‘Gambler,’ ‘Big Eyes’ spur Honolulu memories of yore

When I learned that "The Gambler," starring Mark Wahlberg, and "Big Eyes," the story of Walter Keane taking credit for paintings those sad-looking waifs with the big eyes when they were actually painted by his wife Margaret, were opening on Christmas Day, I rushed to see both pictures.

Alvin Ing, who was a grade behind me in Stevenson Intermediate and Roosevelt High, has an important role as casino owner and loan shark in "The Gambler." In the early 1970s I interviewed the former Margaret Keane, who had married Honolulu Advertiser sportswriter Dan McGuire. Walter Keane was a con man whose marketing skills made his wife’s paintings famous by mass producing prints and other means. When she found out he was taking credit for her work, he told her the public did not buy "women’s art," and she also feared him. Walter is played by Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams portrays Margaret. Both are excellent. The pair met in 1954 in San Francisco and they made a trip to Honolulu to get married. The film pictures San Francisco’s North Beach, Waikiki Beach and the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

Years later Margaret and her daughter from a previous marriage left Keane and made Honolulu their home. She divorced him in 1965 and later exposed Keane as a fraud on a Honolulu radio show. In my interview with her, she gave her new Jehovah’s Witness faith and McGuire credit for supporting her. The battle with Keane over who painted the big eyes came to a screeching halt in 1986 in federal court in Honolulu. Judge Sam King was angered over Walter Keane’s courtroom antics. A paint-off was ordered. Margaret painted a picture of a boy, Keane claimed he had an injured shoulder and could not paint. Years earlier a paint-off was scheduled in San Francisco’s Union Square. Walter Keane never showed up.

I liked "Big Eyes" far more than "Gambler" because Wahlberg was not playing the rugged guy he usually does. His face was pale and he lost much weight for the film. He looked weak playing a college professor with a terrible gambling addiction. Ing does a fine job as "Mr. Lee" and received good reviews for his bad-guy role. He has had many movie and TV roles and performed on Broadway in three shows. Ing’s cousin, Jade Ing, a Roosevelt 1955 grad, was Narcissus queen in 1956. Both Ings are University of Hawaii graduates and Alvin earned a master’s degree at Columbia. Jade became a flight attendant for Pan Am and Hawaiian Airlines. Walter Keane was a passenger on a flight to Tokyo in 1962 on which she was working. He drew two eyes on a Pan Am paper napkin, signed it, wrote the name of his Tokyo hotel and gave the napkin to lovely Jade. She did not contact him …

SAD NEWS: Big Vernon "Bully" Windrath, 83, had been seriously ill for some time so news of his death Monday in a San Jose, Calif., care home was not a surprise but it was terribly painful. Bully and I were classmates who sat side-by-side in the back row of classrooms from seventh grade through 12th in Stevenson Intermediate and Roosevelt High. We had much fun back there and may have caused a bit of trouble. We were teammates in football and track at Roosevelt. Bully, the strong, silent type, was an all-star tackle in our senior year, Class of 1949. Though his nickname was Bully, he would never really hurt a schoolmate, but on the football field he was a terror. On the track team, he always scored points in the shot put. He received a scholarship to San Jose State and played end on the same team with Bill Walsh, who went on to coach the San Francisco 49ers to three Super Bowl wins. Kamehameha’s Roy Hiram was team star at San Jose, ‘Iolani’s Merv Lopes was a teammate. Later, Bully was a photographer for the Oakland Raiders during their glory days. Condolences to his devoted wife Shirley and family members …

HULA QUEEN Kanoe Miller and husband John have received word from Apple their magazine app, HulaStudio magazine for iPad, is available via the App Store. The interactive tablet magazine shares hula and Hawaiian language lessons, Hawaiian music history, interviews with kumu hula, explorations of hiking trails, and gathering of plants and flowers for lei making.For more info, go to hulastudiomagazine.com …

Go Mariota, go Oregon!!!

Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.