The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 3

The Honolulu Advertiser A-3 v. Hawaii Report Saturday, May 25, 1974 A-3 fs Advertiser Photos by Art Otremba if'. 1 llTI SfeMflpsr emones pas 'WaikikVs finest' A 1955 tourist brochure, left, touted the Bilt-more as "Waikiki's newest, finest hotel." Hotel manager Park, right, stands in the rubble of what used to be the hotel's lobby. Above is the view from the hotel that is soon to be no more. 8-second blast demolition set for Tuesday By ROBERT W.

BONE Advertiser Staff Writer "I just happened to be walking by, I looked in, and there was a big yellow thing going through the lobby. "It was a Caterpiller. And it was heartbreaking!" Edward A. Park was standing in the remains of the lobby of the Waikiki Biltmore Hotel his hotel as he spoke. Around him was an incredible collection of trash, having been ejected from heaven knows where.

Here an old fedora hat, there a jar of beans, the handle from an old-fashioned adding machine, a wooden salad fork with a broken tong. PARK JOINED THE HOTEL as a bellhop in January 1955 in time to carry the bags for the establishment's first guests. He became bell captain four years later. And two years ago, he was appointed manager of the hotel. Now, only 19 years after the hotel was born, it was about to die.

"It took so long to build and now it's come to this," Park said wistfully. Almost unconsciously, he wiped a swath of dust off the remnants of the front desk. "Please look sad, sir," a photographer said to him. "That's not hard to do," said Park. PARK, KNOWN TO everyone as "Eddie," had just turned 30 and returned to Honolulu from his Mainland college when he joined the Biltmore's new staff.

To be a bellboy at the Biltmore in the 1950s? "Fabulous!" said Eddie. "In those days, this was a first class operation. It was THE hotel in the Pacific." Everyone knew the Biltmore. It was, after all, Waikiki's first high-rise hotel and for a short time, at least, it was the tallest building in Honolulu. It had an ambitious night club, dramatically decorated even if it never quite made it.

PARK, HOWEVER, REMEMBERS its every detail fondly. He wandered up and down the stairs, through the hallways and into the tattered and rubbled remains of its rooms with a reporter and photographer yesterday. The electricity was off, so everyone had to huff and puff up the stairs, clear to the 12th floor. "This was a little easier 20 years ago," Park joked. Though 49 now, he still took the exercise very well.

"You know, in the old days when we had power failures, we had to carry the bags up and down these stairs," he said. PARK SCUFFED THROUGH the broken glass into a large open space on the 12th and topmost floor. It had been a luxury suite, and one still could see some small evidence of that. In his mind's eye, Park saw it filled with thick carpet and sumptuous furniture. The view was still gorgeous.

"Mr. Thomas from Vegas stayed here," he said. "He was a millionaire No, I never learned his first name. He's probably dead now, I suppose." Park stopped in the center of a hallway and announced that unseen above the false ceiling were the remains of the old Top O' The Isle night club the one that was finally closed and converted into rooms several years ago. "RIGHT HERE THE CEILING began to curve until up at the top there was a giant horoscope illuminated with black lights," he said.

"It really looked like the top of the island!" On the way back down the stairs, Park acknowledged that the hotel had its runs of bad luck crimes, suicides, fatal accidents and lawsuits. But he said he did not want to talk about them and he would remember the good times instead. "I DON'T SUPPOSE you remember that, old radio program, 'Breakfast at the Biltmore'? It was broadcast right here by the pool. I think Jack Cole had that program. "And later, up there on the mezzanine, was KORL.

Ted Sax used to sit up there every day," he said Park said that about 50 per cent of his final staff had been with the hotel since it opened. Park said he hadn't thought much about where he will be when the Biltmore comes down on demolition day. "But I suppose I'll be here somewhere," he said. by explosives will not cost any less than a four-week-long session with a ball and chain, the alternate method of demolition. "BUT IT WILL be a lot safer and quicker," he said.

Officials said that the building was particularly suited to this type of demolition because it was built of prestressed concrete and no structural steel beams were used. The job will be accomplished with a total of 450 pounds of TNT placed strategically on 28 columns which are the principal supports to the building. The team will begin placing the charges in the building on Monday. They said there will actually be two explosions, separated by from one to four seconds. The first explosion will take out a shaped section in the front of the building, causing it to lean toward Kalakaua Avenue and Kuhio Beach between three to five degrees.

THE SECOND SHOT will blow out the remaining pillars and should cause the building to collapse straight down. In four seconds the entire structure should become a pile of rubble about 15 feet tall, whose center should be on top of the former swimming pool. The Waikiki Biltmore Hotel, a 250-room, 12-story luxury hotel built in 1955, will come to an end with a bang not a whimper at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The building will crumble to the ground in less than eight seconds.

"THIS IS THE EASIEST building that we've ever fired," predicted Ed Walsh, one of the three-man team from Martin Explosive Corp. of San' Francisco. The team is headed by David Martin, who is reportedly one of the three top demolition experts in the world. Residents of the Surfrider, Moana, and Princess Kaiulani Hotels should have some of the best views of the sudden demise of the 19-year-old Biltmore. On the ground, the public will be kept a block or two away along Kalakaua Avenue.

