Images of Old Hawaiʻi

by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cane Trash

When we were kids and went fishing (trolling), I remember the frustrating – and repeated – need to pull in and clean the lines from floating bagasse (cane trash) that entangled at the lures.

It wasn’t a new thing, floating masses of bagasse have littered beaches/shorelines, affected fishers, and impacted marine resources for decades before.  Several attempts to use bagasse rather than dump it (fuel to operate the mill, canec, etc) helped, but it wasn’t until the 1970s that the dumping finally stopped.

Sugar was a canoe crop; the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands.

In pre-contact times, sugarcane was not processed as we know sugar today, but was used by chewing the juicy stalks.  Its leaves were used for inside house thatching, or for outside (if pili grass wasn’t available.) The flower stalks of sugar cane were used to make a dart, sometimes used during the Makahiki games. (Canoe Crops)

The first written record of sugarcane in Hawaiʻi came from Captain James Cook, at the time he made initial contact with the Islands.

On January 19, 1778, off Kauai, he notes, “We saw no wood, but what was up in the interior part of the island, except a few trees about the villages; near which, also, we could observe several plantations of plantains and sugar-canes.”  (Cook)

Cook notes that sugar was cultivated, “The potatoe fields, and spots of sugar-canes, or plantains, in the higher grounds, are planted with the same regularity; and always in some determinate figure; generally as a square or oblong”.  (Cook)

Sugarcane, a tall perennial grass, is grown in tropical and semitropical climates. (USDA)  “Sugar cane, described in botany as Saccharum officinarum, is a giant-stemmed perennial grass that grows from eight to twenty-four feet long. … As a rule, sugar cane consists of about eighty-eight per cent of juice and twelve per cent of fiber”. (Rolph)

The first reported processing of sugar was noted … “in 1802 sugar was first made at these islands, by a native of China, on the island of Lanai.  He came here in one of the vessels trading for sandal wood, and brought a stone mill, and boilers, and after grinding off one small crop and making it into sugar, went back the next year with his fixtures, to China.”  (Torbert; Polynesian, January 31, 1852)

As production grew, the early sugar ventures were either Hawaiian-owned or regulated by Hawaiian rulers.  In most instances, the Hawaiian-owned sugar processing was managed by either Chinese sugar boilers or American shopkeepers in rural districts.  (MacLennan)  Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825.

In that year, John Wilkinson and Governor Boki started a plantation in upper Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing, and by the time Wilkinson died, in September 1826, they had actually manufactured some sugar. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum, prompting Kaʻahumanu to have the cane fields destroyed around 1829.  (Schmitt)

Shortly thereafter, King Kamehameha III, seeking to encourage commercial cultivation of sugar by native Hawaiians offered the “acre system,” giving “out small lots of land, from one to two acres, to individuals for the cultivation of cane.”

“When the cane is ripe, the King finds all the apparatus for manufacturing & when manufactured takes the half. Of his half one fifth is regarded as the tax due to the aupuni (government) & the remaining four fifths is his compensation for the manufacture. These cane cultivators are released from all other demands of every description on the part of chiefs.”  (Armstrong (1839;) MacLennan)

About this time, the initial signs of commercial sugar are found on Maui, in Wailuku.  In 1840, the King ordered an iron mill from the US, and it was erected by August.  Hung & Co in 1841 advertised the sale of sugar and sugar syrup from its 150-acre plantation in Wailuku. More than likely, this was sugar from the King’s Mill.  (MacLennan)

Early plantations were small and didn’t fare too well.  Soon, most would come to realize that “sugar farming and sugar milling were essentially great-scale operations.”  (Garvin)

Then, the King sought to expand sugar cultivation and production, as well as expand other agricultural ventures to support commercial agriculture in the Islands.  In a speech to the Legislature in 1847, the King notes:

“I recommend to your most serious consideration, to devise means to promote the agriculture of the islands, and profitable industry among all classes of their inhabitants. It is my wish that my subjects should possess lands upon a secure title; enabling them to live in abundance and comfort, and to bring up their children free from the vices that prevail in the seaports.”

