 For everyone, and welcome to Human Humane Architecture here on Think Tech Hawaii. I am this show's co-host, DeSoto Brown. Our normal host, Martin Despang, is in Germany for the summer. And today we've got two Dokomomo people here with us, and we're going to be talking about the history of bowling in Hawaii, particularly the architectural history of bowling in Hawaii. And let's see who our two guests are, and can I ask you to explain who you are and why you're here? Yes, I am Alyssa Carson. I am the current president of Dokomomo U.S. Hawaii Chapter. Thank you very much, and... I'm Don Hibbert, and I am a board member of Dokomomo Hawaii. All right. Well, I thank you both very much for being here. And let's go to our first slide. And let's see what we're going to be looking at is in terms of pictures. And in the background, we've got obviously a bowling alley. That's the Polly Bowl. Polly Leans. Polly Leans. Well, first of all, what we wanted to talk about to just sort of set the stage for this is that there used to be a lot of bowling alleys here in Hawaii. Bowling got started, I believe. I mean, I'm pretty sure that there were bowling alleys as early as the 1800s. I have read about very early bowling alleys. As early as the 1830s. And Herman Melville, famous author, author of Moby Dick, supposedly worked in a bowling alley in Honolulu in something like the 1840s or 1850s. Okay, yes. So we know. Well, here on the screen with me right now is an ad for a variety of different bowling alleys. What year is this from? 1955 or so? 60. This is 1960. Okay. This is from the business directory. And we can see that there are three. Well, actually, four. Stadium Bola Drone, Playmore Recreation, which I don't remember. Honolulu Bowling Center and the Kalihi Bowl were just about to see all of those. Right. Well, I just put this one in because the Playmore was actually the first modern bowling alley in Hawaii. It was started in 1938. And as you can see, I think it's impossible to read. It says 10. It says 10 alleys. Oldest alley in town. Yes. And the stag bars started. Okay. And that was over by Richardson Hotel. Okay. And did it have automatic pin? No, it did not. In those days, it did not. Okay. And yeah, a little tidbit, which I found out when I was doing research. Hawaii sort of came along after the mainland. Bowling alleys started to become popular in the 1930s, primarily because of prohibition. Oh, okay. Prohibition all of a sudden divorced bowling alleys from the Tavern. Right. Which they had been associated with. Very much so. And because of that, you started getting bowling as a family event. Exactly. And so in the late 30s, the stag bars opened up the Playmore. And then the next one, I think the next slide will show us. Yeah. So let's go to our next slide. And there's our next bowling alley. Yes. And this was 1940, the Waikiki bowling alley opened up. Correct. And the thing about this bowling alley, which I think is very interesting, and you and I had this discussion just before the show, it was in a very remarkable place for us today. Because it's about where the police station, substation is in Waikiki now, next to what's the diamond head wing of the Moana Hotel. Well, it's kind of bizarre to think of a bowling alley being built there. And it is, it was demolished in about 1960. And if we go to the next picture, what's even more bizarre about this is how unattractive it was right on Waikiki Beach. Because in this picture from 1950, you can see if I can figure out which way to point. No, I always do this wrong. Never mind. It's over there. No, it's not. It's over there. In any case, the back of the bowling alley is this big concrete expanse right up against the beach, which today we would not allow. But in those days, you got away with everything. Okay, let's go to our next slide. Well, and then the interesting thing about this bowling alley too was this was an early commission of Baltimore Aussie Park. Really? Yes. I never knew that. Wow. He started down at the bottom, didn't he? In any case, okay, so let's go to our next slide. And let's see, this is the Hawaiian lanes. And does anybody know anything important about this or? This was another very early, it came afterward. The Playmore and the Waikiki were the only two prewar world bowling alleys. But this one came right at the end of World War II. I didn't realize it was that old. And this was on YY Loop, which is by the present day Total Lulu Airport. In those days, it would have been the middle of nowhere. But it would have been close to the military. That's true. Because during World War II, the military were the main patrons of bowling alley. That's true. I can see that that's the case. And I think the thing that we can mention now that we're looking at this particular picture, your average bowling alley has to always conform to a very similar format, which is it has to be long, low, not a very tall ceiling. So you've got these big long warehouse-like rectangular buildings. And the pretty much the only thing you can do with them is to give them an interesting frontage or an interesting entrance. And that's something that we're going