Long before the isles could rely on television, computers and cellphones to market paradise, the popular radio show “Hawaii Calls” used the rhythmic sound of surf and local music to lure visitors here.

Brought to Hawaii by Webley Edwards in 1935, the first “Hawaii Calls” show debuted from beneath the sheltering banyan tree at the Moana Hotel.

The show, which was broadcast to more than 750 stations worldwide during its peak, enjoyed a 40-year run. People gathered in homes across the continents to hear the sound of Waikiki’s famous surf and what Webley called “Hawaiian music played by Hawaiians from Hawaii.”

Together, the harmonious combination helped put Hawaiian music on the map and significantly ramped up tourism. There weren’t many major hotels in Hawaii in 1901 when the 75-room Moana Hotel opened and began turning Waikiki into the place to be and be seen. The hotel’s first expansion took it to 245 rooms, but Hawaii didn’t truly become a household word until the advent of “Hawaii Calls,” said Thelma Kehaulani Kam, director of cultural services at Starwood Hotels and Resorts Waikiki.

“The show originated in the hotel’s Banyan Court, but occasionally would broadcast from other Waikiki locations. At the Moana, guests would gather under the banyan tree to watch Hilo Hattie, Alfred Apaka and all the greats. When it aired on Saturday afternoons, there would be people listening in Europe hearing the waves and imagining Hawaii as this exotic destination with beautiful surf, dark handsome men and pretty girls,” said Kam, who began working for Starwood in 1971 during the final years of “Hawaii Calls.” “It really was an amazing part of the Moana’s history.”

Slack key virtuoso Makana will make new history by hosting a modern-day tribute to “Hawaii Calls” and the Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa, Waikiki Beach, on Friday, the resort’s 115th anniversary. Why mark the 115th? “Why not?” Moana General Manager Larry Hanson asks.

“Everything after a century should be celebrated,” Hanson said of the now 794-room property.

An all-star cast

The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. on the Banyan Courtyard stage, where Edwards was known for holding his microphone to Waikiki’s surf while excitedly hollering out, “From the Banyan Court at the Moana Hotel overlooking bee-you-tiful Waikiki Beach … it’s ‘Hawaii Calls’!”

Kam said Harry Owens wrote the song “Hawaii Calls” and Al Kealoha Perry and his “Singing Surfriders” were heard weekly.

“Andy Bright became famous for his rendition of ‘Hawaiian Cowboy’ as did Alfred Apaka,” she said. “There was the comedy of ‘Squeeze’ Kamana, and the appearance of Hilo Hattie and Hawaiian dancers who were a regular feature.”

Makana said the show will pay homage to the history.

“What’s important about this show and what we are doing is that it not only honors the Moana, which of course is the First Lady of Waikiki, but it also re-creates and honors the legacy that is responsible for bringing Hawaiian music to the world,” said Makana, whose music has been featured on three Grammy-nominated albums including the soundtrack for the Academy Award-winning film, “The Descendants.”

Makana said Nina Keali‘i­wahamana and Palani Vaughan, who both performed during the original “Hawaii Calls,” will be among the tribute’s performers.

“Nina Keali‘iwahamana is one of Hawaii’s most well-known songbirds. She actually sang in ‘Hawaii Calls’ and she is going to sing the theme song at the event,” Makana said. “Of course, Palani Vaughan is just a legend in Hawaiian music.”

Makana said Pomaika‘i Lyman will perform some of the songs that her grandmother, Genoa Keawe, sang on the original “Hawaii Calls.” Celebrated ukulele player Taimane Gardner, and Kaumakaiwa Kanaka‘ole, who comes from a very famous Hawaii hula family, also are among the featured talents. Lono Kaumeheiwa and Lopaka Colon, who have played with Makana for over two decades, will be showcased, too.

“We’re going to emulate ‘Hawaii Calls’ and honor that era with our own twist that showcases the decades, especially the 1920s to 1940s vaudeville times. We’ll have music, comedy and historical snippets,” he said. “We’re really trying to bring to life that golden era, that romantic era of Waikiki. It’s not going to be a sit-down concert. It’s going to be more of an interactive party like it was in the old days.”

Makana said the event is a chance for performers and musicians to have fun and to give back.

“Hawaiian music has been a pioneering force from Day One,” Makana said. “A lot of people don’t know that between 1916 and the early 1920s, hapa haole and Hawaiian jazz were the top-selling musical genres of the day.”

Makana said Bing Crosby’s recording of “Sweet Leilani” was a major force in reinvigorating music sales after the Depression.

However, he said “Hawaii Calls” took Hawaiian music’s popularity to the next level by reframing it as more than a touristic tropical soundtrack.

A legacy of love

A newspaper editorial once opined that “Hawaii Calls” was “the greatest public relations program ever seen,” according to Honolulu Star-Advertiser reporter John Berger in his book “Hawaiian Music & Musicians.” According to Berger, more than 300 musicians and performers appeared on “Hawaii Calls,” which by the end of its run had amassed a 3,000-song repertoire and had cut about 28 albums.

“Hawaii Calls” records first appeared in 1952, and for a time in the 1960s, the program had a brief stint on television, Kam said.

Hanson said the event goes beyond music to pay homage to the longevity of the resort’s employees and guests, some of whom go back to the days of “Hawaii Calls.”

“We have one bellman that has been here 47 years and never missed a day of work,” he said. “We have 200 employees who have been here 20-years-plus and many are multigenerational workers, whose parents and grandparents or other family members worked here first. Many of them have a lengthy history with our guests, especially the 800 return guests that have stayed here at least 10 years in a row.”

Hanson said the concert and other special events planned for the Moana’s birthday month also celebrate the intense love affair that visitors to Hawaii have had with the resort.

“Definitely, some of our return guests come because of the hotel’s history. Many are coming to the concert to celebrate our history with us,” Hanson said. “When ‘Hawaii Calls’ ended in 1975, some of them were here at the banyan tree. Others were listening to the waves and Hawaiian music from far away. The radio show was important to building the whole destination.”

Darlene Tubbs of Pittsburgh and her husband, Raymond, have traveled to the Moana for the past 18 consecutive years. Tubbs said the couple can’t make it to the concert, but will be there in spirit.

“We love the Moana so much that we have pictures of the hotel hanging on our living room wall and the vanity license plate on my husband’s car reads Moana,” Tubbs said.

The couple loves the warmth of the Moana’s staff, the property’s location in the center of Waikiki and its enchanting history, she said.

“I often think about what a beautiful place she must have been at the turn of the century when she opened,” Tubbs said.

“When I watch old movies of Honolulu and Waikiki, I love seeing the little Moana all wrapped around that gorgeous banyan tree. I think of Robert Louis Stevenson sitting under that tree — watching that beautiful vista and writing.”