Wood Craft
SO there was Hilton boss Peter Schall waiting at the corner of Bishop and Merchant. I stopped to talk with him about Sergio's opening at the Hilton Hawaiian Village tomorrow. The restaurant is owned by George and Vini Vandeman. Peter praised the new addition to the Village, saying it was a must-see spot. As I walked down Merchant to Murphy's for lunch, I came to a Lincoln Town Car with license plate HHV 1 a block away and a driver standing by. I asked the driver if he was waiting for Schall. He said yes. I told him where Peter was waiting. The driver quickly jumped in the car and sped off to pick up his boss ... Sergio's is a large handsome restaurant designed with rich wood giving it a comfortable look. Larry Schmaus is GM and John Stack is executive chef ... Driver steps on the gas
to pick up Hilton’s Schall
Mahalo to new investors
We Star-Bulletin employees got the best news of the year last week when Bulletin owner David Black announced that Duane Kurisu, Warren Luke and his family, Jeff and Lynn Watanabe, and Island Holdings, represented by Colbert Matsumoto and Franklin Tokioka, were buying a minority interest in the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek. With those solid local financial people coming in, it means our newspaper will be around a long time. To the new investors we say welcome and a big mahalo ...Barbi Benton, who has many friends here, is in town. Those who missed her on "Entertainment Tonight" last weekend can catch her this morning on "Wiley & Sage," with Diana Wiley and Bill Sage, on KCCN 1420 AM. She'll be talking about her eight years with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and other things. Since Diana is a sex therapist, it could get spicy ... Bruce Willis must like the Shore Bird. He was there with friends last Saturday, the second time in a week ... The polo season opens tomorrow, 2:30 p.m., at Waimanalo. Honolulu Polo Club officials will certainly honor polo enthusiast Bob MacGregor, the Hawaii tourist industry pioneer, who died April 16 at age 88. Festivities include John and Lita Cook's pa'u riders. A pot luck supper and entertainment will follow the match ...
Kit Samson returns
Happy to learn Kit Samson, who had a triple heart bypass, will be back at the piano in the Ala Moana Hotel's Mahina Lounge, 7 to 10 p.m. Wednesday ... Iwao "Slim" Okemura opened Slim's Power Tools 30 years ago. It is really a family business today. Slim, his wife Jane, their sons Scott, Todd, Rand and Sean, daughters-in-law Donna, Arleen and Melinda, and Jane's brother Mark Takenouchi work for the company. They will all be at Slim's Power Tools He-Man Competition tomorrow, 10:30 a.m., at the Kalihi store ...Moe Keale, who died April 15 at age 62, was one of the truly nice guys in Hawaii's entertainment. He was big man with an enormous talent. Moe performed with Eddie Kamae's Sons of Hawaii during his career. "Moe was a great musician, a great voice a great talent," Eddie said of his friend. "He was a man of the land. He loved people. His singing came from his heart. What he projected was his love, his aloha." Services for Moe will be held at Kawaiahao, 6 p.m. Monday. Visitation begins at 4:30 p.m. A musical celebration for Moe is scheduled next Saturday at noon at the Kuhio Beach Hula Mound. His ashes will be taken out and scattered off Waikiki at sunset ...
Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets
of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of
people, places and things every Saturday.
E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com