Hawaii
Bank of Honolulu auction
may hold some surprisesTHERE'S going to be what might qualify as the most fascinating of auctions Saturday morning at the Bishop Street main branch and offices of the Bank of Honolulu. Among the auction items are some from the office of former chairman Sukamto Sia, including not just computers, office furnishings, equipment and fixtures, but also his elaborate artwork and a possible ace in the hole. There's a safe in the office that the Hawaiian Auctions people have been unable to open, and since it belonged to a shadowy figure who regularly won and lost millions of dollars in Vegas as well as in business, shades of Geraldo Rivera dance in our heads. That's the pre-Afghanistan Geraldo, the guy who talked a TV network into bankrolling him to tear down and enter the vault of late mobster Al Capone. Sia's safe may also be empty, but then it could also be loaded, and the IRS would never know. Any gamblers out there? ...
FORMER Isle DJ Bob Zix, known on the air as Kamasami Kong, was in town recently and visited the home of his longtime pal, Frank B. Shaner. Unbeknownst to most people, Shaner isn't just a KINE-FM DJ partner of Brickwood Galuteria, he's also an artist. He rarely shows off his works, but once allowed Zix to videotape them. Now Zix reports that a news reporter on his station in Osaka, FM802, is married to a wealthy architect and was so taken by one of Shaner's works that she authorized Zix to offer Shaner 10,000 yen for the original. Shaner was ecstatic at the offer, even when he learned the exchange amounts to about $76. No word on whether he'll let it go or hold out for more ...
A final aloha
SPEAKING of KINE-FM, Harry Soria Jr., in preparing a tribute to the late Dennis Pavao, the "Golden Voice," realized that at 50, he was the youngest performer ever saluted on "Territorial Airwaves." The hourlong retrospective, to be broadcast at 5 p.m. Sunday, will stretch from Pavao's earliest recordings with Hui Ohana in the early 70s to his later solo releases ...IF Golden-Globe winner Sarah Jessica Parker is looking for a new plot line for her shenanigans on "Sex in the City," I hope she calls. Parker told Jay Leno this week that she and a girl friend (as opposed to "girlfriend") would be spending a week in Hawaii and her husband, Matthew Broderick, wouldn't be able to be with her because he's still doing "The Producers" on Broadway. So if you see a cutie on the beach with short, blonde, straight hair, that could well be Parker showing off her new look while trying to avoid a sunburn ...
Kmartha
IN a Conan O'Brien show taped before the Kmart bankruptcy headlines, Martha Stewart proved to be pretty adventuresome, and at O'Brien's urgings, took a bite of a Big Mac and washed it down with a shot of Jack Daniels. If things don't start looking up at Kmart, Stewart, one of their most visible spokespeople, may just skip the Big Mac part of the regimen ... And should the marketing giant decide to make its Iwilei store among the 500 or so it plans to close, it would seem to be a good locale for Wal-Mart, which met resistance when it tried to open in the "Super Block" near Ala Moana Center. That might ease the pain of both big retailers ...
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