LEADERSHIP CORNER
Nightclub owner depends on gay tourists
Interviewed by David Butts
Advertiser Staff Writer
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Title: Owner
Organization: Wave Waikiki and Hula's Bar & Lei Stand
Age: 56
High School: Fraser High School, Fraser, Mich.
College: University of Hawai'i
Breakthrough job: Managing bands in Waikiki
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Q. I don't know if you accept the title, but I think you are seen as one of the main leaders of the gay community here.
A. That may be so just because of the very fact of being here so long, but I always think of myself not as a gay businessman, but a businessman who is gay. I think the distinction is important. There is no gay way of doing business.
I got here in 1966 to go to the University of Hawai'i. I attended the university for a couple years, mostly business courses. I ended up dropping out because I got so involved in managing groups — rock 'n' roll groups and Hawaiian groups — that it seemed to take up more time than I had and was more exciting than school was. So I ended up dropping out and never did go back.
In 1974 my business partner at the time, and still my business partner, Eaton "Bob" Magoon, his family — Magoon estate — owned a piece of property on the corner of Kuhio Avenue and Kalaimoku in Waikiki. It became vacated by a restaurant that was there. He said, "Let's start a bar." I said, "We don't know anything about the bar business." He said, "Oh, there's nothing to it."
After a couple years of not knowing what we were doing and making a lot of mistakes, by trial and error, I learned and Hula's took off. In November of 1980 I opened Wave Waikiki. At that time punk rock was really big and so, thank God, because we didn't have any money to put into the interior and the interior was pretty dismal. But for punk rock, the more dismal it was, the better the marketing was. It took off. As we had money we were able to fix the place up. And that has been successful.
Both Hula's and the Wave are probably the longest lasting, free-standing nightclubs in Waikiki.
Q. Have the past couple years since Sept. 11 been trying for you?
A. The first Gulf War was much more traumatic for business than the second Gulf War; 9-11 in the beginning it did hurt business at the Wave, but my business at Hula's went up. I came up with the saying, "When the going gets tough, the gays get traveling." It seems like gay travelers keep an eye open for bargains in travel. When fares started going down, my business at Hula's went up. I depend very heavily on gay tourists at Hula's. I couldn't survive without the gay tourists.
Q. Do you think there are several businesses that depend on the gay tourists?
A. There are other gay bars. I would venture to say that all businesses in Waikiki depend on the gay tourist. Not exclusively, but you take 10 percent off the top of any business and everybody is going to feel it on the bottom line. Just last month they had the Volcano Party at the Convention Center, a fund-raiser for Maui AIDS. My business went up 15 percent because of it. The first year they did it, it went up even more than that, but that's because the Atlantis tours took over the Norwegian Star and had the whole Norwegian Star full of gay people. They just descended on the town and every little town on the outer islands, amazingly. You know what, everybody enjoyed prosperity that week. Nothing negative happened that week, including no straight people were turned off.
A lot of people who do not want to venture into the gay market, including the Hawai'i Visitor & Convention Bureau and the Hawai'i Tourism Authority, they say it's going to turn off the non-gay market. But I think experience has shown all over the country and all over the world where marketing has been done to the gay market that it hasn't been adversely affected.
San Francisco is known as a gay mecca and has a huge non-gay tourist population.
Next year the ship is coming again. Atlantis tours is taking over the Norwegian Star in March.
Q. Is Honolulu viewed by gay tourists as less gay-friendly than other tourist destinations?
A. I think there are other cities that certainly market to the gay community in ways that Honolulu does not or Waikiki does not, and I think we're losing out.
Waikiki/Honolulu is really a very gay-friendly place. I've lived here since '66 and I'm probably the most public gay person in town and I've never experienced one moment of discrimination against me.
I think the very fact that Waikiki/Honolulu is an urban resort area makes it even more wonderful. It appeals to the gay traveler. You've got the excitement of the city and the natural beauty of the resort. But our thunder has been taken away by other cities because they've actively gone after the gay market.
I remember very clearly that in the '80s Hula's was the center and Waikiki was a real gay destination. It's not like it was. Every gay celebrity would come through Hula's doors sooner or later, like Elton John. It was really wonderful. And now with the other cities actively going after the gay market, we don't have that anymore. We don't have the edge anymore.
But people still come. They still like it here. They still love it here and they feel very accepted.
Q. Why did places like South Beach Miami go after gay tourism and Honolulu did not?
A. The truth of the matter is Honolulu at that time did not have to. Everybody was coming to Honolulu and the HVCB wasn't really marketing to anybody. They felt like why bother, why spend the money? Things are different today.
Q. Is there a reluctance on the part of the major hotels and airlines here to market to gays?
A. I go to gay travel expos. I see that Aloha Airlines had a desk there and Outrigger Hotels had a desk there. All over the country the major hotels are wooing the gay market. Once people understand the gay market and understand gay people they understand that gay people are just like everybody else. There's no need to hide the kids. There is nothing going on that is unseemly. People who don't know don't understand and they shy away from it.
