HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you all had a Merry Christmas. Santa arrived about
4:30 p.m. Dec. 24 on Grey’s Beach fronting the Halekulani Hotel to make the crowd happy. The Hawaii Pops Orchestra under the direction of Matt Catingub provided music for dancing at the Halekulani on New Year’s Eve. Jimmy Borges was asked to sing but his cancer prevented him from appearing. Jimmy, 80, spent months working on his fine album “Jimmy Borges” and headlined a pops concert in November even though his liver cancer had returned and spread to his lungs. On Monday he said, “I can never thank the people of Hawaii enough for their support for the last 50 years” …
HERE ARE SOME of the other happenings in Wood Craft’s world the past year: Catherine Deneuve added international star power to Hawaii’s European Film Festival gala at the Moana-Surfrider hotel in October … Actor Alvin Ing was home in January when his picture “The Gambler,” starring Mark Wahlberg, was on island screens. Alvin played a Korean gang boss. “Big Eyes,” the movie about renowned artist Margaret Keane, was playing at the same time. Alvin and I had lunch with his cousin, Jade Ing Sen, at Murphy’s. Jade is a former Narcissus princess. The three of us are Roosevelt High grads. Jade was a flight attendant for Pan Am and said in 1962 the late Walter Keane hit on her during a flight to Tokyo. He was the husband of Margaret Keane and fraudulently claimed it was he who painted Margaret’s works. The artist later married Honolulu Advertiser sports writer Dan McGuire and then proved that Walter was full of baloney …
HAWAIIAN FASHION designer Nake‘u Awai staged a big 40th anniversary Hula Holiday Show in December at the Pomaikai Ballroom. Performing were Aaron Sala, Randy Hongo, the male dancers of Snowbird Bento, kumu hula Pohai Souza and her young girl dancers, and kumu hula Joan S. Lindsey and her young boy dancers … Cathy Foy and 10 talented, young tap-dancing Shooting Stars from Diamond Head Theatre had the crowd soaring high at the Koa‘e Kea Hawaiian Airlines retired hostesses annual blast in November at the Ala Moana Hotel. Edna Cathcart, Ivanelle Mountcastle Choy, Cora Speck, Dolly Phillips and hardworking emcee Hale Rowland — all sporting colorful feather boas — brought down the house doing bumps and grinds a la Gypsy Rose Lee, attempting to seduce lucky retired HAL Capt. Bob McGuire …
THE WEDDING of Kamauliola “Ola” Souza, son of Chuck and Mihana Souza, to French native Sonia Hosbergen in Cannes, France, on Sept. 5 drew 30 people from Hawaii. There was much hula and many Hawaiian songs were sung, several written by Ola’s late grandmother, Irmgard Farden Aluli … Kim Williams, 31, a Kamehameha grad, dropped 136 pounds in a year and was honored on ABC’s “Extreme Weight Loss” program Sept. 1. Kim is the granddaughter of former Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue and his wife Lucy. Her mom is Leanne Donohue
Williams. … Local girl Gina Haverly was named vice president and general manager of Neiman Marcus here in June, replacing retired Al Tomonari … Lynne Waters, associate vice president for external affairs and university relations for the U. of Hawaii system, left her post in January to become U. of Texas veep for communications …
FOOTBALL: Saint Louis School and U. of Oregon grad Marcus Mariota, Heisman Trophy winner, threw four touchdown passes for the Tennessee Titans in his NFL debut in September, beating Tampa Bay, 42-14. In following games Marcus took a tremendous pounding due to poor protection, although he passed for more TDs until injury forced him to be sidelined. If the Titans don’t find ways to protect him, their star QB will be sidelined for good with permanent injury … I favored the return of June Jones for UH head football coach to replace Norm Chow but I’ll be cheering for Nick Rolovich next season. I’m glad “Rolo” is keeping offensive line coach and interim head coach Chris Naeole on his staff …
Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