“What my native subjects are greatly in want of, to become farmers, is capital with which to buy cattle, fence in the land and cultivate it properly. I recommend you to consider the best means of inducing foreigners to furnish capital for carrying on agricultural operations, that thus the exports of the country may be increased …”  (King Kamehameha III Speech to the Legislature, April 28, 1847; Archives)

A few things helped kick-start this vision – following finding gold in 1848, the California gold rush stimulated a small boom in commercial agriculture for the Islands – particularly in potatoes and sugar.  However, by the end of the 1850s, the boomlet became a depression (California started to supply its own needs.)

The American Civil War virtually shut down Louisiana sugar production during the 1860s.  Hawaiian-grown sugar soon replaced much of this southern sugar through the duration of the conflict.

By the end of the war, over thirty extremely prosperous plantations were in operation and expanded to new levels previously unheard of before the war’s commencement. 

Hawaiʻi’s industrial plantations began to emerge at this time (1860s;) they were further fueled by the Treaty of Reciprocity – 1875 between the United States and the Kingdom of Hawai‘i eliminated the major trade barrier to Hawai‘i’s closest and major market.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape.  Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system. 

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Sugarcane is crushed in the mill to extract and process the sugar.  Several waste products are produced by the sugar industry – one was bagasse (the fibrous residue that remains after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract the juice), and the mills would flume it out of the mill and simply dump it in the ocean.

Later, some of the bagasse was made into fiber board.  In 1929, Hawaiian Cellulose Ltd, a subsidiary of the Waiākea Mill Company applied for a patent for the manufacture of it.  (County of Hawai‘i)  They made ‘canec.’

Canec was originally the brand name for pressed fiber board made by Hawaiian Cane Products, Ltd, but it became commonly used to refer to all pressed board of this type.

Also, later, “After passing through the last mill, as much cane pulp (bagasse) as needed is fed into the mill fireroom for use as fuel.”  (EPA)  The bagasse was pelletized and fueled the boiler.

In 1971, ecological studies of coral communities along the Hamakua Coast of the island of Hawaii resulted in the instigation of a number of Environmental Protection Agency restrictions regarding ocean disposal by sugar mills.

These included, among other things, the elimination of bagasse discharge into the ocean and significant reductions in total suspended solid (TSS). Compliance with EPA standards was achieved in 1979. (Grigg)

Mats of bagasse no longer clogged and smothered rocky bottom habitats. Also mats of bagasse on the ocean surface no longer fouled fishing boats and fishing gear. (Grigg)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Spanish Lake

While there is only one global ocean, the vast body of water that covers 71 percent of the Earth is geographically divided into distinct named regions. The boundaries between these regions have evolved over time for a variety of historical, cultural, geographical, and scientific reasons.

Historically, there are four named oceans: the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic. However, most countries – including the United States – now recognize the Southern (Antarctic) as the fifth ocean. The Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian are the most commonly known. (NOAA)

The first Europeans to arrive in North America were likely the Norse, traveling west from Greenland, where Erik the Red had founded a settlement around the year 985. In 1001 his son Leif is thought to have explored the northeast coast of what is now Canada and spent at least one winter there.

While Norse sagas suggest that Viking sailors explored the Atlantic coast of North America down as far as the Bahamas, such claims remain unproven. In 1963, however, the ruins of some Norse houses dating from that era were discovered at L’Anse-aux-Meadows in northern Newfoundland, thus supporting at least some of the claims the Norse sagas make.

Portuguese mariners built an Atlantic empire by colonizing the Canary, Cape Verde, and Azores Islands, as well as the island of Madeira. Merchants then used these Atlantic outposts as debarkation points for subsequent journeys.

From these strategic points, Portugal spread its empire down the western coast of Africa to the Congo, along the western coast of India, and eventually to Brazil on the eastern coast of South America.

