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The state Senate on Thursday honored former employees and supporters of the famed Hawaiian Room at New York’s Lexington Hotel.
The room, which was open from 1937 to 1966, will soon celebrate its 75th anniversary.
A number of Hawaii performers performed on the Hawaiian Room stage, including band leader Andy Iona, musicians Ray Kinney and Amy Hanaialii Gilliom and singing comedienne Clara Inter, also known as “Hilo Hattie.”
Sen. J. Kalani English, of Maui, says over the Hawaiian Room’s 30 year run, it was the Big Apple hub of all things Hawaiian. It brought the beauty and romance of the islands to those who couldn’t travel to Hawaii and introduced them to Hawaiian hula and mele, he notes.
