Hawaii in the Valley Brought the Islands to Sherman Oaks

If you wanted a taste of the Hawaiian Islands and you didn't want to leave Sherman Oaks, all you had to do was to pay a visit to the store Hawaii in the Valley, a local landmark that opened in the summer of 1956 and stayed in business until 1996, just shy of its 40th anniversary.

Co-owner and manager Margarite Auda would greet all customers with a cheery "Aloha!" and put a faux Hawaiian lei around their necks to offer a warm island greeting—and to put them in the mood for buying a lot of aqua, fuchsia and sunset-pink clothing.

Located across the street from where CVS Pharmacy is (formerly Sav-On) on Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, the quaint little shop with thatched-roof awnings and bamboo shelves did a lot of business as the Hawaiian-clothing trend flourished in popularity several times over the decades.

Former Sherman Oaks resident David Cohen remembers Hawaii in the Valley fondly.

"I would always buy my Hawaiian shirts there," Cohen said. "My family couldn't take the family trip to the tropical islands back in the 1960s. We went to Catalina instead."

When the shop first opened, Hawaiian and Polynesian themes were extremely popular. There was the nearby Bora Bora Room Tiki Bar on Ventura in Encino, and Valley radio station KGIL (remember that?) played "Classics Hawaii" every Sunday morning. Local residents planted Polynesian flowers and tiki torches in their backyards.

In the 1960s, the surf craze led by pop music's Beach Boys and Jan and Dean made Hawaiian clothing popular all over again.

"I had a bright yellow, wood surfboard with an orange stripe," Cohen recalled. "To complete my look, I needed authentic Hawaiian clothes, which at Hawaii in the Valley I knew I always could find. You couldn't buy that stuff at Sears or Montgomery Ward."

During the 1970s and '80s, the Hawaiian trend continued with the TV series Hawaii Five-O and Magnum P.I., both set in Hawaii.

The shop had little competition, except for a store called Kimo's Polynesian Shop in Woodland Hills, which closed in the '70s. 

Hawaii in the Valley featured muumuus, sarongs and all sorts of Hawaiian ephemera, most of it directly from the islands.

"If I went to Hawaii and came back without gifts for my friends, I would always go to Hawaii in the Valley and buy shirts there," said Granada Hills resident Jenny Fowler. "My husband loves Hawaiian shirts and a lot of his large collection came from that shop.

"I still have a set of Hawaiian dolls I bought at Hawaii in the Valley when I was a kid and my family lived nearby in Encino," Fowler said. "Going there was the closest I got to Hawaii as a kid ... with my Hawaiian shirts and puka shells, it's like I was right there. We even had sand in our backyard."

Sales competition from the Internet and a lack of parking space led to the shop closing its doors in the spring of 1996. By that time, two women from Sherman Oaks had bought the business from the original owner in the late '60s and had kept the business going for 27 years.

Although Hawaii in the Valley is gone, the spirit of mai tais, Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles" and aqua and sunset-pink-colored clothing lives on.