STAR-BULLETIN FILE / 1997
The Kodak Hula Show was in danger of closing in 1999 when the Hogan Foundation stepped in to sponsor the attraction.
For the second time in three years, a sponsor is pulling out of Waikiki's legendary 64-year-old hula show. Hogan Foundation
pulling out as hula sponsorBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.comThe Hogan Family Foundation, run by Pleasant Holidays founders Ed and Lynn Hogan, said today it is looking for a new sponsor for the Pleasant Hawaiian Hula Show.
The foundation saved the hula show in 1999, when the previous sponsor, Eastman Kodak Co., announced it was pulling out after having operated the show ever since a Kodak executive started it in 1937.
At the time the Hogan Foundation took over, the trust estimated it would need to spend at least half a million dollars a year to fund the free show, which features hula dancers and other entertainers at the Waikiki Shell.
"As we look to the future of our foundation, we are choosing to focus our contributions on our educational programs," said Gary Hogan, one of Ed and Lynn's sons and associate board member of the family foundation.
The Hogans created the foundation for tax purposes in 1998, and used it to launch a curriculum at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles to teach travel-business management skills. The trust later expanded to Gonzaga University in Spokane, Wash., and earlier this year established the Hogan Entrepreneurial Program at Honolulu's Chaminade University.
Three years ago, the Hogans quietly sold Pleasant Holidays to the Automobile Club of Southern California.
