Waikiki Dreams by Patrick Moser
Most of us associate the emergence of tiki bars, surfing and California “beach culture” with the 1950s. Waikiki Dreams traces the origins to the 1910s when Hawaiian migrants in Southern California introduced surfing to those shores. By the 1930s California’s beach culture thrived with a network of clubs and newsletters, spurred by the Great Depression that gave, according to author Patrick Moser, unemployed young men “the gift of time.” Beaches were mostly whites only. Indigenous Hawaiians established themselves in Hollywood and as nightclub entertainers but were viewed as colonial subjects. Their islands’ image was crafted by movies and tourism agencies, even as California manufacturers brought innovations to surfboard construction. The “social biases and racism of the time relegated Native Hawaiians either to entertainment or history,” Moser writes.
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