It was New Year’s Eve in Honolulu and my parents were partying with my dad’s cousin, Bill Fairley, and his wife.
That’s Fairley, on the right, with my mom next to him. My dad is over on the left with Mrs. Fairley.
According to a note on the back of the photo, they were at Henry Kaiser’s new Hawaiian Village for New Year’s Eve 1956. The hotel first opened in mid-1955.
This was probably taken not long after the new hotel opened.
John Lind, Floice Fairley, Helen Lind, Bill Fairley New Years Eve 1956 Hawaiian Village
At the time, my dad was manager of the Honolulu office of Dohrmann Hotel Supply Company. That’s how he met Henry Kaiser.
When he was about 90, and apparently aware that his memories were fading, he started pecking away at an old manual typewriter and recording bits of history. One day he described meeting Kaiser and getting drawn into the development of the original Kaiser Hawaiian Village.
Here’s part of his essay.
Mr. (Jerry) Zuker was formerly a Hotel Street bar operator who patronized the Dohrmann Hotel Supply Company, the employer who had sent me to Honolulu in May of 1939.
Zuker had purchased the old Niumalu Hotel property in late 1940s and was making plans for its improvement. As I sat their looking over the placemat I could not help remembering one of the most historical moments of my career in the hotel and restaurant supply business.
Dohrmann moved into a new building on 1122 Ala Moana in 1955 following a move from the McCandless Building at 925 Bethel Street. World War Two was over and a new man in town, Henry Kaiser, phoned one afternoon about 4 p.m. stating that he wanted to have a representative meet with his people concerning some projects.
I asked if 9 a.m. the next morning would be suitable and was immediately told that the meeting was underway and he wanted somebody NOW!
I dropped everything and went to the old Niumalu Hotel where I found Mr. Kaiser and his right hand man, Mr. Hancock, seated at a large table with rolls of plans in front of them. I learned that Mr. Kaiser had recently purchased the property and was in the throes of a big project.
This was the Henry Kaiser that the world had heard so much about during the war with his ingenuity in getting things done, especially building ships and launching one a day when they were urgently needed. I was amazed that he was such a down to earth person.
Our company’s background was known to Mr. Kaiser and their full efforts to assist him was made known, as our San Francisco office had the talent that would be required for such a project.
The Niumalu property consisted of everything from the entry to Ft. DeRussy on Kalia Road to the water’s edge. The whole area was overgrown with weeds, trees, and rubbish. Mr. Kaiser’s plans called for several major buildings and this meeting was to get started on the development of a major kitchen as well as a smaller coffee shop.
For the next several years the company’s resources were used for this development and many nice projects were finalized, including the transformation of the old Niumalu into Henry Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village.
He was indeed a man of action and one could not help but admire him for his sincerity and no nonsense manner. His staff that soon developed after that first meeting operated in the same manner and it was a real pleasure to have had the opportunity to work with them.
One one occasion, equipment for one of his kitchens was being assembled in our new Ala Moana building. He called the afternoon prior to the day of delivery to be certain everything was on schedule. He had been assured al was ready to go and would be out to the job site in the morning.
At 9 a.m. the next day, Mr. Kaiser’s Lincoln Continental drove up to the front door of the store and in came Mr. Kaiser to inspect the progress of his shipment. That’s the way he handled just about everything we did for him. He was really a man of action.
