From Our Files

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.

1934

Safety was the top concern when Honolulu Rapid Transit debuted “the Silver Fleet of safety Twin Coaches,” observes Paradise of the Pacific. The pay-as-you-enter coaches served more than 9,000 school kids and downtown business people a day. The twin-coaches—busing residents since 1932—revolutionized public transportation on Oahu and boasted air brake equipment, locking door mechanisms, childproof windows and required drivers to “pass a rigid physical examination at least once a year.” In 2008, TheBus fleet’s 530 buses carry 71 million passengers per year over 110 routes.

1954

“Rarely does a civilian see ‘behind scenes’ of the mass production of food,” observes Paradise of the Pacific. The magazine took a glimpse inside the Barbers Point mess hall, dedicated several months earlier. It served 2,500 men three times a day, feeding 1,250 men per seating. The $1.1 million mess hall ($8 million in 2009 dollars) also boasted a butcher shop, bakery, vegetable preparation room, cold and bulk storage rooms, boiler plant, ice-making room and three sculleries. The Navy closed Barbers Point in 1999, and last October it officially handed over the base’s land to a private developer.

1974

Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye is completely busy, reports HONOLULU Magazine, as chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee, Commerce subcommittee and father and husband. On top of that, he’s been appointed to the committee investigating numerous allegations surrounding the erupting Watergate scandal. “I think you could say that being a senator is a responsibility you have to love—and not just want,” Inouye tells HONOLULU. In October 2008, Inouye spoke on another Washington scandal, in defense of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who was convicted after accepting a large sum of gifts and lying about it.