(instrumental music) Aloha, I’m Kalaʻi Miller.

For more than a century, the iconic Hawaii Theatre has played a significant role in Honolulu’s cultural landscape.

It’s been an economic anchor in Chinatown, while also providing community engagement and social enrichment.

And if you think back on all that’s happened over the past 100-plus years, the Hawaii Theatre has been resilient.

It has not only survived, but has thrived.

(instrumental music) The Hawaii Theatre was always coined the Pride of the Pacific.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: My name is Mark.

I'm one of the docents here at the Hawaii Theatre, one of the original docents here, and I'm going to tour you around this fantastic facility.

There's nothing else quite like it here in Hawaiʻi, or for that matter in much of the world because this is a very, very uniquely designed theater.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: The Hawaii Theatre first opened to the public September 6, 1922.

It was the grandest show palace ever conceived in the state of Hawaiʻi.

So, if you think about around 1915 when the theater was first conceived by the Magoon family, they wanted to have a multi-use facility where you could have both at the time were silent films, but then also vaudeville acts.

The current site was chosen by the owners of Consolidated Amusement for the theater, because it was in the center of the business district.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: The theater cost about $500,000, at that time to build, which was an astronomical sum.

And today, that's estimated at a replacement cost of over 100-million dollars.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: So, if we look back to the 1980s and the community volunteers that that saw this last remaining grand show palace in Chinatown, and rallied together to try and save it.

Consolidated Amusement was pulling out and Kamehameha Schools was planning to demolish the theater to put up a parking garage and perhaps commercial spaces.

You would have seen that the mural right behind me, half of it was missing.

There were gaping holes in the lath plaster, from the roof leaking.

The seats were threadbare.

The the movie curtains were in shreds.

You had rats and, and other vermin running around the theater unabated.

And so it was it was quite a task for the volunteers to envision bringing the theater back to its original glory.

We today are sitting here in the theater very much on the backs and with the gratitude of the people in the community that stepped up and said this is important for us to save this theater for our community.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: Much of what you're going to see today is very much what this theater looked like with a few exceptions.

And the first exception is this entryway.

This doorway along here where these curtain doors are, these used to be the main doors of the theater.

So you just opened these doors, and you'd be right here in the lobby.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: The theater itself was designed over the course of several years.

The original architects, Emory and Webb, were sent by the Magoon family to New York, they toured dozens of theaters in in Manhattan, spent years evaluating them for acoustics and patron comfort and designing what would be a very resilient theater that could stand up to the salt air and the difficult weather that we often are exposed to.

And the result is this beautiful building that has stood the test of time.

It's been around 100 years and we expect that that with the right care of the community and under the stewardship of our nonprofit that we'll be able to ensure it's here for another 100 years.

The theater is very much a neoclassical type of a building.

It has Greek and Roman influences.

It's a little bit of a hodgepodge.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: Instead of these electric fixtures here, there were seven Chinese lanterns that hung here originally.

And of course, that was a nod to the fact that we're right on the edge and part of Chinatown here in downtown Honolulu.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: If you think about the design of a theater, and you go back to 1922, and people that would come in to experience the Hawaii Theatre, this would have been the most beautiful building that ever been inside of.

And it was designed so that as people were waiting for the shows, they could look around the building and identify different scenes, different pieces of interest that they could focus on prior to either the music starting or the organ playing.

You were trying to create something that was going to spark imagination in the patrons.

So if you look from right to left, then you can see the raised relief bronzes on either side, featuring scenes from The Merchant of Venice.

And then if you look up across the top of the proscenium arch, you can see the Trump Lloyd painted tile work.

So people look at those and think that they're real tile, but in reality they've been hand painted.

That leads you into the mural, which is by Lionel Walden.

Lionel Walden was commissioned to paint the mural, which is called the Procession of Drama.

And it is an allegory, which, if you look again, from left to right, you're going to see the common man being brought forward into enlightenment by the muse of the arts.

Then on the top right and left of of the archway, you will also see figures that are painted and one of the things that I really liked about the figures is that that they're designed to make you look at it and think, particularly the image on the top right, a little secret for those who know.

Take a look at the mirror that the figure is holding and looking at the the jestor that's over her shoulder.