to see as we continue through here. Because otherwise the buildings themselves are not very distinguished looking. And if you're going to dress them up, you've got to do something else with the front. Okay, let's go to our next slide. And there's the Total Lulu Bowling Center. Do we know? This picture is from 1942. This was located at Young Street and Kalakaua Avenue, as you can see from the matchbook that's also in the picture there, 1323 Kalakaua. I can remember this building. So it has to have been there up into at least the 1960s. You, Don, remember that there was the Dairy Queen across the street, but this was there. This is now a 7-Eleven and a gas station. And it isn't a very big building. It's not as big as the ones that we're going to be seeing later on. But as you can see, there are two GIs coming out of it. So we know that this is during World War II. And I also know based on the car that's parked nearby in the picture, which is not visible here. Yeah, and I'll correct myself. This was the third bowling alley. Oh, pardon me. This is the one. Okay, sorry, sorry. Okay, all right, that does make more sense. Yeah, all right, all right, yes. And there are the GIs, as we were just saying, we're the primary patrons. Okay, let's go to our next slide. And Kalihi Bowl. What can we say about the Kalihi Bowl? Anybody got anything interesting other than what I can babble about? It's there. The bowling pin sign was very typical of another, the bowling alley was coming in in the 50s when all of a sudden, you start getting mid-century architecture, which is catering to the automobile. And here is something you can see at 30 miles an hour. That's right. And so, yes, okay, there's the bowling alley. Yeah, okay, well, this is the Kalihi Bowl was located in the Kalihi Shopping Center, which opened in about 1955. Today, it is no longer there. It's now a car dealership. Part of the structure is there, but it hasn't been a shopping center for some time. And it was not ever a very successful shopping center, which is very unusual for shopping centers in Hawaii to not thrive. This one never did. We're not 100% sure where exactly the bowling alley was. I was conjecturing that it was down underneath, because if you look at the picture of the person with the bowling pin, the giant bowling pin, you can see there's a driveway going down. I know that right next to it was a drug store, so we know it's not up there at the top level. But in any case, what Don said in terms of 50s and 60s, we're gonna be seeing more of that. And that's very crucial for the Doko Momo time period as well as the growth of bowling and the popularity of bowling at the time. And it has a very wonderful 50s Googie sign, too, with a, you can see that the matchbook design has the same motif as the giant sign itself does. Okay, let's go to our next slide. And Campbell, this is, and what we're seeing here with the Campbell, which was located Maoka Bishop Museum, where I work, was, again, a fairly prosaic building, but with this very striking, modern, thrusting, pointing structure at the entrance, which is, again, typical of the space age, but also a way to dress up an otherwise undistinguished building. And who knows and can tell us about the Bolodrome and the Campbell? Well, actually, I wanted to add more to what you were saying about the entry elements to these facilities is that, you know, not only do they dress them up, but they also provide a recognizable element for the car that was a very popular thing during the mid-century. Yes. So it was easy recognizable while they're driving along the road. Absolutely, that's absolutely right. And even more so, I think, on the mainland where this got even more crazy because they didn't have sign laws. The Bolodrome, the stadium Bolodrome, it was originally called the Stadium Bolodrome. The word stadium is not visible in the picture that we have there. And it was located just Machai of the original Hodelulu Stadium, which is now the old stadium park on Ezenburg and King Street. And it's been closed now for quite a while. Yes, it's been at least eight or nine years. Yeah. And we're pretty sure that this one is no longer ever gonna open again. No, I'm sure it's not. I had my car towed away about five years ago nearby and I got towed to the parking lot behind the stadium Bolodrome. So it wasn't functioning as a polling alien when my car got towed away either. Oh yeah, what were you saying? I'm sorry, but the interesting thing about the Bolodrome, too, is that it was a true community center. It had a community room for churches and the community, too, to be able to meet and have community functions within the bowling facility. Correct. And that's something that Don alluded to also was the inclusion of families. And when you look at some of the advertising, they're very family friendly. They've got nurseries or play rooms for kids. So the whole family can come and if the kids are too young to bowl, you can put them somewhere and go bowl. Okay, let's go to our next slide. And here are two of those funny kooky entryways. The one on the left is for the Wiley Bowl building, which I think is from 