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Hawaii
OUR new Miss America, Hawaii's Angela Baraquio, is just too nice for words. After the pageant she had just a few minutes to speak and said all the right things in sound bites TV stations love, and it was from the heart. Sunday she was to have been limousined to New York for a series of TV appearances, but told the Miss America people she could go nowhere without attending Mass first. When she arrived at the St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Atlantic City, she met the priest and presented him with a lei. He wore it throughout the Mass, with frequent references to our new Miss America. And you just have to know that the music played by the organist at the conclusion was, "There she is, Miss America." ... Angela's first television appearance yesterday was on "Good Morning, America," followed by the Regis Philbin show where she taught the hula to Regis (not a success) and Whoopi Goldberg, who appeared to get it. In all, she'll visit 13 cities in the next three weeks before getting home for Thanksgiving ... Baraquio
spreads alohaPICTURE Maureen Illmensee, who plays
tough jailhouse matron "Mama Morton" in "Chicago," opening tonight at the Blaisdell Concert Hall. A belter in the Ethel Merman mode, Maureen impressed Larry Price at his KSSK Hanohano Room radio show, who avowed Hawaii could use someone as strong as her in our prison system. Then her eyes rolled when she was introduced to city Prosecutor Peter Carlisle as someone who's tough on crime. You see, he was wearing white polyester bell bottom pants, a black shirt unbuttoned down the front and a bunch of gold chains hanging from his neck. The eyes only stopped rolling when she learned he was at the show to promote Saturday's Epilepsy Foundation roast of him, the theme being a disco party ...
Back to '45
SATURDAY night's "Back in Time" benefit for Parents and Children Together will take place on the USS Missouri. It was back in 1945 that the government of Japan surrendered its role in World War II on board the battleship in Tokyo Bay. One person who'll feel comfortable aboard the ship will be retired Adm. Ronald Zlatoper, former head of the Pacific Fleet, who's being honored at the Bally-sponsored festivities. Zap, as he's known to his friends, is now a Campbell Estate trustee ...IT'S that time of year again, and the tradition continues. That would be when alums of both Michigan and Michigan State gather at Players on University Avenue to watch the kickoff of the annual football rivalry between the schools. Unlike previous years, when the kickoff came as early as 6 a.m., Saturday's game gets under way at 9:30 a.m. The Spartans, though last in the Big Ten this year, eked out a win over Michigan last year, 34-31 ...
Still stopping shows
ONCE again selling out houses in Manila in "Miss Saigon" is Broadway vet Lea Salonga. She's been a showbiz phenomenon since she first appeared on stage at the age of 7 in Manila. Now 29, Lea reminded me at the party following the 10th anniversary of "Les Miserables" in London's Albert Hall that I'd written about her when she was around 10. I checked our library and, sure enough, there was an item about a Phililppine Ministry Tourism party in Waikiki that included then-First Lady Imelda Marcos. "The real showstopper," I wrote in '81, "was Lea Salonga, the pint-size star of the Manila cast of 'Annie,' who reminded many of the travel agents of a Filipina Shirley Temple." ...
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