Newspaper Page Text
Tourists
Hustling
To
Bustling
Hawaii
By BOYD LEWIS
Newspaper Enterprise Assn.
HONOLULU—(NEA)—Ten
years after achieving state
hood, Hawaii is having grow
ing pains, but pain in
paradise isn’t too hard to
take.
Those rumors that
“W aik ik i has become
another Miami” haven’t hurt
and airliners from the main
land are pouring record
loads of tourists into the is
lands, most of whom just
can’t wait to shoulder other
tourists in the densely pop
ulated Waikiki beach area.
Hotels and condominium
apartment houses up to 24
stories high shoulder each
other in downtown Honolulu
almost as c 1 o s e 1 y as the
aloha shirt-clad men and
muumuu-wearing women
tourists.
This closeness has brought
a new sidelight of tourism
voyeurism. Some Honolulu
hotels are crowded so closely
that the best view from one’s
lanai (porch) is the rooms
of the opposite building. A
common sight is a man in
shorts smoking a cigar and
checking the rooms a few
hundred yards away with bi
noculars. Some blatantly
use telescopes on tripods.
Residents tell of being in
vited to visit friends in a
hotel for a rubbernecking
party featuring such attrac
tions as a careless blonde
who forgets to pull the
drapes when she undrapes.
Another attraction for
would-be voyeurs, who shed
mainland inhibitions when
they don flower prints and
leis, is the night clubs which
now feature the violent,
sexy dancing of the South
Seas in contrast with the
gentle Hawaiian hula.
Hula hips now rotate to
banging bongos instead of
undulating to the rhythm of
waving palms. The tradi
tional hula isn’t show biz
any more.
In some night clubs- the
girls have gone topless, bar
ing bosoms in the fashion of
their grandmothers before
the missionaries covered
them with acres of cotton
muumuu.
But even if Waikiki is “the
place that has the lights and
the action,” in the words of
Robert N. Rinker, a Cornell-
r
trained hotel association ex
ecutive, it isn’t Hawaii.
Peace, beauty, quietude
and relatively unspoiled
native custom are sought by
many in the outer islands,
such as the so-called Big
Island (Hawaii), Maui, Kauai
and Molokai. Already bull
dozers and construction
cranes are at work on many
beautiful beaches and many
an isolated valley is sprout
ing a high-rise apartment
building, but there’s too
much landscape for man
ever to mar completely.
Transocean jets now fly
directly to Hilo on the Big
Island. There’s talk of build
ing another international air
port near the Kona coast of
the same island, which is
now served by a skimpy air
strip laid on a lava bed
barely adequate for the two
engine jets which shuttle
visitors over from Honolulu
International.
The big jets, like United’s
new nonstop flights from
New York and Chicago, now
pour their loads into Hono
lulu ainid a welter of airstrip
fl ■
Kok Kw - <'JI W
IN HONOLULU, high-rise hotels and apartment houses intersect the skyline of famed
landmark Diamond Head.
and building construction
which seems already to lag
behind yesterday’s traffic.
And with additional airlines
now authorized to fly to
Hawaii, the present average
tourist population of 700,000
is 1 i k e 1 y to put a further
strain on airports.
The hotel industry, fore
seeing more visitors, is rac
ing to increase its capacity
in all islands. The pace is so
rapid that it will soon out
grow the need for additional
rooms. However, hotel
authorities expect a tourist
in almost every room by
another decade, then another
wave of building.
Tourism now pours S4OO
million into Hawaii’s econ
omy annually, ranking sec
ond in importance only to the
S6OO million spent by the de
fense industry. State and
business authorities, looking
forward to a day when de
fense may be cut back, see
tourism as more than capa
ble of taking up the eco
nomic slack, along with auto
mated production of sugar
and pineapples.
gm
Ml
Stopping to sign an autograph album, Sidney Wright smiles
among her striking paintings of flowers and fruit. (PRN)
TOUR
GEORGIA
ATLANTA (PRN) - For a
really different type art show,
the Plum Nelly Clothesline Art
Show has no equal. Held on
the side of a mountain, this
annual event attracts
thousands of art and fun
lovers. The show will be held
on October 4th and sth.
At Plum Nelly (Plum out of
Tennessee and Nelly out of
Georgia), art works by
hometown painters of the
North Georgia area, and a few
selected fine crafts from a
wider area, are displayed on
actual clotheslines in the open
woodland. The display area is
located on a high bluff
overlooking a valley between
Lookout Mountain and Sand
Mountain. Paintings, pottery,
laminated glass, baskets and
wood carvings are only a few
of the types of arts and crafts
to be shown.
The puppet show, aimed at
mature audiences as well as
the younsters, will play
continuous performances both
days. The original satirical
revue, “Musical Madcaps”, is
produced by Fred Arnold.
The ladies of the New
Salem Methodist Church will
again operate the canteen in a
tent on the grounds. 'l*he food
will be served “nose-bag” style
so tlie visitor can eat
picnic-fashion to enjoy the
view.
Drinking water, benches
and thirteen old-fashioned
privies are located on the
grounds for the comfort and
convenience of the visiotrs.
Newcomers will be wise to
wear comfortable walking
shoes and remember that Plum
Nelly is on a mountaintop
which is usually 10 degrees
cooler than the valleys. A
sweater or wrap is
recommended.
The Plum Nelly Clothesline
Art Show is held at Rising
Fawn, Georgia. Blue and white
Plum Nelly signs will point the
way from all valley
intersections near the show
and on the mountain. The
Tourist Division of the
Georgia Department of
Industry and Trade describes
Plum Nelly as “a mountain
happening with family appeal
-a must-see”.
In case of rain, enough to
cause wet grounds in the
parking lot, the show will be
postponed ONE WEEK. AU
radio, television and
newspapers will be contacted
at daybreak Saturday
October 4th, or the evening
before, in time to warn the
visitors, within a radius of a
hundred miles of the show.