It also established trading posts in China and Japan. While the Portuguese didn’t rule over an immense landmass, their strategic holdings of islands and coastal ports gave them almost unrivaled control of nautical trade routes and a global empire of trading posts during the 1400s.

The history of Spanish exploration begins with the history of Spain itself. During the fifteenth century, Spain hoped to gain advantage over its rival, Portugal. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile in 1469 unified Catholic Spain and began the process of building a nation that could compete for worldwide power.

Their goals were to expand Catholicism and to gain a commercial advantage over Portugal. To those ends, Ferdinand and Isabella sponsored extensive Atlantic exploration. Spain’s most famous explorer, Christopher Columbus, was actually from Genoa, Italy.

Columbus (who was looking for a new route to India, China, Japan and the ‘Spice Islands’ of Indonesia to bring back cargoes of silk and spices (ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon)) never saw the mainland United States.

Spain’s drive to enlarge its empire led other hopeful conquistadors to push further into the Americas, hoping to replicate the success of Cortés and Pizarro.

The exploits of European explorers had a profound impact both in the Americas and back in Europe. An exchange of ideas, fueled and financed in part by New World commodities, began to connect European nations and, in turn, to touch the parts of the world that Europeans conquered. (Lumen)

“On May 3, 1493, Pope Alexander VI, to prevent future disputes between Spain and Portugal, divided the world by a north-south line (longitude) 100 leagues (300 miles) west of the Cape Verde Islands.”

“In 1494, by the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas, Spain and Portugal agreed to move that line to a meridian 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands [in the Atlantic].” (Lloyd)

“Strictly speaking, there was no such thing as ‘the Pacific’ until in 1520-1 Fernao de Magalhãis, better known as Magellan, traversed the huge expanse of waters, which then received its name.” (Spate)

On November 28 1520, Ferdinand Magellan entered the “Sea of the South” (Mar Del Sur, which he later named the Pacific) and thereby opened up to Spain the possibility of an alternative route between Europe and the spices of the Orient.”  (Lloyd)

“After Magellan’s daring voyage round South America and across to the Philippines (1519-1521), the magnet of Pacific exploration was Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent supposed to lie between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan.”   (The Journal; Edwards)

With the conquest of Mexico in 1522, the Spanish further solidified their position in the Western Hemisphere. The ensuing discoveries added to Europe’s knowledge of what was now named America – after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who wrote a widely popular account of his voyages to a “New World.”

By 1529, reliable maps of the Atlantic coastline from Labrador to Tierra del Fuego had been drawn up, although it would take more than another century before hope of discovering a “Northwest Passage” to Asia would be completely abandoned.  (Alonzo L Hamby)

“Alvaro de Mendana, the Spanish voyager, sailed from Callao in Peru in 1567 and reached the Solomon Islands. It was not until 1595 that he went back, with Pedro Fernanadez de Quiros, found the Marquesas and got as far as the Santa Cruz Islands.”   (The Journal; Edwards)

Then, almost 50 years after the death of Christopher Columbus, Manila Galleons finally fulfilled their dream of sailing west to Asia to benefit from the rich Indian Ocean trade.

“The Spanish Galleons were square rigged ships with high superstructures on their sterns. They were obviously designed for running before the wind or at best sailing on a very ‘broad reach.’”

“Because of their apparently limited ability to ‘beat their way to windward’ (sail against the wind), they had to find trade routes where the prevailing winds and sea currents were favorable.”  (Lloyd)

Starting in 1565, with the Spanish sailor and friar Andrés de Urdaneta, after discovering the Tornaviaje or return route to Mexico through the Pacific Ocean, Spanish Galleons sailed the Pacific Ocean between Acapulco in Nueva España (New Spain – now Mexico) and Manila in the Philippine islands.

