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...it only took a second
It's been a long, long time since I stepped foot into the open-air club at "Hula's Bar & Lei Stand". It was the early 80's and "Hula's" was Waikiki's first disco. It's followers were and still are a multi-cultural mix of gays and straights where they played the best damn dance music in town! The former location was on Kuhio Ave. and Kalaimoku St. for 25 years. I can still hear the disco music blaring out from behind a head high white lattice fence. It was the good ole days of Sylvester, Donna Summer, Chic and Thelma Huston, to name a few. Keith, the resident DJ at the time, would spin any one of his records and everyone would start screaming, waving their hands in the air and rush to the large square dance floor with it's mirrored disco ball. Then out came the goodies...amyl, "poppers", little brown viles of powder in the open air club. A dance floor full of sweaty bodies, dancing the night away. It was always a fun and crazy scene with loads of "trannys", straights, a handful of pretty gals and the most gorgeous men, "gay" men! I was a regular there. A big "fag hag", friend of the bartenders and Keith (who was straight). Keith and I latter became roommates after he moved to NYC and became the DJ at "Private Eyes", another disco with a gay following.
.....but it only took a second to realize that this wasn't the old "Hula's Bar and Lei Stand" that I had just walked into. It is a bigger, better version for a new generation. The new location is the second floor of the Waikiki Grand Hotel on Kapahulu Ave. The open air balcony has seating that stretches across the length of the club with a beautiful view of the Honolulu Zoo and Waikiki Beach. The bar itself is in the center of the club. It still has a DJ (but not when I was there-it was only 2pm), food menu, billiard table and a larger dance floor. The bartenders have changed and so has the crowd. And there isn't that big old Banyan tree in the middle of the club. But what still remains, is the best dance music and that mirrored disco ball.
It's been a long, long time since I stepped foot into the open-air club at "Hula's Bar & Lei Stand". It was the early 80's and "Hula's" was Waikiki's first disco. It's followers were and still are a multi-cultural mix of gays and straights where they played the best damn dance music in town! The former location was on Kuhio Ave. and Kalaimoku St. for 25 years. I can still hear the disco music blaring out from behind a head high white lattice fence. It was the good ole days of Sylvester, Donna Summer, Chic and Thelma Huston, to name a few. Keith, the resident DJ at the time, would spin any one of his records and everyone would start screaming, waving their hands in the air and rush to the large square dance floor with it's mirrored disco ball. Then out came the goodies...amyl, "poppers", little brown viles of powder in the open air club. A dance floor full of sweaty bodies, dancing the night away. It was always a fun and crazy scene with loads of "trannys", straights, a handful of pretty gals and the most gorgeous men, "gay" men! I was a regular there. A big "fag hag", friend of the bartenders and Keith (who was straight). Keith and I latter became roommates after he moved to NYC and became the DJ at "Private Eyes", another disco with a gay following.
.....but it only took a second to realize that this wasn't the old "Hula's Bar and Lei Stand" that I had just walked into. It is a bigger, better version for a new generation. The new location is the second floor of the Waikiki Grand Hotel on Kapahulu Ave. The open air balcony has seating that stretches across the length of the club with a beautiful view of the Honolulu Zoo and Waikiki Beach. The bar itself is in the center of the club. It still has a DJ (but not when I was there-it was only 2pm), food menu, billiard table and a larger dance floor. The bartenders have changed and so has the crowd. And there isn't that big old Banyan tree in the middle of the club. But what still remains, is the best dance music and that mirrored disco ball.
1 comment:
When Rick and I stayed at the Queen Kapiolani we walked by that bar every night on the way back to our Penthouse Suite!!! It was the best damn music
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