In tune with the “Make memories, share moments” theme of this week’s 97th annual Maui Fair, here are some recollections from the fair’s near and distant past, compiled from Honolulu Star-Advertiser archives. The fair runs Thursday through Oct. 6 at the War Memorial Complex. For details, visit mauifair.com.
30 years ago …
The 67th Maui County Fair will open Thursday for a four-day run at the county’s War Memorial complex, reviving some old traditions while two major traditions pass away.
For the first time, the fair is sponsored by Maui County instead of the Maui County Fair and Racing Association. It will also be the first time the fair is not held at the Kahului Fairgrounds. But this year’s fair will revive a traditional football game between Maui High and Lahainaluna.
The fair was forced to move when Alexander & Baldwin last year withdrew its $1-a-year lease to the old fairgrounds. The Kahului fairgrounds is zoned for light industrial use and had been marked for development by A&B for more than a decade.
50 years ago …
An amateur photographer armed with a Brownie Instamatic came out ahead of the best professional photographers in the islands in the Maui County Fair Photography Salon competition.
She is Miss Satoru Kido, a retired dental hygienist, who became interested in photography only two years ago when she joined the Maui Camera Club. Miss Kido submitted four colored prints in the competition and defeated all of Maui’s photographers with “River of Serenity.” She was second only to Star-Bulletin photo columnist Urban Allen in the statewide contest with a slide titled “Country Road.”
60 years ago …
For the first time this year’s Maui County Fair will include a three-day Homemaking and Appliance Institute, devoted to the newest ideas in all phases of modern homemaking and housekeeping.
The entire Territorial Building on the Kahului Fairgrounds has been refurbished and fitted for the special appliance showings and demonstrations. The project is sponsored jointly by the Hawaii Extension Clubs of Maui and the Electrical Appliance Dealers Association.
Appliance exhibits will be presented on the main floor. The newest feature is a cooking school, demonstrations of homemaking arts and showing of moving pictures of interest to housewives.
70 years ago …
Carnival-spirited crowds packed all shows and concessions Thursday night at the opening of the 27th annual Maui County Fair.
Since today is Children’s Day at the fair, all Maui schools have been given a holiday. Busloads of children started flocking to the fairgrounds before 7 this morning.
Not a room is available in the Maui Hotel as crowds come in from the neighbor islands for the four-day event. One of Wailuku’s largest hotels took over a 170-bed former bachelor officers club at Naska. Even these accommodations were sold out three days ago.
80 years ago …
Maui’s two-day racing program at the 22nd Maui County Fair will be a four-island competition, with horse flesh from Hawaii, Oahu, Kauai and Maui competing for turf honors at the Kahului track.
That the race program will be the greatest in island history seems a certainty. The Maui entries include the stallion Alii owned by Harold F. (Oskie) Rice. Alii recently played in the interisland polo matches. Ulupalakua Ranch will send at least three to the post, including Easter Sunday, who is reported in fine trim. Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. Ltd., the Wailuku Sugar Co., Grove Ranch and Angus McPhee are others entering racers.
90 years ago …
The entertainment committee of the Maui County Fair is planning an elaborate program for the event. Four evening performances are scheduled for the fair dates, with a “Carnival Night” to precede the official opening. A program beginning with a musical revue and followed by a production of “The Geisha” will be presented under the auspices of the Filipino Dramatic Club with Sunday Reantaso in charge.
Scenery for “The Geisha” will be under the director of Robert Hughes, who has ordered 20,000 cherry blossoms to be used in transforming the stage into a Japanese garden.
On Thursday evening, the first night of the fair proper, Harry Washburn Baldwin will direct the production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera “H.M.S. Pinafore” and will sing the role of the Captain. Two of Honolulu’s sweetest singers will be on Maui to take part in the performance. Mrs. Riley Allen will sing the role of Josephine and Mr. Allenbaugh those of Buttercup and Mrs. Cripps.
On the last evening there will be Hawaiian entertainments under the direction of Charles E. King of Honolulu.
A new stage is being erected and will be the largest on Maui, similar in size to that of the Princess Theater in Honolulu.
