I love hearing firsthand recollections from readers (hint: keep them coming).
Raymond “Sus” Sakamoto recently wrote to tell me about the area that became Ala Moana Center.
“The Ala Moana Shopping Center site was once a kiawe forest, and it was our stomping grounds,” Sakamoto told me.
“I remember it back in the 1930s and ’40s. The property was about three feet below Kapiolani and Ala Moana boulevards with lots of kiawe trees and other oceanside shrubberies.
“When the ocean tide went high, the ground got wet with salt water, and when the tide went down, the salt on the surface glittered in the sunlight.”
Sakamoto then turned to the property mauka of Kapiolani, between Sheridan Street and Kalakaua Avenue. He gave me a hand-drawn map he made of the area.
“It was lined with bulrushes growing in spring water. The only structure mauka of Kapiolani at the time was the KGMB radio station,” Sakamoto recalls.
“In back of that, between Sheridan and Kalakaua and below where Rycroft Street is today, was a huge vegetable garden with a banana patch and rice paddy along Kalakaua.
“This farm was run by a few Chinese families that lived along Sheridan Street with a corral holding three water buffaloes to do the plowing of the garden.
“And from South King Street there was an overhead wooden flume all the way to the vegetable garden to supplement the water supply when needed.
“There was a 6-inch water pipe at King Street with a valve. When they turned the water on, we would climb up the flume and ride the wave, so to speak, all the way down to the patch.”
Do any of my readers remember this now-gone part of town?
On the flip side
In April I wrote about Don Ho recording “Tiny Bubbles.”
Donn V. Tyler wrote to tell me it was done at his studio.
“You are correct,” Tyler told me, “that ‘Tiny Bubbles’ was the B side to ‘Born Free,’ however, the recording of that 45 (rpm disc) was actually made in my Cooke Street recording studio, Commercial Recording.
“We used the Ali‘is as musical and vocal backup. Joe Mundo, Don’s musical director and leader of the Ali‘is, is living on the mainland but would be hurt to see his greatest commercial success not be recognized!
“For technos, the music was recorded on a Scully four-track recorder, the first in Hawaii, and the format that the Beatles would use to record ‘Sgt. Pepper.’
“I placed instruments on tracks three and four, background vocals on two, and Don on track one. The recording engineer was the late Bob Lang, and I assisted.
“Even though I owned the studio, Lang had done other work for Reprise’s Sonny Burke (who brought ‘Tiny Bubbles’ to Don).
“When I first read that Don sang to prerecorded tracks, I didn’t pay much attention, because it was true. Only thing is, the tracks were recorded on Cooke Street in Honolulu! What Sonny Burke brought with him was a chord chart, which he gave to Joe Mundo, who assigned the parts to the Ali‘is.”
Mahalo, Donn V. Tyler, for providing more detail on this historic recording.
Ashdown roundup
In March I wrote about James Ashdown stealing a B-25 bomber from the airport and taking it on a treetop- level joy ride through Waikiki, out to Hawaii Kai, to Waipahu and back to the airport.
Ian Birnie wrote to say that there’s a bit more to “Crashdown” Ashdown’s story.
“He was the son of Inez McPhee Ashdown, who was the author of books on Lahaina and Kahoolawe. Auntie Inez’s father was Angus McPhee, who competed against Ikua Purdy at the 1908 Cheyenne, Wyoming Rodeo championship along with ‘Rawhide Ben’ Low and Archie Kaaua. He lost to the Hawaiians but they became good friends and convinced McPhee to move to Hawaii.
“McPhee worked on Maui and Inez grew up there. She was friends with the von Tempski family and was the subject of one of Armine von Tempski’s books. Angus got the lease for Kahoolawe, which he still held when the military took over the island for target practice (during World War II). Inez and her husband lobbied the U.S. government for years to honor the lease, but to no avail.
“Jim Ashdown, so the story goes, taxied around the Honolulu Airport for nearly 45 minutes before airport officials were able to pin him in and block him off. He was arrested and the FAA yanked his pilot’s license.
“He moved to the East Coast and eventually got a pilot’s license under an assumed name, qualifying in both fixed and rotary wing aircraft.
“His mother had not been to Kahoolawe since the military took it over, but as she got older she wanted to return one last time, and she saw that access requirements had eased. Jim came from back east, and owned up to the FAA that he had obtained a new license and had a clean record, so they allowed him to fly here. He rented a helicopter and was allowed to fly his mother over to the island.
“Auntie Inez was a family friend. We did an oral history session with her many years ago in our Kailua house. Her father managed Ulupalakua Ranch until he lost an arm in an accident.
“The story goes that Eben Low also lost an arm in an accident, and the two would stage one-armed roping contests. The tradition was for the senior cowboy on the ranch, when ready to be ‘put out to pasture,’ to be put in charge of one of the ranch children, teach them to ride, rope, etc.
“Auntie Inez had a cowboy kahu assigned to her, and he had her participate in cattle drives from Ulupalakua down to Makena Landing.”
Bob Sigall’s latest book, “The Companies We Keep 5,” has arrived, with stories from the last three years of Rearview Mirror. His first two “Companies We Keep” books are also back in print. Email Sigall at Sigall@yahoo.com.
