The plan for success of the Feb 1911 Elks Carnival worked well. 1: get all the right people to help. 2: free publicity after being declared evil. 3: For maximum financial return, offer something for every age and each social group. 
616 opened the Carnival with a BIG, really BIG event. The biggest Elk, 350 lb US Pres William Howard Taft, opened the Carnival using the newest in high tech. Taft pressed a button in Washington DC and “an electric spark” traveled across the US by telegraph into the marine cable off California, and was received in Honolulu. Electricity then flowed to a clock [center above drawing] in an elaborate arch built on the Alakea wharf. Whistles blew at Hawaiian Electric, ships, and surrounding businesses and a switch sent power to 5000 electric lights strung through Carnival booths and ball room. Pres. Taft cabled his wishes for success. Taft was thought weak on statehood for Hawaii. His message, though minimal, was wishfully interpreted by statehood advocates as a positive sign.
Waiting crowds entered the Carnival behind Elk Henry Berger and the Hawaiian Band playing a march composed for the event.
Reportedly, merry makers “threw off the bonds of grim conventionality,” and a “Bohemian spirit ruled the crowd.” Was Rev. Gulick right? Begin with hula and geisha. Add raffling a luxury automobile and selling votes on a young lady’s popularity. How low would the Elks drag Honolulu morals? Read on.
Advance tickets for opening night’s masked ball, “social event of the year,” were $1. A. L. C. Atkinson graciously received each auto and hack as it rolled up disgorging attendees dressed in mask and costume. Leading the dance orchestra was Albert Cunha costumed as Pierrot (classic white-faced clown in a white costume and pointed hat). Cunha’s 300 pounds used two costumes “to make the circumference.” Masked dancers were hoboes, knights, gypsies, jesters, mandarins, and a “girl with a waste paper basket for a hat.” Two young men “succeeded most successfully in fooling their friends” by dressing as women. “The characters were capitally sustained,” reported the Advertiser.
Point of sale advertising: “Spielers” walked the crowd and barkers shouted each booth’s attraction. “Screeds” [posters] advertised the attractions. 1900s branding: A full sized mounted elk and wall size elk mural at opposing ends of the warehouse shouted the brand name of the sponsor.
After the 50¢ entrance fee 616 hoped people still had an available $1 to chance winning a spanking new, high class auto from vonHamm-Young, an Overland Runabout.[1]
That 50¢ bought gawking rights to sights and sounds and smells, the event’s flavor. Actually doing something cost 10¢-20¢ a booth. After all, it was a fundraiser. Booths were a mix of new events and revised successes from 616’s 1910 Bishop Square event. Palama Settlement kermes models wearing the national costumes of many countries reprised their roles, walking the Carnival crowds. Some of the Palama decorations were reused, too.
The 1910 maze was enlarged as Elks’ Tangle Trail. Rumor said a tax accountant laid it out. A brain that knows “dodges, twists, and turns” to escape taxes laid out “an example of the straight and narrow path gone wrong.” “Where you can be separated from your money and your relations.”
The George Washington Booth apparently worked like a ‘go fish’ where you bought a chance and received an unexpected prize. The principal draw was the colonial costuming of the young female attendants.
Instantaneous Photos by E. K. Fernandez: Tintypes, a common fair souvenir, print a positive photo on a sensitized iron plate. Since there is no wait on a negative and printing, they were considered ‘instant’.
The Onion Grill was not fast food: “snowy white linen, shining silverware, twinkling glassware.” Lemonade, Candy, and Ice Cream booths sold the obvious and did a brisk trade.
The Vaudeville booth presented a sampler of the acts currently performing at the various Honolulu theaters.
Not all the booths were so straightforward. In some booths what you thought you saw was not what you got.....
Anita Manning, Lodge Historian
Next: The customer enjoys getting stung.
References:
Advertiser 1911 Feb 19, 20, 21, 22
Hawaiian Star 1911 Feb 14, 18, 20
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