‘Fallen Butterfly’ still up to Paar
OUT of the blue came the call: "Dave, it's Reiko Douglas." I hadn't spoken to the widow of famed comedy writer Jack Douglas since his death eight years ago. Jack was a joke writer for many comics, an author ("What Do You Say to a Naked Bus Driver?") and in later years, a joke writer for George Bush. He also made several appearances on the old Jack Paar "Tonight Show," pre-Johnny Carson. He was there mainly because Paar loved Reiko with her fractured English. She was asking if I'd caught the segments she did on the Paar retrospective aired on PBS, with at least one more yet to run. There she was, cracking up Paar on the same program as other guests JFK, Richard Burton, Judy Garland and anyone who was anybody. She tells me she got a call from Jack Cione (who stole freely from her husband's book with his own "What Do You Say to a Naked Waiter?") and agreed to be in his next Mardi Gras Follies opening Feb. 28, 1998. In the meantime, she's trying to find a publisher for a book she's written herself, "Fallen Butterfly." And until you've heard her try to say the name of the book in English, you haven't lived. Welcome back, Reiko ...
THEN there's Ang Lee, the director here for the Hawaii International Film Festival. He must have been taken aback when he saw the Hawaii Theater facade -- and when, oh when, is that going to be completed? -- but once inside he smiled and said, "Gorgeous theater." My lasting memory of Lee will be when his film "Eat Drink Man Woman" came out and David Letterman, who was emceeing the Oscars that year, mentioned it and added, "Coincidentally, it was with those very words that Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Maria Shriver out on their first date." Picture the marquee if that film were on a double bill with Allison Anders' "Gas, Food, Lodging." Sounds like a wonderful weekend ...
Fore play
CATTIEST comment at the Kapalua International golf tourney last weekend came from "a woman of a certain age" who observed the young blonde driving the cart of "Goodfellas" tough guy Joe Pesci: "Isn't it nice that he brought his granddaughter along?" ... Last year's Kapalua winner Paul Stankowski became a loser this year when he was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. But he turned out for Day Two so as not to disappoint the amateurs he'd been slated to play with, and proved to be a winner still. When one guy asked him to sign his hat, Stankowski smilingly did so and quipped, "I better be careful not to write down Davis Love or something." ... A bedraggled Mrs. David Ishii, after following her husband on a five-hour round with an amateur group: "I forgot how much I hate to walk this course." ...WORD around the Aloha Tower Marketplace is that Gordon Biersch has had a real shake-up at the top with lots of new "owners" suddenly on the scene ...
Aloha
RETIRED University of Hawaii drama Professor Joel Trapido lost his wife a couple of weeks back and as a result will be relocating to Scottsdale, Ariz., where one of his daughters lives. He directed the first play I appeared in at UH 40 years ago, Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh." Rabbi Avi Magid is organizing a farewell service Friday night at Temple Emanu-El to honor the 50-year member of the Jewish community in Hawaii ... And I was saddened to learn of the death of former KGU G.M. Don Metzger, a key figure in isle radio and TV the past 30 years. He'd suffered a series of strokes the past several years ...
Contact Dave by e-mail: donnelly@kestrok.com.