Glorious past
gets displayed on
theater tour

Once, a workman making repairs in the auditorium swore the piano in the upstairs banquet room was being played. Other staffers have heard footsteps on the stage but, on checking, found no one. And lights turned off are inexplicably found shining bright the next morning.

If you go ... What: Hawaii Theatre Tour Place: Meet at the theater, 1130 Bethel St. Time: 11 a.m. Tuesdays (confirm the day before) Cost: $5 per person. Participants must be at least 9 years old. Group tours may be arranged for $50 for up to 20 people. Call: 528-0506 E-mail: mattjames@hawaiitheatre.com Web site: www.hawaiitheatre.com

Then there's the ghost.

Theater manager Burton White became acquainted with him in 1989 when, fresh from Broadway, White was the stage manager for a local production of "Dreamgirls." Back then, performers had to walk through the theater basement to get from stage left to stage right.

On opening night, White recalls, "When the girls made their entrance on stage right, they said, 'You have to tell that old Chinese man to quit standing in the corner down there. He startles us!'"

After the girls made the same comment the next night, White thoroughly inspected the basement but didn't see anyone. He assembled the crew, thinking the man in question would be among them, but no one fit the description.

Seven years passed. In 1996, just before the newly renovated Hawaii Theatre was to reopen, White invited a women's hula halau to rehearse at the theater so he could make final lighting adjustments.

When the practice session was over, three of the dancers asked White, "Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"

Puzzled, White responded, "What friend?"

The women replied, "The pake (Chinese) man who's been watching us from the wings."

White maintains he and the halau's kumu (instructor) were the only men in the theater that night, "so that was my second go-round with the ghost. He's a legend here; he's been around for as long as the theater has been around."

Nobody knows who the ghost is, "but he's totally supportive," assures White. "He just stands and watches. And as far as theaters go, he's not unusual. Every theater I've worked with has a ghost story."

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Inside the Hawaii Theatre, the audience awaits the beginning of a performance by the Shanghai Circus.

THESE ARE SOME of the intriguing stories you'll hear during the hour-long tour of the Hawaii Theatre scheduled each Tuesday. Dubbed the "Pride of the Pacific," the 1,400-seat facility opened on Sept. 6, 1922, as the flagship property of Consolidated Amusement.

While some might have regarded the theater's $500,000 cost as extravagant, no one disputed that it was the most lavish venue in Honolulu at the time. Gilded Corinthian columns bordered both sides of its stage. Also gracing its interior were neoclassic beaux-arts moldings, a painted dome, a proscenium arch flaunting a stylized hibiscus motif, and two exquisite bas-reliefs, one from "The Merchant of Venice" and the other from "Hamlet."

"Glorification of the Drama," Lionel Walden's imposing mural over the proscenium, depicted a series of muselike figures representing Music, Comedy, Tragedy, Dance, Drama, Architecture, Painting and Sculpture. Man follows the graceful women as he struggles to restrain two leopards that symbolize his primitive nature. This was Walden's interpretation of Man being led into an age of reason and the arts.

During the Hawaii Theatre's heyday from the 1920s through the 1950s, crowds lined up around the block to see plays, musicals, vaudeville and movies starring Rudolph Valentino, Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. It was the place to go for entertainment.

Then, in the 1960s and 1970s, Oahu's amusement centers shifted to Waikiki and the suburbs. Despite being placed on both the national and state registers of historic places in 1978, the theater fell into a sad state of disrepair. By the time Consolidated stopped operating it on June 30, 1984, its roof was leaking badly, and termites had ravaged much of its stage, basement and balcony floor. There was talk of razing it to build a parking lot.

In stepped a group of concerned citizens who organized a nonprofit corporation, the Hawaii Theatre Center, to save the historic facility. Thanks to their fund-raising efforts, restoration of the interior began in 1992, and the theater reopened on April 28, 1996. Work on the exterior, including a handsome marquee, was completed last November.

The total cost of the renovation was $33 million; fund raising is continuing, and HTC officials dream of making further improvements, including expanding the backstage area to accommodate larger productions.

COURTESY HAWAII THEATRE A side view of the orchestra pit at the Hawaii Theatre reveals some of the lavish architecture inside.

IN THE MEANTIME, Honolulu audiences are once again enjoying premier shows at the Hawaii Theatre. Recent headliners include Carol Channing, Stomp, Shanghai Circus and the Pilobolus dance company.

"At the time of the restoration, the theater was brought up to the highest standards in sound and lighting," notes longtime docent Marian Benham. "Today, it's a very high-tech theater, and there isn't a bad seat in the house. It's a shallow, wide theater, so if you're standing onstage and looking out, you can see why performers love to play here: They feel like they're part of the audience."

According to Benham, the Hawaii Theatre has been "a real catalyst" for downtown development.

"Instead of staying away from downtown, like they did when it had a reputation for being seedy and unsafe, people now look forward to coming here for quality entertainment. The Hawaii Theatre has brought new life, new promise, to downtown Honolulu."

Hawaii Theatre facts

» When the theater first opened, seats in the loge -- considered to be the best in the house -- went for $1.50. These wicker chairs with linen covers were divided into boxes (six chairs per box) separated by velvet curtains. You could buy tickets anywhere else in the balcony for 50 cents; seats on the first floor cost $1.

» Installed in the 1920s, the theater's air-conditioning system was revolutionary for its time. Air was piped from the ceiling into the basement where it was purified by a filtering system. The air was then blown by fans over large blocks of ice and returned to the auditorium via ventilators under the seats.

» Claiming that no American models met his ideals, artist Lionel Walden convinced Consolidated Amusement executives to send him to Paris to research figures and proscenium arches for the "Glorification of the Drama" mural. It's believed the real reason for the excursion was to treat his new bride to a honeymoon.

» During a storm in the 1970s, the theater's roof leaked, causing the left side of the 30-foot, 300-pound "Glorification of the Drama" to fall to the floor in pieces. A custodian threw the pieces away, thinking they were trash. Many thought the mural had been damaged beyond repair, but restoration experts from Conrad Schmitt Studio of Wisconsin were able to flawlessly replicate the missing section, using a color photo as reference.

» Because it contained asbestos, the theater's original fire curtain had to be replaced with one made of fiberglass and polyester. The design of the current fire curtain is true to the original except for one thing: The word "Hawaii" has replaced "Asbestos" beneath the illustration of Diamond Head.

» Hidden behind the gilded grillwork of the 1922 Robert Morton theater organ are pipes ranging from the size of a pencil to 16 feet in height. Capable of duplicating the sounds of many instruments -- including the violin, clarinet, bass flute and cathedral chimes -- these pipes make the organ, in essence, an orchestra in itself. Each tour includes a short organ concert.