Ran across this on Honoluluweekly.com. It’s a short article on Didion’s Honolulu haunt written by Adrienne Lafrance.
ROYAL HAWAIIAN HOTEL / Joan Didion, like so many writers, has often described her love for Hawai‘i and her affection for the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. She stayed there many times with her family over the years—once, famously, on an extended stay in Honolulu that was planned as a way to stop the collapse of her marriage (successfully so).
Didion’s connection to the Pink Palace reflects what makes the Waikīkī landmark so impossibly romantic. The Royal Hawaiian, which opened in 1927, represents Waikīkī’s first coming-of-age into a world that was long unaware of the Islands, an introduction of Honolulu to those not lucky enough to have been born here, but lucky enough to travel here and smart enough to fall in love with the place. Old Hollywood, when it was still young itself, flocked here on ships (Rolls Royces and all.)
Royal Hawaiian Hotel
