Ukulele History

ORIGINS AND LEGENDS

When the ship Ravenscrag arrived in Honolulu on the afternoon of August 23, 1879, it was carrying 419 Portuguese immigrants from the island of Madeira to work in the sugar cane fields. It had been a long and hard journey of over 4 months and some 15,000 miles. In celebration of their arrival, Joao Fernandes borrowed his friend's braguinha, jumped off the ship, and started playing folks songs from his native land on the wharf. The Hawaiians who came down to the dock were very impressed at the speed of this musicians' fingers as they danced across the fingerboard and they called the instrument "ukulele", which translates into English as "jumping flea". You see, that was the image conjured up by those flying fingers.

At least that's one of the stories about the origin of the name "ukulele". Typical to much of Hawaiian history, there are several accounts of how the ukulele got it's name. Queen Lili'uokalani thought it came from the Hawaiian words for "the gift that came here", or "uku" (gift or reward) and "lele" (to come). Another legend says the instrument was originally called "ukeke lele" or "dancing ukeke" (ukeke being the Hawaiian's three stringed musical bow). The name, being mispronounced over the years, became "ukulele". Another theory comes from a story about Edward Purvis, an English army officer and the Assistant Chamberlain to the court of King David Kalakaua, who was very adept at playing the braguinha. Since he was small and sprightly, the rather large Hawaiians nicknamed him "ukulele", the whole "jumping flea" thing all over again. Still another version of the origin of the world "ukulele" is attributed to Gabriel Davian and Judge W. L. Wilcox, who was a member of a well-known island family. According to the story, the two men were in attendance at a housewarming party at the Wilcox home in Kahili, where Davian was playing an 'ukulele he had made himself. When one of the guests asked what it was called, Davion jokingly replied that, judging from the way one "scratched at it," it was a "jumping flea". Wilcox, who was fluent in Hawaiian, was asked for the Hawaiian translation and is supposed to have answered, "'Ukulele!". Over the years, the "jumping flea" legend, the one where Joao Fernandes' fingers were jumping like fleas over the fingerboard, has become the most accepted, probably because that is the coolest story and Hawaiians just love a cool story.

THE UKULELE BECOMES POPULAR

The Hawaiian people took to the ukulele very fast and within 10 years it had become Hawaii's most popular instrument. Much of this can be attributed to Joao Fernandes, the original fellow who jumped off the boat playing his home town folk songs. The story goes that he spent most of his time walking around Honolulu playing his ukulele, spending so much time at this, in fact, that his wife complained! The Hawaiians, who had by now become familiar with the sounds of guitars and other stringed instruments, liked what they heard. They became not only listeners, but students as well. Additionally, the ukulele was easy to learn to play and very portable.

Also thanks to Fernandes, King David Kalakaua heard the wonderful music from this small instrument and learned to play it. Fernandes recalled how he and his friends would go to the king's bungalow where there were "plenny kanakas (Hawaiians), much music, much hula, much kaukau (food), and much drink. All time plenny drink and King Kalakaua, he pay for all." The king designed and played his own instruments, learning from Augusto Dias, at whose shop he was a frequent visitor. He was one of Dias' most ardent patrons and even gave him permission to use the royal seal on every ukulele he made.

Besides Kalakaua, other noble ali'i who played the ukulele were Queen Emma, Queen Lili'uokalani, Prince Leleiohoku, and Princess Likelike. With such royal involvement, it was inevitable that the ukulele would be accepted by the people, so much so that it long ago lost whatever royal aura it may have had and has indeed become the "people's instrument". By the late 19th Century, every Hawaiian music lover was strumming his own ukulele - from taro farmers to fishermen as well as Kings and Queens.

Since the popularity of the ukulele depended on them being around for everybody, manufacturing ukuleles was an important element in it's success story. On the original immigrant boat, Ravenscrag , there were several Portuguese who were capable of making musical instruments; Augusto Dias, Jose do Espirito Santo, and Manuel Nunes. In 1884, Dias opened a small shop on King Street for manufacturing and repairing musical instruments, especially guitars and ukuleles. Four years later, both Santos and Nunes had opened shop. Of these, the most successful seems to have been Nunes, as he and his son Leonardo were making ukuleles into the 1930s.

Eventually, special wood cutting and wood shaping machines were developed to make ukuleles, but the early process of making them was a painstaking art, requiring many hours of work and all hand-made. How many ukuleles were made this way is unknown, but it would appear that the number was not great until the 1910s when productivity accelerated through the use of more modern equipment. The cost of a ukulele at this time was between $3 and $5, a considerable sum when you consider many people in those days only made $5 per month. Many people who could not afford a ukulele made their own out of coconut shell halves, cigar boxes, and other unusual material.

THE UKULELE COMES TO THE MAINLAND

In 1915 the ukulele began it's popularity on the U.S. mainland. That was the year of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, where Hawaii hosted a pavillion. The exposition celebrated the completion of the Panama Canal and lasted for 7 months. With exhibits from countries all over the world it attracted more then 17 million people, an amazing number considering the population in those days. The Territory of Hawaii viewed it as an important opportunity to promote its products, land, people and tourism, and the legislature appropriated over $100,000 for a Hawaiian Pavilion. The main attraction turned out to be the Hawaiian show featuring hulas and songs which ran many times a day. The music created a sensation, with such great musicians as Jonah Kumalae, the ukulele maker, and the Royal Hawaiian Quartette. Legend has it that the song "On the Beach At Waikiki" was the first big hit. This was the first time that Hawaiian music had been promoted on the U.S. mainland and it soon swept the country.

