Now & Again

With 50 years behind it, Hawaii Business looks back and looks ahead

1976 Memories of a Geisha According to Air Siam's 1976 ad in Hawaii Business, its Japan destination was an experience like no other. It said: "After you've said konbanwa to your first geisha, sampled the simple delights of yakitori and the subtle thunder of sake in the Ginza, discover the lavish nightlife of Akasaka … Tokyo after dark—there's no place like it on earth." Thirty years later, you can still do these things on your next trip to Japan but you can no longer fly Air Siam, which ceased operations a year after this ad was run.

1978 And The Beat Goes On

1978 was a big year. The musical phenomenon Grease hit the big screen, the Eagles received the Grammy for Best Record of the Year for Hotel California.

Throughout the '60s and '70s, people spent all day at this music festival, grooving to bands such as War and the Grateful Dead and browsing makeshift booths full of arts and crafts.

Almost three decades later, on April 1, 2006, the crater once again hosted the music festival. More than 6,000 people of all ages attended the event and saw performances by artists ranging from Na Leo to Kenny Endo's Taiko Center of the Pacific to the Steve Miller band. Even War returned to take the stage. Diamond Head Crater Festival creator Ron Gibson, CEO of GM Entertainment, said that the concert was something he just had to do.

Almost three decades since the last concert, workers arrange seats for this year's Diamond Head Crater Festival. photo courtesy: Elissa Josephsohn

"This totally came from an inspiration. It is an extremely aloha, spiritual-feeling event—not in a religious way, but the mana from Hawaii," says Gibson, who spent the past three years planning the event.

According to Gibson, the celebration was the cornerstone to help him start something even bigger—The Diamond Head International Music Festival and Conference. Gibson says it's a five-year-long project and doesn't believe the event will take place in the crater, which he says should be a place that promotes the community, culture and art of Hawaii.

"These people had $10-million businesses in Japan, borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars, came here and put the money in any kind of real estate—like putting chips on roulette tables." - Shuhei Okuda, president of Halekulani Corp., a Mitsui Real Estate Development subsidiary, in Hawaii Business's June 1991 cover story, "The Jaded Yen," describing the success of Hawaii's real estate.

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