The galleons leaving Manila would make their way back to Acapulco in a four-month long journey.  The goods were off-loaded and transported across land to ships on the other Mexican coast at Veracruz, and eventually, sent to European markets and customers eager for these exotic wares.  (GuamPedia)

Spain had a long presence in the Pacific Ocean (1521–1898).  The Pacific coastline of Nueva España and Peru connected to the Philippines far to the west made the ocean a virtual Spanish Lake.

The “Spanish Lake” united the Pacific Rim (the Americas and Asia) and Basin (Oceania) with the Spanish in the Atlantic. (Buschmann etal)

The great wealth that poured into Spain triggered great interest on the part of the other European powers. With time, emerging maritime nations such as England, drawn in part by Francis Drake’s successful raids on Spanish treasure ships, began to take interest in the New World.  (State Department)

The USA is named after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci (March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512,) an explorer, financier, navigator and cartographer.  He sailed in 1499, seven years after Christopher Columbus first landed in the West Indies.

Columbus found the new world; but Vespucci, by travelling down the coast, came to the realization that it was not India at all, but an entirely new continent.

Later, it was a German clergyman and amateur geographer named Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann, his Alsatian proofreader, who are reported to have first put the name “America” (a feminized Latin version of Vespucci’s first name) on the new land mass (April 25, 1507.)

The name ‘United States of America’ appears to have been used for the first time in the Declaration of Independence (1776.) At least no earlier instance of its use in that precise form has been found.  (Burnett)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Water Crisis

Neglect of the islands’ forests would be “suicidal,” for “everything fails with the failure of our water supply”. (Lyon; DLNR)

“Not enough rain and not enough water in the streams are great evils”.

“It appears to me to be unnecessary to again go deeply into the theory of the relation between forests and rainfall when all intelligent and observing people admit that the decrease or increase of rainfall goes pari passu (‘hand-in-hand’) with the decrease or increase of the forests.”

“The forest, which not only produces rain, but also retains the rainwater, holding it among its leaves and branches, its undergrowth, its myriads of roots and rootlets and its fallen debris, letting the rainwater trickle down slowly to the water streams and keeping them supplied for a long time”.

“(T)hat forest is not there. Rain pours down, the water rushes in torrents through the streams to the sea and soon after everything is dry again.” (Gjerdrum to HSPA, 1897)

Prior to 1820 all of Honolulu’s domestic drinking water was obtained from natural springs and the small river that runs through Nuʻuanu Valley.

Honolulu with its deep water port, abundant natural resources and friendly people soon became a favorite way station for whalers and traders crossing the Pacific Ocean.

The requirements of supplying these ships caused a waterfront storage tank to be installed at the lower end of Nuʻuanu Street. The water for that tank came from a taro patch on Emma Street.

The demand for drinking water from various springs and the Nuʻuanu Stream spurred the development of a public water supply distribution system that, upon its completion in 1862 provided water to the residents and businesses in downtown Honolulu. (DLNR)

“The water is pure, sweet, cool, clear as crystal, and comes from a spring in the mountains, and is distributed all over the town through leaden pipes.”

“You can find a hydrant spiriting away at the bases of three or four trees in a single yard, sometimes, so plenty and cheap is this excellent water. Only twenty-four dollars a year supplies a whole household with a limitless quantity of it.” (Twain, April 20, 1866

However, there was concern about the diminishing forests … and, with it, a crisis in the availability of water.

By the 1830s, forested lands in the Islands were in decline. The sandalwood trade had reduced sandalwood populations to such an extent that in 1839, Hawaii’s first forestry law restricted the harvest of sandalwood.

Cattle (which had been introduced in the late-1700s) continued to cause widespread destruction of native forests. (Idol) For many years, cattle were allowed an unrestricted range in the forests so that in many sections the forest is either dead or dying. (Griffith)

The almost total destruction of the undergrowth has allowed the soil to bake and harden thus causing the rainfall to run off rapidly with the resultant effect of very low water during the dry season. (Griffith)

“We are in trouble because we have no firewood and no la‘i (ti leaf,) and no timber for houses, it is said in the law that those who are living on the land can secure the things above stated, this is all right for those living on the lands which have forests, but, we who live on lands which have no forests, we are in trouble.”