The jestor behind her appears to be young, but the image in the mirror the artist painted is an old person.

So it harkens to the reality that the arts transports you from one place to the other, and everything is not exactly what it's seen in the arts.

In order to make this truly the Pride of the Pacific, the designers and the architects put little motifs all throughout the theater.

So if you're here and you're looking around, you can spot them.

So if you look up in the middle of the dome, there's a little flower motif emblem which is the ʻilima flower.

And if you also look at the coils around the stage, around the proscenium arch, you'll see that those are made of maile leaf.

And so look real close, you can see the maile.

And then you can also see the hibiscus, which was the state flower is also featured.

And then at the very top of the proscenium arch, there's a medallion, which is a symbol of the Territory of Hawaiʻi.

So the theater was opened in 1922, under the Territory of Hawaiʻi, and so the emblem is still in the theater and was part of the restoration to to clean it and bring it back to its gilded state.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: This loge area used to be all wicker seats.

These first four rows of seats were considered the best seats in the house.

And then they were the most expensive seats in the house of course.

In those days, if you wanted to come to the opening night, it would have cost you $1.50 to sit in one of these chairs, it would have cost you $1.00 downstairs and 50 cents upstairs.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: The dome is original to the theater and it had many different uses, but primarily it's acoustical in nature.

The theater was designed prior to the advent of amplified voice and music.

So the dome itself helps to take the sound from the stage and reflect it back down into the auditorium.

The top is also vented so that if there was ever a fire, smoke would go up out of the vent.

And then that also helped to keep the theater cool because at the time the theater was built, you didn't have, you didn't have air conditioning.

There were some advancements that were done in in taking advantage of the trade winds.

So if you look at the design of the building, where the the grilles are on the right and the left, that also is on the mauka and the makai side of the theater.

So, they were they were able to open up the the jealousies on the outside of the building to allow the airflow to come through and help blow through.

The theater also was one of the first buildings in Honolulu that had fans in the basement that would blow air up through the vents in the floor to help cool the theater up.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: The curtain that you see here is not actually the main curtain.

This is the fire curtain.

To separate audience from from theater in case anything goes wrong.

This is not the original fire curtain.

Even though the pattern of it, the Diamond Head motif all that on there is the way it looked in 1922 the word Hawaiʻi was not there.

Can you guess what word was there instead?

Asbestos.

You're kidding.

I'm not kidding.

It actually said asbestos right?

Because the curtain was made of asbestos.

Of course, in those days, that was a very reassuring and very comforting word because asbestos was known as a as a major fire retardant.

Well not so reassuring to us today isn't right.

So no, that's long since been removed.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: So the box seats are, are really important because one of the boxes on the house left side is the governor's box.

And on the right hand side is the Magoon box, once again, the Magoon family that built the theater.

In the box seats, we have two of the last remaining original lanterns that were from the theater when it opened in 1922.

They're very much of an Asian theme of the red silk with a pineapple motif, that during the restoration, that motif was carried throughout the theater and you can find it on the draperies, you can see it in the carpets.

You can see it emblazoned on the backs of the seats in the loge in the loge section as well.

Going out and and looking at the marquee, one of my favorite things to do is to come and stand under the neon and listen to it.

Because it's really analog technology.

Unfortunately, the neon is fragile and partygoers and vagrants in Chinatown can be very destructive if they want to be.

And so, some morning we may come in and find a bulb broken.

And then those have to be hand blown and then installed by one of the handful of craftspeople still left working on the island to help maintain it.

But we felt it was important during the restoration to maintain the neon because it only enhances the historical feel and vibe that you get when you come down to the historic Hawaii Theatre.

Mark Hukill / Hawaii Theatre Docent: Can you imagine you're the singer, the dancer, or whoever out here performing how intimate this feels.

Right?

It feels like they're just right there.

Right?

And when you hear the applause and all that it's just, it's just magical in this theater.

Gregory Dunn / Hawaii Theatre President & CEO: If we don't remember the past, and if we don't teach the past, they say we're doomed to repeat our mistakes.

In our particular case, with the Hawaii Theatre, what we want to do is make sure that we're perpetuating Hawaiian arts and culture.

When we think about what makes us unique, and what makes Hawaiʻi our home, it's it's truly arts and culture that are the lifeblood of this place.

