Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1915-11-06
Former City Editor of Star
Bulletin Writes Article for
Eastern Publication i

Vivid and colorful is an article on
"Honolulu's Garish Night" contributed
to the current number of the Photo
Play Magazine by Nathaniel Pfeffer,
former city editor of the Star-Bulle-
tin. ..s. <=
The exiled world and its wife at
the picture play" is the subtitle OF
the article by Mr.. Pfeffer, who left
here last March, and Is now connected
with the China Press, published at
Shanghai. The article follows:
IF you can call Honolulu, as they
do, the melting pot of the races then
surely It is the moying-picture that
stirs il. In all this intermingling OF
races, nationalities, civilizations and
centuries the one plane where they all
meet, the one thing that crosses all
lines, is the moving picture. 1t is the
only thing they all share. the only
thing they all enjoy Nowhere will
you find them In more picturesque
setting.
Many NationaIities.
Picture to yourself at the end of a
crooked, narrow alley strange shah
by structure with tin walls, say II
feet high and open to the skies. lmag-
inc In the inside of that enclosure a
row of wide planks set on crossApieces
on the uncovered ground, with struc-
ture at one end that supports a large
screen. Imagine that interior filled
with an audience in which are seated
side by side Japanese in their flower
ed kimonos and shambling 'getas' or
wooden shoes; Chinese, the women in
their richly hued and dainty coats and
trousers; Hawaiian women in their
shapeless qholokus, sort of Mother
Hubbard; Filipinos. Koreans, Portu-
guese and few whites and perhaps
a man in United States army uniform.
Picture that audience. SO composed,
dropping tears over the sorrows OF
Mae Marsh, quiyering with excitement
over the thrilling adventures Of Kath-
lyn Williams, or rocking with laugh
ter at the antics Of John Bunny. Pic
ture that and you have the ordinary
movipgpicture theater in Honolulu.
For here in this outpost OF the
United States, in the middle OF the
Pacific half way between America and
Asia, there are intermingled. and in
almost equal proportions, Japanese,
Chinese, Filipinos, Koreans, Ameri-
cans, English, Germans, Portuguese.
Russians, Spanish and scattered
groups of nationalities.
FOREIGN Customs Survive.
while it is an American city and
it takes its color from the Americans,
to all intents and purposes every ele.
ment of the population has preserved
It's own life and its own civilization,
Each clings to its own customs. Its
own manners, It's own costume, its
own churches and temples, its own
language, its own magazines and news
papers, its own food, It's own shops,
its own theaters and music, its own
amusements-and its own vices.
Walk three blocks down Fort street
the main thoroughfare and you
will pass people Of seven or eight dit
ferent naEAonalities and shades OF
color, wearing clothes of as many diff
| ferent kinds and colors. reading news
papers in as many different languages,
conyersing in as many different
tongues. Follow each to his home
and it will be as II you had with
dream-like swiftness visited as many
different parts Of the world.
Cross Section Of Races.
-Honolulu fa in other words,
rough cross-section of the human race
and the life of all its elements. All
this, remember, in a city of $4,000
people. and small enough to be com
fortably placed in one corner OF New
York or Chicago; and, more than that
isolated in an island in the middle OF
the Pacific.
THAT the moving picture more
than any other one thing should sc
completely have won its way in such
place. should so completely have con
uuered this world-population, means
something. 1t is only a few years
since the moving picture has found
| its way out here. Yet / am told there
are no less than IS motion picture
| theaters scattered in all parts of the
city and they are all prospecting. And
they are everywhere-in the business
district. In the residence sections, II
the Oriental quarter, on the slopes Of
Punchbowl, an old extinct crater or
the heights on which the Portuguese
settlement sits, out in the plantatioI
camps, at the army Dosts-every
where. wherever there is a grouI
of houses there is also the tin-walled
roofless structure with its little stand
in front that indicates the movies.
Has Strong Hold.
Nor do. know any place on the
mainland-as continental United
States is called out here-where thu
movie craze has any stronger hole
than here. Under the soft tropica
Hawaiian moon the cry of Ma, let:
go to the movies is as insistent as /
is in any flat-dwelIers' section of an!
city of the United States, even though
1T be voiced in a half dozen differen
tongues. And under the tropical moor
ma and pa and a quartet OF cage
youngsters, in kimonos and mandarin
coats, bare feet and legs, troop eagerl!
to the movies.
so as soon as night has fallel
they come as if by secret summons
From their quaint little shops in TIT
quaint, crooked lanes; from the littl,
barrack-like cottages of the planta
tion workers; from the homes OF tn
more prosperous business men, tn
comfortable burghers, they come Z