It’s the kind of love affair movies are made about: a romance that started 82 years ago and is still going strong. Hollywood first fell in love with Kauai in 1933 when director Lois Weber and a film crew arrived
It’s the kind of love affair movies are made about: a romance that started 82 years ago and is still going strong.
Hollywood first fell in love with Kauai in 1933 when director Lois Weber and a film crew arrived on our island to shoot “White Heat,” the first motion picture ever made here.
According to the Kauai Film Commission’s comprehensive website, since then, more than 60 major movies and a host of TV shows have been filmed here, making Kauai one of the top tropical locations for filmmakers.
The list of box-office blockbusters with Kauai ties is impressive: “South Pacific,” “Blue Hawaii,” “Diamond Head,” “The Thornbirds,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “Hook,” “Jurassic Park” (and its sequels), “Outbreak,” “Tropic Thunder,” “Avatar,” and the fourth in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, “On Stranger Tides,” are just a few of them.
Our relative proximity is apparently part of our appeal: We are just a six-hour flight away from Hollywood.
In addition, our locations are spectacular, diverse and versatile. Filmmakers have transformed them into South America, Africa and Asia in their movies without having to leave the U.S.A.
Brian Frankish, executive producer of “Flight of the Intruder,” summed it up in a nutshell: “We shoot on Kauai because it’s beautiful, it’s magic and it’s America.”
It takes more than magic, however, to turn a movie into a box-office hit, no matter where it was filmed.
It takes theaters and moviegoers, lots of them. Fortunately, Kauai has had plenty of both.
The first “cinema” on Kauai wasn’t a theater at all, it was a “road show.”
Manuel G. Silva Sr. of Kalaheo was one of two enterprising pioneers who first brought silent movies to Kauai. (William A. Fernandez of Kapaa was the other.)
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Silva and his 16-year-old son, George, bought a $500 Thomas A. Edison projector in 1917 and launched an innovative movie business.
Starting at one end of the island, they would drive from town to town, showing movies in tents, abandoned churches and warehouses. In some towns, they would rent church halls. In others they would show their movies in any room at a sugar mill that could hold the public.
When talking movies came out in the 1930s, and movie theatres started being built around Kauai, the Silvas ended their road shows and became involved with the Star Theatre, one of two in Kalaheo, according to Ernie Perreira, who said Kalaheo Steakhouse now occupies the site of the second. The Kalaheo resident also contributed an article written by Silva’s grandchildren, Henry and Mark Silva and Jared Soares about the Star.
At one time, longtime residents say, movies were shown in as many as 15 theaters in nearly every town on Kauai: one each in Mana, Kekaha, Kaumakani, Waimea, Koloa, Kealia and Kilauea; and two in Hanapepe, Kalaheo, Lihue and Kapaa.
Many plantations set aside space where their workers could enjoy a night out, watching newly arrived films. Kilauea Sugar Co. used one of its former buildings (a wooden hall dating back to the late 19th century) to show movies to workers in the 1950s, according to a report in The Garden Island.
“The Kilauea theater was very popular in the ‘60s when I was living in Kilauea,” said Judy Smith Rowan, whose dad, Ernest Smith, was hired as manager of Kilauea Sugar Co. from 1960 until it closed in 1971. Their family, including mom Marion and six children, lived in the historic Kilauea Plantation Manager’s stone house.
“We did not have decent TV reception so going to see a movie was the thing to do and also one of my favorite pastimes,” she said.
Kapaa’s two theatres were Pono and Roxy theaters. Fernandez and his wife, Agnes Scharsch Fernandez, built the Roxy on an acre of land in the middle of Kapaa. Prior to that Fernandez had also shown movies in theaters in Kilauea and Kealia.
When the Roxy opened on Nov. 18, 1939, it was the largest theater in Hawaii, with a seating capacity of 1,050 and state-of-the-art equipment. Like many other theaters here, each night was set aside for specific movies: Filipino, Japanese, romance, dramas and comedies.
Bill Fernandez, son of Agnes and William, chronicled the colorful history of the Roxy Theater in his book, “Rainbow over Kapaa. “
Lihue had the Lihue Theater and Kauai Theatre and Koloa’s theater was located across from Sueoka Store, near the site of the sugar monument.
Hanapepe had the Aloha State Theatre, owned by a group of shareholders, and the Jardin Theatre, owned by the Jardin family of Kalaheo, according to Steven Kurokawa of Denny’s Repair.
Another longtime Hanapepe resident remembers the Jardin Theater had a balcony and both theaters had stages. Aloha Theatre had live entertainment occasionally, she added. Frank Sinatra actually made an appearance there once.
The Waimea Theater is still operating today in Waimea, although its unique, first-of-a-kind marquee lights were destroyed by Hurricane Iniki. The theater was also in danger of being closed after Iniki, but was rescued by the West Kauai Main Street program, which leased it in 1992. Today it is managed by Thomas Nizo, who says while movies are still being shown there, he envisions it as a three-dimensional facility featuring regular movies, special events and corporate events.
Most of the theaters have now been relegated to places in history. Competition from television, which eliminated the need to leave your home to see a movie, was a significant factor in the decline of theaters. Fewer moviegoers meant lower profits and many theaters fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Hurricane Iwa destroyed Pono Theatre; Iniki destroyed the Roxy and came close to doing the same to Waimea.
Koloa’s theater burned down; camps like Mana Camp, once a bustling community, closed down. Kilauea’s theater now houses a local church, Pono’s lobby now is a popular restaurant, Kauai’s theater has also been recycled. The Star is used for business storage in the rear and a small food shop occupies the front.
One thing is certain: The hours of pleasure and enjoyment provided residents and their families by Kauai’s theaters and the movies that played there will never be forgotten and can never be taken away.
Aloha.
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Rita De Silva is former editor of The Garden Island newspaper and is a resident of Kapaa.
