October

Oct.
1949: “The gracious atmosphere of a vanished era has been recaptured with
detailed perfection in what was once the royal residence of Hawai’i’s beloved
Queen Emma,” reports Paradise of the Pacific. Queen Emma’s summer home in Nu’uanu
Valley opened as a museum in 1915. But after 30 years, the museum had fallen into
disrepair. The Daughters of Hawai’i helped restore the royal residence and, today,
continues to operate and preserve the museum. In the photo at right, Mrs. Arthur
Greenwell and Mrs. Charles M. Hite pose near the queen’s piano.

Oct.
1954: “The [Matson ocean liner] Lurline school of the hula graduated its 10,000th
student on a recent voyage to Honolulu,” writes Paradise of the Pacific. In addition
to receiving a diploma, Mrs. Robert Poer of Phoenix also won a grass skirt, which
she dons in the photo below left.

Oct.
1979: HONOLULU Magazine writer John Charlot laments that two key works of
Island architect C.W. Dickey, the Halekülani Hotel and Waikïkï Theater, are threatened
with demolition. “In all of Dickey’s buildings can be found this sensitivity to
local conditions, attachment to earlier architectural achievements, and intelligent,
creative solutions to the problems posed by the project.” Charlot notes how the
Waikïkï Theater, photo above, combined art deco with Island details-an open courtyard,
two frescos by Marguerite Blasingame and outdoor landscaping. In the auditorium,
the proscenium arch was a lighted rainbow framed by two coconut trees, and, when
the lights went out, simulated clouds seemed to flow across the dark blue, starry
ceiling. “If the theater is destroyed,” Charlot wrote, “we will lose an important
side of an architect who helped teach us how to live in modern Hawai’i.” The Waikïkï
Theater was spared for 20 more years. After years of declining business, however,
it closed in 2002. Today, the building still sits unused. Although the Halekülani
bungalows were replaced in the 1980s by a much larger resort, the hotel’s main
building was preserved.

Oct.
1984: “As most viewers of local TV news in Hawai’i are now aware, there has
been an important change in the way courtroom stories have been covered in the
past year,” reports HONOLULU Magazine, photo above left. In 1984, the state Supreme
Court established a two-year experiment in which media cameras would be allowed
in state courts. The program’s supporters maintained that trials were public events
and that courtroom realism might deter would-be criminals. Critics argued that
cameras interfered with a defendant’s right to a fair trial, often turning a case
into a public spectacle. In the late 1980s, the Hawai’i Supreme Court decided
to permanently allow cameras in the courtroom.