‘Wild’ geezer
surfing OahuTHE voice on the phone was unmistakable: "This is an old geezer calling." Actor Robert Conrad, whose hair may have turned as gray as mine, belies his years by taking on the rugged North Shore waves during a little vacation here. He called to say how much he enjoyed the suggestion here that 1998 be known as the "Year of the Geezer," and how much he felt a part of it. "But I guess I'll miss it, unless I come back," said the former star of "Wild, Wild West" and, before that, "Hawaiian Eye." Coincidentally, one of his "Hawaiian Eye" co-stars, Troy Donahue, also was cavorting in the North Shore surf of late, as noted here the other day, though not on a surfboard ...
SPEAKING of geezers, Osaka D.J. Kamasami Kong got together with promoter Tom Moffatt and put together a prize package for his listeners that included front row seats to the Rolling Stones concert at Aloha Stadium, first class airfare for two on United, four nights at the Kahala Mandarin, a stretch limo, crab dinner at Sam Choy's after the concert and then a limo tour of "Honolulu City Lights." Kong had Chef Sam Choy on the phone Monday to talk about the menu the prospective winner will enjoy. When asked who was the most famous person he'd ever served, Chef Sam never paused: "My mom, in my kitchen," he said. He then went on to list some others: Whoopi Goldberg, Arnold Schwartzenegger, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt. Today Kong's FM802 show features Moffatt, helping to give away the grand prize that's grand indeed.
Bonsai of relief
WHILE some people like to brag that their Christmas event is "bigger and better than ever," the Queen's Medical Center Auxiliary's 43rd annual Festival of Trees may lay claim to be "smaller and better." The festival has moved to Ward Warehouse and this year includes theme-decorated 18-inch Christmas trees. One tree, for example, is the Hard Rock Express and it contains 125 collectible pins from Hard Rock Cafes around the world, plus a CD and battery operated choo-choo train. About 20 miniature trees will be auctioned off, including one designed by Miss Hawaii, Ericka Kauffman. Proceeds benefit Hawaii's first "open" Magnetic Resonance Imaging unit, at Queen's. The unit -- open on three sides -- is designed for patients such as children and claustrophobic people ...THE well named Richard Hacker, author of the "Ultimate Cigar Book," will be the keynote speaker at a gathering of cigar aficionados at the Halekulani Hotel on Wednesday. It's sponsored by Davidoff of Geneva. Might we suggest Hacker's next book be about golf? ... Ticket sales are going so well at Hawaii Theatre that the international percussion group Stomp will be Stomping right into the New Year. They're now performing Dec. 16 to Jan. 4 ...
Spun out
HE'S perhaps best known as KSSK's promotion guy, spin doctoring his way through the wild world of radio, but Scott Mackenzie never seems to rest. He does a regular D.J. show called "Sounds from the Scene" on KTUH under the "nom de disc" Sunny O'Day, and yesterday morning was at Wave Waikiki at 2 a.m. as a guest on "D.J.'s Against AIDS-3," a benefit for the Life Foundation. He was later on KITV's 6 a.m. news. That interview wrapped up just in time for him to get his daughter Ashlynn to grade school and still make it to an 8:30 a.m. sales meeting at KSSK. And this single dad's schedule isn't easing up -- he's just been tapped to supervise promotion for all seven of Patterson Broadcasting's Hawaii stations ...
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.