Categories

August 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Norma Jeane

Norma Jeane Mortenson (the name on her birth certificate) was born June 1, 1926 to Gladys Pearl Monroe (her mother Gladys was married three times – to Jasper Baker, Martin Edward Mortenson and John Stewart Eley).

Norma Jeane’s birth certificate named Edward Mortenson as her father, but Charles Stanley Gifford, a co-worker of Gladys’ with whom she had an affair around the time of Norma Jeane’s conception, was determined to be her biological father. (Time & Newsweek)

She later baptized Norma Jeane Baker and lived in a foster home of Ida and Albert Bolender. Her mother was frequently confined in an asylum, and Norma Jeane was reared by 12 successive sets of foster parents and, for a time, in an orphanage. (Britannica)

On June 19, 1942 – after dating only a few months and just 18 days after Norma Jean’s 16th birthday – she married 21-year-old James Dougherty.

In 1944, Dougherty joined the merchant marine and was initially assigned to teach sea safety on Catalina Island, where the young couple moved into an apartment. “She was just a housewife,” Dougherty told UPI. “We would go down to the beach on weekends, and have luaus on Saturday night.” (LA Times)

“Dougherty eventually shipped out, and Norma Jeane moved in with his parents in North Hollywood. … In 1944, while working at Radioplane, Ethel Dougherty and her daughter-in-law joined the ranks of the millions of women known as ‘Rosie the Riveters’ helping the war effort.”

“During her 60-hour workweek at the nation’s minimum wage of $20 a week, Norma Jeane’s assignments included spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and folding parachutes.” (Airport Journals)

“American women played important roles during World War II, both at home and in uniform. Around 5 million civilian women served in the defense industry and elsewhere in the commercial sector during World War II with the aim of freeing a man to fight.” (US Dept of Defense)

Women had to step up to work in the factories that produced what the men needed, and the Rosie the Riveter character was created to recruit them. The men were celebrated when they arrived home, but women lost their jobs and their role was forgotten. (Daily Mail)

“In the summer of 1945 Private David Conover, a professional photographer working for the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit, was sent to the Radioplane Munitions Factory in Burbank, California to shoot morale-boosting photographs of employees doing their part to help the war effort.”

“As Conover later wrote, ‘I moved down the assembly line, taking shots of the most attractive employees. None was especially out of the ordinary.’”

“‘I came to a pretty girl putting on propellers and raised the camera to my eye. She had curly ash blond hair and her face was smudged with dirt. I snapped her picture and walked on.’”

“‘Then I stopped, stunned. She was beautiful. Half child, half woman, her eyes held something that touched and intrigued me. I retraced my steps and introduced myself. ‘And you?’ ‘I’m Norma Jeane Dougherty.’ She smiled and offered her hand.’”

“The 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s appearance and natural ease in front of the camera capitivated Conover, and upon hearing that she wanted to become an actress, he told her that she would need to become a model first.”

“To give Norma Jeane a portfolio, Conover sought and was granted leave. He spent the next two weeks with Norma Jeane in the hills of Southern California teaching her how to pose, model and ‘address’ a camera.”

“Most of the film was mailed to a processing lab. But Conover retained a few rolls of exposed film. Good thing: The mailed film never arrived and has never been found.” (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

“Conover noted that 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s response to the camera was amazing. She seemed to ‘come alive’ with an immediate and natural instinct.”

“In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he could barely hold the camera steady. He must have hidden his excitement from his subject, because the teenager timidly asked if she was photogenic.”

“After several photo sessions and with Conover’s influence, Norma Jeane applied at the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There she was groomed in the art of modeling and encouraged to lighten her hair.”

