I was looking for information on a Japanese submarine between Maui and the Big Island during World War II. I found an article about it written by journalism professor and writer Peter von Buol.
Von Buol writes a great deal about Hawaii for Maui magazine Hana Hou! and other publications. He lives in Chicago, but he’s visited Hawaii every year since he was a child. Much of his writing focuses on Hawaii.
He and I have become friends, and he’s pointed out to me that Chicago and Hawaii have many fascinating connections. Let’s look at some of them.
Kilauea Volcano in Chicago
An exhibit at the 1893 World’s Fair was called the Kilauea Cyclorama, von Buol said. “It was a circular exhibit 50 feet high and 400 feet in circumference and could hold 600 people. Inside was a painting giving a 360-degree view of the erupting volcano. The 22,000 square feet of canvas took up half an acre.”
The Chicago Times said: “The observation platform places the visitor in the same position that he would occupy if he stood on the brink of Halemaumau in the crater of the Kilauea volcano.
“The horizon will present the outlines of Mauna Loa’s snow-capped summit, from which issue delicate clouds of smoke, telling of the slumbering fires beneath her crest.
“Further along, the eye meets Mauna Kea, the Volcano House, and the blue sea. Beneath his foot will be the lakes of fire, liquid lava, foaming, dashing, leaping in the wildest confusion. The observer will stand on lava rock brought from Kilauea.”
Statue of Sargent Kahanamoku
There’s also a three- quarter-size sculpture of Sargent Kahanamoku surfing at the Field Museum in Chicago. Sargent was the youngest brother of Duke Kahanamoku. It was originally part of an exhibit of the peoples of the world. All the other statues have been taken down, but Kahanamoku’s remains.
Herb Kane
Artist Herbert Kawainui Kane was born in Wisconsin in 1928 and grew up in Marshfield, Minn. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and later founded his own advertising agency there.
Kane created a series of paintings of Polynesian canoes that was so beautiful the Hawaii State Foundation of Culture and the Arts purchased it. The money allowed him to move to Hawaii.
With Ben Finney and Tommy Holmes, he founded the Polynesian Voyaging Society in 1973. Kane designed and named the Hokule‘a, which came to him in a dream.
Matson menus
Another artist, Eugene Savage, was born in Indiana and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In the 1940s, Matson hired him to paint 4-by-8-foot Hawaii-themed murals for their ships that traced Hawaii’s history from our early Polynesian days to the discovery of Hawaii by Capt. Cook to our annexation by the U.S.
Savage sailed to Hawaii and spent three months here sketching and researching Hawaii’s culture and history.
When World War II began, the project stopped. In 1948 the murals were resurrected and used as dinner menu covers. Matson used a different cover for each of the six nights it took to reach Hawaii. The menus became popular and were even displayed at the Smithsonian.
Ala Moana Center anchor tenant
When Ala Moana Center was being planned, Walter Dillingham’s Hawaiian Land Co. needed a large anchor tenant. Lenders required it, and it would make smaller retailers feel safe to make the leap from downtown, where locals had shopped for generations, to the Ala Moana area. It was formerly a swamp.
Marshall Field & Co., a large retailer from Chicago, was Dillingham’s first choice. The two families were close. Their negotiations lasted over a year, and finally, Marshall Field said yes. The company’s president came to Hawaii to sign the papers but backed out at the last minute. No one seems to know why.
Dillingham scrambled to find a substitute. Liberty House, Macy’s, May Co. and several others said no. Finally, Sears, also based in Chicago, said yes.
Old Orchard Shopping Center
One of Ala Moana Center’s architectural firms — Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — was based in Chicago. The design of Ala Moana was based on the open-air Old Orchard Shopping Center in Skokie, 16 miles north of Chicago. Both sites contain 1.8 million square feet of retail space.
Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport’s three letter identifier — ORD — is from its earlier name, Orchard Field Airport. Elbert Scott owned an apple orchard there 100 years ago.
It was renamed in 1949 to honor naval aviator Edward Henry “Butch” O’Hare, who single-handedly fought off eight Japanese torpedo bombers intent on sinking the USS Lexington aircraft carrier in 1942.
Midway International Airport
The Hawaii-O’Hare connection via the Old Orchard Shopping Center is pretty thin, I admit, but another airport in Chicago, Midway International Airport, is more substantial.
It was named to honor the Battle of Midway, which took place in June 1942.
Midway Atoll is part of the Hawaiian Archipelago. It is 1,130 miles west of Honolulu, and its Hawaiian name, Kuaihelani, means “the backbone of heaven.”
United Airlines
Tony Saifuku wrote: “United Airlines was one of the original airlines to bring tourists to the islands in large groups.
“I am a former tour guide that escorted tourists to Hawaii via United Airlines in the early 1960s. Back then they served champagne on the flight from LA to Hawaii.
“United is based in Chicago and many of their flight attendants were originally trained at United’s Hangar 5A at O’Hare.”
Dick Tracy
In September I wrote about the Dick Tracy comic strip. In 1960 the Chicago-based detective turned to Honolulu Police Chief Daniel Liu to help solve a case, in a storyline that ran most of the year. It was read by more than 50 million people.
More connections
>> Chicago has had many tiki bars and Polynesian-themed restaurants, including Tiki Terrace, Kahala Koa, Pau Hana Lounge, AO Hawaiian Hideout, Bamboo Room, Malihini Terrace and Hala Kahiki.
>> Former Honolulu Mayor John Wilson fell in love with Jennie Kuula, a hula dancer at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. They married in 1908.
>> One of Chicago’s most prominent architects, David Adler, designed La Pietra for the Dillinghams. It’s now Hawaii School for Girls.
>> The original Queen’s Surf was a private home by Chicago resident Charles Case Deering, owner of International Harvester, after World War I.
>> Football lineman Herman Pi‘ikea Clark played for the Chicago Bears from 1952 to 1957.
The name Chicago, by the way, comes from the French pronunciation of an Indian word “Shikaakwa,” meaning “wild garlic” or “wild onion.”
That’s a lot of connections between two communities that are 4,200 miles apart. Can you think of another city that has as many interesting connections with Hawaii?
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
