(Sounds of birds chirping, waves crashing) (ʻUkulele playing) Singing:
Aloha ʻia no aʻo Waikīkī, eā In the crisp, balmy breeze of early morning,
Waikīkī on the island of Oʻahu slumbers in the cool shadow of Diamond Head. Her famous cloak of resorts have offered visitors
an interlude with a sundrenched pacific paradise since before the turn of the century. Such familiarity belies a distant past. Where royalty ruled over a thriving Hawaiian
community and where the landscape of Waikīkī flourished with loʻi, taro patches, local
fish ponds, coconut trees and thatched huts. In 1850, aliens were given the right to purchase
land. Moneyed foreigners built lavish and privileged
summer homes. They developed bath houses and canoe sheds
for their enjoyment. Soon the shoreline became a natural playground
for the rich and the glamour of Waikīkī began. Access by public transportation prompted dramatic
development, which has transformed modern Waikīkī into a world-famous destination. My name is Chinn Ho. Born in Waikīkī 1904. Waikīkī was a boondocks where we lived at
that time. Life at that time, it’s, is a contrast with
life today. Waikīkī is lined with hotels, and those
were the days when, the, when we had our three school houses, it was, although very pleasant,
it was a pleasant atmosphere. And we really enjoyed it, enjoyed the discipline
at the schools. And we had to put our hands in front of the
desk and if you don't you find the yardstick gets on. (Laughs) There was very little beach activity
then except for the few surfers and few tourists we had that area. In the olden days when I first started down
at the beach down at the Outrigger Canoe Club, I was young. I got in because of the old man John D. Kaupiko
and being a top steersman in those days for my age, like about 13, 14 years old, I was
accepted by the big guys. And the old man let me take out the commercial
loads when nobody around - illegally - and finally I got good enough and they licensed
me. Then the Outrigger Canoe Club hired me and
here the guys there you have all the big names like Panama Dave, Charlie Amalu, Splash Lyons,
Steamboat, Curly Cornwell, Turkey Love, all those big old-time guys. Blue Makua, Jr. and Joe Pang, Joe Akana. They were about the big name guys then in
those days, plus the Kahanamokus which you know, everybody knows. And them, in those days, when we used to work,
you only cater to mostly the rich people coming off the boat, the Matsonia, Lurline. They used to stay at the Royal and then that's
the kind of hotel clientele we get. People with the money. And at the time when they leave -that's where
you make your bucks and they give good tips, big tips. Nowadays, it's hard. They come down here on a package deal. They don't have money to spend. You get very, the business here is just bad. The way you look at it now, it's almost at
a standstill. I don't know how you can do it to put it up
tourist bureau, everything else do something. But still, it's not feasible nowadays to be
a beach boy. And a lot of the times now and being a beach
boy in his modern area, you have lot of illegal guys, guys that are not licensed, trying to
do the job that we're doing. And they are just like, you know, muscling
in on the territory, the business. Being their friend, you don't want to kick
the hell out of them guys. But I think the harbor board should do something
because they are the ones that are licensing those people and get down hard on them. Get them out of there. That's about, you know, the difference in
the olden days when the olden days you can do anything you want as long as you within
the rights and don't get in trouble. Trouble is like the older guys and my time
getting drunk at night creating hell, raising cain, which was normal. You get people like John Wayne and everybody
come down and boy, party, brawls and everything. That's their time. It was good. But now you don't find those kind of people. That's about it. Waikīkī, I sang that around here in 1938
for the first time. And now they're still singing it now in 1988
and they'll still sing it in 1989 now presently. It's one of the most performed songs in Waikīkī. Of all the musicians down there, everybody
plays it- at least once a night. (Laughs, strums ʻukulele) And the thing about this is when I was in
the mainland when I had written this and we went up there during the summer, but then
we got through, through the summer and then came the autumn and then came the start of
winter and boy I mean I was getting cold. So, by the time we got to a place called Lansing,
Michigan it was the middle of December already. But to those haoles that wasn't so cold but
to us it was - and had snow on the ground and all kind. And fog at night. Oh, miserable weather. So right away because of that, I told those
guys in Lansing, you know if I was in Hawaiʻi right now 10:00 at night, sometimes we go
down Waikīkī Beach and swim at 10:00 in the night. They say, 'What?! December?' I said yeah, December, January, February,
March, June, July, anytime! Because Hawaiʻi - I told them - is always
