Vintage hula shakes its hipness

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Hula film clips from the 1920s to the 1970s will be showcased in a theater presentation Sunday at the Academy of Arts. 'Historic Hula on Film' Part of an ongoing Hapa-Haole Music and Dance Festival 2 p.m. Sunday The Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts $5 532-8768 Note: The Bishop Museum archival collection is open to the public, noon-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, and 9 a.m.-noon Saturdays; free

Films of vintage hula performances — shorts that might have been the music-video snippets of their time, dating back to the 1920s — will be shown in "Historic Hula (and Music) on Film," Sunday at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Honolulu Academy of Arts.

DeSoto Brown, archivist at Bishop Museum, is collating an hour's worth of film, preserved on video, that depicts hula from another generation.

"The films date back from the early 1920s to as late as the 1970s," Brown said of the images he'll share. "The most interesting ones are a series of short films made in the early 1940s; these are not unlike the music videos of today, since most are individual performances by a group of singers, usually with a hula dancer or dancers."

He said some were created by the SOS Recording Studio, once on Beretania Street near Bishop Street, downtown.

Many of these old films were donated to the Bishop Museum in the 1990s, revealing a long-gone era of songs and styles not commonly documented on film.

"I had no idea people made hula films like this," Brown said. "Some films include performances by Andy Cummings and Pua Almeida, who are credited."

The mystery, said Brown, is why some of these flicks even existed. Many are in black and white; a few are in color. Most have sound; some are silent.

"It was before television. I can't imagine where they would have been shown," he said. "I don't believe these were shown to the public."

Other films showcase Rosalie Stevenson, who was prominent in hula and dance in the 1940s and '50s. "There's a mixture of songs — some purely in Hawaiian, some in English," he said.

"There's also a sequence of a Lei Day program at Honolulu Hale in 1944," said Brown.

And the hapa-haole element? "Many performers are dressed in cellophane skirts, the most significant type of hapa-haole dress you could wear," said Brown.

Brown was enlisted by kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine to prepare a short program of historic hula and dance, as part of a Hapa-Haole Music and Dance Festival she has been doing this week and last. In this instance, film is part of the mix.

Brown said the Bishop Museum archival collection relies on donations from the public. "Film deteriorates," he said. "So we transfer to video."

Donations have been dwindling with the passing of time. "Fifteen years ago, we were hearing from a lot of people who had home movies, some too far gone, they found in their trunks at home. We haven't had much response recently, which tells me there are no more out there."