Hawaiian music had been presented at a number of expositions and fairs on the mainland before 1915. The Royal Hawaiian Band went to the Chigago Fair in 1895; Mekia Kealakai and his band had traveled to Buffalo for the World's Fair in 1901; and again the Royal Hawaiian Band went to the Lewis and Clark Exposition in 1905. But it was the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco in 1915 which had the greatest impact and started a Hawaiian music craze across the country. By the next year, Tin Pan Alley produced dozens of Hawaiian songs, more than it had ever done before. Also in 1916, Victor Recording Company listed 146 Hawaiian records sold on the mainland, more than any other type of music.

By the late teens, Hawaiian music had become the most popular music on the U.S. mainland and sales of ukuleles were booming. In 1917, a writer for Paradise of the Pacific magazine observed: "Hawaii has captured America. From every phonograph-shop come the strains of the "Hilo March"...The boy in the street whistles "Hello, Hawaii, How Are You?". Our music teachers have closed the piano and put aside the violin - in order to live they advertise lessons on the ukulele and the Hawaiian guitar. The ukulele, that little taro-patch guitar, has for some time, as everybody knows, been a fad from one end of the United States to the other....It is justly popular. It is small and easily packed and carried. It is easy to learn how to manipulate a ukulele. It is a symbol of innocent merriment...We should take off our hats to the little Hawaiian ukulele."

Soon, the ukulele was taken up not only by Hawaiian musicians, but by Tin Pan Alley performers too, as it was the perfect little instrument for their style of music. Performers such as Cliff Edwards (aka Ukulele Ike) and Roy Smeck (aka The Wizard of the Strings) were nationally known ukulele musicians, performing live in theaters and on the radio, heard by millions of people. The craze even swept across the Atlantic to England, where George Formby was one of that country's most popular performers.

One effect of the mainland ukulele fad was the increase in demand for ukuleles, which led to a boom in ukulele manufacturing in Hawaii and also the mainland. Of the three original Portuguese ukulele makers, only Manuel Nunes remained. But by 1910, orders were coming in so fast that Nunes couldn't keep up and new competitors entered the field, including James Anahu and Jonah Kumalae, who in 1911 switched from being an ivory carver to a ukulele maker. In 1914, Kumalae opened a new factory that was able to turn out 300 instruments a month. Soon, many more ukulele makers entered the market, including Samuel K. Kamaka, Ernest K. Kaai, Clarence Kinney, and the Aloha Ukulele Company. Despite all of the competition, there seemed to be plenty of business to go around, as orders were streaming in not only from Hawaii, but all over the mainland.

Hawaii was soon to get a big jolt, however, as mainland guitar companies entered the ukulele market. The Hawaiian reaction even made national headlines, as evidenced by an article in the New York Times in September, 1915: "Hawaiians are angry... The Hawaiians, according to a report from commercial agent A.P. Taylor, are angry because certain manufacturers of musical instruments in the U.S. are making ukuleles and stamping them with the legend, "Made in Hawaii"....The thing makes a sweet jingle somewhat as fetching as the melody of mandolins and the word "ukulele" describes the Hawaiian appreciation of it, the wold meaning "dancing flea". The Hawaiians are devising a distinctive trademark which they will ask to have protected by legislation. They want authority to place on the instrument made in the Islands the legend: "Made in Hawaii, U.S.A." and making it a misdemeanor to use this legend on the instruments made in the U.S." Indeed, soon most Hawaiian made ukuleles had the word "Tabu" on them. When you find an old ukulele with this word, it was a Hawaiian made instrument from this era.

By the mid 1920s mainland musical instrument companies such as Martin, Gibson, Lyon and Healy, Regal and Harmony were churning out ukuleles by the thousands. There was some truth to the claim that mainland companies made better ukuleles, the best known and the most successful was C.F.Martin Company of Nazareth, PA. They produced their first ukulele in 1916 - based on the Nunes design. Many Hawaiians prize their Martin ukuleles, especially the older generation.

By the late 30s, the first ukulele boom was over, and America turned it's attention to other styles of music. But then the Second World War came and went and servicemen coming back from Pearl Harbor brought back with them a love of the Islands and it's music and often brought back the little 4-stinged instrument. By the early 50s, the ukulele was seeing it's renaissance, thanks in large part to one of the most popular TV shows of it's time, "Arthur Godfrey and his Ukulele". There was even a special plastic ukulele, called the "TV Pal", that you could buy for a few dollars and strum along to Arthur every Tuesday and Friday night. Millions of these ukuleles were sold, and as strange as it may seem, they weren't all that bad. The instruments were made well and had a pretty good sound.

By the mid 60s, the second uke boom was over. Vietnam, rock and roll, Tiny Tim...there were a miriad of reasons. By the early 70s, Kamaka was the world's only manufacturer of ukuleles.