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Elks Honolulu Lodge No. 616
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Mother’s Day 1937-1941: in the shadow of war
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Each May in the 5 years prior to World War II, Honolulu praised motherhood against a backdrop of war preparation. The remembrance stretched some years with pre-Sunday events by the American Legion or Aloha Temple Shrine, or after-Sunday on-base services by military units. On Mother’s Day an informal mom-sharing agreement scheduled non-competitive celebrations. Churches had the early morning. Honolulu Elks Lodge 616 recognized Territorial Moms in the 11am after-church slot. The Eagles, Honolulu Aerie 140, had the afternoon. The Army-Navy YMCA or another group took the 5:30 slot. If Mom played it right, she might not have to eat a lovingly prepared, but burned, home-made meal.  The Eagles public program at Iolani Palace or Kapiolani Park was broadcast on KGU and specialized by collecting flower donations for hospitalized or shut-in mothers.[1] For years the Elks gave special attention to elderly mothers at the Kaimuki “King’s Daughters Home.”[2]
Lodge celebrations combined music and ritual with testimony to mother. Wearing a red carnation lei meant your mother was living; white meant mother was a memory. The Elks commanded ‘name’ speakers, and groups like the Roosevelt High School choir raised their voices in praise of mother. The program out grew the Elks Lodge in Waikiki as crowds rose from a handful to hundreds to thousands. Possible sources of that growth: Elks’ Mother’s Day committee members Don George, manager of the Princess Theater, and Ray Coll, Advertiser editor. Elks’ Mother’s Day events always got good Advertiser coverage. Enlarged Mother’s Day programs were held in the Princess. If Mom noticed a poster for Waikiki Wedding / Bing Crosby (1937), Manager George knew she wasn’t seeing Modern Times / Charlie Chaplin ads at the King Theater. In 1940, after Elks celebrated at the Princess, Mom could see Gone with the Wind. 1941: the hot film was The Philadelphia Story / Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart.
Commercial Mother’s Day: ads for gifts dotted the newspapers. Did Mom notice the gifts were work-related appliances or new tech toys WE could play with? A radio able to pull in popular mainland shows - $75 (2007= $1125!). 1937 ads tapped into interest in the coronation of England’s George VI (‘For her Majesty’). Each year, Mother’s Day ads and news were upbeat: 1939 leis were now being shipped to the mainland, 1940 mainland calls swamp local phone lines, 1941 Sears opens on Beretania St - escalators and air conditioning throughout; the “modern woman” is buying a new convenience - paper towels. Each year, war news in the columns around the Mom coverage grows darker. 1935: simulated air attack on Oahu, war games each year thereafter. Blackout drills added 1939, 1940, 1941. May 1940: Japan bombs Chungking / Hawaii doctors hold a fundraiser to create a China Medical Relief fund; Germany poised to invade Poland; Holland, and Belgium already under attack. May 1941: as University of California Berkeley students hold a peace rally, many Americans, including icon Charles Lindberg, urge US neutrality. Others lobby for US support to Britain and France as the British fight in Basra and Baghdad to keep oil from Germany while Iraqis flee across the boarder to Syria. Hawaii’s 1st sale of US “Defense Bonds” goes well and citizens sign up for First Aid / Red Cross classes.  As Mayor Petrie gives his 1941 Mother’s Day address at Elks 616 Mother’s Day services, listeners perhaps are distracted by recollection of the Advertiser’s front page photo - a gas masked London mother, that city under attack.
Will this year’s Mother’s Day again find news of war surrounding stories of swamped phone lines, flowers, and gifts for “modern women?” Refocus your own day. Use that day not to buy yourself “cookie futures” [1940 MixMaster], but to tell Mom how much you love and respect her in a way she will appreciate. Attend Elks Mother’s Day services, then visit the brunch at the Club and skip that burnt toast.
Anita Manning, 616 Lodge Historian
References:
616 Membership records
616 Minutes April & May 1937-1941
Advertiser 1935 May 10-3, 1937 May 10; 1939 May 14-5; 1940 May 10-4; 1941 May 11 Star Bulletin 1937 May 5, 1939 May 15; 1940 May 4; 1941 May 8-10
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