“The children are eating raw potato because of no firewood, the mouths of the children are swollen from having eaten raw taro. We have been in trouble for three months, the Konohikis with wooded lands here in Kaneohe have absolutely withheld the firewood and la‘i and the timber for houses.” (Letter from Hio et al to House of Representatives, 1851; Hulili, Ulukau)

It reached a maximum by the late-1800s/early-twentieth century owing to burning of the forests to locate the sandalwood trees, demand for firewood, commercial logging operations, conversion to agricultural and pastureland, the effects of grazing and browsing ungulates (including cattle, goats, and pigs) and increased fire frequency. (Woodcock)

The sugar industry, still concerned about water shortages due to forest decline, sought and succeeded in establishing the forest reserve system, which instituted partnerships between public and private landowners to protect forests.

Due to the cooperation between public and private landowners, and another tax break for conservation of forests on private land in 1909, large scale reforestation, fencing and feral ungulate eradication efforts occurred across the islands.

The forests were transformed during this time, as millions of fast-growing nonnative trees were planted throughout the islands to quickly re-establish watersheds denuded by logging and ungulates.

Impending crisis also led to the development of groundwater wells (today’s primary source of drinking water in the Islands.) The McCandless brothers started drilling the first artesian well in the Hawaiian Islands in the rear of the James Campbell Ranch House at Honouliuli, Ewa District, on the flat land close to the sea.

“Mr. Wilder (then-Minister of the Interior under King Kalakaua) helped us in securing contracts for five wells, to be drilled for His Majesty, King Kalakaua: one in the Palace grounds, one at his home in Waikiki, and three others located on his properties in the outside districts.”

Over the next 55-years, McCandless Brothers drilled more than 700 good wells across the Islands. Their wells helped support and water the growing and expansive sugar and pineapple plantations including ʻEwa, Kahuku, Oʻahu, Waialua and other large producers, and also on the Islands of Maui, Hawaiʻi, Kauai and Molokai.

We are fortunate that 100-years ago (April 25, 1903) some forward thinkers had the good sense to set aside Hawai‘i’s forested lands and protected our forest watersheds under the State’s forest reserve system.

While I was at DLNR, we oversaw nearly 1-million acres of mauka watershed. Healthy forests are a goal for all of us in Hawai‘i, it’s as much about fresh water, erosion control, protected reefs and economic opportunities as it is about trees. (I am proud and honored to have served on the Board of Directors of the Hawai‘i Forest Institute.)

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by Peter T Young 4 Comments

Elmer Ellsworth Conant

“At five-thirty o’clock in the morning of June 20, 1923, (EE Conant,) manager of a Molokai ranch, walked into the garage at his home in Kaunakakai, entered his automobile, and stepped on the starter. The engine failed to turn over.”

“As he swung open the door to step out and investigate, a shattering roar shook the village. Townspeople flocking to the scene found roof and walls torn and twisted, top and hood of the car hurled into the yard, and fragments of steel imbedded in walls fifty feet away. “

“Conant, blackened and mangled, lay dead. A crumpled bit of steel had pierced his heart. “

“The method of murder had been simple. Dynamite had been concealed under the car and attached to the steering post. One end of the wire from the electric starter had been disconnected and joined to the steering post so as to cause a spark, igniting the fuse which detonated the bomb.” (Gessler, 1937)

Some suggest the killing related to water, the day before he died, Conant had finished the 6-million gallon Kawela Intake water system, moving water to West Molokai, 20-miles away; others suggest it related to the suspension of open deer hunting on the ranch.

Further investigation of Conant’s death failed to develop anything but a mass of conflicting rumors, and the case was dropped. The matter remains unsolved.

