 to Human Humane Architecture here on Think Tech Hawaii. I am one of this program's co-hosts. I'm DeSoto Brown. I am the Bishop Museum Historian and Curator for the Archives Department and Bishop Museum here in Honolulu. And today I will be doing an episode for the Dokomomo Hawaii Organization. Dokomomo Hawaii is an international organization that studies and helps to preserve mid-century architecture of the 20th century. And today I'm going to be talking about something which is a real feature of the district of Waikiki and that is the international marketplace. The international marketplace in various forms has been around for a great many years and it's been through a variety of different versions. It's changed a lot. It's still with us but not in the way it was originally created. So let's get started on that story and to go to our first slide, there it is. And we're talking about the international marketplace. As I said these are, this is a logo from the 1960s as well as a map from for sure for the international marketplace from that time. The international marketplace if you go to Waikiki is something that you pretty much cannot avoid seeing or dealing with because it's right in the heart of Waikiki and therefore it's very prominent and there are thousands of pedestrians that are going past it and through it every single day. Next slide. So to tell you the story of the international marketplace, I have to go back to this particular map. His name was Don Gant, G-A-N-T-T. And he was from, as I remember, Louisiana. But he is famous for his persona, his commercial persona which was the name Don the Beachcomber. And Don the Beachcomber is one of the granddads, you might say, of the entire Tiki movement which resulted in bars, restaurants being created with a Tiki or Polynesian theme as well as starting a whole bunch of other sort of associated things. And today, Trader Vic and Don the Beachcomber, again, we recognize as the beginners of this entire situation or this entire movement. And they both got started in Los Angeles after the end of prohibition in the United States in 1934 when alcohol became legal again for people to sell and consume. And both of them started themed restaurants and bars which had, as I said, a Polynesian or what we would say today, Tiki theme in which they combined exotic elements from Hawaiian culture from various specific cultures as well as Asian cultures. They also created the entire genre of exotic cocktails. So here's two pictures of Don the Beachcomber. And Don the Beachcomber was, as I said, he started a restaurant and bar. He was involved in World War II and the Army. And after the war, he came to the Hawaiian Islands to start a branch of the Don the Beachcomber restaurant and bar here. So let's go to the next slide. And here is what he ended up choosing as his location. When he first got here in 1947, he tried to lease a piece of property which was located on Olimwana Boulevard in the location of what today is the Ilikai Hotel. But that fell through. And so he actually, this turned out to be a good thing because he set his sights on this piece of property instead. And what you're looking at is a historic photo from about 1910 of the Seaside Hotel. The Seaside Hotel is long gone from Waikiki, but for a long time it was a major hotel there. And in the photograph, you can see on the right, the main building of the Seaside Hotel, and then to the left, an open space with grass and with palm trees. You can see the fence around the tennis court on the far left. And then you can see the bungalows of the Seaside Hotel set further inland from this grassy area, which was right on Kalakawa Avenue and the brochure in the upper left corner is from the 1920s. And it shows again the same situation that I just showed you in this film. So keep your eye on that main building in the picture in the black and white photograph. And we'll go to the next picture and you'll see that this is what the Don Beachcomber situation looked like in 1952. Don leased it and constructed a group of buildings on this property in 1948. And in this picture you can see on the right just a little bit of that same that same building I just showed you as it looked in 1910. Well all of the thatched buildings, all of the Polynesian or Pacific looking buildings that you see on the left are obviously part of the Don the Beachcomber complex because it wasn't just one building. It was several buildings. They all were based upon some aspects of traditional Pacific cultures. But here's the important thing. None of this was supposed to be authentic. None of this was supposed to be the real thing. It was supposed to create a mood and be theatrical and be something to make you think you were somewhere different so that you'd have an enjoyable time when you were eating and drinking at Don the Beachcombers. Let's go to the next slide. And as I mentioned, Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic were the men who invented the exotic cocktail. Now there had been cocktails before this, meaning mixed alcoholic drinks. And that's something that had been around for a good long time. But cocktails really became popular starting in the early 1900s. In the United States, it was a big break, as I said earlier, prohibition. That was the prohibition of alcohol being created and served and sold in the United States. And that lasted from 1920 all the way up to 1934. But then once that prohibition ended, everybody jumped back into alcohol consumption with great excitement. And Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic created all these cocktails, first of all, which had funny, exotic names. Second of all, which were concoctions made of a number of different types of not only alcohol, but other types of flavorings. And these cocktails also were often garnished with little props, little things like paper umbrellas that we're very familiar with today, but swizzle sticks and other kinds of exotic things. And they combined all these different things, including sweet flavors, sour flavors, different types of alcohol, focusing