakoora -
I ended up naming a painting after it too.

I thought it was a neat old Exotica song from 1937.
It was from the movie the Hurricane - the first EVER filmed on location in the south seas.
Then there was this weird translation I found on line for the word "Manakoora":
“Mana-Koora” is very loosly traslated to
mean “Magical Powers”: “Mana” being “magical or spiritual power”
and “Kuu-rah” meaning “lore” or“body of knowledge”. Up shot is the
Moon has magical powers to make your true love come to you.

Don't know about all that, but it goes along with the song.

Hey, I went ahead and made "The Moon of Manakoora" into a Beach Towel as well.
It looks something like this:

Let's hope the Moon of Mankoora shines down on the next generation of Tiki lovers as well.