Kiwifruit industry in New Zealand and Growers, who were calling the berries "melonettes", because the local name for the fruit, "Chinese gooseberry", had political connotations due to the Cold War, and to further distinguish it from real gooseberries, which are prone to a fungus called anthracnose. An American importer, Norman Sondag of San Francisco, complained that "melonettes" was as bad as "Chinese gooseberry" because melons and berries were both subject to high import tariffs, and instead asked for a short Maori name that quickly connoted New Zealand. In June 1959, during a meeting of Turners and Growers management in Auckland, Jack Turner suggested the name
Avalon, New Zealand of most New Zealanders as the early centre of the country's nationwide television-broadcasting production, particularly with the opening of the purpose-built Avalon Studios in 1975. Given that New Zealand started regular public television-broadcasting for the first time in 1960, and instituted networked television in 1973 with only a single (and State-owned) channel available to viewers, the sole provider of television-broadcasting acquired a monopoly position of immense influence within the New Zealand mass media, and the name "Avalon" summarised and expressed that clout for many years. Avalon also became the focus of New Zealand film-production - through and building on the