By all accounts, it shouldn't have worked.
In 1975, hotel and gaming pioneer Sam Boyd took a calculated
risk and bought the California Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, marketing it as
the premier travel destination for Hawaii's people. It was a move that not only
saved a once-shaky business venture, but helped turn the Boyd business empire
into what it is today.
In the new book, "California Hotel and Casino: Hawai'i's Home Away from Home," Dennis Ogawa (with the help of historical accounts by key hotel executive John Blink) offers up a plain-spoken oral history of how a couple of out-of-state haoles, Boyd and Blink, developed a relationship with local travel agents that would bring anyone and everyone from the islands to a hotel-casino named for another state.
Because of its small population and distance from the mainland, Hawaii was never considered a prime market by Vegas officials. But Boyd - who had lived and worked in Hawaii in the 1930s and seen the residents' love of gaming - decided to try and convince island folk to come have fun at the California, Ogawa said.
"It would turn out to be a legendary niche-marketing move at its best. Boyd had a clear vision of the community he wanted to come because he already understood the values and culture of Hawaii."
That came thanks to his business association and friendship with Hisakichi Hisanaga, owner of Hilo's Palace Amusements company, who became Boyd's employer and mentor in the late 1930s.
"It was certainly rare back then to have this 6-foot-something haole trying to mix in with the issei and nisei people in Hilo. But because he wasn't outspoken and was willing to listen and learn, Sam became accepted like family and was part of the gang there," Ogawa said.
Boyd, originally from Enid, Okla., made his way to Vegas in 1941 and worked his way up through the ranks of the gaming industry to make his name and reputation as vice president and general manager of downtown's The Mint. He eventually took over the California, a hotel/casino that had failed in efforts to attract a core of visitors from its namesake state.
In 1962, when Hisanaga was 72, he made his one and only visit to Vegas to see his former student, now an influential businessman. Boyd made sure Hisanaga was well taken care of, even giving him $500 in gambling money. "Afterward, Hisanaga told his family that he planned to keep one (hundred-dollar bill) as a treasured memento," Ogawa wrote.
Boyd and Blink's interest in Hawaii never waned. Boyd put on "mahalo parties" in Hawaii hotel ballrooms, offering free food and open bars for upward of 2,500 at a time. Locally made TV commercials featured Boyd in his ubiquitous cowboy hat inviting local folk to the California.
"Their success was all built on one-on-one human relations," Ogawa said. "When the two of them came out to Hawaii, they didn't come off as talkative, know-it-all haoles. They were low key and humble, so the travel agents wanted to help them. That, the great deals they were offering, and their omiyage of cases of Coors beer - back when it was really good and you couldn't get it here - all that helped, too."
Ogawa cites a couple of reasons the hotel and the islander guests were such a winning combination.
"First, Hawaii people are great money managers. Hotel-casinos don't want people who are addicted to gambling, because when they end up chasing their losses and end up losing everything, that reflects badly on the casinos. They want people who, while they love the rush of gambling, they come with a budget. And that's the Hawaii people.
"Secondly," said Ogawa, "Hawaii people work hard, based on their immigrant culture ethic, and all that Boyd's business embodies is hard work. And, as a longtime professor, I think the values are still there up through the third generation I've taught because as they get older, they become more like their mothers and fathers. They make up the core group of those who still go to the California, because that's where their grandparents and parents gambled."
Herbert Tanaka, owner of Hawaii Island Travel, is among those interviewed in the book, which also includes reminiscences by longtime hotel staff and local tour escorts, plus former "Let's Go Fishing" TV co-host Hari Kojima, who ran a fishing tournament at Lake Mead through the auspices of the California.
Tanaka said even though other Vegas places have tried to offer comparable deals to attract the Hawaii market, "they were still of the mind that they don't want to take everyone and their uncle. The California is the only one that succeeded, because it saw the light when it came to business volume - to bring them all and make it a party."
Although the initial Hawaii patrons of the California are now in their 80s, Tanaka said, "the California is still solid, because nobody else has their deals tailored to Hawaii. ... As I walk through the Boyd properties, I think if it wasn't for the Hawaii people, it would be like a ghost town."
Despite a current business slowdown in Las Vegas - so much so that Boyd's Echelon resort on the Strip is on hold even after construction has begun - the bulk of Tanaka's charter tours still go there.
"And my buddy is John Blink," he said. "We're like brothers. Back when he and Sam started coming to the islands back in 1976, nobody trusted John, this young haole kid. But look at how things turned out, for them and for us."
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