Hawaii
MRS. Pat Nixon invited a small group of press covering her round-the-world trip to breakfast in her Kahala Hilton suite and watch the Apollo 11 splashdown. While her husband spoke to the astronauts on board the Hornet, Mrs. Nixon graciously invited Travel Industry Management students Charlene Goodness and Paul Tang, who served the breakfast, to join the group for that historic moment. Something to tell the grandchildren about. (July 23, 1969) ... 1969: Pat Nixon
awaited the tricky
Apollo 11 landingTHERE was Hans Wedemeyer umpiring a T-ball game in Aina Haina when his 3-year-old son, Adam, was asked why his father was wearing that funny face guard. Adam had the answer; "My daddy's a vampire." (July 28, 1970) ... Following an incident in the State Prison last week, it occurred to Bob Maxwell that whenever an inmate is injured and rushed to a public hospital, the medical report is 100 percent predictable: "He is in guarded condition." (July 23, 1973) ... The country may well be in bad shape -- at least, former Star-Bulletin publisher Porter Dickenson thinks so. The other day, he received a letter from the U.S. Navy inviting him to enlist. Dickenson is 68 years old. (July 23, 1974) ...
LOCAL entertainer Martin Denny is among the legions of islanders mourning the death of Frances Ii Brown, recalling that it was Brown and Winona Love who, in 1957, sponsored his trip to L.A. and set up his group to play at the big party Bing Crosby threw after his Pebble Beach golf tourney. Says Denny, "Musicians loved Francis. He was the last of the big spenders. Any group playing where he was could be sure he'd send up $100 if they'd play his favorite song, 'Waipio.'" But as well known and as well loved as Francis Brown was, it seemed particularly ill-fitting that a KHVH newsman, reading the story of his death, pronounced his name as if it were "Francis Hyde the Second Brown." (July 28, 1976) ...
I WONDER if Red Morris has heard of the Child Labor Law. The other day, his secretary was ill, so instead of calling in temporary help, he had his 9-year-old daughter, Malia, answer the phone. She did such a good job that Morris is thinking of giving her typing lessons. (July 23, 1978) ... Mickey Hummer may do a record business in "doubles" tomorrow night at Boyd's, his downtown saloon. Guest bartender from 5 to 7 p.m. will be Playboy's August Playmate, Victoria Cooke. (July 22, 1980) ...
IT was five years ago today, in "the wee hours of the morning," as he liked to call it, that one of Hawaii's best and best-loved restaurateurs died. Fred "Tosh" Kaneshiro, the man who opened the Columbia Inn just days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, managed to fight his cancer and hang onto life just long enough to see his second Columbia Inn open in Waimalu. He died about an hour after son Gene Kaneshiro closed the bar. It was almost as if he'd wanted to stick around until the place was open for business. Normally I don't put much stock in stories like that, but in the case of Tosh, a dear friend, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were true. (July 22, 1986) ...
IT will probably come as a shock to people on the mainland who read the chart in U.S. News & World Report's current issue listing the highest temperatures on record in selected cities. Honolulu is on the bottom of the list with a high (set in 1984) of 94 degrees. Even Fairbanks and Buffalo have higher highs (99), and Phoenix sits atop the list with 118, set in 1956. Though not a city, Death Valley once recorded a temperature of 134, but there'll surely be someone out there who'll tell you, "Yes, but it's a dry heat." (July 27, 1988) ... So there was bartender David Boxer at Murphy's Bar & Grill wearing a Shearson Lehman Hutton tie bearing its initials, which a stockbroker had given him. Another onlooker noticed it and yelped, "Hey that's my alma mater -- St. Louis High." (July 25, 1989) ...
"The Week That Was" recalls events culled from Dave Donnelly's three-dot columns over the past 30 years. Donnelly continues to write his Hawaii column Tuesdays through Fridays in the Star-Bulletin.
Dave Donnelly has been writing on happenings
in Hawaii for the Star-Bulletin since 1968.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com