Armed with a machete and a heck of a sense of humor, Bob Jasper gives visitors and locals a snapshot of the property that helped put Kauai on the forefront of Hawaii’s visitor industry decades ago. “Coco Palms has got
Armed with a machete and a heck of a sense of humor, Bob Jasper gives visitors and locals a snapshot of the property that helped put Kauai on the forefront of Hawaii’s visitor industry decades ago.
“Coco Palms has got to be the most famous hotel in the South Pacific,” he said. “It has been shut down for over 20 years and folks still want to see it.”
Five days a week, Jasper takes small groups on a two-hour walk through the grounds of Coco Palms Resort, where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Rita Hayworth, Bing Crosby, Mitzi Gaynor and many others once walked — and had quite some fun.
More than 60 years ago, Lyle Guslander, a visitor-industry worker on Oahu, saw a newspaper ad about a certain Coco Palms Lodge for sale on Kauai, Jasper said. Guslander acquired the property and hired his friend’s sister, Grace Buscher, to manage his new 24-room hotel.
Eventually, Buscher got married to Guslander and became Grace Guslander. She won many national and state awards for running a hotel that strived to promote Hawaiian culture.
“It was Grace Guslander who put this place on the map,” Jasper said.
Under the visionary — and strict — leadership of Grace Guslander, the small lodge grew to a resort with 416 rooms.
It was Guslander who started the torch-lighting ceremonies now popular in many resorts across the state. In the beginning, she would have workers light toilet-paper rolls laden with kerosene, placed inside recycled coffee cans. After her husband complained about the cost, Guslander used coconut husks, which are still abundant in the back of the property, with some 2,000 coconut trees.
All the while, Guslander would tell guests that the torch-lighting ceremony was an ancient Hawaiian custom dating hundreds of years — a custom that Guslander herself started, said Jasper, laughing.
Guslander was so adamant about giving guests the ultimate Polynesian experience that Caucasians were not allowed to work at the front desk — you had to be local, according to Jasper.
She was also meticulous about keeping the property pristine. If she caught anyone, guest or employee, leaving trash on the grounds, even in the coconut grove, they would get an earful from her, Jasper said.
Guslander was loved by employees and guests. Her husband sold the property in the 1960s to Amfac, of which he was a stockholder and remained in charge of hotel operations. Guslander continued to manage the property for many years until her retirement in 1985, a year after her husband’s death.
She lived nearby in Wailua until her death at 89 years old, on April 5, 2000, while sitting on her couch, looking at the ocean and holding the hand of her friend, David Penhallow.
The hotel was bought in 1985 by Park Lane, which continued to operate it until Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai on Sept. 11, 1992. A 13-year battle over insurance claims ensued. After reaching a settlement, the hotel was sold to Petrie Ross Ventures.
Operating under the name Coco Palms Ventures LLC, the current owners were never able to secure investors and act on building permits that eventually expired earlier this year, on Jan. 25, on the 60th anniversary of the hotel’s inauguration.
Many associate Coco Palms with Presley’s “Blue Hawaii,” shot in 1961. The movie’s last 20 minutes was shot on the property, culminating with the famous wedding on the resort’s lagoon. Following the movie, in the resort’s heydays, Jasper said about 500 wedding ceremonies would be performed each year by the lagoon.
Presley, who shot three movies on the Garden Isle, had a special fondness for Coco Palms. Each time The King would come to the island, he, “a creature of habit,” would stay at the hotel’s cottage 56, Jasper said.
Musician Larry Rivera started as a busboy and dishwasher at Coco Palms, but that was until Guslander saw him play the ukulele, Jasper said. From that point, Rivera went on to build a successful music career, performing nightly at Coco Palms.
“Whenever Elvis was here, he would get up and sing back-up for Larry,” Jasper said.
But Presley was just one of many celebrities who stayed at Coco Palms.
Jasper said Frank Sinatra was once hired to sing at the county Farm Bureau fair, and stayed at the hotel. One night, Sinatra and some friends drank a bit too much and got kicked out of the bar. They ended up at Club Jetty in Nawiliwili, which also kicked “Old Blue Eyes” out, but only after calling Guslander’s security guy, “Big John,” to find out what was going on with Sinatra, Jasper said.
Meantime, Sinatra’s wife at that time, actress Ava Gardner, apparently heard of her husband’s rowdiness around Kauai, and flew here. Once on island, she asked Sinatra to meet her at Tip Top Cafe in Lihue, where she summarily dumped him, according to Jasper.
In 1963, Sinatra returned to Kauai to film “None but the Brave,” and stayed at Coco Palms. While trying to save the movie producers from drowning at Wailua Beach, Sinatra got sucked out to sea. By the time the firefighters were able to get him out of the water, he was already blue, Jasper said.
“Can you imagine if we killed Frank Sinatra? The mob would own this island,” he said, jokingly.
After his near-drowning, Sinatra bought a new boat for the Kauai Fire Department. Jasper said it was either to thank them for saving his life, or to tell them to get there faster next time.
Although the hotel has been shut down for many years, movies are still being made there.
Part of “On Stranger Tides,” from the Pirates of Caribbean series, was filmed on property.
“There’s Johnny Depp DNA in that tree; he’s single now,” said Jasper, jokingly, after explaining a scene where Depp was tied to a coconut tree in the grove.
Some of the less famous — or perhaps infamous — movies shot on property include “Voodoo Island,” “Death Moon,” “She Gods of Shark Reef,” “Dinocroc vs. Supergator” and “Piranaconda,” in which Jasper’s doctor played an extra toting a machine gun.
Jasper makes sure to keep the group laughing throughout the entire tour, a steal at $20, with jokes and tales that are just too good to believe.
The tours are given Monday through Friday, from 2 to 4 p.m. Locals go free on Friday, as long as they have a Hawaiian ID. Visit cocopalmstours.com or call 346-2048 for more information.
And what’s up with the machete hanging from Jasper’s waist?
“If we happen to run into lions, tigers, gorillas, stuff like that here, I hand it to the biggest guy and the rest of us run,” he said.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