“She soon had the attention of every producer in Hollywood. In July 1946, Norma Jeane signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox Studios”. (Airport Journals)

On February 23, 1956, Norma Jeane Mortenson changed her legal name to Marilyn Monroe (although she’d been known publicly by the moniker since 1946). (The Atlantic)

“Shortly after their wedding and en route to Japan for their honeymoon, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio made a stop in Honolulu, where they were greeted by hysterical fans—some of whom even reached out to touch or pull Monroe’s hair. As protection, the newlyweds were given a police escort to Waikiki’s Royal Hawaiian”. (Robb Report)

“Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous stars in Hollywood’s history, was found dead early today [August 5, 1962] in the bedroom of her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. She was 36 years old. Beside the bed was an empty bottle that had contained sleeping pills. Fourteen other bottles of medicines and tablets were on the night stand.” (NY Times)

August 4, 2024 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

ʻEke Crater

Early Hawaiians considered ʻEke Crater (also called Puʻu ʻEke, Mauna ʻEke and (rarely) Mauna Eeka or Eeke) near the summit of the West Maui Mountain to be Heaven’s Gate, or a doorway between the physical and spiritual worlds. (West Maui Watershed)

“Mauna ʻEke is the name given to the circular range in the bosom of which lies the valley, whose sides, moistened with mists and trickling streams, are perennially green.”

“Ferns and convolvuli adorn the precipices ; shining leaves, delicately stemmed, tremble and gleam with every breath of wind.” (Twombly, 1900)

Maui is the second largest island of the archipelago, its oldest volcano (West Maui Mountain or Mauna Kahalawai) ca 1.3-million years old, East Maui Volcano (Haleakalā) ca 750,000-years old and considered active (last historical eruption in 1790.)

“You can see why, in 1841, the captain of a whaling vessel wrote, ‘See how that east part of the island rises abruptly into one high mountain, while the west section, though rugged, is not so lofty.'”

“‘Mauna ʻEke, on the west, is little more than five thousand feet high, while Haleakala, on the east, runs into the clouds nearly twice as far. But you will find that the more lowly of the two mountain masses has wilder scenery to offer.'”

“‘East Maui has wonderful attractions, but I find keener and more lasting pleasure in climbing up and down the ridges thrust out as ʻEke reaches down to the sea.'”

“(T)he wild valley and its surroundings have been left unchanged. In fact, everything must look much as it did when the first Polynesian migration entered Maui long centuries before America was discovered”.

“(Y)es, hundreds of years before the Norman Conquest of England – that is, unless ʻEke has been in eruption since then. If so, the lava long ago disintegrated into the richest sort of soil.” (Paradise of the Pacific, 1929)

ʻEke Crater is an extinct volcanic dome with eroded sides and gently concave summit. The summit bog is underlain by a clay hardpan over a compressed lava core and is characterized by numerous pits and open water ponds. (Powell)

Towering at nearly 4,500 feet in elevation, the name ‘Crater’ is quite deceiving, as no visible crater remains today. The mountain is actually the remnants of an eroded volcanic cone.

Measuring 1,600-feet in diameter, its rock core provides a moist impermeable surface on which unique montane bog communities thrive.

Highlighting and adorning its surface are mirrored pools of water with shimmering ʻEke silverswords and Nohoanu (a Geranium.) While beautiful, it is dangerous and riddled with sink holes and lava tubes. (West Maui Watershed)

The ʻEke silversword is endemic to the summit and ridges of ʻEke and Puʻu Kukui. It is described as a “branching, dwarf shrub” and “creeping profusely over the ground and progressively dying back at the base, thus isolating the branches into independent plants.” (Powell)

Nearby is Kiʻowaiokihawahine (Violet Lake.) The lake is small, only 10-20-feet in size, and formed in the boggy areas near ʻEke Crater and Puʻu Kukui.

Puʻu Kukui is considered the 2nd wettest spot (behind Waiʻaleʻale, Kauai,) and it and ʻEke Crater are often hidden in the clouds.

Eke crater, 2.8 miles away in a straight line.

August 3, 2024 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Ice Floe

With the arrival of spring, large schools of whales make their appearance in the Arctic, forcing their way under the floes and through the leads in the ice, bound to the northward.

