From Our Files

October archives

1917 A photo of children enjoying the day at the private Waikiki retreat of Liliuokalani, who kept a beach house nearby. “The little sandy slope here is not for the thousands who seek the benefits of disporting in the waters,” writes Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor to HONOLULU Magazine. “The great gathering places of bathers lie some distance beyond the pier to the left while the Queen’s Place, as it is called, is reserved for such as Liliuokalani, like any private owner, chooses to permit. ... When she is not there, her friends and friends’ friends and acquaintances enjoy the privileges.”

1962 John M. Kelly Jr. discusses the life of his father, photo far left, in an essay for Paradise of the Pacific. A California painter, Kelly Sr. had moved to Hawaii in the early 1920s and became famous for his depictions of Polynesian women. The near left image is his 1955 drypoint etching “Leilani on the Beach.” “I may tell you that John senior never thought of himself as having been born as an artist fully grown,” his son writes. “For beneath a foot of coral at the bottom of the sea off Black Point, there lie many copper plates that he consigned to oblivion. ... A few precious remaining trial proofs from destroyed plates suggest that an artist’s view of his own work cannot always be trusted.”

In 1888, King Kalakaua issued a royal charter, commissioning a magazine. Then titled Paradise of the Pacific, this publication became HONOLULU Magazine, making it the oldest magazine west of the Mississippi.

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