From Our Files – April

HONOLULU Magazine and Paradise of the Pacific, chronicling the Islands since 1888.

April 1, 2006

Ronna Bolante,

April 1926: "Hawai’i is home to the world’s most liked and best known pineapple," writes Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor to HONOLULU Magazine. "Both in the excellence of the fruit’s quality and in the volume of its production, Hawai’i has no rival in the pineapple output." With more than 50,000 acres devoted to pineapple growing, Hawai’i’s pineapple industry is valued at $35 million (about $370 million in 2005 dollars). In the photo to the right, James Dole, president of the Hawaiian Pineapple Co., (right) stands with H. Bloomfield Brown (left), resident manager of the company’s Lana’i operations, and territorial Gov. Wallace Farrington. About 80 years later, the state estimates that the pineapple industry brings in annual revenues of $103 million, according to the 2003 report by the Hawai’i Agricultural Statistics Service, with just 16,000 acres used for the crop production.

April 1971: With the feminist movement in full swing across the nation, HONOLULU Magazine profiles five Island couples, for whom women’s lib is already old hat. "In Hawai’i, where the cost of living is second only to Alaska, it’s not unusual for women to work," the magazine writes. "To make ends meet, more wives work here than in any other state in the nation. … They’ve worked their way into careers that sometimes pay as much as those of their husbands and, if not, at least demand equal respect." Among the couples featured are state Rep. Pat Saiki and Kapi’olani Hospital chief of staff Stanley Saiki (photo left), attorney Roy Vitousek and Judge Betty Vitousek, and KGMB assignments editor Jack Kellner and advertising exec Tomeko Kellner.

This article appears in the April 2006 issue of HONOLULU Magazine.