Elmer Ellsworth Conant (son of John Munson Conant and Sophia Lyon) was born March 27, 1860 in Syracuse, New York. He married Surreney Ann Kananiopuna Neal on June 16, 1883 in Koloa, Kauai, daughter of John Daniel Neal and Haliete Pahukoaonalii Nakapaahu. They had 8-children:

Robert Wayne Kapuaʻalaonaona Conant b: 25 May 1884; John Neal Kaleaaloha Kukele Conant b: 30 Jun 1886; Ellsworth Thomas Kailipoloahilani Conant b: 12 Feb 1888; Lena Annett Kaualani Nawaiwawae Conant b: 22 Feb 1889; Elmer William Nahinu Conant b: May 1891; Nellie Kahululani Pahapuokalani Conant b: 30 Jun 1893; Fred Blakeslee Ku’uhaealoha Kukapu Conant b: 17 Nov 1895 and Raymond Kueilipoilani Conant b: 25 Jun 1901.

In 1892, Conant was noted as manager and bookkeeper of Waimea Sugar Mill Company. In 1899, the ʻEleʻele Plantation, McBryde Estate and Koloa Agricultural Company merged to create the McBryde Sugar Company.

Conant was its first Manager. He also was Postmaster (the post office was at the McBryde plantation office,) as well as tax assessor and collector.

Under a guardian dispute at Parker Ranch, for a while (about 1904-1906,) Conant was receiver of the Parker Ranch estate. “Judge Mathewman has appointed EE Conant as receiver, during the pendency of the petition for a petition of the property. Conant in the capacity of receiver, is now the manager of the Parker ranch”. (Hawaiian Star, June 27, 1904)

But he seemed to focus on sugar. Hans Peter Faye, of Kekaha, Kauai, whose properties there were leased from the government and were subject to withdrawal for homestead purposes, submitted a proposal to the Molokai Ranch Directors to lease land on Molokai for a sugar plantation. The Directors accepted his proposal.

Faye engaged the services of Conant to develop water for the plantation. It was decided by the Directors that Molokai Ranch would not only lease the land but would pay for the expense of the water development and Mr. Conant’s salary.

For the next three years, 1919 to 1921 inclusive, Conant prospected for well-water at various sites, beginning at Palaʻau and progressing eastward.

The water at Palaʻau had a salt content of ninety grains. At Kaunakakai the water held about fifty grains; at Onini thirty; at Kanoa twenty-two and at Kawela about two grains. Mr. Conant developed a total of six million gallons, containing twenty-eight grains of salt, suitable for irrigating sugar cane. (Cooke)

At about that time, James Munro, manager of the Molokai Ranch, resigned and Conant was appointed acting manager of the ranch.

The next year, Conant was killed in his garage at Kaunakakai and died in his wife’s arms. His son, Fred B Conant, was promoted to be assistant manager in charge of the cattle department. (Cooke)

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by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Hawaiian Room

“(I)f you are really lucky … If you are one of those of whom refreshing and enchanting things sometimes happen. You will have wandered into the Hawaiian Room at the Lexington …” (Tucker, Man About Manhattan, June 14, 1938)

The Hotel Lexington (on Lexington Avenue and 48th Street, New York City) was completed just six months before the market crash of 1929.

The iconic hotel became an instant favorite for global leaders, celebrities, business executives and some of America’s most famous sports icons including Joe DiMaggio, who famously lived in a penthouse suite during his whole career playing for the Yankees. (Lexington)

However, in the basement, hotel management realized they were stuck with a large and useless lower dining room. In 1932, they opened the SilveL Grill, featuring bandleaders Ozzie Nelson, Little Jack Little, Artie Shaw and Carl Ravel.

Popularity waned, and hotel owners were in need of a show that would attract wealthy society members and keep the hotel in the black. The manager decided to experiment for a few months with all-Hawaiian entertainment in a cafe decorated with South Sea motifs and featuring Polynesian food.

