Rearview Mirror: More lessons learned as we wrap up the year

Every December, I look back on the year and write about the interesting things I learned writing Rearview Mirror. This week I wrap up with Part 2 of that highlights series.

Marine Corps Air Station Ewa

I was surprised to learn that the first military base attacked on Dec. 7, 1941, was the Ewa Marine Corps Air Station.

Japanese strategists saw the Ewa plain as the main approach (and exit) to Pearl Harbor, and decided it had to be attacked on the way in. They destroyed 24 planes at MCAS Ewa, killed four Marines and wounded 13 others.

MCAS Ewa was founded in early 1941 and was later incorporated into Barbers Point Naval Air Station, which closed in 1999. Historian John Bond has been working on a book about those airfields and is fighting for the preservation of what’s remaining.

The other thing I found fascinating about the area is that in 1925 the Navy built a 160-foot-tall mooring mast for dirigibles there.

The Goodyear Zeppelin Corp. wanted to use airships to bring mail and passengers from Los Angeles to Hawaii.

The proposed airships were nearly three times the size of a Boeing 747. Flying time from California would have been about 45 hours, much faster than ocean liners. It could bring 75 passengers per trip, or 2,400 a year, to Hawaii.

Mainland dirigible accidents caused the public to lose faith in this mode of transportation, and none ever visited Ewa.

Bill Mau

In July I wrote about entrepreneur Bill Mau, who owned the Lau Yee Chai restaurant, the Waikiki Shopping Plaza and the Ambassador Hotel.

Mau, I learned, started his business empire selling hot dogs from a concession stand on the beach near the Moana Hotel.

His wife, Jean, and a partner worked it during the day, and Mau helped out in the evenings. “The first eight hours of a working day are not enough,” was his secret to success.

Mau branched into banking and doubled the assets of American Security Bank — now part of First Hawaiian Bank — in just five years. By 1958 he was chairman of the board at age 45.

When the Waikiki Shopping Plaza was finished, he moved American Security Bank into it, away from its Chinatown roots and closer to his own — the place of his birth and his first hot dog stand.

Wallace Rider Farrington

In 2020 I discovered that one of our territorial governors may have been appointed because of a joke he told.

Wallace Rider Farrington was editor of The Honolulu Advertiser and later the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He organized the Honolulu Ad Club around 1915. Sen.-elect Warren Harding from Ohio was a guest speaker at a February meeting.

Farrington introduced Harding as “the future president of the United States.” Harding laughed but said that if it came to pass, he’d nominate Farrington as governor (during territorial days the president appointed our governors).

Harding was elected president in 1921 and, true to his word, appointed Farrington as governor that same year.

4 schools on Punchbowl

Four schools once occupied what had been a quarry on the western slope of Punchbowl. Today it’s a derelict Hawaii Housing Authority building on Captain Cook Avenue near Alapai and Green streets.

The spot was called Lishman’s Quarry, or simply the Punchbowl Quarry, in the 1880s. In 1905 the Territorial Normal School built a three-story building there. The Dowsetts, Cookes and Wilders donated the furniture.

The Normal School trained teachers who went on to educate several generations of islanders.

In 1930 the Normal School moved to Wilder and University avenues and became the University of Hawaii Teachers’ College.

Three more schools, in succession, moved into the building. Roosevelt High School moved in for two years while its present campus was under construction.

Puowaina Elementary School was there from 1932 to 1937, followed by Robert Louis Stevenson Middle School, until it moved into its permanent campus in 1952.

Four schools make the old quarry site historic, but there is no marker to let passersby know about it.

Haleloke

I’ve written about Arthur Godfrey several times. He came to Hawaii during World War II and fell in love with it. He frequently could be seen on his TV show in an aloha shirt strumming an ukulele.

In 2020 I learned he had a local woman on his TV show for three years. Hale­loke Kahauolopua was her full name. She was born in Hilo and was a singer most of her life. Arthur Godfrey heard her sing on “Hawaii Calls” and offered her a job on his TV show.

Suzy Churchill said her family had a special relationship with Arthur Godfrey and Haleloke.

“I was 7 or 8 years old when my father invited Haleloke to our home in Indianapolis for Thanksgiving.

“We lived in a tiny duplex. I did have my own room. I had twin beds, and Haleloke slept in one of the beds.

“She brought me three little Hawaiian dolls with Hawaiian names dressed in little grass skirts and leis plus a storybook about Madame Pele. I must have kept those dolls forever, propped against my pillow.

“She stayed several nights over the Thanksgiving weekend. I never forgot Haleloke, and I always dreamed of coming to Hawaii to see all that she had talked about.” Churchill says she’s lived in Hawaii since 1969.

‘What’s My Line?’

When I was a child, “What’s My Line?” was a popular TV show. A guest would be questioned by a panel about their line of work. They earned money if they stumped the panel.

Two Hawaii politicians were guests on the show, I learned this year. One was Gov. William Quinn, and the other was Congresswoman Patsy Mink.

Quinn was on the show in 1958 to plug statehood, which finally came a year later. Mink, the first Asian female to serve in Congress, was on in 1964.

Joseph Kekuku

I knew the steel guitar was largely thought to have been created in the islands. In 2020 I found out Joseph Kekuku is credited with creating the steel guitar 125 years ago.

The Kamehameha Schools student got the idea in 1893 when he placed a pocket comb on the fingerboard of his guitar. It produced a twang he liked. He experimented with a pocketknife and, later, a thick piece of steel. Even better.

“It took me seven years to master the steel guitar,” Kekuku wrote. “In 1904, I came to the States and played in every theatre of renown from coast to coast.

“In 1918, I went to Europe for a tour of eight years duration and during this time, I played before kings and queens of different countries.”

Charles E. King

One of my mother’s favorite songs was the “Hawaiian Wedding Song,” written by Charles E. King in 1926. In 2020 I found out it was not about weddings.

King says he never called it the “Hawaiian Wedding Song,” and the title “Ke Kali Nei Au” means “where are you?” or “waiting for thee,” he said.

The “Hawaiian Wedding Song” title came along years later because it was so often sung at weddings.

King said he didn’t mind that people insisted on calling it the “Hawaiian Wedding Song,” but he always asserted it was actually the call of one lover to another.

Andy Williams was the first to record it with English lyrics, in 1959. It rose on the U.S. charts to No. 2 and was the theme song of his television show until he sang “Moon River” at the 1962 Academy Awards. It became a runaway hit and replaced “Hawaiian Wedding Song” as his TV theme.

Those are some of the more interesting things I learned in 2020. I hope I kept you entertained during this social distancing year and that you learned things as well.

Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.