b'C H A P T E R 2 | P R O F I L E SL E A DING T H E WAYlvis Presley may have made travel to Hawaii sexy with his 1960s films, Blue Hawaii and Paradise, Hawaiian Style, but the islands had been draw-ingtravelersandadventurerslongbeforethat.AccordingtotheHawaiian Historical Society, an 1837 ad in the Sandwich Island Gazette newspaper extended an invitation to visit the new HOTEL AT WAITITIas Waikk was then sometimes called. That enterprise, aimed solely at men, did not last long. In the 1870s, a foreign resident named AllenWaikoloabegan to sprout in significant num-Herbert turned his Waikk home into a familybers. Simultaneously, many of the independent resort, this time welcoming ladies and children. Byand family owned hotels were bought out and 1893, Waikks first famous hotel opened. Georgeredeveloped,allowingbrandnamessuchas Lycurgus, from Sparta, Greece, leased HerbertsHilton, Hyatt, and Marriott to establish them-premises, renamed the hotel Sans Souci, andselves in the state.turned it into an internationally known resort toIt is never an easy task to see through a which visitors like the Scottish author Robert Louisproject as ambitious as Waikoloa, particularly Stevensonwereattracted.In1901,theMoanawhen the land upon which the resort was to be Hotel opened, followed in 1927 by the landmarkbuilt was little more than a vast field of lava, pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel, and Waikk becamealbeit fronted by the Pacific Ocean. The sto-the premier tourist destination in Hawai`i.ries of the developers and operators who made Itwasntuntilthe1960sand1970sthatWaikoloa Beach Resort a reality are ones of neighbor island hotels and resortssuch asvision, imagination, and determination.4 3'