summer where in fact the Hawaiian language don't have any words for, for winter or summer
or autumn or spring. There’s no words in Hawaiian language for
that because we didn't need 'em. We have only one kind of season all year long. So (ʻukulele strums)
This is the way I felt, kind of homesick. I've been put into a place where, not used
to this kind of environment. Thinking, I was thinking strongly about Hawaiʻi
and the reason I wrote about Waikīkī is because Waikīkī was the most famous Hawaiian
word in mainland at that time - at least in a central part -because they never heard of
Hawaiʻi then. But you mentioned Waikīkī and everybody
heard that. Singing:
Waikīkī at night when the shadows are falling I hear the rolling surf calling, calling and
calling to me Waikīkī, tis for you that my heart is yearning
My thoughts are always returning Out there to you across the sea
Your tropic nights and your wonderful charms, are ever in my memory
And I recall when I held in my arms an angel sweet and heavenly
Waikīkī my whole life is empty without you I miss that magic about you
Magic beside the sea Magic of Waikīkī. My feeling of being a celebrity was just being
a normal person being myself. And I thought that if I went overboard and
tried to be somebody I was not, it wouldn't be satisfying at all. To me, entertaining the public was sharing
some of my knowledge and my ability to show the hula as it was danced properly and sing
the songs that we were taught by our kūpuna, our elders. The community of Waikīkī is now more transient
than when we were living there. The families have scattered. You don't have a big family living in Waikīkī
like we did. Every block we had two or three, we say, local
families. Everybody knew everybody else. We always knew there was a newcomer. Well, I was too young to remember as a baby,
but I was born at Kapiʻolani hospital. And the first family home that they took me
to, which I have pictures of, there like this little, little thing was at Dewey Way where
the Niumalu Hotel and now the Hawaiian Village now stand. And shortly after that, we moved to Kaimukī
on Charles Street, where Leonard's Bakery is. And the place to go swimming was San Souci
- without care, without any problems, that's what it means. And the water there was very nice next to
the Natatorium because the Natatorium had already been built. And when you got a little older, then you
went to Kūhiō Beach with my father. And my uncle would come from the island of
Kauaʻi, where I'd spend the rest of my time other than here, Honolulu, growing up. But Waikīkī then had the unique coffee shop,
unique Hawaiian food shop across the street. And my grandfather, who was Chinese-Hawaiian,
would sit under those arbors where they played cribbage or they played paiute or they played,
kāmau - trumps - something like that. And I knew that if I was a boy, if I walked
by him, he would give me a dollar which means I could go across the street, and I could
get shave ice, shave ice at the unique coffee shop. Or I could get laulau or maybe some pipi kaula
to chew on the beach. So, whenever we went to Kūhiō Beach, I always
went for a walk near my grandfather, because Chinese the good luck gambling, he'd give
me the dollar so I could go. We were swimming once at Waikīkī with a
inflated tire, my uncle and I, and that area, at Kūhiō Beach where the breakwater has
been built, was up. And we went and we got there and we went over
and the tide started to change. So that inflated tire went further and further
and further out. And we're young men - boys. So, we don't know how deep it is because we're
not accustomed to that water. Finally, we're getting panicky so we both
hung on and started to kick to get back to that place. He was a better swimmer than I because he
comes from the island of Kauaʻi where he was taught by his friends and his uncle and
his other older brothers and I wasn't. So, I swam, which seemed an interminable length
from that breakwater to the beach. And that's in those days, it got deeper in
the middle and then it got shallower as you got towards the shore. And there was a woman along the way and I
was swimming so I grabbed on her and said, I'm drowning, I'm drowning. Well, she started to go under the water. I'm kicking, my father's lying down absorbing
the sun on the beach. Daddy, daddy, my uncle is swimming and he
gets to the water gets to the shore. Well, finally I made it but I never thought
I'd see the shore of Waikīkī ever again. The Moana is special because it's the first
resort hotel in Waikīkī. It was a risky venture, as it was stated in
the newspaper accounts at the time. It was a business venture, essentially, to
come to an area that had no resort development, per se. There were and I'm not historically accurate
on what Waikīkī was in 1901, but I know there were a lot of there were summer homes,
summer palaces, large estates. There were some rooming houses I believe. I don't know how else to define them, but
not a true resort hotel as the Moana, is now. The architect came from the mainland, brought
