TRAVEL: Henry’s Thatched Huts

Most tourists who step off the boat in Honolulu slip into a bathing suit and make straightway for Waikiki beach to lie in the sun. But not Henry J. Kaiser, 74. As a vacationing tourist two years ago, he took one look at Waikiki beach and decided things could be improved. Said Kaiser : “I figure just about everybody wants to travel to Hawaii, but facilities have not kept pace.” Since then, Pacesetter Kaiser (29 Kaiser companies, $775 million in annual sales) has been having the time of his life playing with his newest toy, a multimillion-dollar playground called Hawaiian Village. This week Kaiser announced he was starting construction of a bright 14-story, $5,000,000 hotel addition.

“Polynesian Toy.” In partnership with Colleague Fritz Burns, Kaiser first bought a somewhat rundown hotel next to Waikiki beach. Within four months he had ripped down the hotel, put up in its place 24 hotel bungalows, three swimming pools, a nightclub and bar. To be sure that his new toy was authentic, he used Polynesian architecture and decor (tiki gods. Hawaiian and Oriental furnishings, yards of tapa cloth, thousands of sea shells), had a Samoan Mormon colony thatch the bungalow roofs by hand. In the village’s color scheme, he put heavy emphasis on coral pink. Said Kaiser: “Pink gives you a joyous feeling.”

When he had decked out his Polynesian playground with a profusion of palm trees and exotic plants, Kaiser was ready to play. But something was missing. He needed a beach of his own. To get the coral for a beach base, Kaiser dredged a lagoon (wangling the necessary permission, including an act of Congress). In the center of the lagoon, he placed a tiny island. When he surfaced off his beach with 30,000 cu. yds. of sand, Kaiser owned the widest beach in Waikiki, named it after Duke Kahanamoku, onetime Hawaiian swimming champ.

Bongo Bongo. Dressed sometimes in a business suit, sometimes in a gay sports shirt and slacks, Henry Kaiser charges all over his 18-acre resort to make decisions and supervise projects personally. Blue prints in hand, he pursues carpenters up scaffolds, sets deadlines for each project and sees to it that they are met. He even participates in floorshow rehearsals, is not above taking a turn at the bongo drums (see cut}.

In rapid succession Kaiser has added a second unit of two-floor cabanas, a base ball diamond for Little Leaguers, a 1,000-seat convention hall, a second nightclub, shops, a dining room and beach club.

Next on Kaiser’s toy pile: an aluminum-domed arena to house a radio and color TV station, a movie sound stage, a theater in the round, a combination ice rink and supper club, an 1,800-seat auditorium. When asked how he is going to make the aluminum dome look Polynesian, Kaiser replied confidently: “I’ll stick living palm trees through the roof.”