The Story of the Coco Palms Hotel: The Grace Buscher Guslander Years 1953-1985

About this book

Lyle and Grace Guslander built their hotel empire from what started out as a 24-room hotel with five employees that everyone on the island of Kauai had bet would go under especially when they heard that a pretty blonde haole from Pennsylvania had arrived on the island to manage it. Previously all of the former operators of the Coco Palm Lodge had failed miserably. Within a year Grace Buscher (as she was known in the fifties) had created one of the most famous destinations in the world by incorporating the host culture she had learned from her Hawaiian friends and fusing it with her own unique creativity and vision. Grace had conjured up a magical tropical fantasy that people from all over the world had dreamed they would find in Hawaii and the Coco Palms became renowned as one of the first hotels in Hawaii that actually celebrated Hawaiian culture. Within a decade Grace Buscher was named the most successful hotel manager in the travel industry. Movies and television shows were filmed at the Coco Palms Hotel most famously Blue Hawaii starring Elvis Presley. Paramount producer Hal Wallis was quoted as saying that the grounds of the Coco Palms was chosen for filming because he couldn t find any hotel in the Hawaiian Islands as authentically Hawaiian or as romantic as the Coco Palms! The hotel has also seen its share of dignitaries and celebrities; among them the Shah of Iran Prince and Princess Hitachi of Japan and Bing Crosby. Even after Lyle and Grace had married and had sold their Island Holidays hotel chain for twenty million dollars to American Factors in 1969 the Coco Palms story continued for another two decades. Lyle became a major force in the hospitality industry overseeing hotels for American Factors and Grace continued to manage the Coco Palms Hotel until her retirement in 1985. Tragically the devastating effects of Hurricane Iniki in 1992 left the Coco Palms Hotel severely damaged. As the island of Kauai grappled with a recession and a downturn in tourism in the wake of the hurricane the resort was eventually left to decay as repairs and insurance issues proved too costly. However countless thousands around the world can still recall a time when gentle tradewinds blew through hundreds of coconut trees beside a silvery lagoon; where Hawaiian hospitality and the true aloha spirit reigned supreme all because of Grace Guslander.