mainland styles and ideas that were currently in fashion at the time. So, it is built in the style of other structures. It's built in wood and I have come across
some newspaper accounts that indicate that some of structures of this size would possibly
have been built in other materials on the mainland. Why it was built in wood and why, I'm not
sure. The goal of the renovation is a long-term
product. Let's put it that way. I don't think anyone can say how long. I'm not sure that, there's some people that
are surprised that it was able to stand 88 years of weathering and alteration and so
on. It's pretty remarkable wooden structure actually. Well, this hotel is unique in Waikīkī. Its historic, it has a historic facade, classical
proportions, large windows, no lānais except what you see along the the beach front in
the center section. It has a non-repetitive exterior appearance,
which makes it very unique from the contemporary hotels in Waikīkī. I hope when the hotel reopens and the public
is able to go through it that they'll be pleased to see the hotel as it was in 1901 and the
adaptation of the site, today's site, to the proportions of the original. Well, my first memory and my still continuing
memory of Waikīkī is a place of fun. I grew up in Kaimukī, which was just a stone's
throw up from Waikīkī. And when we were young, the thing we did on
weekends or after school was to go swimming. And in those days, Waikīkī Beach was not
as crowded as it is today. Certainly, the tourism industry 30 plus years
ago, did not have the kind of volume and busyness and the commercial aspect that it does today. And as a result, a lot of time that we spent
swimming was in Waikīkī Beach. It was great fun all the time. It was inexpensive fun. The whole neighborhood where I grew up with
in Kaimukī used to come to Waikīkī right down Monsarrat Avenue, that aspect hasn't
changed at all. Monsarrat remains the same. The type of fun that people have today seem
to be more sophisticated, then it was in our days. Our days, it was very basic, having very little
money to spend. It was done either in sports or in swimming,
surfing, etc. It seems like the young people of today want
to spend their time doing more things that cost more money. In those days also, we spent a lot of time
with people from other schools, meeting them on the beach, the YMCA. I was an active member of the YMCA and I spent
many of my days down at the old Nuʻuanu YMCA and that's where I first learned to swim. And I met lots of kids from other schools
and from other neighborhoods. Today, I noticed that our sons and daughters
have a tendency to be very parochial in spending their time with just a small group of people
from their own schools or from their own peer group. And I think that's a mistake. I think the broader one can expand oneself
and swimming on the beach and getting to know them such as Waikīkī Beach. That, to me was a lot of fun, and still is
a lot of fun and I want to carry that thought straight to the present day. I never expected that I would be working within
a stone's throw from Waikīkī Beach, but here I am 30 years later doing that. And I view Waikīkī today as a place that
is, connotes activity, fun, relaxation at the same time. A place where one could come and find entertainment
and good dining where one can also meet an awful lot of people from all over the world. The world has come to Hawaiʻi and to Waikīkī. Waikīkī is actually the starting point for
many people was vacations, regardless of whether they liked the outer islands as a favorite
spot to visit. Generally, it all starts or ends here. I recall when I first came on this job that
there was some apprehension from some of the Waikīkī people, the hotels, and what have
you, that because there were direct flights, from the coast, to the neighbor islands, that
that would somehow bypass Waikīkī. But we have found through our experience that
generally if they go directly to the neighbor islands, for quiet relaxation, they sort of
yearn for a little bit of activity, a little bit more action than can be found elsewhere. And so, they come to Waikīkī for the for
the final part of their vacations before they go back to where they came from. So Waikīkī still remains the center of attention
of the visitor industry. And I foresee that it always will be. Whether we like it or not, Waikīkī sort
of just grew by leaps and bounds. It was not obviously a planned community. And from that aspect, if we could do it over
again, obviously, we would like to see it done differently, sort of a helter skelter
unplanned growth. But it has also been helpful to other planned
resort areas such as Kāʻanapali, such as Waikoloa, such as Wailea and Kapalua, to plan
better the way they have set out their facilities and to plan better access to the sea and to
the beaches as versus what we have here in Waikīkī, where you have a solid group of
hotels, blocking off certain accesses to the beach. I think I was asked the question once, if
