From Our Files

September Archives

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.

1952

Residents welcome the production of Big Jim McClain, a film that stars John Wayne as an investigator trying to break up a Communist ring in Hawaii. “The Islands have been a favorite background for grass skirt period sagas of South Seas romance,” writes Paradise of the Pacific, but “no picture company ever before had chosen to film a complete modern story in their community.” The Warner Bros. production showcases the USS Arizona Memorial, downtown business buildings and Waikiki hotels, and even casts Honolulu police chief Dan Liu and sheriff Duke Kahanamoku as themselves.

 1957

“Two turbulent years have passed and 500,000 vaccinations have been given in Hawaii since the Salk polio vaccine was pronounced both effective and safe,” health official Josephine Backus reports in Paradise of the Pacific. That year, the territory implemented a school vaccination program, holding two sessions in each school staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses. The efforts have paid off, Backus notes. “In 1955, 189 cases of polio had been reported in the territory. … During the first six months of this year, only one case was reported, and there have been no deaths.”