Dick Grimm is director of the Hawaii Foodbank but spent 30 years as general manager or sales manager at KHON, KITV and KGMB television stations. We met recently for lunch, and he had some interesting stories to tell about those days.
Dick was a pioneer. Under his leadership, his stations were the first to televise the Merrie Monarch Festival, the Honolulu Marathon, the Molokai Hoe, University of Hawaii women’s volleyball and the only telethon for Native Hawaiians.
“Lippy Espinda was so funny,” Grimm recalls. “He had his own show on TV and wore sandals with red socks all of the time. At the end of the show, the camera would pull back, and he’d be dancing and singing, ‘Hele on bruddah, hele on bruddah …’”
Espinda owned a used-car lot and gas station where Century Center is today. He ran ads in pidgin.
“Eh, bruddah!” Lippy would say. “You come down to Lippy’s on Kapiolani and Kalakaua. We got one good used car for you. And you haoles, come down cuz we got one guy speak haole.”
KITV had streakers slip into the studio once. Streaking — running nude in public — was a popular 1970s activity.
If you’re a young person, ask your parents. I’m sure they streaked at one time or another, or at least saw someone streaking.
“I was watching the 10 o’clock news from home and saw three headless guys run across the camera,” Grimm told me.
“What was that?” he wondered. The next day he found out.
“Someone let them in a side door. Three guys ran in nude with blue masks over their faces. They ran right past our anchors reporting the news. As quickly as they arrived, they left, out another door.
“What they didn’t know was that the anchors were on an elevated platform and the cameras were equally high.
“The streakers were only visible from the shoulders up and because our chroma key was set on blue, their blue-masked faces were invisible.
“All viewers saw of the streakers were a blur of three headless shoulders running across the set. We never found out who they were.”
“The show ‘Happy Days’ was on KITV from 1974-1984. It was a sitcom based on an episode of ‘Love, American Style.’ ‘Happy Days’ was set in Milwaukee in the 1950s and was produced by Garry Marshall. Ron Howard had the lead.
“Its co-star, Henry Winkler, who played Arthur Fonzarelli, or ‘The Fonz,’ came to Hawaii one year for the Easter Seals Telethon. I was on their board.
“At the time, the telethon was at the Waikiki Shell over 24 hours,” Grimm recalls. “Every entertainer in town showed up to play. It raised $150,000.
“Winkler came up and introduced himself to me. He asked what he could do to help. ‘If you can raise some money,’ I told him, ‘it would be great.’
“He came back in 30 minutes, his hands stuffed with $20 bills, maybe $300-$400 in all. I was astounded. ‘How’d you do that?’ I asked.
“‘I’m selling kisses,’ he replied. ‘All these girls wanted a kiss, and I’m charging them $20 each.’
“He went back for more, and I watched these teeny-boppers line up. That’s when I realized ‘Happy Days’ was going to be a hit.”
“When the TV show ‘M*A*S*H’ ended its prime-time run in 1983 and went into syndication, the three major stations here discussed the possible bidding war they might end up in,” Grimm recalled.
“You have to remember, in 1983 there was no remote control for TVs. If you wanted to change the channel, you had to get up and turn the dial on the set. That meant viewers were more likely to watch shows after the show they had just watched. That made lead-in shows very valuable.
“George Hagar (the general manager at KHON) called and said Cec Heftel, the owner of KGMB, was willing to flip (gamble) for ‘M*A*S*H.’
“Rather than get into a bidding war for the local syndication rights, they suggested it be decided by a game of chance. Three of us would flip for the show. Odd man out.
“I suggest a different deal. I’d back out and give the two of them a 50-50 chance to have ‘M*A*S*H’ if I could have ‘Happy Days’ when it was syndicated (a year later, it turned out). They agreed.
“George won the contest, and that changed the whole fortune for KHON,” Grimm says. “He put it as a lead-in to their news. After ‘MASH,’ people left it on the same station and the KHON news came on. For years it won that time period.
“The KITV news was on at 5:30 p.m. Bob Sevey was on KGMB at 6 p.m. and was dominant. You couldn’t beat him. The next year, we started running ‘Happy Days’ at 6 p.m. against Sevey. We swept him for three to four years.”
“Why would ‘Happy Days’ beat Sevey?” I asked.
“Who controls the TV?” Grimm asked. “The kids. They preferred ‘Happy Days’ to the news, and many families went along.”
Next week I’ll have more of Dick Grimm’s stories, including those about “Captain Honolulu,” the Merrie Monarch Festival, UH women’s volleyball and Gov. John Burns.
Bob Sigall, author of the “Companies We Keep” books, looks through his collection of old photos to tell stories each Friday of Hawaii people, places and companies. Email him at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
