[ RECORD SETTERS ]
Following a tour of the Pacific in 1934, noted songwriter and musician Don McDiarmid Sr., enchanted by the easy lifestyle and natural charm of the islands, threw away his return ticket and signed on with Harry Owens' band at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Hula Records boasts
list of isle legendsIts focus has been on music by
local artists for local consumptionBy Shawn "Speedy" Lopes
slopes@starbulletin.com"When his ship pulled into San Francisco, no father," chuckles Don McDiarmid Jr., founder of the venerable Hula Records. "My mother went to pick him up, and the boys said, 'He got off with some hula-hula girl,' and she went up the wall."
But the composer had simply found himself a new home base and soon summoned his family to join him in Honolulu, where he would pen some of Hawaiian music's most enduring songs, including "Little Brown Gal," "My Wahine and Me," "Do the Hula" and "When Hilo Hattie Does the Hula Hop."
Years later, Don Jr., who had worked as a local distributor for major record companies, launched his own label, Hula Records, out of the corner of a Beretania Street warehouse. "I decided I could make records as good as anybody else," he says. With seed money from several prominent associates and the label's namesake taken from a one-off recording project his father had used several years earlier, McDiarmid Jr. put out his first album, "Let's Hula" featuring the Maile Serenaders, in the mid-'50s. "I had access to a portable Ampex tape recorder, bought the tape, took the recorder out, plugged it in, put a mixer with it and did my own stuff."
PHOTO COURTESY OF MABBY MCDIARMID
Don McDiarmid Jr., who reactivated the Hula label from a Beretania Street warehouse in 1959 with "Let's Hula," received a 1998 Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award.
While he made sure to keep his interests separate by working on Hula Records projects on weekends only, McDiarmid Jr.'s superiors demanded he give up his new pastime. "When I went to go to work one morning, the boss says, 'OK, that's it; no more producing records for anybody. Either stop it or you're fired.' So there was a big fight and argument for a couple of hours, and finally I said, 'Aw, take your job and stick it in your ear.'"
With his undivided focus on Hula Records, McDiarmid Jr. began producing albums at an average rate of one every two months, bypassing a lucrative national market to concentrate on establishing a name in the islands. "I had to worry about feeding my kids, so I sold records strictly for local consumption," he explains. "I made enough to pay the bills and keep it going. Slowly, Hula Records expanded."
Over the years, Hula Records' roster has read like a who's who of Hawaiian music. Gabby Pahinui, Genoa Keawe, Alfred Apaka, Myra English, Tony Lindsey, the Kahauanu Lake Trio and Sunday Manoa are among the label's artists, while Darlene Ahuna, Elua Kane, John Ka'imikaua, Nathan Aweau, Akoni and Kawai Cockett are among contemporary artists who bear the Hula torch. In 1998, McDiarmid Jr. was honored with the Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MILTON LAU
Gabby Pahinui, a master of Hawaiian slack-key and steel guitar, recorded with Hula Records in the 1960s.
Webley Edwards' "Hawaii Calls" radio series, which aired from 1935 to 1970, was the longest-running program in radio history. By purchasing "Hawaii Calls" in 1980, many believe McDiarmid Jr. acquired the islands' most recognized trademark. Hula Records/Hawaii Calls now boasts the largest and oldest catalog of Hawaiian music in the world.
As McDiarmid Jr. recalls, Edwards sold the Hawaii Calls trademark to the Hawaii Corp. shortly before THC was driven into bankruptcy in the 1970s. When McDiarmid Jr. purchased Hawaii Calls, he could only hope it would someday be worth the purchase price.
"At that stage of the game, there were no physical assets, just the name," he remembers. "But one day, a guy in the basement of the Alexander Young Hotel stumbled onto a whole bunch of tape recordings, and some of them were sitting in about a foot of water under some leaky pipes. We came up with an idea to use talcum powder and heat lights to dry it out, and we unwound every tape an inch at a time." He laughs heartily. "It took a long, long time, but it worked."
STAR-BULLETIN / 2001
Kawai Cockett, left, recorded his debut album, "Beautiful Kauai," at Hula in 1969. Big Isle musician Darlene Ahuna, right, has won multiple Hokus with Hula recordings.
The future of the company now rests on the shoulders of McDiarmid Jr.'s son, Donald "Flip" McDiarmid III, who reveals that "Hawaii Calls" may be revived for broadcast soon on National Public Radio, and that a new Aloha Tower Marketplace attraction and a special Hawaii Calls restaurant are in the works. "Things keep getting better and better," he says.
Founded: 1935 (Hawaii Calls) and 1947 (Hula Records) Hula Records Inc. /
Hawaii CallsEmployees: 30