They follow the ice along the shores of Alaska to Point Barrow, and then turn to the eastward along the northern shore, where it is supposed they find good breeding-grounds. Late in the fall, they come back, and go south again along the shore of Siberia. (USCG)

In 1848, Yankee whalers first entered the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea. The ensuing 66-years of commercial whaling in the western Arctic had a profound impact on the history and culture of the region and Hawaiʻi. (Barr)

The central location of the Hawaiian Islands between America and Japan brought many whaling ships to the Islands. Whalers needed food and the islands supplied this need from its fertile lands.

Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching. The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.

There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar. Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour. The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years.

The fleet of whaling-vessels reach Point Barrow during the first part of August. They then follow the whales eastward, as far as and sometimes farther than the mouth of the Mackenzie River. It is along here they make their greatest catch.

But they must not remain too long in the season, and the whaling captains generally look at leaving by the middle of September, in order to return to Point Barrow, before the last part of that month.

From there they work their way over to the westward, pursuing their whaling south along the coast of Siberia, and finally come out through the Bering Strait not later than the middle of October. (USCG)

Hardly a season passed that one or two whaling ships were not trapped or wrecked by the arctic ice pack; more than 160 whaling ships were lost. (Barr)

In August 1871, 41-whaling ships from Hawaiʻi, New England and California came to the icy waters of the Arctic in the pursuit of the bowhead whale. The pack ice was close to shore that year and left little room for maneuvering of the fleet.

The whaling captains counted on a wind shift from the east to drive the pack out to sea as it had always done in years past. Instead of moving offshore, the ice pack suddenly and unexpectedly trapped 32-ships between ice and shore. (NOAA)

The ice blocked their passage south. In the storm, they abandoned ship; 1,200-crew set out in small whale boats to make their way across 60-miles of water to safety. (Alaska History)

Of all the ships abandoned to the Arctic winter of 1871, only one ever sailed again. They ships included:

Awashonks, Carlotta, Champion, Comet, Concordia, Contest, Elizabeth Swift, Emily Morgan, Eugenia, Fanny, Florida II, Gay Head, George, George Howland, Henry Taber, J D Thompson, John Wells, Julian, Kohola, Mary, Massachusetts, Minerva (recovered later,) Monticello, Navy, Oliver Crocker, Paiea, Reindeer, Roman, Seneca, Thomas Dickason, Victoria, William Rotch

The stranded vessels were spread out in a line ranging more than sixty-miles south from Point Franklin. The whaleboats had to be dragged by hand over the pressure ridges of ice to the lead edge where they could be sailed in the little open water remaining.

Many times the way was blocked by ice closing the leads and the boats had to be hauled again to open water. Waiting to the south, free of the pack ice, were the remaining seven ships of the fleet.

The boats reached the rescue fleet safely without the loss of a single life. The overcrowded ships then made their way uneventfully to Hawaiʻi. Although whaling in the Arctic did continue for a number of years, the industry never recovered from this disaster. (Allen)

The economic blow to the whaling industry was staggering. Loss of the ships and cargoes was estimated at a value of $1.6-million ($22.5-million in 2000 dollars.)

Interestingly, however, few of these ships were replaced in the fleet, and most of the insurance paid to the whaling companies was reportedly invested in other industries, evidence of the beginning of the end of American whaling. (NOAA)

Although the whale-oil industry has a long history, whaling was already in decline. The petroleum industry displaced it during a relatively short time. In 1859, an oil well was discovered and developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

The discovery of petroleum, a new method of refining crude oil into kerosene and the invention of a lamp to burn the new kerosene product enabled petroleum to replace whale oil as a preferred means of lighting.

Kerosene also had a longer shelf life and less objectionable odor than whale oil, and people did what people generally do when they find a better product; they bought it.

In addition to the discovery of oil and the development of processes and products to use it, the whale-oil industry experienced a sharp reduction of whaling ships through two relatively large-scale events.

The Civil War, like the wars before, was very bad for the whaling fleet. Confederate cruisers like the Shenandoah, the Alabama and the Florida destroyed more than 50 Yankee whalers.