And by teaching the keiki to dance and to sing and make music and and perpetuate the experience of those who came before them, we’re making sure that Hawaiʻi remains the community that we all love.

And I think it's important to have places like the Hawaii Theatre, where you can step on stage, and you can perform on the same stage that your grandmother or your great grandmother, or your auntie performed on.

There's a lot of power in that.

And when when we talk to the artists that come in to perform for the various shows, that's one of the things that they're the most proud of.

It's a very powerful thing and it's one of the things that's really unique about our community and that we need to ensure that we're preserving for the future.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here: What is the farthest you’ve ever run?

One mile?

Ten miles?

26 point 2?

How about 100 miles?

Every January a group of extreme endurance athletes from all over the globe congregate in Makiki Heights for the HURT100— a 100 mile ultra-marathon on the trails of Tantalus that takes more than a day to finish.

Marian Yasuda: The most common thing I hear is I wouldn't even drive that far.

Nate Jaquah: Why?

It’s just, it’s fun to challenge yourself.

And fun to kind of see what you're capable of.

Jeff Huff: I think it's just about pushing yourself to a point that you don't know, you can get to.

Anna Desapatella: Cuz it’s relentless.

It’s like unforgiving.

You just, it hurts.

It hurts.

(instrumental music) Marian Yasuda: Back in the 80s a bunch of folks were running together and marathoning.

John Salmonson who was kind of our leader for the past 20 years, brought everybody into the world of ultramarathons but there was nothing here.

So people traveled to races on the mainland, or in Europe or other parts of the world.

And in the 80s, they formed this group, it was a very loose club called the Hawaiian Ultra Running Team.

So, the acronym is H.U.R.T.

And it was very grassroots.

There was no membership, no dues, you just ran with these folks.

And then at some point they decided, you know, they needed some races here.

The HURT 100 was sort of the brainchild of three runners, and they enlisted John to help them to put this 100-mile race on, on Oʻahu.

In 2000 that was the first year and it's grown from, I believe the first year had about maybe 25 entrants and now we are capped at 135 entrants, and we get up to 500 applicants every year.

Jeff Huff: So basically, it was just four or five different runners that were meeting out there every weekend.

And we were tired of traveling to the mainland to do 100-mile events.

So, we just came up with this concept.

We have beautiful trails here in Hawaii, why not share our trails with mainland folks and the international folks and have them come out and enjoy the same trails that that we enjoy.

Problem was, mainland trails are much different than Hawaiʻi trails.

Our trails are much more rugged.

Runner: Woohoo!

Jeff Huff: Initially, it was a real challenge to get all the mainland and international folks out here running on what we call trails.

Anna Desapatella: The course is very technical and we don't have anything like that in mainland.

I mean, regardless where you go, it's just those big drops, the roots, the rocks, lifting my leg all the way up over and over again.

You do it five times.

It never gets easier.

It gets harder.

And then you also in, in Honolulu, I could be on the beach.

I could be doing something like really fun, right?

Nate Jaquah: The hardest part about this course is the relentlessness of the course.

I mean, there's a hundred yards of pavement probably, and other than that everything’s going over roots, rocks, you're getting your feet beat up, you're getting your body beat up.

There's no times to take off.

I mean, I took probably three, four falls.

I almost rolled off the trail once.

Like it's, you gotta pay attention the entire time, and you got to be engaged the entire time.

Jeff Huff: On the HURT it's hard to run more than 100 yards at a steady pace without, you know, jumping, skipping over rocks, puddles, mud, and dodging the pigs occasionally.

Marian Yasuda: The trail is on the Tantalus Mauka trail system.

It starts at Makiki Nature Center and you head up to basically the highest point in Tantalus which is Pauoa Flats.

Then you’ll go from Pauoa Flats you’ll go down in Mānoa Valley, all the way down to Paradise Park.

There’s an aid station there.

And then you go back up to Pauoa Flats, which is kind of the center point, and you go down to Nuʻuanu.

And that's the aid station down there by Jackass Ginger, and then you'll come back up to Pauoa Flats.

And then you’ll go back to the start and finish in Makiki—five times.

We have usually have 135 on the start list.

We usually will have some of those at the very last-minute drop out.

