Music event will honor Alfred Apaka

Many of the buildings that Alfred Apaka Jr., who was dubbed the Golden Voice of Hawaii in his heyday, used to frequent are gone.

The central YMCA on Atkinson Drive where the 40-year-old star died following a handball game on Jan. 30, 1960, closed last month for redevelopment. Henry J. Kaiser’s Hawaiian Village Hotel where he headlined in the 1950s has morphed into the Hilton Hawaiian Village Wai­kiki Beach Resort, the state’s largest single hotel property.

The Hawaiian Room, which opened in the 1930s at what is now The Lexington New York City, closed in 1965. Though these venues might change or crumble, Apaka’s son Jeff is making sure the memory of his father is here to stay.

"Back in the 1950s Alfred Apaka was the biggest name in Hawaiian music," said Jeff Apaka, who will host a musical tribute to his father Sunday to mark what would have been Alfred Apaka’s 96th birthday earlier this month.

He also aims to introduce a new generation of listeners to his father’s hapa-haole style of music, which weaved Polynesian themes into pop tunes with English lyrics. Jeff Apaka said he loves traditional Hawaiian music but that the music his father perfected has its own place in Hawaii’s history, too.

The younger Apaka said his father epitomized the fabled allure of Hawaii and its music on records, on national television and in his shows at the hotel.

"We have Hawaiian blood, but we are not like the renaissance that came in the 1960s that would do nothing but Hawaiian-language music," Apaka said. "I really think it’s wonderful. But Papa was from the 1940s and 1950s. He made it on the mainland, and he sang songs in English, although he did perform the queen’s hula on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show.’ It was in Hawaiian but it was a souped-up arrangement."

Apaka said comedic legend Bob Hope discovered his father in 1952 while he was playing at Don the Beachcomber.

"I was just 6 when we moved to Hollywood," Apaka said.

It was in Hollywood that Alfred Apaka met Henry J. Kaiser, who enticed him to return to Hawaii to headline his own show at the Hawaiian Village’s Tapa Room.

"They were like father and son," Jeff Apaka said. "In a sense they were building the early days of the Hawaiian Village together. My dad was very mainland kine, and he lulled people to come to Hawaii. They came on nine-hour flights in droves."

Apaka was so popular with locals and visitors that in 1957 Kaiser constructed a mammoth gold aluminum geodesic dome — one of the first of its kind in the U.S. — to accommodate Apaka’s large crowds. But Apaka’s death and changing times ended those glory days, and Hilton dismantled the Buckminster Fuller-designed dome in 1999 to make way for its Kalia Tower.

Apaka said he was just 13 when his father died. He flew back to Hawaii from his mainland boarding school to attend the funeral.

"The house was dark and it had been stripped. Everyone wanted a piece of Alfred Apaka. They all loved him," he said. "I couldn’t stay in an empty house, so they found me a room at the Hawaiian Village. The radio kept playing his music. It was surreal."

Apaka said he still recalls the 21-gun salute at his father’s funeral.

"I was crying like the dickens," he said. "I was wearing my military uniform, and I took off my white gloves and placed them in his casket. They’ve always said Dad was buried with a microphone, but really he was buried with my gloves."

Jeff Apaka, who like his famous father got his professional start in Wai­kiki, debuting in 1968 at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s Monarch Room, is determined that more Oahu audiences will tune in to the magic of days gone by.

Dressed in his father’s signature white apparel and red carnation lei, he will lead a procession Sunday from the lobby of the Hilton Hawaiian Village to a bronze statue of Alfred Apaka which was erected in 1997 to honor the singer.

A blessing, a lei draping and an address by Hilton Worldwide Area Vice President Jerry Gibson will take place at the statue, where the show will start at 3 p.m.

"We love having the Apaka family as part of our legacy here at Hilton Hawaiian Village," Gibson said.

Music and dance will start at the statue with Danny Kalei­kini, Mihana Souza, Aaron Mahi, George Kuo, Steve Akana, Hai­lama Farden, Halau Hula o Hoku­lani and members of Celtic Bags & Drums of Hawaii. At 4 p.m. music and dance will move to the resort’s Tapa Bar, just steps from where Alfred Apaka’s showroom once stood and where the younger Apaka performs each Sunday.

The star-studded event, which will continue to 7 p.m., will include Lexington Hotel Dancers with TeMoana Makolo; Wai­lani Gomes Bell; Torea Costa; Leonani Kaleikini; Kaui Santana; Mamo Gomez Smith and Mona Joy Lum; Hula Lei Dancers of Leilani Alama; Nona Kramer-Wilson; Kawena Mechler; the Islanders, including Alan Akaka, Gary Aiko, Kaipo Asing accompanied by Nina Keali‘i­waha­mana and Marlene Sai; and Harry B. Soria Jr. of "Territorial Airwaves" will preside. There will be a special appearance by Henry Kapono Ka’ai­hue.

"It will be the biggest show playing in Wai­kiki," said Jeff Apaka.