1957. It has now been demolished, unfortunately. Originally, it was a bowling alley with a coffee shop that was a very googie coffee shop. The coffee shop eventually became a McDonald's and the bowling alley closed in, I think, 2008. And other buildings were built facing the Kahala Mall parking lot and eventually it's been demolished and this has been totally redeveloped into a new McDonald's and kind of a strip mall type of development. And so unfortunately we have lost that canopy and then right above my head in this picture right here, now I always do this wrong, pardon me, in the background you can see the Alamoana building, but here in the foreground above me is this really bizarre structure, which was what, the Stardust? Stardust, yes. Stardust on Ka Omoku Street. Designed by Ernie Harrah. Oh, Ernie Harrah? Yes. And it had this kind of a ramp that curved up around the giant ball, which has this kind of corrugated little hat on top of it. And also the ball, you see the little dots on the ball. Did they, were they colored lights? Yes, they were. Yes. This is coming back to me, this is coming back to me. And I have to say these structures are very kooky and very weird and unfortunately a lot of this really googie, extreme stuff goes out of fashion very quickly and people either don't care about it or it is destroyed because it's so unfashionable and in doing so we lose these very iconic pieces from the time period. And that's one of the things that Dokomomo was about. It's about mid-century architecture and appreciating it and saving it. Yeah, and a lot of what you say these kooky things, it's also, besides trying to attract the car, it's also telling, oh, here's a fun place. Oh, exactly. Here's something that's modern and fun. Absolutely. And so it's trying to draw you in and give you an atmosphere of recreation. Absolutely, which is the whole point. Recreation, bowling out, bowling was really treated as convivial and something to get together with other people but also, quote, helpful because you exercise. Yeah. And just to let you know, I found some interesting statistics. I can't find any for Hawaii, but nationwide in 1940, there were around 12 million people bowling. That's a lot. 10 years later, that number had doubled. I can believe it. And then by 1964, there was 39 million people enrolled. Actively, yeah. Yeah. And so it was during the 50s and 60s, it was a giant boom period for bowling. It was. Let's go to our next slide. And something else I also wanna say too about bowling was that just before we get to this, there were whole other industries that depended upon it. There were local companies that made bowling shirts. So if you had a bowling team from the people you worked with or some other kind of organization, you all got matching shirts with your logo silk screened on the back and then you had your name embroidered on your pocket. And that's what you wore when you went bowling. And there were also industries to make bowling trophies. And it used to be, and I remember as a kid, you'd go to somebody's house and bowling trophies were displayed. And that's how popular bowling was. Okay, now Kelly's bowl. Now correct me if I'm wrong. This used to be on Nimitz Highway, excuse me, Kamehameha Highway, not Nimitz, at Pool All Road. It was first built as Kelly's and then the building became Jet Bowl? I believe so. Okay, that's what I was conjecturing. Kelly's closed in 62 and that's when Jet opened. Oh, all right. So I'm quite sure that that's what it, because if you look on the... On the rendering? Yes, on the rendering then in the middle match book. Yeah, they have the same building. I remember that building very well and I only remember it as Jet Bowl. And the building's still there amazingly. Okay, because I wasn't sure if it wasn't. I just drove by it the other day. I didn't have time to take a picture. But there it is, okay. Because Kelly's was originally a drive-in restaurant and then the bowling alley got built, I think a few years after the restaurant did as an adjunct. And again, it's got this very distinctive, it's a long low building, but in this case they've given it this nice bumpy roof to make it a little more playful. And also we'll be seeing more of this, what you call a bumpy roof, but essentially a round arch roof. Wemberley and Cook did this design also. This is cool. I'm glad to hear that some of these big names designed bowling alleys, local big names in the architecture world. Okay, next picture. Polly Lane's. All right, let's focus on Polly Lane's because that's what you're really here to talk about. One of the few remaining bowling alleys. Yes, very one of the few. It was built in 1961 by Wemberley and Cook. And it was a 24 lane facility under about 25,000 square feet. And it was very modern for its time. It had a lot of different amenities such as the skillet rush or the skillet, which was very popular for Kailua residents to go and attend. There was the cocktail lounge, which was called the trophy room. Appropriately enough. And I bet there were bowling trophies in it. I'm sure there were. There was also a barber shop and a snack bar, which was