Rearview Mirror: Open-air theaters were once found all over Hawaii

Actor Nicholas Hormann asked whether “anyone remembers an open-air movie theater somewhere in the Aiea area in the late 1940s. I have a dim recollection of sitting on benches and watching movies in an enclosed, roofless theater. Am I making this up? I was born and raised in Honolulu.”

Theater historian Lowell Angell said that it was possibly the Halawa Open Air Theatre. “It opened in 1949 on the site of the Navy’s old World War II Ghormley Open Air Theatre.

“It was near the Halawa housing area and approximately where Aloha Stadium is now. It closed around 1971 when the stadium was built.

“There was also another open-air theater in Civilian Housing Area 3 (CHA-3), closer to Pearl Harbor.” CHA-3 was about where the interisland terminal is at the airport during World War II.

Grace Tsubata Fujii wrote: “I remember the Halawa Open Air Theatre having hard benches. Dad would light a mosquito punk coil to ward off the hungry biters. I once stood too close to the lighted coil, which burned a hole in my muumuu, greatly upsetting my mom, as postwar times were difficult financially.

“We lived at J-10 at the Halawa Veterans Housing, where the Al Harrington, Duke Kawasaki and Bette Midler families also lived.

“I recall the rent was $15 a month. We moved to town in 1950, but I’ve always cherished my fond memories of Halawa.”

Early days

In the early era of movies, Hawaii had at least 30 open-air theaters. Some were on military bases, which began springing up around 1910. Others were on plantations. Some had chairs while others had benches.

Lowell Angell gave me a list of open-air theaters in the downtown area. They include:

>> Aloha Park: Hotel Street.

>> Independent: Hotel Street.

>> Novelty: Nuuanu Avenue, corner Pauahi Street.

>> Palama: North King Street.

>> Park: Fort Street, corner Chaplain Lane.

>> Pawaa: South King Street.

>> San Francisco: Hotel Street near Nuuanu Avenue.

>> Savoy/Hawaii: Hotel Street.

Three of these theaters later moved to enclosed spaces: the Palama, Pawaa (later called Cinerama) and Savoy (later called the Hawaii Theatre).

“These early open-air theaters usually had very high outside walls, to discourage free peeking,” Angell said, “and sometimes had a roof over the projection booth and the screen, with the audience ‘under the stars.’ Patrons often brought umbrellas ‘just in case.’

“During and after World War II, the military also had open-air theaters on several of its bases, and the remnants of one of them still exist. On Kaneohe Marine Corps Base next to the swimming pool is a small building that is now used by the lifeguards for pool equipment.

“It was originally the projection booth for the open-air theater. The projection ports are still visible on the outside but are now cemented over.”

Up and down in Aiea

Morrison Luka said, “The sugar plantation of Aiea back in the 1950s and 1960s had two open-air theaters. I don’t remember their official names or its owners, but we gave them nicknames.

“‘Up Theatre’ — once located where the Aiea Shopping Center is (Times Supermarket, McDonald’s, Aiea Bowling Alley).

“And ‘Down Theatre’ — once located where the Aiea U.S. Post Office is currently sited (500 feet makai of the Aiea Shopping Center).

“There was also a small mom-and-pop store and an okazuya adjacent to the theater called Omiya’s, which was owned and run by the Omiya family.

“The restaurant then relocated to a small building near Aiea High School,” Luka said, “which became an after-school hangout for the neighborhood kids.

“Mrs. Omiya made a mean sweet-sour spare ribs, and hamburger sandwiches, but her best dish was cone sushi. She made the best. We had mutual friends that would drive from as far as Mililani and Kaimuki just for her cone sushi.”

I asked Angell about these two Aiea theaters, and he said, “The ‘Up’ theatre was the Aiea Star theater and was run by Kazumi Yukutake. The ‘Down’ theater was the Aiea Kaya Theatre and was run by Sataro and Seichi Kaya. They opened in 1922 or ’23.”

Waipahu

Henry Morisada, 93, remembers watching open-air movies on the Oahu Sugar Co. plantation in Waipahu. “There would be vendors around selling crack seed, puffed rice and other snacks,” his son, Henry Morisada Rietz, told me.

“Sometimes accompanying the silent movies was a ‘benshi,’ a performer who did various voices and sound effects.”

Rietz sent me an article from former theater manager — and, surprisingly, my wife’s uncle — Tats Yoshiyama. “A unique contribution to the silent Japanese motion picture was the benshi, a narrator and sound- effects expert who accompanied the film screening live from within the theater,” Yoshiyama wrote.

“In addition to ‘acting’ within the film’s story, he was external to it as a general commentator and provider of descriptions and other information relevant to the film.”

Joint base

Barbara Jurkens remembers two open-air theaters. “One was at Hickam, next to the Officers’ Club, and there was also one at Makalapa, right next to Pearl Harbor.

“I used to go every couple of weeks to the Officers’ Club outdoor theater and saw many amazing films, including ‘Easy Rider,’ ‘Funny Girl,’ ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ and more.

“While the Hickam theater was completely outdoors, so that if it rained you either sat in the rain or went home, at Makalapa it was only partly open, so if you moved you were protected from the rain.

“The thing about going to the Makalapa theater was that it was right in amongst the housing, most specifically across the street from the base commander’s home.

“I went to that theater and saw ‘Tora Tora Tora,’ and the scene where the commander comes out onto his front yard and sees the devastation in Pearl Harbor was filmed at the commander’s real home.

“So every night after the showing, everyone was drawn to that front yard so they could turn around, look out over Pearl Harbor and imagine the devastation on Dec. 7, 1941. It was pretty dramatic.”

Waianae Coast

Nanakuli, Maili and Waianae had open-air theaters, Glen Nakahara told me. “There was one in Nanakuli along the mauka side of Farrington Highway between Camp Andrews and Nakatani Drive Inn, which called itself ‘the Oasis of Nanakuli.’ It had a wooden fence surrounding it and bleachers within.”

Dr. Stein Rafto said, “I have many fond memories of growing up in Makaha; bodysurfing; walking to school at Makaha Elementary and Waianae Intermediate; and watching movies in the splintering wooden benches of the open-air theater.

“Among the best movies seen there were Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti Westerns, and of course ‘Endless Summer’!”

Other open-air theaters I know of include Waikiki, Moiliili and Wheeler AFB. Punahou School built one on Rocky Hill in 1924.

Neighbor islands

Carole Richelieu remembers two open-air theaters in Lahaina. “One was the dilapidated building on the (now) Kaanapali side of town, a block from Pioneer Inn on Front Street. The other one was in the opposite direction, towards the prison.”

Hiroshi Kato said Waikapu on Maui, between Wailuku and Maalaea, had an open-air theater with benches to sit on.

“The joke was that the viewers clapped no matter what was showing. They were slapping the mosquitoes!”

Molokai

Ethel Fleming said, “In the summer 1966, while training as a Peace Corps volunteer on the east end of Molokai, I and others would start walking to Kaunakakai near dusk on a Saturday night.

“Friendly Molokai residents would often pick us up on the road and drop us off there to see a movie.

“It was in an area that was open to the sky, on hard benches, in a gravel lot, yet enjoyable for us to see a movie after all-day language and cultural training sessions pertinent to our destination in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Of course, we bought and ate Molokai bread, too.”

Do you remember a local open-air theater? If so, send me an email.

Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.