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Hawaii

By Dave Donnelly

Sunday, December 23, 2001


1968: Jerry, Jackie, Percy
and Ricardo at Kahala Hilton

WINGING in tomorrow for some sun at the Kahala Hilton: Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Lewis, Mr. & Mrs. Jackie Cooper, Bill Dozier (producer of "Batman") and wife Ann Rutherford plus songwriter Sammy Cahn, Ricardo Maltalban and wife will check in a the same hotel Monday. Percy Faith, already there, says he's thinking of heading for Mauna Kea for a few days. Percy showed up at a cocktail party for Robert Merrill the other night and marveled that the man at the piano was not playing the standard cocktail fare, but Beethoven and Bach. Most people never noticed the difference. (Dec. 25, 1968) ...

THE UH's Wytze (rhymes with "wits") Gorter suggests that Santa's helpers should be called subordinate clauses. And that's known as an academic joke. (Dec. 25, 1970) ... Some 200 entertainers will be performing New Year's Day in Diamond Head Crater at the big festival there from sunrise to sunset. One thing is for certain -- it'll be the largest gathering of non-football fans you'll find Jan. 1. Pigskin followers will be glued to the tube, since there are THREE (count 'em, three) bowl games being televised live that day ... Ventriloquist Howdy Reynolds, entertaining at the Detention Home, broke up the kids there with, "I love this audience -- they can't walk out on me." (Dec. 27, 1971) ...

PIANIST Paul Page has of late been accompanying a choral group, led by Harold Light, which has no name. Page suggested the Harold Angels, so when they appeared in church, the preacher could say, "Hark the Harold Angels sing." Maybe we can get Page to come out with a book called "Pianist Paul Page's Painful Puns." (Dec. 24, 1976) ... The No. 1 song in the country for the past three months has been Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life," which makes it the biggest single record since Bobby Darin's "Mack the Knife" back in 1959. Debby's record has even outsold "Love Letters in the Sand," the big hit of her dad, Pat Boone, 20 years ago. And if you think American records are strange, be advised that the top pop song in China today is a little ditty called (honest!), "The People Gloriously Carry Manure to the Fields." Cha, cha, cha. (Dec. 28, 1977) ...

I LIKED the CNN weatherman who, after listing the frigid temperatures around the country, said that Honolulu was "cloudy with a temperature of 80." He paused and said, "I could put up with the cloudiness." ... Christine Maki, manager of the Gold Bond Building, was talking to her boss at Carlson Properties in Minneapolis the other day. "What's the weather like there?" he asked. "Cold," she said. "It got down to 55 degrees last night." There was a pause. "That's exactly 100 degrees warmer than here," he said dejectedly. Lucky we live Hawaii. (Dec. 27, 1983)

HE usually has a tent put up in his spacious back yard when he holds his annual Christmas party, but this year, Chris Hemmeter dispensed with it. The weather Saturday night was perfect, with billions of blinking stars in the heavens. As one guest put it, "It wouldn't dare rain when Chris holds a party." The next morning there was a downpour, but Saturday night was a heavenly gem. One guest at the Hemmeter party was Lowell S. Dillingham, who again took a ribbing for his tie clasp, which reads "LSD." Nothing to do with drugs, he explains, only his initials. Mrs. Dillingham piped in, however, that she feels it means her well-traveled husband is "always on a trip." (Dec. 24, 1984) ... Cecilio & Kapono continue to be a hot ticket. They've added a second Concert Hall performance of their Christmas show, "The Second Noel," tonight. Does that make it "The Second Noel Squared" or "The Fourth Noel"? (Dec. 23, 1987) ... Restaurateur Don Murphy was driving down the Pali Highway around 7 a.m. yesterday and saw something that nearly made him swerve his Porsche off the road. Walking up the Pali toward him was a fellow drinking a can of Budweiser. That's not the unusual part -- the guy was totally naked! Says Murph, "I thought it was Santa looking for his suit." (Dec. 23, 1988)



Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.

Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com



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