In addition, New Bedford contributed 37 old whaling ships to the war effort in the form of the “Stone Fleet.” These vessels were filled with rocks and sunk at the mouths of Southern harbors in an attempt to block shipping. (Whaling Museum)

Decade by decade, the value of whale oil dwindled, fewer ships were sent to sea, fewer men signed on, fewer fortunes were made and fewer livelihoods depended on American whaling prowess.

The losses in 1871 contributed to the decline. Fewer ships meant fewer whaling expeditions and less oil. (Ferguson) Whaling in Hawaiʻi soon came to an end.

August 2, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

ʻĀinahau Fire

“One of the biggest screen attractions offered to Maui this season is coming next week, the Aldrich Production, ‘The Black Lily.’ Manager Ross received announcement of the offering by wireless this morning. He expects that Mr Aldrich and Mrs Peggy Aldrich will be here at the same time.”

“As yet the mainland has had no chance to see this Hawaiian production. … It has been shown in Honolulu and was received with favor and followed by exceptionally flattering newspaper criticisms.”

“Peggy Aldrich is well known among the screen stars and as a producer Mr Aldrich has been successful. He has taken numbers of motion pictures of the Islands on other stays here before he purchased a home in Honolulu, knows the Islands and Island life and the ‘Black Lily’ is said to be one of the best Island plays ever screened.”

“Another Hawaiian feature is added, ‘Sonny’ Cunha in ‘Poi or Bust’ in which the Hawaiian musician seeks to rival Roscoe Arbuckle as a comedian.” (Maui News, May 27, 1921)

Aldrich zipped in and out of Hawaii to film travelogues, gather entertainers, and then return to the mainland to tour the results. He was a favorite of Hawaiʻi tourism business groups such as the Ad Club. He traveled across the mainland to theaters small and large showing his Hawaii travelogue supported by live entertainers, Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiians.

His shows advertised Hawaii, correcting common erroneous beliefs (No, there is not an active volcano in Honolulu). In a letter to the Advertiser, Aldrich boasted his film and troupe reached 1 million people in a few months. He touted 400,000 viewers in greater Chicago. (Elks)

“William F Aldrich, adventurer, artist, globe-trotter, has done in celluloid what the old masters did with brush and oil. To say that he is a motion picture cameraman would be as much an error as to call Rembrandt a photographer.”

“With his camera he brings to the screen in glorious proportions the wonders of the universe. No beaten path he follows, but from the queer out-of-the-way places brings to live on the screen the romance of people and environments which we of this prosaic business world would meet only in books.” (Promotional brochure)

“William F Aldrich, a member of the expedition sent out by the Peter Pan Film Corporation to photograph the world, made an exceptionally interesting bit of motion picture history when he risked death in photographing the interior of the crater of Kilauea, Hawaii’s active volcano.”

“Numerous efforts to accomplish this feat have met with defeat, and Aldrich’s efforts are said to have netted the Peter Pan company the best photographic record of this boiling lake of flaming lava, which will be introduced in the fourth episode of ‘The Honeymooners,’ Peter Pan’s scenic serial.”

“The successful filming of the sputtering crater of Kilauea was accomplished by Aldrich on October 5. He wore a gas mask similar to those in use in European warfare, reinforced by a leather cap that covered all of his face except his eyes.”

“He made the descent of three hundred feet of almost perpendicular cliff to the inner edge of the lake of lava, and set up his tripod with the seething liquid earth licking at his shoes.”

“After completing his task Aldrich climbed out of the bowels of the earth and removing his fantastic headgear said: ‘It’s just like going to hell.’” (Motography, November 10, 1917)

It was an unfortunate later fire that also involved Aldrich; one August night, Aldrich, the “movie picture man,” was having dinner when his wife yelled “Fire!”

