Born at Makawao, Maui, Kaua‘i theater man William A. Fernandez (1880-1949) began working in the transportation business with his father in 1898, and was later employed as an O‘ahu police officer, a mounted Honolulu patrolman and an employee of the Honolulu Rapid Transit Co.
Then in 1910, he entered the theater business by touring the Territory of Hawai‘i with a series of motion-picture shows.
By the way, moving pictures were first publicly shown in Hawai‘i in February 1897, and by 1910 a dozen nickelodeons were operating in downtown Honolulu.
A year later, a number of theaters joined to form Consolidated Amusement Co., which eventually operated more than three dozen theaters in Hawai‘i.
Fernandez became the Kaua‘i agent for Consolidated Amusement Co. in 1917, operating its movie theaters at Koloa, Lihu‘e, Hanama‘ulu, Kealia and Kilauea.
From 1921 to 1925, he exhibited motion pictures in the Philippines, and when he returned to Hawai‘i in 1926, he opened the Rialto Theater in Kapa‘a.
Kapaa’s Roxy Theater, which replaced the Rialto Theater, was built and opened by Fernandez in 1939.
Designed by architect C. W. Dickey and modeled after the Roxy Theater in New York City, Roxy Theater was the largest theater in Hawai‘i at that time, with 1,050 seats.
Incidentally, Dickey was noted for his distinctive style of Hawaiian architecture evident in buildings such as the Alexander &Baldwin building and the Kamehameha Schools campus buildings on O‘ahu.
During World War II, business at the Roxy Theater boomed with thousands of soldiers and marines stationed on Kaua‘i taking in its movies and attending performances at the nearby Kapa‘a USO.
The Roxy Theater closed and was torn down after suffering damages in 1992 during Hurricane ‘Iniki.
Its site is now occupied by Roxy Square.
William A. Fernandez also served in the Territorial House of Representatives of 1921 and 1931.
He and his wife, Agnes, had two children: Coleen and Bill Fernandez.
Bill Fernandez wrote a history of Kapa‘a and his father’s Roxy Theater in his book, “Rainbows over Kapa‘a.”
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com
I remember this theater, but for different reasons than its original history. By the time I was old enough to enter it, it was already a, shall we say “Interesting” venue. Several times a year, certain gentlemen traveled here, and the place was packed with ladies, enjoying the show. The mystery of the place intrigues all of us who could not penetrate the doors to peek in. The Roxy Theatre was an institution. In fact, there were many theaters on Kauai. It is sad to see them all go. That was back in the day when we cared more about keeping the hard working people of the plantation era happy, and give them a place to spend their little extra dollars a month on some fun amusements.
Nowadays, all we care about are tourists, and their happiness. Because there happiness is our happiness. We need to bring back these days somehow. I don’t care how, we just need to do it. This is a great and well written piece. Whomever wrote it should write far more regularly for the Garden island. I really enjoyed it.