The Hard Sell of Paradise: Hawai'i, Hollywood, Tourism

362 Pages·2022·3.178 MB·English

by  Jason Sperb

The Hard Sell
of Paradise

The Hard Sell
of Paradise
Hawai‘i, Hollywood, Tourism
❧
Jason Sperb
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2022 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever
without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval
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without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Sperb, Jason, 1978– author.
Title: The hard sell of paradise : Hawai‘i, Hollywood, tourism / Jason Sperb.
Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, [2022] | Series:
SUNY series, horizons of cinema | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021054828 (print) | LCCN 2021054829 (ebook) | ISBN
9781438487731 (hardcover : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781438487755 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hawaii—In motion pictures. | Hawaii—On television. |
Hawaii—In popular culture. | Motion pictures—United States—
History—20th century. | Television programs—United States—History—
20th century.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.H38 S64 2022 (print) | LCC PN1995.9.H38
(ebook) | DDC 791.4309961—dc23/eng/20211130
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021054828
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021054829
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Maggie
It really looked like Hawai‘i

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Touristic Visions and Virtual Tourists 1
1 Save That Gag for the Tourists: The Hawaii Tourist Bureau
and Post-tourism Narratives of 1930s Hollywood 37
2 Twilight of the Past, Island of Utopia: December 7th and
the Contradictions of War Nostalgia 83
3 You’re Still Talking about Class? Adapting for Statehood in
Diamond Head (1963) 121
4 Founded on Truth but Not on Fact: Pastiche Narratives of
Modernity in Adaptations of James Michener’s Hawaii (1959) 151
5 Business or Pleasure: The Touristic Contradictions of the
Elvis/Hawai‘i Experience from Blue Hawaii (1961) to
Aloha from Hawaii (1973) 189
6 Shoot All Winter, Show All Summer: Frontier Mythologies
and the Hipster Tourism of Surf Documentaries 225
7 If You Can’t Find It, Don’t Write It: Genre and Competing
Notions of Realism in Hawaii Five-O (1968) 251
vviiiiii Contents
Conclusion: Hawai‘i Bound 275
Notes 285
Selected Bibliography 329
Index 333
Illustrations
I.1 Honolulu lobby card (1939) 5
I.2 Still from The Story of Hawaii (1934) 7
I.3 Still from December 7th (1943) 10
I.4 Photo of Kodak Hula Show (1992) 12
I.5 Tourist Bureau ad (1920s) 17
I.6 Still from Diamond Head (1963) 18
I.7 Still from The Brady Bunch (1971) 32
I.8 Still from Blue Hawaii (1961) 35
1.1 Still from The Story of Oahu (1934) 39
1.2 Still from Waikiki Wedding (1937) 41
1.3 Still from The Black Camel (1931) 43
1.4 Production image from Bird of Paradise (1932) 46
1.5 Still from Waikiki Wedding (1937) 56
1.6 Still from Waikiki Wedding (1937) 57
1.7 Still from Waikiki Wedding (1937) 58
1.8 Cover from Hawaii USA (1942) 61
1.9 Still from The Island of Hawaii (1930) 67
1.10 Still from Honolulu (1939) 75
1.11 Still from Honolulu (1939) 75
ix