Ursula’s Hawaiian Adventure

I just ordered a hardcover book called Hollywood to Honolulu, The Story of the Los Angeles Steamship Company. I can’t wait to see the photographs and read about the ships Ursula sailed on to and from Hawaii. In the meantime, from the book’s promotional material, below is a description of the joyful L.A. harbor departure that Ursula and her friend Elizabeth would have experienced on January 14, 1928:

S.S. City of Honolulu

The S.S. City of Honolulu

“For over a decade during the Roaring Twenties, a great white ocean liner would sail from berth 156 in Los Angeles every Saturday. The pier was packed with waving and cheering people looking up at the happy passengers crowding the railings. The vessel’s band on deck played jazz tunes and popular favorites. The captain stood forward on the bridge wing watching the lowering of the gangway amid a hail of colored streamers and confetti. The liner’s whistle would blow at noon, raising the cheering to a higher pitch as the band played ‘Aloha Oe.’ Slowly the great mass of the liner inched away from the dock.”

cloche hats 1920s

Cloche hats were popular in the 1920s

Can’t you just see Ursula leaning over the ship’s railing, laughing with excitement, one hand on cloche hat while waving with the other to her smiling, yet tearful, mother down on the dock?

In my last post, I imagined Ursula aboard the S.S. City of Honolulu sipping cocktails with Elizabeth and young gentlemen admirers. Despite Prohibition, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, many of the ship’s passengers would have indeed enjoyed imbibing. According to a Los Angeles Times article about the vessel’s sister ship, S.S. City of Los Angeles:

Elizabeth Everyhardy passport photo

Ursula’s friend Elizabeth Everhardy (1924 passport photo)

“During Prohibition, travelers had a strong reason to board a ship that made a monthly voyage. Although liquor was supposedly banned from the ship, the City of Los Angeles held nightly cocktail parties in a library devoid of books.”

After six days at sea aboard the City of Honolulu, one of the first sights Ursula would have seen as the luxurious liner approached Honolulu Harbor was the new 10-story Aloha Tower. Built in 1926 to welcome arriving passenger ships, this lighthouse/clock tower was the tallest structure in Hawaii at the time, and still stands today as a historic landmark and iconic symbol of Hawaiians’ hospitality.

Illustration of the S.S. City of Honolulu arriving in Honolulu Harbor, with the Aloha Tower depicted on the right

Vintage illustration of the S.S. City of Honolulu arriving in Honolulu Harbor, with the Aloha Tower depicted on the right

In his interesting paper “Creating ‘Paradise of the Pacific’: How Tourism Began in Hawaii,” University of Hawai’i professor James Mak describes the over-the-top welcome Ursula, Elizabeth, and their fellow passengers would have received as their ship neared the shore on January 20, 1928:

SS_City_of_Honolulu_Illustration

Vintage illustration of the S.S. City of Honolulu entering Honolulu Harbor

“Reminiscent of ‘Steamer Days’ from many decades earlier, ‘Boat Days’ would be celebrated beginning in the late 1920s to welcome passenger liners arriving at the Aloha Tower in Honolulu. Ships were met by swarms of lei-bearing greeters, newspaper reporters were on hand to interview dignitaries, female dancers performed hula to Hawaiian music played by the Royal Hawaiian Band, and outrigger canoes and coin divers circled the ships. Each arrival became a festive occasion, and it has been reported that many locals left work early to take part in the festivities.”

Unfortunately, there are no photographs from Ursula’s Hawaiian adventure, but here is a short home movie (with period music) taken by another tourist visiting Hawaii that same year; Ursula probably saw some of these same or similar sights:

Film highlights include entering Honolulu Harbor (at the beginning); ­hula dancing (2:18); ‘Iolani Palace (4:24); coastline (5:20); beautiful park-like grounds of a hotel (5:35); Hawaiian boy diving and catching coin (5:48); majestic palm tree (6:10); sugar cane plantation (6:22); and driving in the mountains (7:21).