I recall that Laurel & Hardy sang a song called Honolulu Baby in one of their films-Sons of the Desert, I think. I can still hear Oliver Hardy strumming that uke as they sang:

Honolulu baby, where'd you get those eyes?
And that dark complexion, I just idolize?

In one midwestern city where I lived, there was a gal who taught Polynesian dancing & took her students to performances billed as "The Little Brown Skinned Girls."

When I was a child, I loved Louis Armstrong. Before the days of the term "Black" being commonly used, I heard him singing on TV "Why Must I Be So Black and So Blue" and I did not realize that he was using a double entendre referring to his skin color. I started crying, because I thought someone had beat him up like they did on TV shows.