Merchants of Waikiki–Who Really Made Summers Brothers Ukuleles?

BY SANDOR NAGYSZALANCZY | FROM THE WINTER 2024 ISSUE OF UKULELE

If you’ve explored the history of early Hawaiian ukulele makers, you’re likely familiar with brand names such as Nunes, Kumalae, and Kamaka. Each of these companies employed talented luthiers who created the ukuleles that bore their founders’ names. A couple of names you might not be familiar with are Paul Summers and Harold Summers. Even though a significant number of beautiful vintage ukuleles bear their names, these brothers never actually built a single instrument. Instead, they were sellers of high-quality ukuleles and guitars made by a number of different Hawaiian luthiers.

The Summers brothers were born at the end of the 19th century somewhere in America’s eastern mid-Atlantic states. It’s unknown when they moved to the Hawaiian Islands, but by the 1920s they had established themselves as music instructors in Honolulu. The pair gave lessons in ukulele, standard guitar, and steel slide guitar. Paul Summers also authored a couple of instructional books: Paul F. Summers Hawaiian Instructor [for] Ukulele and Guitar, published in 1927, and Instructor [for] Ukulele and Guitar, published in 1932.

By the mid-1920s, the brothers had set up music teaching studios at the two most exclusive hotels in the Waikiki area of Honolulu: the Moana and the Royal
Hawaiian. First opened in 1901, the 75-room Moana (known today as the Moana Surfrider) was the first luxury hotel in Waikiki. The 400-room Spanish-Moorish style Royal Hawaiian, built on 15 acres of beautiful beach frontage, opened in February of 1927. A Moana Hotel brochure advertising the Summers brothers’ classes read: “Paul F. Summers makes it possible for you to become a clever performer on the ukulele or steel guitar in one six-lesson course without tedious study or previous knowledge of music.” This course cost $10, the equivalent of about $180 in today’s dollars. The Summers’ studio also offered classes in hula dancing taught by famous Hawaiian dancer Anna Hila.

In the 1930s, both Summers brothers performed at the Moana Hotel as part of the Studio Little Symphony led by noted Hawaiian musician and composer Johnny Noble. Noble wrote (or co-wrote) some of the most popular hapa-haole songs of the period, including “I Want to Learn to Speak Hawaiian,” “Hula Blues,” and “My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii.” Some of the band’s performances were broadcast locally on KGMB radio, which helped to popularize Hawaiian ukulele and steel guitar music in the islands.

In addition to teaching and performing, the Summers brothers operated retail music shops at both the Royal Hawaiian and Moana from the mid/late 1920s through about 1940, when Paul moved to Florida. As mentioned, the Summers brothers weren’t instrument makers but rather sellers of ukuleles and guitars made by various Hawaiian luthiers. These included Sam F. Chang, Ah Tau Kam, and Kaneala Makini. Both Chang and Kam had worked for Sam Kamaka Sr. before starting their own lutherie shops. It’s also likely that some Summers instruments were made by the Honolulu-based Hawaiian Mahogany Co., which was in business from 1926 to sometime around 1945. The instruments these various builders created for the Summers brothers ranged in style from quite plain to very fancy, with small variations particular to each builder. For example, Makini’s ukes typically have deeper bodies and wider waists than ukes created by Sam Chang. 

Retailing instruments made by various makers was already a common practice in the 1920s. For example, prior to WWII, the Bergstrom Music Co.’s store on Fort Street in Honolulu was Hawaii’s premier dealer of musical instruments, sheet music, radios, and record players. Not only did they sell ukuleles made by myriad Hawaiian luthiers, but they were also the first to order ukes from the Martin Guitar Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Their 1907 “trial” order spurred Martin, which had never produced ukuleles before, to develop proto-types that eventually led to full-scale uke production in the late 1910s and ’20s.

The least expensive models in the Summers brothers’ line of soprano ukes were built from plain koa with no body bindings, simple three-ring soundhole rosettes, mahogany necks, and rosewood fingerboards and bridges. Fancier models featured highly figured koa bodies and elaborate rope-style body bindings, rosettes, and fingerboard center stripes. The top-of-the-line models were adorned with lustrous abalone pearl body purflings and rosettes. Like the majority of Hawaiian ukuleles made in the early 20th century, all Summers ukes had bodies made of very thin woods, which made them light and gave them good volume and tone. The pegheads on the more basic models were of the “three peak” design, while fancier models featured more shapely pegheads.

Regardless of their actual maker, the Summers brothers’ ukes sold under a number of different brand names, including Paul F. Summers, Harold Summers, Summers Bros., Royal Hawaiian, Moana, The Waikiki Ukulele, and Famous Waikiki. In addition to a paper label visible inside the body, Summers ukes typically have peghead decals bearing the Hawaiian crest above the word “Hawaii.” Royal Hawaiian and Moana branded ukes feature the hotel name above the crest. Pegheads on fancier Waikiki-branded ukes have small embossed brass plaques that read “Paul F. Summers; The Waikiki Ukulele; Honolulu.”

The majority of Summers ukes also have dark brown “Tabu” emblems stamped on the back of their pegheads. This emblem features a pair of crossed kapu sticks (traditional symbols of Hawaiian authority) under a crescent or “hoaka,” a symbol closely associated with ali’i (Hawaiian royalty), surmounted by the Hawaiian crown and includes words “Made in Hawaii.” The Tabu emblem was trademarked in 1916 by the Honolulu Ad Club in an effort to stem the tide of fake Hawaiian ukes made by less-than-scrupulous mainland manufacturers who passed them off as genuine Hawaii-made instruments. The Summers brothers stamped their ukes with the Tabu emblem, as did many other Hawaiian luthiers.