Waikiki marks passing of icon, end of an era

Tourists remember him as the legendary embodiment of Hawaii, "like Elvis"

"Legendary" and "like Elvis" were some of the ways locals and tourists remembered Don Ho yesterday in Waikiki and at his namesake restaurant.

"We wanted to go to his show," said Sally Poorman of Pennsylvania at Don Ho's Island Grill, at Aloha Tower Marketplace. "That's just sad," she said. Poorman, 59, had just taken a photo of Don Ho's picture on the menu cover when she learned about his death.

"I used to listen to him growing up in Pennsylvania," she said. "It's like a legend passing away."

Poorman's husband Richard recalled how their daughter, now 37, would play "Tiny Bubbles" and sing along, while dancing and imitating Ho.

"He was just Hawaii," he said.

Makakilo resident Sarah Nakasone said news of Ho's death spread quickly at her workplace.

"It was like losing a part of your family, part of Hawaii forever," Nakasone said at the Island Grill. Nakasone, now in her 50s, recalled how Kaimuki high school used "Tiny Bubbles" as a football rally song. "He's an icon," she said.

"I have to say it's the end of an era, the passing of a legend," said Nara Cardenas of Mililani. "There hasn't been another entertainer to rise up like him. In our generation, we don't have a Don Ho."

At the Ohana Waikiki Beachcomber, Jason Iorio, 32, took a photo of the Don Ho poster display before departing.

"He lived a good, long life," he said. "He's Hawaii's big guy, just like Elvis."

Sitting on a bench near where Don Ho played his last show Thursday, Dave Asmus of Las Vegas said, "I was really shocked. His style of singing and music, it was Hawaii. It was very soothing. I really think it put a hole in their entertainment industry."

Entertainer Mike Hisaka recalled how he used to play with Don Ho for about eight years in the 1990s at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

"It was really an interesting time. The way he does his show is unorthodox. He keeps everybody on their toes," he said. "He liked the risk. He would stop in the middle of a song and then say give me another one."

Hisaka spoke while taking a break from playing guitar with the Sam Kapu Band at the Sheraton Princess Kaiulani Hotel.

"A lot of people looked up to him as the father of entertainment in Waikiki," he said, adding that Ho mentored other entertainers and gave them a chance to play on his stage.

Band leader Sam Kapu III said Ho gave his father, Sam Kapu Jr., now a Honolulu deejay, his first show at the Queen's Surf, a bar and nightclub in Waikiki decades ago.

"He was almost like a grandfather to me," said Kapu, who has been performing in Waikiki for 21 years. "He was always there to take entertainers under his wing. He helped so many people."

Ho had an ability to work with an audience, with a big personality and humor, that's often missing in live entertainment today, Kapu said.

He remembered how Ho helped three generations of his family -- his father, himself and now his young daughter -- as an inspiration and a mentor. He pointed to his daughter, who dances hula.

"It lives on," he said.