Announcer: Three, two, one, go!

(Woo!

Woo!)

Marian Yasuda: I think this year, we started with 127.

They have 36 hours to complete the race, I believe the race record is about 22 hours and change.

This year, we did not have very many people go under 24 hours.

The bulk of the people actually finished between 34 and 36 hours.

Jeff Huff: Most times runners will drop because of dehydration.

They haven't taken enough care of their fluids.

Their stomachs go south on them, where they can't keep anything down.

They're out in a rain forest.

Their feet get modelled and it's just one big blister after another.

Very rarely do we get an injury, but occasionally we'll have like a broken finger, broken wrist if somebody falls down.

We do have safety patrols out there around the clock, making sure everybody's safe; expediting or letting our medical people know when a runners down.

If they can just get over the mental, your dehydration status can come back, your stomach can come back.

You just got to stay out there and, and keep moving.

Nighttime, the Gremlins come out.

You know, you see a little bit of the negativity starting to creep in.

You’re up on the trail.

Your headlamp is bobbing.

It seems like the trail is moving.

That in itself creates a little bit of motion sickness, right?

It's just like, oh, where am I going?

You can't see very much the canopy is so dense.

And at that point, in the race, everybody really does get spread out.

And you're kind of alone.

And then you start to hear the bamboo clack.

And you hear the pigs in the bushes, or you see a rat run up a vine.

And then you don't know if you’re seeing these things or if you’re hallucinating.

And so, it’s just a real mental struggle.

People use caffeine as much as possible to help try to stay awake.

Because at this point, they've been up for 18/20-some hours running on fumes, running in dark.

And it’s dark for 13 hours up there.

No other run experiences that.

And then there's always the thought of my flashlight starting to flicker.

Do I have new batteries in my drop bag?

What am I going to do if my flashlight headlamp goes out?

I'm kind of stuck.

I'm going to be up here for a long time trying to follow somebody else down.

But then amazingly, once the sun rises again, it's all happy smiles again.

You know, you've hit the second sunrise.

So, you know, this is it.

You've only got a few more hours, and you're going to be done with this bad boy.

The runners are going to remain positive as much as possible.

Once that positivity goes away you know they're in trouble.

Marian Yasuda: So, the course is a 20-mile loop, we have three aid stations in that 20-mile loop.

And that's the only place where a runner can receive aid.

It's illegal to get anything in between.

Jeff Huff: The volunteers literally greet all the runners in each aid station.

And they're getting them what we call their drop bag, which are basically supplies that the runners have put into their own bag.

Then they'll fill their water bottles or their bladders, take all the rubbish from them, get them down into chair if they need to wipe their legs down, help them change their socks and shoes, and basically just emotional support for them, to keep them going.

And the HURT volunteers are second to none.

Anna Desapatella: I've done a few races.

I've never seen anywhere, the love of the community on the level that you see at HURT.

I mean people volunteer here for like 36-hour shifts at aid stations, they’re there the whole time.

I'm not from here, and people really helped me.

We embrace everyone.

We know everyone's name.

Like when you come here, you're like part of the ʻohana.

We love you and we just shower you with love.

I've never seen it in any other race, like the community here is incredible.

Jacki Doppelmayer: It is an ʻohana.

We all know each other.

We bring people into the fold.

For the last 12 years I’ve been a volunteer here and I’m at Pirates of Paradise every year.

In addition, Mike asked me to pace him this year on his fourth loop, and I was honored to do that.

So, we volunteer and then we sleep a little bit, and then we go pace somebody and then they go back and volunteer.

So, it's, it's a long weekend, but a lot of fun.

Jeff Huff: We have over 300 volunteers out there on race weekend.

Many of them who give up 36/40 hours, just to go out to this event, put on one of our T-shirts, and help these people achieve their dream.

And people always keep coming back for that.

And I think it truly does speak to them, what aloha is all about.

Michael Hee: We’re like one big family.

We’re all ʻohana and we do things for the runners.

Nate Jaquah: What’s different about HURT is just the community.

It’s also a loop course so you get to see the same people over and over again, so you get to know this group of people really well, and it’s just an awesome, awesome community.

Runner: Thank you volunteers!

Volunteer: Good job!

Runner: Thank you!