a great deal on rum. And that's what they both became famous for. So in this slide that you see here, obviously, there are exotic drinks on the left-hand side. And there is a postcard photograph of a beautiful young woman sipping one of those Don the Beachcomber exotic cocktails at the bar in the original Don the Beachcombers. And then a drink coaster showing you that Don the Beachcomber is where you get the best drinks in town of that particular genre. Let's go to the next slide. So in 1948, as I said, Don the Beachcomber completed the construction of his first version of his restaurant and bar. And it consisted of several different buildings, with a lot of gardens around them, with decorative pool, water, with little bubbling water feature, etc. All to put you in the exotic mood when you stepped inside, you were taken away from reality. And Don truly believed that this is what people coming to the Hawaiian Islands should be offered. He really strongly believed everything should be like this here in the Hawaiian Islands for people who were tourists. So when Don the Beachcomber first opened, they had what was called, you today would refer to it as a soft opening, which he gradually put his services into effect. And as you can see in the advertisement on the left from the newspaper from 1948, he is serving lunches buffet style to get things started. Well, on the right is a picture of one of those setups for lunch in the Don the Beachcomber complex. And Don himself is in this photograph standing on the left, helping to serve his customers. And the food in these places was also exotic too. They did offer regular American style food because a lot of people were just going to want steaks and things like that. But the basis of Don's food was mostly Cantonese, Chinese food types. And he also not only served entire restaurants, but when you were being drinking all those exotic cocktails he gave you and served you poo-poo's as well, which also were quote, exotic unquote. Next slide. So the main building that you saw from the street from Kalakawa Avenue of the Don the Beachcomber business was this one. And this is not a restaurant and this is not a bar. It's actually a curio store or souvenir store. And as you could, you may remember in the photograph that I showed you first, the site already had a bunch of trees on it when Don decided leased it so that he could build his restaurant on it. Well, interestingly, if you look at the picture on the right, which is the interior of the curio store, just to the left of the two women who are on the right, the customer and the woman behind the counter, the saleswoman, you can see this sort of diagonal gray thing going up. That's actually the trunk of a coconut palm that was already growing on the site. The building was built around it. And so if we go back to look at the picture of the building, you can see that same palm tree sticking up through the roof. Now, obviously there's not really a lot of reason to do that, but it adds to the exotic ambience of the entire thing. And that's what Don was trying to achieve. Next picture. Don the Beachcomber was famous for the weekly, what was he calling it, the Feast of the Islands? He didn't call it a luau because people wouldn't necessarily know what that was, but it was the feast. And one of the things that he required, which again is very candy on his part. If you came to the Feast of the Islands, you were required to dress in some kind of Hawaiian or exotic clothing. So that's why in the photograph of the color picture of all of these happy party goers, you can see everybody's wearing a loha wear. That's like a costume party. Costume parties are fun because everybody gets to pretend they're somebody else and you get to do things that you wouldn't normally do because you're dressed differently, feel like a different person. That's what Don did. And again, incredibly successful at creating the ambience and the exotic atmosphere that made people have a good time. Next picture. So this, all of this in this original complex, which opened in 1947, had a very short life, short time period to be in existence, let's say, because the lease that Don was able to get was only for nine years. And that meant that it expired in 1956. The property this was built on is Queen Emma Estate, which also is called the Queen's Hospital property. And the money that is earned from the rental of this property goes to support Queen's Hospital, which was started by King Kamehameha IV and his wife, Queen Emma. So this is Queen Emma Estate property, but the property really extends much further back and includes a big chunk of white key. So towards the end of Don's lease, he got two very wealthy investors from the mainland involved. And they apparently went to the Queen Emma Estate with a proposal to start doing a lot more developing on their land in Waikiki. And so this was the inception of the International Marketplace. So it went from this small Don the Beachcombers complex next, let's go to the next slide, to the International Marketplace, which opened in 1957. And that is what is still in functioning today. Of course, it's been through a lot of different changes. But this is the site that had been Don the Beachcomber. In the photographs of the front of the International Marketplace that you see on the right here on this screen, the Don the Beachcomber property had been on the left. This now incorporated what had been the Seaside Hotel on the right. And that was the facade that was and still is on Kalakawa Avenue. And from the very beginning, the International Marketplace was the enlargement of Don the Beachcombers concept of an exotic place that took you away from reality. And it wasn't supposed to be an exact replica of anything elsewhere in the world. It was supposed to be like Disneyland, for example, or other theme parks, a place that was a fantasy. So in the initial stages of the International Marketplace, it was a lot more open to the street. And within its first few years, it got remodeled a lot so that it had a more distinctive facade that