Hawaii
Creative use
of languageIT'S official: Mrs. Malaprop is alive and well. The theatrical character who never got any word exactly right has been reincarnated as Jimmy Borges' former wife, Cisco. The singer was recently doing a couple of one-nighters in San Francisco, one at Bix' Restaurant and the other at the St. Francis, reunited with the musicians he played with in the early 1960's. He and current wife Vicky -- I nicknamed her "Trader Vicky" since her last name was Bergeron, same as Trader Vic's -- were shown around by Cisco, good friend of Vicky as well as Jimmy. She took them to the "Griffith Sanitarium," which she called the planetarium, and to Getty Center, which she described as "Spaghetti Center." And while taking a photo of the two, Cisco said in her thick accent, "Say one, two, cheese." Everyone was "rolling in the isles." ...
THE plane ride back was interesting for Borges as well. The film playing was "Notting Hill," and his eyes lit up when he saw a huge poster on the wall of the Hugh Grant character's apartment. It was a life-sized photo of his daughter, Stephanie, taken wearing a kimono when she was modeling in Japan at the age of 15. She's grown up and married now, but seeing her on the poster was a vivid recollection for Borges of those days ...
Gates at Makaha?
THERE'S been a rumor floating around that multibillionaire Bill Gates has been eyeing the Makaha Resort as a kind of corporate retreat. His execs could stay in the cottages and then motor up to the main building for meetings or whatever, before repairing to the private West Course for some golf. Sounds like a heck of an idea. The resort has long been for sale, but few investors felt the economic times were ripe for sinking millions of dollars into such a venture. Still, some Seattle investor types are known to be looking over the property and it may end up being sold soon. Whether they have any connection with Gates isn't known, but they sure live nearby his Redmond, Wash. homeOHA has chosen Morgan Stanley Dean Witter as financial advisor, doubtlessly a good move since the group has assets of some $300 million. OHA won't have all its money invested in stocks, naturally, but Morgan Stanley's investment honcho, Joseph McAlinden, told customers here he sees the Dow Jones average doubling to 20,000 by 2010, or possibly by 2007 ... Interesting thing about the Dean Witter part of the investment company. It recently celebrated the 75th anniversary of its office in Honolulu, and amazingly enough, there have only been three managers in that period: The late Richard Kellett, Jo Fuller, still alive at 92 and living in a California retirement community, and the present manager, Paul Loo ...
Various stages
IT was an exciting time Tuesday night for Janelle Parrish, the nearly 11-year-old actress, when she had a reunion backstage at "Miss Saigon." Janelle has played young Cosette in "Les Miserables" when Greg Stone was Jean Valjean. Now he's playing Chris, the romantic lead in "Saigon," so he arranged with other cast members to meet Janelle after the show and give her a tour of the intricate set. Janelle was already on Cloud Nine, since she'd just learned from John Rampage, artistic director of Diamond Head Theater, that he's cast her as the young lead, Susan, in the theater's holiday musical, "The Miracle on 34th Street Musical: Here's Love." ...
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.
His columns run Monday through Friday.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com