Point 19

Aloha and welcome to point 19 on the Lihue Loop Audio Tour. This is the Royal Theater which was built in 1940. This is Malie Miyazaki from the Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School Advanced Media Productions Class and I will be sharing with you the story about this theater on Rice Street.

The theater never had a premier movie status; the theater ran Japanese language films on Tuesday and Thursday nights and family fare the rest of the week. Events like high school graduations were also held there. My grandparents also used to go there for dates. I was telling Malie, was when her grandpa asked me out for a date. It was the first time I’ve been there, thinking back I kind of remember a booth, a ticket booth that was separated from the front part of the building. The way we dressed was we dressed well, no play clothes, no T-shirts. I remember grandpa wore long pants and a nice shirt and I wore like clothes I would wear to work. When you get into the theater the chairs were arranged so that the better seats were in the back and if you go further down the chairs were wooden. The Kawakami family now owns the building and is holding on to the property for memories. The building holds several businesses, such as a barbershop, and office spaces. Currently, there are no other plans for this building.

Thank you for learning about the Royal Theater and I hope that you have an amazing day and have fun on the rest of the Lihue Loop audio tour.