Wailuku landmark goes out of fashion

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After 59 2/3 years, Susanne Hotta's going to quit hanging 'em up at Gilbert's Formal Wear. At age 89, her grandchildren have finally persuaded her to call it a career.

Perhaps never in the history of Maui did a business overcome greater adversity than the little shop on North Market Street.

On Dec. 3, 1949, Gilbert Hotta, who had been working for his brother at Ted's Menswear, realized his dream of having his own business. He had taken over a small saloon, Frankie and Johnnie's, which had been a port of call along with other watering holes like the White Spot for sailors and Marines during World War II in Wailuku. North Market Street had quieted down and was returning to its original function as the center of local commerce, along with places like Arakawa Store and Wakamatsu Fish Market. Gilbert, who was 38, fixed up the store, crafted a sign and opened for business. Susanne was not part of the operation, she stayed home to raise her four children, who were then aged 1 1/2 to 8.

Less than six weeks later, Gilbert Hotta and three friends went surfcasting from rocks at Kahakuloa on a Monday evening. As the one survivor described it, they saw a giant swell and ran for an overhang. The crashing wave threw three of the men into the sea. For days, fishermen and the Coast Guard organized a search, while a private pilot searched Kahului Bay from a Piper Cub.

Eventually, as Hotta says without drama, they spotted a group of sharks. They managed to catch one, described in a Maui News story as "huge." They caught one shark and cut it open. There was my husband."

One other body was recovered, Harold Fujimoto, but the body of Hideo Tamura was never seen again.

Maui was shocked, all the more so because it was the third straight January that three members of a fishing party had been drowned.

"I struggled," says Hotta now. "I didn't know anything about business," and she had no money. The bank would not lend her any. However, her husband's bookkeeper "helped a lot," and wholesalers rallied round and provided merchandise on credit.

Gilbert's haberdashery squeaked by. Later, Hotta's son and oldest child Raymond helped out, but in 1979, Raymond Hotta drove off to go bowling. His car had a flat, and while he was fixing it, a drunk driver killed him. "I prayed to God to help me," Hotta says.

The haberdashery turned into a rental business by chance. In the '50s, Maui's young men wore white dinner jackets at dress-up affairs, and they bought them. Someone came by with one which he said he could not use after finishing high school, and later other people gave Hotta jackets or sold them to her. Renting dinner jackets "seemed like a good idea," and Hotta began importing suits and finery from the Mainland.

She also sold aloha shirts and palaka shirts made on Oahu and lately has been one of the few places to get a real palaka shirt.

The rest is history. Last week, Gale Wisehart, director of Na Leo Lani O Maui, the 130-voice community choir that sings with Uluwehi Guerrero, was in the store buying shirts and studs for the group to wear at its Christmas show on Dec. 19 at the Historic Iao Theater. Hotta is selling off everything and expects to be out of business by the end of August.

It was "hard to keep the store going," Hotta says, but she had to get a good education for her children.

Gilbert and Susanne had met in Honolulu where both were working. Hotta, whose family emigrated from Fukuoka Prefecture, grew up on the Big Island. Gilbert Hotta, known to his pals as Francis, was a Wailuku native.

When Raymond finished school, he worked for Hawaiian Airlines, but later "he came with me, he knew my hardship."

Two of her daughters, Myrna Fung and Barbara Abrew, became teachers. The third, Irene Hultquist, operates Paradise Auto Parts in Kihei.

Hotta will be 90 years old in January, and she says she has thought of retiring for several years. The grandchildren - she has seven, and three great grandchildren - now insist. She has no special plans but expects to keep busy. She's never had any difficulty finding things to do.

"I'm glad I started the rental business," she says. "I enjoyed participating with the students. Till today they give me their prom pictures. I'm so happy they appreciate what Gilbert's has done. I just love to talk to them. They were all good boys. I just love the store so much."

* Reach Harry Eagar at heagar@mauinews.com.