The Merrie Monarch Festival began in Hilo, Hawaiʻi in the early 1960s when Helene Hale, the Chairman of the County of Hawaiʻi, looked for a way to attract tourists to the island. The Hawaiʻi Island needed an economic boost after suffering from a tidal wave and business downturn. “I was the Executive Officer of Hawaiʻi – it wasn’t called mayor… when the sugar industry went down, it was very depressed over here,” said Helene Hale. Hale sent her Administrative Assistant, Gene Wilhelm, and her Promoter of Activities, George Naʻope, to check out the Lahaina Whaling Spree on Maui to see what lessons could be brought back. They returned inspired. In 1964, the festival consisted of a King Kalākaua beard look-alike contest, a barbershop quartet contest, a relay race, a re-creation of King Kalākaua's coronation, and a Holoku Ball among other events. But by 1968 the festival fell into hard times and would have been suspended had it not been for Dottie Thompson, who took over as Executive...