At the time, Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures were growing in popularity and interest across the country. However, the creation of the Hawaiian Room was still a bold move not only because of the Great Depression, but also an increasingly complicated global scene as world conflicts were escalating in both Asia and Europe. (Akaka)

On June 23, 1937, the Hawaiian Room opened in the Hotel Lexington, the first major showroom for live Hawaiian entertainment in the US and the one that became the most renowned.

The Room itself was the first of its kind and featured a glamorous dining room with island decor, large dance floor and American orchestra, and a Hawaiian music and floor show that was unmatched in its professionalism, elegance and beauty.

It was New York after all – the land of Broadway shows, fast-paced lifestyles, ethnic diversity and celebrities. (Hula Preservation Society)

The initial band, named “Andy Iona and His Twelve Hawaiians,” included Andy Iona (born Andrew Aiona Long,) composer-singer Lani McIntire and Ray Kinney as featured singer.

Kinney assembled the dance troupe in Honolulu: the solo dancer Meymo Ululani Holt, plus Pualani Mossman, Mapuana Bishaw and Jennie Napua Woodd – they became known as the “Aloha Maids” – they became the faces of Hawai‘i in New York.

While numerous American showrooms featured live Hawaiian entertainment, the Hawaiian Room served as the industry standard to beat. In many cases, performers in other American showrooms appeared at the Hawaiian Room sometime during their careers.

A few other notable entertainers who helped “make” the Room over the years include Alfred Apaka, Aggie Auld, Keola Beamer, Eddie Bush, Johnny Coco, Leilani DaSilva, Ehulani Enoka, Leila Guerrero, Meymo Holt, Keokeokalae Hughes, Clara Inter “Hilo Hattie,” Alvin Isaacs, Momi Kai, George Kainapau, Sonny Kalolo, David Kaonohi, Nani Kaonohi, Kui Lee, Sam & Betty Makia, Tootsie Notley, Lehua Paulson, Telana Peltier, Luana Poepoe and Dennie Regore. (Akaka)

The venue became “the place to be” for celebrities in New York City, and it was the people who worked in the Hawaiian Room who made it such a success. Because of their talents, island ways and authentic aloha many were able to enjoy a piece of Hawaiʻi, even if they were on another “island” 5,000 miles away. (Akaka)

The Hawaiian Room was a place where dancers could establish viable careers. In the Islands, career options were limited. Hula dancers could earn between $50 and $100 a week, compared with $4 to $10 a week in the pineapple canneries.

For many Hawaiian women, hula presented a dream ticket out of Hawai‘i, promising fame, glamour and middle-class status difficult for them to achieve in the plantation and service industries. (Imada)

They became minor celebrities as performers in what was referred to in New York papers as an “off-Broadway show not to be missed.”

Big-time celebrities like Arthur Godfrey and Steve Allen sought out the Hawaiian Room entertainers to be on their television shows. The Hawaiian Room dancers were featured on the very first broadcast of color television in the United States. (Hula Preservation Society)

“They say (dancer, Pualani Mossman) is the most photographed girl in the Islands …” She became known as the “Matson Girl” for her pictures in Time and Life magazines.

Although the Hawaiian Room was in New York, it played an ever important role in the spread of Hawaiian culture across the continental United States, as well as the development of Hawaii’s major industry … tourism.

The nightly exposure of business executives, celebrities and New York’s working men and women to the Hawaiian songs, sceneries and hula at Hotel Lexington was sure to have put dreams of a Hawaiʻi vacation in the minds of more than a few over the years. (Akaka)

Over the course of its 30-years, millions of people from all over the world experienced the Hawaiian Room, its melding of Hawaiian music and hula traditions with current American musical trends, and its people of aloha. (Hula Preservation Society)

In 1966, a hula dancer at another venue was seriously injured when her grass skirt caught on fire. That prompted new federal workplace fire laws. (KITV) The Hawaiian Room closed that year because the needed fireproofing renovations were too expensive. (honolulu)

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