the first cafeteria in Kailua. I don't know, but they did do takeout. Oh, well. And so the food was good enough that local residents came. And it's also when you had a car. So you took it out and you took it home. And this one also had a playroom for children. But those things didn't really last too long because the kids wanted to be with the parents at the lanes and watching them bowl. And get in the way. There's more excitement out there. That's right. But I'm sure that's true. Well, it also has a very distinctive, it has a distinctive layout as I'm looking at this rendering because it's got this wonderful big arch. And then it's got this pylon for the Polly Lane's sign. And those two juxtaposed are a very modern type of look. Yeah. Maybe the next slide. Yeah, let's go to the next picture. And there's that pylon right there except it just says bowling now. On the one side, on the other side, it does say Polly Lane. Oh, it says Polly Lane's, okay. And done. Yes, we have the picture there. And. Oh, yeah, there it is. Thank you. This is very, not only is it, I guess very recognizable, but it also on the first floor, it held the barber shop. And then above it was the mechanical AC units. And then you can see kind of the scalloped, concrete blocks that kind of help vent, ventilate the mechanical units. So that's not just a sign, that's actually a structure with purpose. Right, that's where the, where the important stuff happens. Where the AC of the building was. Now that's the guts, the heart and soul. And the barber shop went out of business after a while and then it became the pro shop where you would buy your bowling balls. Bowling trophy and stuff, yeah. Okay, next picture. And there it is. And that's not just the bowling alley because in the upper corner, left corner, we've got something else. What's that? Upper left corner. That is Foodland, Foodland Kaneohe in the Wynward City Shopping Center. And. It was also done by Wimbledon Cook. Yes. So we see two similar roof structures. Actually, this is three. Three. It goes on the right is the Foodland in Kailua. Oh, for heaven's sake. And actually the Foodland in Kailua, this one was by located, or it's actually still there, the structure's still there. By Kailua Beach, with Island Snow, I think is inside there. And actually the Foodland Kailua was built before Pavi Lane. Yes. Oh, okay. No, that makes sense. That makes sense. And those two are both Wimbledon Cook buildings. Okay. Well, again, what we see in this time period during the Doko Momo, the modern time period of mid-century, a lot of breaking away from the average structure because you wanted to look modern. This was a time in which we were thinking the space age is coming, we're going to go to the moon, the Jetsons are on TV. So you want to have these structures that are not just plain boxes. And so people are playing around with these. And like you can see too, the concrete arches that are going up, the modern period, the articulated how the structure worked. And so you can actually see that is actually what's supporting the roof. Exactly, correct. And then I think also the arch form really helps, especially for grocery stores and bowling alleys is because they can span very long spans without having to have the columns in the interior. So these worked well for these. Correct, for engineering purposes. Yes, yes. Exactly. Good. And also you'll notice in the bottom picture that black section of wall. Yeah. It's a Puna Lava rock and it was from the Capopo. Yes. Oh, ironic. And yes, very now. But you start seeing buildings in the late 50s and because the flow was in 55 and by the early 60s, it was gone. They had used it. Oh, they had mined it essentially. Yes. And so you'll just see a very brief time period and you see a building with that. It's very rough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's very much, again, and the contrast, this is another very popular idea at that time, contrasting surfaces of color and texture. So to have a smooth thing next to a raw, natural thing was also very popular. That we see a great deal at that time and particularly in a nice smooth terrazzo floor with a lava rock wall. And that was the Hawaiian Village Hotel lobby made a big deal about that. Okay, let's go to our next picture and those are quite cool. And there we are inside. Yes. And again, you can see the beams that are holding it up. Yeah. Those are concrete? Those are concrete beams. Yes, those are concrete beams, okay. Yeah, they're all, at this period, we wouldn't precast. Yeah, okay. The other interesting thing about maybe this building as well as the Kaneohe Food Land is that these buildings were built for, what was it in the article I read? It was maximum beauty and minimum upkeep. Okay. So, I mean, it's really standing its test of time because unfortunately these buildings have not been renovated too much, great. But they still look very good for the amount of neglect that they've got. Well, I will, and I'll take your word for it that they don't leak a lot and have a lot of other things that happen. Because that does happen, unfortunately, with lots of other