He ran to the room where the gas heater stood and saw flames. Neighbors tried to help by beating them out with cloths. A fire truck was summoned from Kaimukī, but the pin holding together the steering gear fell out and the truck crashed into a fence. By the time help arrived, the building count not be saved. (Cultural Surveys)

“With great difficulty the flames were prevented from spreading to adjacent buildings. Sparks were carried to the roof of the Moana Hotel by the high wind.” (Maui News, August 5, 1921)

“Historic ʻĀinahau, at Waikiki, was totally destroyed by fire August 2d (1921,) together with most of its furniture and fittings, on which $15,000 insurance was carried.” (Thrum)

“Historic ʻĀinahau, home of the wide lanais and lofty palms, rendezvous of Honolulu society in the reign of King Kalākaua, and haunt of Robert Louis Stevenson in his Hawaiian days, is gone. “

“The age old coconut trees which surrounded the famous palace were torches of remembrance, flaming high into the tropic night long after ʻĀinahau had become only a ghost among its glowing embers, but today they are charred stumps around blackened ruins.”

“Cleghorn, who survived both Princess Miriam Likelike and their daughter, died only a few years ago. His wish was that the estate might be preserved to posterity as a public monument, but the government did not see fit to accept the gift, and the property was cut up into building lots.”

“The palace itself, after a brief career as a hotel, passed into the hands of WF Aldrich, the moving picture producer, who, with his wife, “Peggy” Aldrich, had a rather close call last night when the place burned.” (Gessler, The Step Ladder, October 1921)

“For two or three years ʻĀinahau had been used for the developments of films depicting life in the Hawaiian Islands and from its dark rooms went forth celluloid impressions of Hawaii that have been displayed upon the screens of movie houses across the mainland” (The Garden Island, August 9, 1921)

“Mr. Aldrich plans to build on the property a model Hawaiian village of grass huts for the entertainment of visitors and the use of motion picture companies in filming Hawaiian scenes.”

“The Stevenson banyan was badly damaged, but it is expected to survive.” (Gessler, The Step Ladder, October 1921)

Ainahau_-_Kaiulani’s_House_after-1897-400

William F Aldrich

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-cover

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-1

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-2

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-3

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-4

A Trip to the Hawaiin Islands and Aldrich’s Imperial Hawaiian Singers-5

Ainahau_-_Kaiulani’s_House-after-1897

Ainahau_-_Kaiulani’s_House-after_1897

August 1, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Palama By The Sea Fresh Air Camp

Central Union Church dates back to the days of the Seaman’s Bethel Church in 1828. It was formally founded in 1887 and it moved into its present location in 1924.

In addition to developing new institutions within the church, the congregation made great strides in the field of missionary work in the city of Honolulu, including the beginning of the present Pālama Settlement.

Social worker James Arthur Rath, Sr. and his wife, Ragna Helsher Rath, turned Pālama Chapel into Pālama Settlement (in September 1906,) a chartered, independent, non-sectarian organization receiving contributions from the islands’ elite.

“… they called them ‘settlement houses,’ the philosophy being that the head worker, as they called them, settled in the community. Instead of going in to spend the day working and coming out, they settled in, raised their families there and in that way learned …”

“… one, what the people needed; two, gained their confidence so that they could help them fulfill their needs; and then, three, went ahead and designed programs for exactly what the people needed.”

“So they were settlers and therefore they called them settlement houses. Which is what the origin of Pālama Settlement was because my father and my mother settled there and all five of us children were born and raised in our home in the settlement.” (Robert H. Rath, Sr)

The fear of tuberculosis had gripped the nation, parents were advised to remove children from crowded cities where the disease could easily spread. A country-like setting with fresh air, room to exercise and a diet of healthy food would keep the malady at bay, they were told. They went to “Fresh Air Camps.”

Parents were advised to remove children from crowded cities where the disease could easily spread. A country-like setting with fresh air, room to exercise and a diet of healthy food would keep the malady at bay, they were told.

Palama Settlement offered a camping experience to the people of the neighborhood who were much in need of fresh air and outdoor spaces.

Quite a few of the attendees were tuberculosis patients who learned how to take better care of themselves. But it was not just tuberculosis that drew people to these camps.

