Last month I wrote about open-air theaters in the islands. Hawaii had over 30 of these establishments, where patrons would sit on chairs, benches, boxes or on the grass, under the stars, as motion pictures would be projected onto a screen.
Many of these preceded Hawaii’s first drive-in theater, which could hold 750 cars in the area now occupied by Don Quijote. It opened in 1949 and was originally called The Drive- In and later Kapiolani Drive- In. Kaheka Street was the entrance and cars exited on Kalakaua Avenue.
Plantation camps
Greg Matsumoto said the article prompted him to search for more details of his family’s own open-air theater operation.
“My grandfather Torao Matsumoto ran an outdoor theater at the pineapple plantation camps outside of Wahiawa and Waialua.
“I am not sure when the theater operation started or ended, but it was probably between the 1930s to late 1940s.
“My grandfather was an entrepreneur who operated the T. Matsumoto Store, begun in 1923 with my grandmother Sumie, at a Hawaii Pineapple Co. housing area called Kemoo Camp No. 1.
“My grandfather later opened two more stores, one at Kaukonahua Camp in 1941 and another in 1952 after the pineapple plantation camps were consolidated into Whitmore Village in the late 1940s in order to make more agricultural land available for pineapple cultivation.
“In addition, my grandfather operated a trucking business at Kemoo Camp hauling pineapple to the cannery, as well as the outdoor theater operation. Overall, my grandparents were very active in their communities in which they lived: Kemoo Camp and later Whitmore Village.
“My grandparents’ four sons assisted with the theater operations when they were young. A dear family friend, Maurice Ishimoto, was the theater film projectionist. He also later did that at the Victory Theater in Wahiawa. I would tag along with Uncle to his work when I was young.
“In addition to showing movies at Kemoo Camp, my grandfather would also show movies at the other nearby plantation camps. The price to attend the movies ranged between 15 to 25 cents. Pineapple crates were used for seating.”
Greg Matsumoto says their family is not related to the Matsumoto Store in Haleiwa.
The current Kemoo Farms store and restaurant, near the entrance to Schofield Barracks, first opened in 1936. It is mentioned in James Jones’ book “From Here to Eternity.”
The original Kemoo Farms was a ranch 3 miles away that produced poultry, hogs, vegetables, beef and dairy products. It began in 1916. Much of its area is now residential housing in Wahiawa. “Kemoo” means lizard or dragon.
Ewa Plantation
Floy Kaku remembers seeing Japanese samurai movies at an open-air theater at the Ewa Plantation.
“It was shown weekly on a grassy hill in front of the Japanese Social Club, mainly black-and-white movies with Toshiro Mifune or Zatoichi, the blind swordsman. We brought our gozas (tatami mats) as there were no benches or seats, and mosquito punk coils. We brought snacks from home.
“One more modern movie in color shown at that open-air theater was called ‘Sanga-ari.’
“It was filmed partially on Ewa Plantation near our house at the end of Bond Street in 1961.
“The film crew used our house for the Japanese stars to use as a changing room and bathroom for their scenes. My sibling, cousin and I served them refreshments.
“My mother and grandmother, clothed as cane field workers, were extras in scenes that were, unfortunately, cut from the movie.
“It was a wonderful love story in a modern-day setting, and I wondered whatever became of it, as that showing on the grassy hill in front of the Japanese Social Club of Ewa Plantation on a balmy night one summer was the only time I ever saw it.”
Mountains and rivers
“Sanga-ari” was about Japanese workers at Hawaii’s sugar and pineapple plantations. The name means “there are mountains and rivers,” referring to the difficult times early immigrants experienced.
The public was invited to Iolani Palace to be extras in one scene that re-created the 442nd Regimental Combat Team going off to war.
The film was shown all over Hawaii, in Japan and in California.
Jo Anne Yamamoto remembers her mom and aunties constantly talking about the movie for days on end. “We all went to see it at the old Nippon Theater by Aala Park in Chinatown.
“I also recall some of my female Japanese friends being huge fans of handsome young samurai actors like Hashizo Okawa, Kotaro Satomi and singers Kayama Yuzo and Kazuo Funaki.
“These Japanese stars often came to Hawaii to film movies or do live concerts. My dad was a huge Toshiro Mifune fan. He and my mom had a chance to see him at the Toho Theater on Kapiolani Boulevard when he made a live appearance. Dad said Mifune’s sword was so sharp it sliced through part of the stage curtain.”
Fort Armstrong
The area that is now Pier 1 and 2, across Ala Moana Boulevard from the Federal Building, was an Army fort from 1907 to 1950. It was named for Maui-born Samuel C. Armstrong, who became a brigadier general during the Civil War.
Willson Moore remembered an open-air movie theater at Fort Armstrong where they sat under the stars. “It was a new experience for me,” he said.
“A neighbor’s father was in the Army, and we went there to see a Nelson Eddy movie named ‘Balalaika’ in 1939,” about a singer at a cafe in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Open-air theaters
Carol Kamemoto said she fondly remembers the Waipahu open-air theater from the early 1950s.
“It was near the Waipahu Hongwanji up in the plantation camp, by the plantation preschool. We brought goza, newspapers and cushions to sit on and blankets to cover us on cold nights. The Miyamotos had a snack truck. Families had a favorite place where they always sat.
“There were wonderful movies shown starring Hashizo Okawa, mentioned earlier, Kinnosuke Nakamura and others.”
Benshi
American films in the “silent era” were often accompanied by a live piano player. Japanese films, like those shown at the Waipahu open-air theater, often had a “benshi,” an on-site narrator of sorts.
Theater historian Tats Yoshiyama said this person “had to master the art of mimicry and to school himself in dramatics. He voiced all of the characters in the film. He overacted, he underplayed and from one corner of the auditorium, he projected — laughing, crying, cajoling, whispering, whimpering, shouting, placating and assailing.
“The vocal characterizations of the benshi ranged from the samurai warrior’s noble speeches to the bellow of a country brute, the delicate tones of a young maiden to the cackle of a crone, the measured cadences of a Kabuki performer to the shrill cry of a child.”
The theater provided the benshi with a chair and a table covered with a banner calling attention to his stage name. The studio provided a script containing the dialogue and storyline.
“Like their counterparts in Japan, the benshi of Hawaii were popular,” Yoshiyama said. “They brought voice and sound to an otherwise mute screen long before the worldwide use of sound in film.”
Makalapa
Michael Lilly, who chronicled his grandparents Sandy and Una Walker’s friendship with Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz in the book “Nimitz at Ease,” said they often attended the Makalapa open-air theater near the base entrance of Pearl Harbor.
“Nearly every night that my grandparents had dinner with Adm. Nimitz at Makalapa during the war, they watched a movie at the open-air theater just down the street from Nimitz’s quarters.”
Una Walker kept a detailed journal, Lilly says. Among the movies they watched: “The Fighting Lady,” following a real aircraft carrier in the Pacific War in January 1945; “Pin Up Girl,” with Betty Grable and Martha Rae; “The Heat’s On,” with Mae West; and “Destination Tokyo,” with Cary Grant.
“During one film, my grandmother wrote in her diary, everyone went ‘moe moe’ (asleep).”
Most of these theaters are gone, but there is a screen on Waikiki Beach that is sometimes used for open-air movies and TV shows. The drive-ins are gone, too. Now we are in enclosed theaters or chillin’ at home watching Netflix on our huge TVs.
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Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