may really identify where the heck you were with a bigger sign. Next slide. So as I just said, the original architecture of the International Marketplace was really very, but throughout, it was supposed to be not commonplace. It was not supposed to look like you were just in a part of an American city. You were supposed to be thinking you were somewhere exotic. And so it incorporated aspects of Pacific culture, as well as Asian culture. It also featured a number of carvings in the initial carvings, which were based on real Pacific carvings from different indigenous cultures were done by a man named Edward Brownlee. So in the picture on the right, which was taken not long after the International Marketplace opened, you can see these big fantasy carvings that are not, again, strictly authentic to anything, but they are an exotic amalgamation that puts you in the mood of traveling to an exotic place. Next slide. Here's a map of the original International Marketplace. And if you look closely, you'll see that not only are there things which have Hawaiian or Polynesian or Pacific names, but there's also an Asian area. There's a Korean village and there's a Japanese area. And again, the architecture was varied. It incorporated a lot of mid-century modern types of aspects, but it also, again, was supposed to be like a little fancy theme part. Next picture. Well, obviously, in this setting of exoticism, you wanted to have a lot of Tiki's and you wanted to have a lot of exotic carvings. And so here are six photographs taken over the years of the original International Marketplace site showing you those different types of carvings. And not only are the, and then they had to be replaced, of course, from the time period from the 1950s because they all weathered. They were all made of wood. They faded, the paint faded, et cetera. So there were different artists who created different carvings at different times and they were sort of scattered around the rounds. Next slide. Not all of those were made, not all these carvings were made by the International Marketplace overall organization because some of them were connected to specific businesses. And so the hardwoods Hawaii store that you see here in these two photographs was featured this huge carving right in the front. I mean, look at how big that tree was. You think about how big that tree was if that's a solid piece of wood. And this particular carving is based on a famous one, which is the Ambition Museum, where I work. And it is the, it's a depiction of the Hawaiian god Ku. And that carving was used, the one Ambition Museum was used to inspire innumerable small other Tiki's, which became what everybody thinks a Hawaiian Tiki is supposed to look like. Well, here's a giant example. Next slide. Also a feature of the International Marketplace was the Banyantry, which was already growing on the site. And in 1957-58, Don the Beach Comer built a little tree house in it. And that was a private dining room for the Don the Beach Comer restaurant. You would go in there for a few hours, usually a couple, a whole dinner was provided to you and you could be entirely alone and private for that time period. After a few years, it was no longer a private dining room. It became a radio station broadcasting studio, which is very crazy. And then eventually it just became a, it just became an office for business purposes. But here are three different pictures of it over the years. And it was the first thing that you saw when you walked into the marketplace. Next picture. At the base of the Banyantry, which of itself was very exotic, strange looking for lots of Americans in particular, was a little water feature with an arched bridge over it with bamboo railings. And as you can see here, a lot of people like to pose on that bridge and have the picture taken with the fountain at their feet because, look, we're in the Hawaiian Islands. And look how exotic it is. Next picture. The original Don the Beach Comer, not the original International Marketplace, had this large open lawn. So there was not only a lot of vegetation, a lot of trees, a lot of shrubs, but there was an open grassy area, which was used not only for people to be able to walk around on, but also for demonstrations of different crafts and also Kula demonstrations. And unfortunately, that's all gone today because it's all been filled up, long since filled up, I might say. And in the next photograph, you'll see what was also based, was built around this open space. And again, as I said earlier, not a lot of authenticity here, but they weren't trying to be authentic. Again, they were trying to create a mood like Disneyland. So there are elements of modern architecture of the 1950s and 60s that are found throughout the United States, but it's also got thatching on it. It's also got, if you look in the picture on the lower left, you'll see that the garbage can even has a little special roof over it to add to the entire ambience of the place to go along with the ambience, along with those carvings, et cetera. But look at how much vegetation there is. It's a very pleasant looking place in its early years. Next slide. In addition to what I just showed you, there were not just restaurants, there was not just cars, there were not just stores, but there were a variety of businesses. And in the picture on the left, you see Diamond Head Sportswear, which of course is an aloha wear store, which was there for many, many years. It's in a modern building that's got concrete rafters, and it's not certainly a native looking building. But interestingly, the facade is entirely open, and there's only this bamboo gate that they would close at night when the restaurant, when the store was closed. And also you can see there was a car rental agency originally in the 1950s in the international marketplace. Let's go to the next slide. And one thing that struck people from the United States was how the merchandise in some places was just literally outdoors on racks with nothing over it. And that's crazy because in most parts of North America, it's too