Initially, it was a camp for young mothers to get a break from the demands of taking care of their families, but it quickly grew to include children, who thrived there.

Children who had never seen the ocean learned to swim, fish and play games on the beach and lawn. The first camp, opened in 1914, was called the Mother’s Rest Camp. It was located at Kaipapau, near Hauula, on land donated by WR Castle.

Mothers learned about hygiene and nutrition, as well as the importance of exercise and outdoor activities for their children. The camp was a melting pot, with 39 different ethnicities represented.

The Kaipapau Camp was closed to make way for “Palama By the Sea,” a new Fresh Air Camp opened in 1916 at Kaiaka Point, near Waialua. (Palama Settlement)

Palama built cabins by the beach, a mess tent and dining hall with a stove and refrigerator. Vegetable gardens were planted to help provide healthy foods.

The primary purpose of the camp was rest and recreation for those living in lower-income neighborhoods. In addition, a goal was to help underweight keiki gain three pounds during their two-week stay. In addition to taking part in sports, music, fishing and swimming, they learned about hygiene, dental care and nutrition.

“[A] Star Bulletin representative went to see Honolulu’s tiny bit of paradise about which much has been said. One whole day, full of sun and frolic and fun, this newsman spent with the mothers and kids at Palama Settlement Fresh Air camp and he left believing that if there were a hell on earth, just as surely was there ‘A Little Bit of Heaven; near this town.”

“He saw 51 vacationists at their games, in the surf and at the dinner hour; he peeked into every corner of that popular place, a stone’s throw from Waialua, and returned with the party of rested mothers and sun-burned ‘kids’ leaving their two-weeks holiday to make way for another similar crew coming the following Monday.”

“The camp proper is a long curve of 144 rough-board. Substantial dwellings standing directly on the beach and looking more like bathhouses.”

“The camp site is a five-acre tract leased from Bishop Estate and free roaming grounds adjoins. … There is order in the camp but no suggestion of dissatisfaction. A regular schedule varies enough not to be monotonous.”

“Watch this care-free crew, cut off from the tenements’ sordid environments, eat the good eats and sleep the long sleep; see the wan faces take color and fill; note the brightening of eye and quickening of step. There is no worry about money, nor who will supply the meals.”

“The fresh air campers grow fast during their brief country holiday. Every nationality, and they are usually all represented, takes on weight. He total gain made by the 51 campers was 76 pounds or about 1 ½ pounds each in two week.” (Star Bulletin, July 18, 1916)

The Palama camps were much in demand. More than 300 campers traveled 35 miles on the train to the North Shore to enjoy the change of scenery and plethora of programs each summer. (Palama Settlement)

“We used to have a camping program, the Palama-by-the-Sea was called the fresh air camp and this was way before my time.”

“They had a homemaker service for mothers, and they’d put a homemaker in the house for the weekend or several days and take the mother out to camp, let her have fun and relax with her neighbors and friends and give ‘em courses in budgeting and home economics and sewing and a whole range of things.”

“Homemaker camp must have been a neat camp. And then they come back home, homemaker leaves and they take over again, raise their skills. They’re really innovative, good programs.”

“They had a TB dorm on Palama and was right behind Kaumakapili Church. I think the building’s gone now. It’s being used as a boarding house for single men, but it was an inhouse, in-town facility. And then those were the days when they believed that fresh air could cure TB.” (Lorin Gill, Oral History)

“‘There is really a little bit of heaven for these women and children, and if it does nothing else, it lifts them up bodily from the cramped life they have always seen and gives them such a complete change for two weeks that they take a new hold on living.’” (James A Rath, ‘head worker’ at the Settlement)

Palama-by-the-Sea (Waialua Fresh Air Camp) was located near Kaiaka Bay. After damage from the 1957 tsunami, the camp relocated to the mountains in Opaeula and was renamed Palama Uka. It was open from 1957-1977. (lots of information here is from Palama Settlement.)