stuff. Okay, well let's go to our next picture. And there are all, because I know you've got pictures of a lot of the other details. And so here's the entryway, I'm assuming? Yes. And actually you're coming up, the tower would be just out of the picture on the left. Okay. On the right-hand side. Right. But you can see they're doing the scalloped wall again. Yeah. Which is made out of concrete, it's all. And then on the right, when you're going up, there was a garden area. Right. You can see the historic photo and there was a koi pond. You could go out and look at the koi pond. From that little platform. Oh, that's cool. Modernly cantilevered. Oh, and it didn't have any supports, it was just sticking out. But they were quite far back. Oh, okay, so you didn't see them? Yes. Yeah, okay. Yeah, that scalloped wall kind of baffle there is very much like the concert hall at Blaisdell. Yes. I mean, that wall has that repeated arch motif as well. And that's going to be a little bit later than this, but very close in time period. Well, I've never set foot in Polly Lane's and so I'm now enticed to want to go there. You should. I know I should. Okay, next picture. Oh, this is just showing what the courtyard looks today. And you can also see the wrought iron railing. They have the little round circles. And then up in the right-hand corner is the railing that was in Bola Drone. So sometimes you'll see little bowling motifs. Oh, yes. I think one of the things that's also interesting about this time period is, even in buildings that are fairly utilitarian and not with a great deal of ornament. Because of course in the modern time period, they didn't want to do a lot of ornamentation. You do still see wrought iron and tile detailing which would have been commissioned for the building. It was still possible to do that level of work without a tremendous amount of expense. So little details like that are something to watch for on these buildings which add a little bit more interest than you might think was there otherwise. You're never gonna see this today except at very high level because it's too expensive now. But in those days it wasn't. Okay, let's keep going because we've got a few more things to look at before we come to our end. Open for business. So that's the entry and the Polly Lane's sign. Yeah, go ahead. The lava rock you can see on the wall is being used again. Yes. Then when you go inside, the next picture. Okay, next picture. Remember, you can see they brought it inside as well. So you're bringing the inside out and the outside in. And it's a continuation. Yes. Right, with just a glass wall at the entrance. Yes. And then also you'll notice the blue and white checked floor. I was just gonna say. Kailua High School, that's their color. Oh, marvelous. So it's very much community-oriented. They were not unaware of that. Yes. Next picture. That's really cool. This is in the bar. That's really cool. And yeah, that's the don't fall off the bowling pin at the bar thing. I don't imagine you can buy those anymore. Probably not. I don't think they're made anymore. And I haven't seen any other ones around town. No, I ain't no, that of itself is an enticement to go to Polly Langston. And an interesting little side note, too. Originally, when the bowling alleys, they had their cocktail lounge, but you could not access them from the bowling alley. You had to have an exterior entrance. And then finally that changed. So now you can go from both directions and you can actually bring your alcohol out onto the alley. Oh, my bad. At the beginning, this was not a family place. Exactly, I agree. Okay, next picture. And there, is this, we're almost done? Yes. Okay, what do we got to talk about here? We got two kooky roof lines. Well, these, this is the last three remaining bowling alleys that we have on the islands. We have the Polly Lane, IA bowl, and the word bowl. And as we can see, they are all from the modern period. They are from the boom time of the 50s and 60s. They are architectural remnants and very deserving of preservation for what they are, for what they represent because bowling was a big deal culturally and socially. And the architecture is never gonna be repeated. And again, these were utilitarian buildings, but I'm sure that the creation of those specialized roofs was an expensive prop, what would be today an extremely expensive proposition that would make it unlikely that we'd ever see it again. And that's another reason for us to keep that in mind. And there was the high point in the early 60s, there was 24 bowling alleys on a wall. And now there are three. Yes. And I hope we don't say, and then there were none. So do we. So do we. Okay, well, thank you both very much for being here. Well, thank you. Thank you for telling us about bowling alleys and showing us about bowling alleys. And thank you all for joining us. And let's see, who should I look at? I'll look at you over there. Thank you all for joining us today, everyone. This is the end of human humane architecture on Think Tech Hawaii. And we hope to see you again for our next episode, which will be happening next week. And until then, aloha.