Walsh, Michael Scarfone, project manager for Swinerton Walberg the demolition contractor, and Michael F. Brennan, executive vice president of Hemmeter Center Corp. revealed the demolition plans at a press conference in the rubble-strewn lobby of the old Biltmore. The tower is on the site of the future multimillion dollar Hemmeter Center complex slated for completion in September 1976. Brennan explained that bringing down the building The demolition will mark the end of Waikiki's first high-rise hotel which once attracted millionaires and movie stars, but which had become quite shopworn in recent years.

Hundreds of persons attended its opening day ceremonies on Feb. 10, 1955, heard a blessing by the Rev. Henry P. Judd, choirs from Kaumakapili and Kawaia-hao Churches, and a recording of "Bless This House" sung by Gladys Swarthout. THE PROGRAM WAS carried live over Radio Station KIKI, with Jimmie Walker acting as master of ceremonies.

A giant flower lei was cut by a six-foot pair of scissors to officially open the $3 million hotel. There were two mishaps on opening night. A fully clothed couple admiring the blue-tile swimming pool was pushed into that pool by a prankster. The same night, a guest ran into a large, plate-glass door, under the mistaken impression that it was open. Down through the years, the Biltmore made the news scores of times, mostly for murders, fights, fires, suicides and spectacular accidents.

For a number of years, it carried on a running battle with City officials for not providing enough parking space. It also was originally built with only two elevators, and when the management wanted to build a third which would take out 18 more parking spaces it had a difficult time getting the Planning Commission and the City Council to go along with that idea. IT WAS THAT new freight and bathers' elevator which once killed a maintenance man, severing him in half, after he rescued a guest trapped in it in 1962. The hotel figured in several lawsuits, one of the most unusual of which was the man who dived into the swimming pool one day also in 1962 to hit his head on the air tank of a scuba diver in the deep end of the pool. The hotel was sold for the second time that same year.

No one was injured in 1970 when a getaway car carrying a kidnaped hostage from a nearby robbery slammed into the hotel's main entrance. But two years later, not only was a body found in the swimming pool, but a double murder took place in a room on the third floor. In July 1973, a sniper firing from another third-floor room hit a woman nearby on the sidewalk on Koa Street. Federal mediator does double duty STlll3 disputes at the telephone company and the hospitals, he still has another labor hassle to resolve. He said yesterday he has been asked to lend a hand in heading off a strike at the Pearl Harbor Federal Credit Union, where 18 employes are in a contract deadlock.

The employes belong to the Service Employes International Union. out yesterday although there were indications it might join the talks later. Mayor Frank F. Fasi was instrumental in getting the phone company and the Electrical Workers to sit down again with Castrey. Fasi held separate meetings at City Hall with the two sides on Thursday.

MEANTIME, if Castrey is able to settle the AOvertiser Photo Gm3DQGlP(iauGl3JSM2) Federal Mediator Robert T. Castrey did a juggling act yesterday, conducting two peacemaking sessions at the same time in a bid to end: The strike by 3,300 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Local 1357) against Hawaiian Telephone now 2V2 weeks old. The strikes by 455 members of the Hawaii Nurses Association who have walked off their jobs at Kaiser's, Kapiolani and St. Francis. Castrey set up sessions with representatives of both sides in each of the two disputes.

They met in separate conference rooms in the Federal Aviation Administration building in Waikiki. Castrey had been involved in mediation in the Hawaiian Telephone and hospital disputes before the strikes occurred earlier this month. HOWEVER, it was the first time that he had been able to get the management of three of the hospitals Kuakini, Kapiolani and St. Francis to agree to joint negotiations with the nurses. Kaiser's was a hold DON SHAW NEW CARS EXCLUSIVE Will arrange for instant delivery of any make new car in any major city on the mainland.

Give us 24 hours notice. We'll accept your present car as trade-in you can drivo it until thb day you leave. If you can wait approximately 6 to 0 weeks we'll factory order a new '74 modal of your choice, color equipment. Stop by for full particulars. Hickam Picketers above, participate in a protest rally on behalf of striking Machinists Union members at Hawaiian Air Tour Service (HATS) at the Hickam Air Force Base gate yesterday.

The protests were directed at the military because the union claims offduty servicemen are "helping themselves to our jobs and stealing our livelihood." Three of the servicemen working after hours for HATS allegedly are stationed at Hickam. The union has been on strike against HATS since Feb. 1 after failing to negotiate a first contract. Violations charged The State Health Department and the City's Building Department were asked yesterday to cite Hawaiian Telephone Co. for alleged violations of the health-building codes.

The striking International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Local 1357) claimed that more than 200 men and women were living inside the huge building during the current dispute. A company spokesman denied the charges and said: "We have an average of 10 people staying in this building on any one night. Most of them are people who live in rural areas and who don't feel like driving home after 10 or 12 hours on the job." HawTel strike rally A rally in support of the 3,300 union members on strike against Hawaiian Telephone Co. will be held from 9:30 a.m. to noon today in downtown Honolulu.

The rally is sponsored by the Hawaii State Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) and the Labor-Community Alliance and will be held on the lot on Alakea Street opposite the phone company. A stew and rice lunch will be served and there will be entertainment. Leaders of the striking union will outline issues in their strike. Honolulu's Licensed Bonded New Cor Broker '7hn's No Business Like Shaw Business' 2905 Nimitz Hwy. GHZ? 5 fop by A ordr now! as no phono calls!.