cold, it's too wet, it's too whatever to be able to do this. So selling clothes this way, and particularly these really bright colored aloha wear clothes that were uniquely associated with Boyi was something that caught a lot of people's attention. Next image. And something that was also that really got started and then really eventually took over were these kiosks, were these freestanding sort of push carts that were again supposed to be making you think you were in Asia or some other place where there were independent vendors like this. And this is something that you didn't find in the United States in any quantity at this point in the 1950s and 60s. So this part again was part of the exotic ambience is a way to purchase things that wasn't just like a shopping mall back in your hometown. Next image. Something else that was not unique but really was a draw was the free hula shows. And those went on for many years in the international marketplace as a way to lure people to come in, not just be on the street, but walk in so that there was something to look at and enjoy and it was there was no charge. And so lots of people not only enjoyed the shows and you can see how many people are watching in the picture on the right, but also took innumerable photos of these shows. So you got it ticed in by a hula show for free and then you might walk around it buy something. So it was a win-win for everybody. And this was again not the very first time the Royal Hawaiian Hotel had been staging free hula shows since the 1930s. But this is the first time it was being used in a retail setting. Next, I think by the early 60s, Don the Beachcomber was seeing that his entire sort of branding of exoticism was beginning to lose popularity to a degree. So in 1961, he leased the Don the Beachcomber's restaurant at the back of the international marketplace to a hui that featured Dukan, a Moku as a member. And the Don the Beachcomber's building was retitled the Dukan, a Moku supper club nightclub and restaurant and bar. And in the photograph on the right, you see Don the Beachcomber himself shaking hands with Dukan a Moku during the ceremonial turning over of his property to become Dukan a Moku's. And in the next picture, you'll see that the Dukan a Moku's nightclub is really very similar what Don the Beachcomber had already been doing in terms of the shows that it was putting on in terms of the food that it was offering. And again, this wasn't really, it was losing popularity in the 1960s as social things changed. But what really made a difference was, and let's go to the next picture, when Don Ho began performing in Dukan a Moku's. And suddenly this was a whole new type of Hawaiian show. It wasn't a romantic show. It wasn't a hula dancer's show. It was modern. It was more suggestive. Don the Beachcomber didn't have a lot of fun. But Don Ho was openly drinking. He was like Dean Martin. And his shows were sort of freewheeling and weren't doing a strict show schedule as had been happening before. This was exactly what Waikiki was looking for in the 1960s. And suddenly Don the Beachcomber's entire exoticism thing wasn't as important as somebody like Don Ho. Next picture. So what happened to the original international marketplace? Well, it was there for many, many years. But what happened was, it got filled up with buildings. The property in Waikiki was too expensive to lead as open space. So more and more vendors were crammed in. More and more buildings were built. It was the international marketplace was enlarged to go all the way to Kuhio Avenue on the Malka side. But it was a complete mishmash of buildings that were built so tightly and so many vendors that didn't even look like you could walk through the space. Plus all of those original buildings gradually fell into disrepair because they weren't kept up. So the buildings from the 50s got more and more disheveled and decrepit. The entire property was completely was shut down in the end of 2013. And everything was demolished except for some of the trees which were left in place. And the new international marketplace that is there today opened in 2016-2017. So the original one is gone. And it was there for many years looking very similar. But today it's been replaced by a modern entirely new shopping center which does not in fact try to rely on exoticism anymore. Next picture. Let's go to our last slide. So here's a way for us to remember the international marketplace and remember how significant it was in Waikiki's history and how many people not only saw it and were taken in by it but enjoyed its entire exotic ambience that was again fake. It was cultural appropriation if you want to put it that way. But it was very successful at creating the ambience of a tropical paradise. And in the picture of the upper picture on the left that again is the original Don the Beach Comers that I was showing you earlier. Started by Don himself who gradually was no longer involved over time through with the international marketplace anymore. And the picture on the lower right is the way the international marketplace looked for great many years even though it got more and more filled with stuff. That sign was there that was a distinctive sign that lots and lots of people took pictures of and saw as they walked around on the streets of Waikiki and got again taken in happily into this fantasy world that Don the Beach Comer created. Well it's not there anymore but we do have pictures like this to remind us of what it used to be. So that's the end of this week's program. Thank you all for joining me and watching. I hope you not only enjoyed that but you learned something about part of our history of tourism and the Waikiki district. I will be doing another presentation next week, another Doka-Momo presentation most likely. And until that time I'll be busy working on that. So I hope to see you again here on Think Tech Hawaii for more shows including the ones that I'm on, Human Humane Architecture and the Doka-Momo Hawaii shows. So thanks for joining me and see you again when you tune in again. Bye.