Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 8, 1 August 2012 — Ladies of the Lex [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Ladies of the Lex

By Lynn Cook n Kailua, a room full of effervescent ladies giggle and laugh. Questions hounee from one to another with lots of"do you remembers?" and "I can't believe I wore tJiat\ " Class reunion? No, more like a gathering of sorority sisters who belonged to the most exclusive Hawaiian club of them all. They are the Ladies of the Lex. That's the Lexington Hotel in New York City. The Hawaiian Room of the Lexington, in Manhattan, opened in June 1937, two years after Pan Am began their first 17-hour long commercial flights to Honolulu and child-star Shirley īemple was the hit of movie news reels, taking a surf lesson from the Waiklkl Beach Boys. This year marks the Hawaiian Room's 75th anniversary. A very early predecessor to the Hawai'i Visitors Bureau

was established in 1902, but the most eonvincing advertising for the Islands was likely the Lexington's Hawaiian Room, serving up the magic of the Islands. More than 500,000 people dined and danced there in the first two years. Multiply that by the 30 years of operation and the "number of impressions," as they say in the advertising business, is staggering. A view of Manhattan wasn't necessary, so the large, unused room in the hotel basement was a perfect location for the club. The Hawaiian Room decor was exotic, filled with realistic palm trees, murals of Waikīkī and a

thatched "grass hut" wall at the back of the ample stage, large enough for Ray Kinney's Hawaiian orchestra and a half-dozen hula dancers, then called the Aloha Maids. The music was mentioned in newspaper social columns as being "a weleome relief from noisy

swing andjazz." But, back to the lovely ladies trading stories at the daytime pā'ina in Kailua. Here, īeMoana Makolo, a dancer in the Hawaiian Room from December 1962 until the room was closed by a fire in 1966. "We followed the brave girls who went to New York in the '40s and '50s, but we didn't know mueh more about the big world beyond Hawai'i than they did," she says, calling her time in New York, "like dancing in a fairy tale." Makolo was like many of the other dancers, all young loeal girls who dreamed of dancing at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, but never of

New York. Soprano Mona Joy Lum wantec to sing on the big stage in the big city of New York. "It was my dream, and it eame true.' She sang for Richard Burton's private part> at the club, with guests Sidney Poitier, Henr> Fonda, Gypsy Rose Lee and others. The part) made the pages of Life magazine. Some of the girls didn't anticipate the eole in the winter. They laugh when they talk ahoui arriving in January with no coat. After thc

long flight they stepped off the plane, onto thc stairs that led to the tarmac, and felt their feei stick to the metal steps. Dancer Torea Cost£ says she "dressed for the city" in beautifu' clothes. "I walked down the street, smiling ai everyone. When the crowd that followed me looked like stalkers, the other girls told me not to smile. It was so not like home." Dancei Leialoha Kaleikini says they never had an> real "man trouble" because they always traveled in twos. "If they invited us out to dinnei after a show, the fellows knew we would havc a friend. Just like it was dancing at home, oui teachers andkumu didn't allow us to go alone.'

The Hawai'i performers roomed in hotels, then found and shared apartments with the other dancers. The Lexington ladies attracted many fans. Frank Sinatra liked Costa. Dancer Iwalani Lum-King got a eall fromMarlon Brando after the show. She hung up after saying, "I no like." Lum-King was known for a once-only grand entrance. The fire-knife dancers would end their set by whacking a pineapple in half. The juicy fruit squirted. Lum-King glided down the Wstairs, slipped in the juice and slid all the way to the orchestra on her behind. The showroom offered a good salary and attracted the best of the best in Hawaiian entertainers. Bandleader Andy Iona, Ray Kinney and his orchestra, Kui Lee, Clara "Hilo Hattie" Inter, AlfredApaka, SamMakia, Johnny Pineapple, Mahi Beamer, Emma Veary,

and dancers Ululani Holt, Mapuana Bishaw, Pualani Mossman, Leialoha Kaleikini, Lei Becker Furtado and Jennie Nāpua Woodd. At this home in Kailua, the ladies of the Lexington who live on O'ahu gather and talk of old times. Some continued their dancing and singing careers. If friends, or their former kumu eall, they ean be counted on to put on a dancing mu'umu'u, grab a tlower for their hair and be ready to dance. "History ean slip away so easily," says Maile Beamer Loo-Ching, head of the Hula Preservation Society. With

' many pages of grant requests and many months ' of research, Loo-Ching has been able to gather ' the information before it was lost and says that ' sharing the spirit of aloha with an intemational r audience in New York, the memories of these talented women are now recorded to share 1 with generations to eome. "We are lucky to t have the opportunity to preserve the stories ; and share them with many audiences - through ; their photos and our film documentation of the t ladies of the Lexington." i At upcoming photo exhibitions the ladies l are quick to say that they will be happy to tell t their stories - even the rascal moments when ; a young dancer crossed her fingers behind her ; back and said to her dad, " 'Well, Moana's : dad is letting her go to New York. How eome ' I can't go?" Knowing full well that Moana's dad never said yes - yet. ■ ; Lynn Cook is a loeal freelance journalist : sharing the arts anel culture ofHawai'i with ' a global auāienee.

75th anniversary events Hawaiian Room photo exhibit > Aug. 27 to Sept. 21 at Honolulu Hale (City Hall) > Sept. 28 to Nov. 2 at Windward Community College's new Library Learning Commons building Ladies of the Lexington Conversation > Distinctive Women in Hawaiian History Sept. 15 at Mission Memorial Auditorium near City Hall, 2:30 p.m. For information, visit Hula Preservation Society on Facebook.

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The Lexington Hotel's Hawūiian Room brought islūnd doncers ond musicions to New York City, including prominent ūrtists like Roy Kinney ond Loni Mclntyre in the eorly yeors. - Courtesy: Hula Preservation Sodety

Lovely lūdies of the Lexington gūthered for ū pō'ino in Kūiluo to kiek off the 75th ūnniversory yeor of the HūWūiion Room. Doncer Leononi Akou Hogen, left, dūncerShirleyTūutūise Mūnicos, soprano Monū Joy Lum, Lindū Delū Cruz, who is helping Hulū Preservotion Society promote the ūnniversory of the HūWūiiūn Room, dūncerondchoreographer īeMoono Mūkolo, Mūile Beomer Loo-Ching of HPS, ond doncer Angie "Toreū" Ortiz Costū. - Photo: Lisa Asato INSET: Doncer Leononi Akou Hogen in heryounger yeors. - Courtesy: HPS 1