Product Description

Chock full of marvelous illustrations, this retro book chronicles the Hawaiian Island during the pre-jet age, from just after World War II to statehood in 1959. This was an era of sweetness, innocence and easy living. Hawai'i was truly a tropical paradise, its popularity fueled by South Seas - themed Hollywood films of the previous two decades.

By the end of the fifties came statehood and jet travel - accompanied by a building book, planes crammed with tourists and a quickened pace. Hawai'i hasn't been the same since. "Leis, Luaus and Alohas allows the reader to travel back in time to those slower, sweeter days and to experience Hawai'i as it was for the travelers who arrived in style by steamship or after a 9 1/2 hour flight from the West Coast.

The 1950s style - splashy, stylized and colorful - is reflected in the artwork and graphics of the period. Pop culture Hawaiian-style, with its roots in the 1950s, was copied worldwide in fashion and décor. Included in this book are over 220 illustrations, ranging from watercolors for restaurant menus and advertising art to tourist brochures and matchbook covers. There are also rare vintage photos made by visitors in the fifties.

In illustrations and text, "Leis, Luaus and Alohas" captures a bygone era and takes the reader on a fun-filled, nostalgic journey to the Hawai'i of yesterday.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #383294 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 112 pages

Customer Reviews

Get this Book if You Can Find It--Wiki, Wiki!!!
Retro Hawaiian chic----it's a happening trend!! First published about five years too soon for the now-oh-so-hot design theme of Old Hawaii (assuming you consider the 1950's old, you old goat!), Fred Basten's book is nothing more or less than a 100+ page collection of vintage photos, postcards, matchbook covers, and (best of all) 1950's advertisements depicting the joys which await you in tropical, scenic Hawaii! Here are the famous Aloha Airlines advertising maps, the Dole Pineapple ads, and the delightful hotel ads that make you want to pick up a phone, dial the number (you had to do that back then---no buttons!), and book a room. There are plenty of breathtaking photographs as well, from scenic drives to sunsets to tourists at play (including a few of the author himself!). And it's nice to see some things never change: the luau menu printed on page 104 is almost exactly identical to the menu of the Old Lahina Luau, Maui, circa 2003. (Right down to the coconut cake for dessert!) Two minor quibbles: at 111 pages, it's at least two hundred pages too short! (With all the pictures, if it were longer it would cost $50, but I for one would gladly pay it.) Also, Basten has made the decision to keep the written text as short as possible and let the pictures speak for themselves. Even though I think this is a wise move, I would have welcomed some more discussion about Hawaii in the fifties, how it became a state, etc. Still, the fabulous photos and other displayed goodies will have you planning your next trip right away. Not an easy book to find outside of Hawaii (I found mine in a famous Hawaiian retail store.), but worth the effort. So, get this book wiki, wiki (quickly). Your coffee table is bare without it. Aloha!!!

Very disappointing and incredibly pointless
This book is very disappointing. I lived on Oahu in the late 50s and early 60s so I know the time period and what the Islands were like. They were heaven. No doubt about it. This book does not capture even an iota of that heaven. This is a mishmash of common ephemera poorly reproduced. There is no depth to the subject matter. To say there are two authors is a joke since what text is available could have been written by a travel agent in Manhattan who never left THAT island. Two guys with some old brochures is more like it. I had hoped that the book would deal with what the Islands were like during the time period, five years after the war and statehood in 1959. This is simply a mainlanders idea of what Hawaii was like and it goes no deeper than an aged worn brochure in the bottom of a dusty drawer.

And to make things worse they chose a large format trim size which allowed them to print a lot of poor quality photos, reproduced from much smaller brochures, at the books full trim size. Photos that originally were meant to be small are suddenly large and blurry because they had to worry about dot patterns when enlarged. Shame on the "authors" and publisher. A smaller trim size would have benefited the reader. The art ends up looking too often like filler. I'm sure the pages looked fine on the computer screen when the book was being layed out, but suddenly when the thing is sitting in your lap you have to wonder what they were thinking. The whole thing looks cheap, which at $24.99 it's not.

Though I have yet to find the definitive book about Hawaii pre-statehood I can recommend the following two far superior books, each also full of ephemera, but produced with much better production values, and cheaper than this bloated waste of paper:

"Hawai'i At Play" and

"To Honolulu in Five Days"

Wonderful Fifties Imagery!!!
Really nice hard cover book with images that truly transport you to a more romantic time when Hawaii was "the" place to travel! I haven't figured out yet though why the Outrigger and Duke's Canoe Club are not featured. Duke's may be a tourist trap now, but to me, the ambience is perfectly tropical. Overall this book a really nice trip back to (from what I hear) better days!