DeSoto Brown, film archivist at Bishop Museum and author of several scholarly paperbacks on Hawaiiana, and Lowell Angell of the University of Hawaii and a leader in local theater preservation, would both rather see a cellophane skirt in black and white than a grass skirt in living color. Brown said the movie helped trigger the Hawaiian music fad of the late '30s, a time when America was struggling to lift itself out of a depression. The movie was a huge hit. Oh sure, it's campy and corny, but you can watch it again and again. It's my second favorite movie set in Hawaii.
Timing is everything.
But that wasn't what did it in at the box office. After all, it was a big, colorful Betty Grable movie with great production values. And it had real Hawaiian musicians in it. But in 1942, just after the Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii was NOT a romantic destination. The music was great.