By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

It was a combination that could happen only in Hawai'i. Malia was Hawaiian. Herman was Jewish. They made a terrific team. Herman went to that great Ulu Mau Village in the Sky a decade or more ago and Malia passed away a little more than a week ago.

Herman and Malia Solomon. It was probably her idea to put those old, grass shacks in Ala Moana Park to use. Year after year, they grew shabbier. The Aloha Week Committee had built them just after World War II in a burst of enthusiasm for reviving Hawaiian culture.

Still, on Aloha Week, they provided a setting for photos of the Royal Court. In between times, they stood empty. Why not use them all year around as a center for Hawaiian activities like thatching, weaving, canoe making, tapa beating? The Solomons got permission from Aloha Week and started Ulu Mau Village.

As I remember, it was in 1963. The elegant simplicity of the idea appealed to me. Hardly anybody was actively preserving Hawaiian culture at that time. The Hawaiiana shelf at the Honolulu Shops was about 4 feet long. Most of it was how to do the wicky-wacky hula or mix mai tais.

What Malia and Herman needed was money, so I raised about $8,000 through my column to get them started. From then on, all of us got a lesson in preserving Hawaiian culture.

We learned that the reason hula has refused to die out is because it has entertainment value for the audience and because participants find it fulfilling. By contrast, old Hawaiian games are dull compared with high-school football and basketball. So kids don't play ancient Hawaiian games anymore. Surfing will never die because it's exciting to be on a wave.

Malia asked some of the tutu in Wai'anae to come weave and quilt. They had no income before. They received a small wage at Ulu Mau Village. The lesson for me was that there was a great deal of talent going to waste in the Hawaiian community at that time. This was long before the kupuna program in the schools. Jenny Wilson, the former mayor's wife, used to come around to chew the fat with the tutu. She was a delightful person, a hula dancer in the court of Kalakaua and an outrageous flirt.

A canoe carver came to whack away at a koa log. Malia set young men to rethatch the grass houses. They planted taro and wauke for tapa. Herman worked very hard to keep the village looking good. It was a pleasant place, shady, hibiscus blossoms lining the paths, the way an ancient Hawaiian village must have been.

But the tourists didn't come. Tour operators wanted a half-hour tour. Hawaiians didn't schedule their lives for a tour bus. Malia was there more to teach than to entertain. The village eventually had to close, but it was a noble effort ahead of its time.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.