Isle icons cut their teeth dancing in ‘Puka Puka Otea’

In the 1960s, one of the most popular Polynesian shows in Hawaii went by the odd name of "Puka Puka Otea" at the famous Queen’s Surf in Waikiki, next to the Natatorium. Elaine Frisbie, the daughter of renowned South Seas traveler and author Robert Dean Frisbie, was the producer of the show.

The show ran seven nights a week at 9 p.m., 11 p.m. and 1 a.m., and could seat 500. My conservative estimate is that it was attended by more than 6,000 people a week, or 300,000 a year. That’s an amazing number, when you consider that Hawaii had fewer than 1 million visitors a year then.

Tongan-born Kalo Mataele-Soukop was a dancer at the show from 1964 until 1968.

"Kui Lee performed in the main dining room at Queen’s Surf," Mataele-Soukop recalls. "Sterling Mossman, the ‘Hula Cop,’ was in the Barefoot Bar upstairs, and ‘Puka Puka Otea’ was downstairs."

"Puka Puka is a very small atoll in the northern Cook Islands," says founder Elaine Frisbie Werts. "It is the island of my birth and childhood. Otea is the name of the type of dances done to drums. The name of my troupe was a reflection of my life.

"Part of the narrative of the show was to provide an introduction to the troupe and the background of the various dance types and the islands where they originated."

Mataele-Soukop said the "Puka Puka Otea" show was indoors, but there were no walls.

"It was all open and tradewinds blew gently through the room," Mataele-Soukop says. "We were right on the beach, and people would watch the show for free from there.

"There were only two big Polynesian shows in those days, one at the International Market Place, and another at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which had just opened."

Tourists came by the bus load, usually for the first show, and could partake in the dinner buffet.

Each show lasted an hour, Mataele-Soukop recalls. "Someone would blow a conch shell and the Tahitian dancers would come in. There would be seven to nine girls, depending on the night. Then there would be Maori dancing and Samoan slap dancings and a fireknife dance. Then dancing from Rarotonga, but for some reason, not Hawaiian hula.

"Between shows we’d hang around, or sit and talk on the beach with tourists."

Two of the biggest names in Polynesian entertainment today are Jack "Tihati" and Cha Thompson. "They got their start in the entertainment field with my troupe," Frisbie says.

"We were just two kids out of Farrington High School," Jack recalls. "Cha auditioned for ‘Puka Puka Otea’ as a Tahitian line dancer, and I was hired months later as a Samoan fireknife dancer.

"I was fortunate to be trained by some of the very best fire dancers at the time, godfather of the Samoan fireknife dance, High Chief Olo Letuli; and brothers Pulefano and Tafili Galeai, to name a few."

Frisbie recalls that "Jack was a fit, handsome young man who learned to fireknife dance. Cha was a beautiful dancer."

Mataele-Soukop says Jack was a gentleman. "Cha was outspoken. She said she was from Kalihi and ‘if you fool around with me, I give you licking.’ Nobody messed with her."

Cha says Elaine had high standards and "was a toughie, but we all loved her."

Jack says the “Tihati” name developed his first night there. “On the night I was to make my debut as a fireknife dancer, I was backstage stripping my ti leaves when the emcee, Ati So’o, asked me what my stage name was, as he didn’t want to introduce me as Jack Thompson.

"I asked one of the Tahitian boys sitting next to me how to say ‘Jack’ in Tahitian and he said ‘Tihati.’ Thus the name Tihati was born!"

Their Tihati Productions employs more than 1,000 musicians, singers, dancers, and choreographers from every Polynesian island group.

Today, Mataele-Soukop has fond memories of dancing at Queen’s Surf. "It was so wonderful. It’s such a shame that Mayor Fasi closed it down in 1969." Fasi felt commercial activity on the beach was illegal. Some think it was personal, between him and the owners, Spence and Cliff Weaver.

"We were sad for Elaine because she had been there a long, long time. The last night we had a big party and gave Elaine a huge trophy with all our names on it. People who worked there before me all came for the reunion that night."

Next week, I’ll have more stories about "Puka Puka Otea."

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Bob Sigall is Hawaii’s business historian. His three “The Companies We Keep” books can be found at Native Books at Ward Warehouse. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.