I had a wish for Waikīkī, what would I wish? Well, my answer remains the same. I would wish that there would be no, would
have been no building of any kind seaside of Kalākaua Avenue that from, from point
to point, it would all have been left wide open. Park setting, beaches, wide beaches where
the, the local community as well as the tourists could have easy access and ready access to
the beach. Because I think that visitors who come really
do sometimes yearn to have a contact with the local community and vice versa. I think the local community sort of views
Waikīkī now as versus during my day, as a place that's reserved for the visitor, which
it should not be. I would like to see more communication and
more coming together to use all the facilities that are available. The future though is something else. I always found and find Waikīkī with its
buildings and its mosaic of people extraordinarily interesting. People think it's ugly. I think it's a work of art. I think if you lie on the beach, it's all
artificial beach anyway, it's all brought in sand, brought in palm trees. Everything around here is utterly artificial. Waikīkī was a swamp, we drained it all. You're sitting right this very minute on a
place called... that was at one time an island, Makee Island. If you understand that it's strictly built
for human purpose and that it's gone through tremendous changes over the last 200 years,
over the last 20 or 30 years that I've been here and and seen it. It's easy to speculate about some of the changes
in the future. I think that that building materials, building
styles will certainly change and we will marvel at the repetition, the repetition, the repetition
that is part of modern 20th century building where every floor looks exactly alike. That particular capability is a rather new
capability. Can you imagine what Waikīkī would have
looked like 100 years ago, 200 years ago, what people would have thought, how can they
make all these buildings that look exactly alike? How can they have every floor be like every
other floor? This is a style of architecture that was unprecedented
in the past, and which you won't find again, as new architectural styles, probably more
flexible, more fluid, become characteristic of the technologies of the 21st century and
beyond. So, we better preserve this as a incredible
monument to history. Also, when I think about the future, I mentioned
Makee Island, this is liable to be an island again. The future of Waikīkī is probably underwater. I think it's almost certain that the one of
the major things that we're going to have to deal with in the world, every country every
place, but a very important in Hawaiʻi, extremely important here is sea level rise, due to the
greenhouse effect, the melting of the polar ice caps, the rise of water. What we'll do about it here, whether we will
choose to try to dam it and prevent the water from rising, or whether we'll simply let the
water come in and maybe make a Venice out of it so that we’ll be pulling around the
water and maybe this seventh floor apartment will be much closer to the water then than
it is now or whether we'll simply give the whole thing up and move on the other side
of well, what's now the Ala Wai Canal but might be the Ala Wai, I don't know, shorefront
at the time. I don't know. But we have some major challenges and changes
ahead. I don't think Waikīkī will look anything
like this within 50 to 100 years the way it looks now. It'll be quite different. How about the the ozone the hole in the ozone
layer that is growing over the earth as a result of human activities? If that hole continues to grow, and if we
can't find a way to reverse it, as it appears to be, one of the consequences of that will
be I'm certain a decline in sun-based tourism. Why will people want to go out in the sun
if all that will do is increase their skin cancer? So, I think that we better look at and enjoy
Waikīkī in its present form as, as fast as we can it's not likely to stay in this
form much longer. Well, I wish I was a prophet and I could see
that far ahead, a hundred years, but not being a prophet, my one hope is that they will not
- no matter if if there's not one single Hawaiian in Hawaiʻi 100 years from now - the thing
that I would like for that, the population at that time to remember is to remember all
the good traits of the Hawaiian, Hawaiian personalities, Hawaiian customs. To be friendly to everybody no matter even
if you don't know 'em, you know. Over here even if you don’t know, you say
aloha, you know, and how are you? You like you like your visit and all that? I wish that will be retained no matter which,
which group of people become dominant, dominant in Hawaiʻi. I wish they'd be smart enough to retain that
kind of a personality for Hawaiʻi forever. Singing:
Honi kāua wikiwiki Sweet brown maiden said to me as she gave
me language lessons on the beach at Waikīkī Honi kāua wikiwiki
You have learned it perfectly. Don’t forget what I have taught you on the
beach at Waikīkī. Uluwehiwehi ʻoe i kaʻu ʻike lā
E ka Royal Hawaiian Hotel A he nani la ke hulali nei
