Promoting the Center Offsite
From its earliest years, Polynesian Cultural Center leaders have recognized sending various-sized groups to perform off-site could help promote attendance.
Early promotional efforts: For example, the Hālau ‘Imi No‘eau comprised of South Pacific students at the Church College of Hawaii (renamed Brigham Young University–Hawaii in 1974) had already established a precedence before the Center opened when small groups of them were asked to perform at the International Market Place in Waikiki. Within a few years, a large group of the CCH students ramped up their performances to a sold-out show in the Waikiki Shell…
…and soon after the Center opened in October 1963, after the excitement of the grand opening dropped off, costumed students waved signs at passing cars on Kamehameha Highway, trying to encourage them to turn in. Granted, their efforts didn’t go very far, and sign-waving is still a common promotional tool in Hawaii.
The PCC Promo Team and other PCC student performers as well as students from the Hong Kong Institute of Religion appear at Window on the World, a sister theme park to the China Folk Culture Village in Shenzhen. The PCC student performers remain for a summer run.
first major promo, 1964:
With the Center’s “Hollywood management team” in place, who understood the value of promotion and publicity, the Center’s first major promo tour took place during the summer of 1964, when the Royu Development Company of Osaka arranged with the Center to send a group of students, older musicians, and leaders to Japan for six weeks.
Royu, inspired by the newly opened Cultural Center, built a resort at Lake Okuike near Osaka and Kobe in the nearby mountains surrounding Ashiya. Japanese tourists rode company trains and buses there to discover a stylized Polynesian backdrop complete with its own version of a “water curtain,” but of course the Polynesian Cultural Center performers were the main attraction.
From then to many years to come, PCC performing groups began appearing regularly at various events in Honolulu and off-shore.
Karee Bryant Garrigan, a Hawaiian from Oahu and one of the Center’s original student employees, recalled going on the original Japan promo was her first opportunity to travel outside of Hawaii. She found it very exciting, if not overwhelming, especially passing through the megalopolis of Tokyo as well as the fabled city of Kyoto with its historic temple structures.
She said the Center group soon arrived in their temporary mountain resort and stayed in a hotel where they learned to adapt to eating Japanese food every day, taking furo-style baths, lounging around in hapi coats, and sleeping four-to-a-room on tatami mats and futon mattresses.
“We had to catch a taxi to go to where we performed, and those mountain roads were really scary,” Karee recalled. “Even though there was a double-line, the drivers would take chances and just go. But it was fun to dance in the park.”
And, of course, all veterans of that tour remember the Japanese loved to have their pictures taken with the Polynesian performers.
A partial list of PCC group members she recalls almost 60-ish years later included choreographer Jack Regas and stage/tech manager Warren Trueblood; kūpuna musicians Lena Guerero and Aunty Marge Kekauoha; and fellow performers Sunday Kekuaokalani Mariteragi, Noelani Webster Mateaki, Maile Richards; Jim Bassett, Kin Lo, Wilson Ho, Tommy “Kamaki” Kanahele, Don Burke, Patoa Benioni and Bobby Kauō (among others).
Bassett, a handsome young man from Honolulu who would later serve a mission in Japan in the mid-1960s, recalled a few other names, including Vida Aiona, Karen Fuemura, Lucille Decosta, and Meteliko Tuaileva (aka Jack Tuiasoa).
After graduating from Church College of Hawaii, Bassett put his Japanese language skills to good use working in sales for the Center and other companies in Waikiki. He most recently retired from Bishop Estate, and he and his wife, Sandy Kawelo Bassett, also a Center alumna, now live in Kaimukī.
paradise hawaiian style, 1965:
Though not off-site, one of the Cultural Center’s biggest promotional events of this era took place over the following summer of 1965 when “the king of rock and roll,” Elvis Presley, filmed a sizable segment of his feature-length movie, Paradise Hawaiian Style, on the grounds.
When the film came out in 1966, it showed Presley and his girlfriend taking a leisurely canoe tour along the lagoon, dancing with the villagers, and — thanks to “movie magic” — suddenly ending up on the stage of the Hale Aloha theater with the night show cast, rocking and singing to the Center’s signature song, Bula Laie — but translated into English as Drums of the Islands.
Mike Grilikhes, the former network TV executive who served as one of the Center’s early general managers, recalled Bula Laie was almost a sticking point in negotiating the movie deal: Hal B. Wallis, the head of Paramount Studios that was making the film, told him “Elvis would like to use that [song],” but “Elvis owns all his music.”
In the end, however, Grilikhes said, “He’s not going to own this. This was composed by Isireli Racule, and he should get credit for it… They finally agreed. The Center copyrighted the song, and Isireli got compensated. It’s in the agreement.”
To this day, Paradise Hawaiian Style still occasionally plays on streaming TV.
an unofficial japan promo, 1966:
Though not off-site, one of the Cultural Center’s biggest promotional events of this era took place over the following summer of 1965 when “the king of rock and roll,” Elvis Presley, filmed a sizable segment of his feature-length movie, Paradise Hawaiian Style, on the grounds.
When the film came out in 1966, it showed Presley and his girlfriend taking a leisurely canoe tour along the lagoon, dancing with the villagers, and — thanks to “movie magic” — suddenly ending up on the stage of the Hale Aloha theater with the night show cast, rocking and singing to the Center’s signature song, Bula Laie — but translated into English as Drums of the Islands.
Mike Grilikhes, the former network TV executive who served as one of the Center’s early general managers, recalled Bula Laie was almost a sticking point in negotiating the movie deal: Hal B. Wallis, the head of Paramount Studios that was making the film, told him “Elvis would like to use that [song],” but “Elvis owns all his music.”
In the end, however, Grilikhes said, “He’s not going to own this. This was composed by Isireli Racule, and he should get credit for it… They finally agreed. The Center copyrighted the song, and Isireli got compensated. It’s in the agreement.”
To this day, Paradise Hawaiian Style still occasionally plays on streaming TV.
the big appearance at the hollywood bowl and utah, 1966:
But the big promo the Center officially pursued in the summer of 1966 was putting on four performances in the famed Hollywood Bowl at Los Angeles, and extending their trip to Salt Lake City, Utah.
Indeed, the promo “cannibalized” the night show to the point where the Center only daytime activities while the group was gone while almost 180 performers traveled to the U.S. main., flying first to Los Angeles, then boarding the Union Pacific railroad to Salt Lake City, Utah, where they put on six more performances in the Highland High School auditorium, considered one of the best theatrical venues at that time.
They also had two opportunities to meet with David O. McKay, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who had been instrumental in establishing the Church College of Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center.
Karee Garrigan also participated in that promo. She recalled just to see the audience at the Hollywood Bowl was “phenomenal.” The famous amphitheater can hold an estimated 17,500 people.
She noted while the group was in Los Angeles and Utah, they traveled by chartered buses and stayed in homes of Church members. And she also remembers the Salt Lake City leg of the tour was “very, very special, because I had just joined the Church. In that room with that man with white hair, that was the first time I had that kind of feeling the spirit.”
“It was so special. He talked to us, and we all gave him a kiss.”
Karee graduated from CCH soon after returning from the Hollywood Bowl/Utah promo and eventually became a public-school teacher where she spent most of the 42 years in her career at Laie Elementary. She now lives in Kapolei with her niece and her husband — Robert and Sheila Woods, who are both PCC alumni and also retired schoolteachers from Kahuku High.