Hawaii
1969: KGMB tops
in TV ratings with
‘Five-O,’ 6 p.m. newsIF Cec Heftel's Cheshire Cat smile is a little broader today, it's because preliminary rating figures have leaked prior to official announcement, and KGMB is sitting pretty. The first local rating of "Hawaii Five-O," for instance (by ARB), ranks the show a strong No. 1, capturing better than 70 percent of the Hawaii audience. This makes "Hawaii Five-O" the top-rated television show in the history of island tele-viewing. The news should also make star Jack Lord and the entire "Five-O" cast happy. Other rating figures show the KGMB 6 p.m. newscast with 61 percent of homes watching TV -- the largest audience a news show has ever captured. It also means a fat bonus for News Director Bob Sevey and crew. (Jan. 8, 1969) ...
INTERESTED in dirty pictures? The Hawaii TV and RD Association will pay $100 for the best dirty picture entered in their Dirty Picture Contest. No, not porno -- it's sources of air pollution they want photos of, so get snapping. (Jan. 6, 1971) ... Imaginary conversation at yesterday's "ladies' day" luncheon at the Dunes. Customer to nude waiter: "Waiter, there's a fly in my soup." Waiter: "That's impossible. I'm not wearing pants." We didn't see the show, but Hot Dog Annie called and gave it a rave review. (Jan. 5, 1973) ...
IT'S going to be full circle for actor Bill Fiddler and actress Jo Pruden when they appear in "Heartbreak House" at the Hawaii Performing Arts Company. Fiddler has been cast as Pruden's father. They played man and wife a couple of months ago in "All the Way Home." A few months before that, Pruden played his mother in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at HCT. (Jan. 11, 1977) ...
THE secretary to Professor Fun, Edith Frembd, is one of the proudest grandmas in the islands. When she was vacationing on the mainland a couple of weeks ago, Frembd's granddaughter, Molly Ringwald, got a call informing her she'd been selected to play one of the orphans in the West Coast company of "Annie," currently the hottest ticket on Broadway. Molly, who is 9, was the youngest kid to audition for the show. (Jan. 9, 1978) ...
NOW let me see, where were we? It was 1981, and I was taking off for the holidays. There was quite a bit of partying, of course. Chris Hemmeter held a smashing Christmas party at his Kahala home -- would you believe 68 rooms? -- which was attended by the giants of industry and other Hemmeter pals and which was catered by Bagwells, naturally. Gov. George Ariyoshi and wife Jean were among those attending the bash and touring the myriad rooms, each of which tended to outshine the other, whether your taste runs to disco (he has a large one upstairs), game room (a soundproof version of a Fernandez Fun Factory) or workout area -- been to a Nautilus fitness center lately? The Hemmeter pad is the new showplace of Hawaii. (Jan. 5, 1982) ...
FEDERAL Judge Sam King says he's given up the Japanese game of go to concentrate on computer chess. He's probably thinking of naming his computer Bobby Fischer -- he's had it for about two years, and he's yet to beat it. (Jan. 6, 1982) ... Channel 4 art director Bob Dahlquist, a former colleague of Stan Freberg, has opened his first one-man art exhibit in Honolulu at Territorial Savings, and he's still 8 feet off the ground. Not only did his favorite Hawaii artists, Peter Hayward and Hiroshi Tagami, show up for the opening reception, but Tagami bought the first painting sold in the show, a waterfront scene in watercolor. (Jan. 7, 1983) ...
ATTORNEY Tom Jordan is back from a holiday trip to Texas where he engaged in his passion -- fishing -- and had but one catch, a shark, which he threw back. CPA Jack Brownrigg, hearing Jordan's angling tale, queried, "Out of professional courtesy?" Sometimes the oldies are still goodies. (Jan. 6, 1989) ...
QUITE a collection of show-biz celebs gathered at Carelli's on the Beach on Maui to welcome in the New Year. Among the celebrants were Fabio, Sammy Hagar, Ozzie Osbourne, Richard Donner and Jerry Moss, the "M" of A&M Records. (Jan. 8, 1993) ...
"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.
The Week That Was recalls items from Dave's 30 years of columns.Contact Dave by e-mail: ddonnelly@starbulletin.com