Arts & Culture
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The largest movie theater in the islands was built on this lot in 1939 by W.A. and Agnes Scharsch Fernandez. Designed by Honolulu architect C.W. Dickey and modeled after New York City's famous Roxy Theater, it featured a state-of-the-art sound system, 1,050 seats with clear views of the large silver screen, an Art Nouveau interior, red velvet curtains, red seats, and lower and upper balconies. Ocean breezes entered through large vents to keep the theater cool, and ushers wore black pants and white long-sleeved shirts like those at the New York Roxy. Its November 18th, 1939, opening featured Lady of the Tropics with Hedy Lamarr and Robert Tayler, Goodbye Mr. Chips with Robert Donat, and The Charles Kaneyama Orchestra. Later, opera stars Marian Anderson and Lauritz Melchior performed there. Hurricane Iniki seriously damaged the theater in 1992, and it had to be torn down.
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Kapaa, Hawaii · United States
