October

Oct. 1925: “Twenty-seven hours in the air, nine days in purgatory, seven days in paradise. Cmdr. John Rodgers and his crew of four have had that experience,” writes Paradise of the Pacific, predecessor to HONOLULU Magazine. Rodgers had attempted the first nonstop flight from California to Hawai’i, but a fuel shortage forced him to land in the ocean, a few hundred miles from Kaua’i. After three days in the water, Rodgers and his crewmen improvised sails to guide the plane to land. They covered more than 50 miles over six days before a Navy submarine rescued them, just 15 miles offshore. In the photo (right), Gov. Wallace Rider Farrington shakes Rodgers’ hand at a luncheon honoring the crew. In honor of the aviation pioneer, state officials named the main terminal of the Honolulu International Airport after Rodgers in 1962, when the airport was completed.

Oct. 1950: During Aloha Week, Island clothing manufacturers show off their newest designs. In the photo (left), Duke Kahanamoku (center) poses with friends sporting the beloved surfer’s own line of aloha shirts–(from left to right) boxing manager Sad Sam Ichinose, Arthur Godfrey, world flyweight champion Dado Marino, Hawai’i Boxing Commissioner chairman Paul Withington and New York Athletic Commission chairman Edward Egan.

Oct. 1970: HONOLULU Magazine profiles Jack Lord, who starred as Honolulu cop Steve Mc-Garrett on Hawai’i Five-O. Just a few months earlier, Five-O had become the No.1-rated show in the United States and England. The magazine asked Lord about criticism from kama’aina, who felt the show unfairly depicted Honolulu as a violent city. "We have a positive thing here," Lord replied. "This is a police show. The message is that violence begets violence. Violence never solves anything. Anyone watching on any level, of any age, background or circumstances-anyone, subliminally, will get that message. We are a modern morality play."