Hello, Hawaii, How Are You? is a song written in 1915, by Jean Schwartz, Bert Kalmar and Edgar Leslie.
The song refers to one of Marconi's then-new radio-oriented inventions, the Wireless Telephone, which became publicly available that year. It was initially very expensive to use, and this song underscores the caller's desperation to talk to his or her sweetheart in Hawaii, from his or her home in New York City.
The song was recorded in 1915 by Billy Murray, backed with an instrumental version by Pietro Deiro on Side B; and later that year by Broadway star Nora Bayes.
This was Murray's version of the chorus. It was easily adaptable for a woman to sing with just a couple of word changes: Captain Jinks, one night on Broadway, all alone, Read the news about the wireless telephone. Pretty soon his thoughts began to stray, over seven thousand miles away. He went through a whole month's pay just to phone and say:
Hello, Hawaii, how are you? Let me talk to Honolulu Lou To ask her this Give me a kiss Give me a kiss By wireless Please state I can't wait To hear her reply For I had to pawn Ev'ry little thing I own To talk from New York Through the wireless telephone Oh, Hello, Hawaii, how are you? Good-bye!