Volunteers: Yeah!

Marian Yasuda: Most of the volunteers, not all, but many of them are runners themselves and trail runners.

So, they know what these folks are going through.

And they know how uplifting it is to come in and have someone and tell them oh, you look awesome.

You're doing great.

Even though they're totally not right sometimes.

But just hearing that is wonderful for the runners and, and out on the trail between the runners, they're also very supportive of each other, which you don't see in other events.

And part of that is because there, it's that common suffering.

Jeff Huff: Ultra-runners are incredibly tough.

And they'll come into your aid station crying.

And just broken down.

And you know that's not the true them.

That they've got something more inside.

And they wouldn't have journeyed all this way and drop out of our event.

Marian Yasuda: It doesn't take much sometimes, especially in the middle of the night, when you're sleepy.

When it’s 2:00, 3:00 in the morning or 3:00 to 4:00 in the morning is actually what we call the witching hour when everybody thinks they're done and they're just walking dead.

And they get something like a toothbrush, and they get to brush their teeth, or they get some soup at an aid station that just perks them up.

It really doesn't take much.

But you have many of those along the way, right?

It's not just that one time, you'll have a down period again.

And then you'll need something else to pick you up.

But it's it happens and it's pretty magical.

Nate Lewis: I paced the inaugural HURT 100 in 2001.

17-year-old high school kid hanging out passing out food.

I paced one loop in 2001.

And I can say that that was the top running experience of my life.

I ran track and cross country here in high school and there was something about that magical night on the trails back then that, yeah, has always stayed with me.

But the one thing that definitely hasn’t changed about HURT over the years is the ʻohana, it’s what brought me to tears at the finish, like, you know, I love this community.

Marian Yasuda: All these people from different walks of life and different professions who would never connect, connect on the trails.

It's a common love of being out in nature, it's a common love of challenging yourself and being part of a community.

We tend to form some really strong bonds.

Nate Lewis: Ran a whole bunch of ultras on the mainland all over.

This one definitely like means the most to me by far.

Jeff Huff: I was fortunate to finish three times and then I said, that’s enough.

And I took away something from each 100 mile event.

And I always felt that I had to give back more than what I took.

So that’s why I’m still involved in HURT.

You are the lucky few.

Once you finish that 100 miles, go to bed Sunday night, wake up Monday morning, you’re a different person.

You know you can go out and accomplish things that you never thought were possible.

Nate Jaquah: There’s something that happens when you're kind of literally broken and you can find different like gears and different gauges and continue on even when you, you're sure you can't.

And I think it's a powerful life experience.

Marian Yasuda: It is very revealing.

You'll see yourself at your worst.

And then you realize that you can recover.

That's one of the best lessons of ultra-running is that you go you do go deep, you get really, to where you think you can't do it, and you can't go any longer and then sometimes you need the assistance of someone helping you in some way.

Either it's with words, or with a change of socks or shoes at an aid station or something that just sort of turns things around for you.

And you realize, oh, I can recover from this, I can keep going.

Sometimes you’ll have really great experiences where things just click and it’s amazing and you don’t even know how it happened.

And other races you just are going to suffer for a really long time but pushing through that is very rewarding also.

And I guess it’s just knowing that you’re strong enough to push through is very much of a reward for me.

And it translates to life.

Runner: Best day ever, baby!

Jeff Huff: People are very resilient.

Never sell anybody short.

You can see somebody come to the start line, and you're saying to yourself, oh, my goodness, how is this person going to finish this event?

36 hours later, they finished the event.

So, you can never read a book by its cover.

Nate Lewis: I mean, the first thing you say, when you finish 100 is that I'm not going to do that again.

And then 24 hours go by and you might be on the internet, scrolling through things and signing up for something.

So, nothing on the books right now, but I can't make any promises for the next week.

Kalaʻi Miller / Home is Here: Thank you for joining us.

For more Home is Here stories, go to our PBS Hawaiʻi You Tube page.

I’m Kalaʻi Miller, a hui hou.

My first experience at the Hawaii Theatre was in 1997.

I performed on stage as part of the Jim Nabors Christmas Special.

That was 2006 and I did beat him.

In fact, I was the first Hawaiʻi finisher that year.

I beat all the boys, including David Goggins.