Last month I wrote about “Tin Can Alley and the Beretania Follies.” The Follies was a strip club mauka of Beretania Street about where the Chinatown Cultural Plaza is today. One of the dancers there was Tempest Storm.
Allen Abaya wrote to tell me that the article conjured up memories of years past and his chance encounter with the same exotic dancer.
“I grew up in Hilo and was 14 years old in 1961,” Abaya said. “I was hanging out with my friend and neighbor, Bert M., who must have been around 17 that summer, and we were driving around aimlessly in Hilo trying to figure out what kind of kolohe business we could get into.
“There was not much happening in Hilo in those days (and maybe even still) except playing pinball machines at the Hilo Bowling Alley or cruising down the beach to an area called Four Miles.
“On one of our spins to Four Miles, Bert, being older and wiser, decided we should stop to check out the Club Kon Tiki, just off of Kalanianaole Avenue.
“As we were walking up into the club, we saw posters of Tempest Storm as the featured dancer! Holy moly, we thought. She’s gorgeous. We wondered if this was really happening!
“I don’t know how, but we not only managed to get in, but we had a table right next to the stage, which was a dance floor on the same level as the tables.
“I don’t remember if there was a cover charge, but they must not have checked IDs because I can’t imagine they would have let us in if they saw our driver’s licenses, which were just paper back then with no photos.
“Maybe Bert said we were both over 18. I really don’t remember how we managed to get in. I do remember, though, that we had sodas to drink, not anything alcoholic.
“There we sat, two smirking teens, about to see Tempest Storm perform. And perform she did! She twirled those tassels every which way … to the left … to the right … and even in opposite directions from each other, it was something to see!
“At the end of her performance, she pulled off one of her tassels and plopped it on top of my head! Wow, what a treat for a goofy 14-year-old! I don’t remember what I did with that tassel, but I do remember that inside the ‘cup’ was a picture of her gorgeous face.”
“All true,” Abaya says. “This really did happen. But there’s a little more to the memory. Bert and I had quietly rolled his Dad’s treasured light green 1956 Olds 88 out of the garage and pushed it down the road a little before starting it up. We did the same in reverse when we came back home. It’s not really car theft if you take the family car, is it?
“I told my wife about this after reading your article, and she said, ‘You should write to Bob Sigall and tell him about it,’ so here it is. It was a helluva night. Thanks for taking me back.”
Paul and Dick Okimura
Club Kon Tiki was founded in Hilo in 1957. It featured all kinds of entertainers, only some of whom wore little more than tassels. Genoa Keawe, for instance, often played there back then, with her fabulous falsetto.
The club was located east of Liliuokalani Park and Gardens, and less than 2 miles east of downtown Hilo. The club managed to survive the 1960 tidal wave, which devastated nearby areas.
In 1964 it became the Club Hukilau. It closed around 1969. The nightclub was part of Paul and Dick Okimura’s business empire, which included the Hukilau Restaurant, Dick’s Coffee Shop, Paul’s Coffee House, Planter’s Bar, Dick’s Snug Harbor, Paul’s Pizza & Taco and the Nani Isles Flower Shop.
Dick Okimura opened his first restaurant at the Hukilau Hotel in 1945. Tidal waves in 1957 and 1960 hit him hard, but both times he rebuilt and reopened.
Shhhhhh …
Hilo native Ken Fujii said he remembers the Club Hukilau.
“When I was 16, a bunch of us Hilo High kids went there after our prom, all decked out in carnation leis and finery, and we ordered drinks from the waitress.
“She said, ‘OK, but shhhhhh, don’t tell anyone!’ as we were obviously below the legal drinking age. That was my first taste of a Singapore Sling and it made me real woozy.”
Fujii said, “My mom and dad used to go to Dick’s Coffee House almost daily in the Hilo Shopping Center for years. They knew the specials for each day of the week by heart.
“That homey, scruffy restaurant with all of the college banners and pennants tacked to the walls was where lots of Hilo’s retirees went to eat a leisurely lunch. My folks also liked that place because it was easy to access, with lots of available parking, and the wait staff knew them by name. They always bumped into fellow retirees whom they hadn’t seen for a long time.
“Dick’s Coffee House was doing so well that they decided to expand and move to the Prince Kuhio Mall in 1991, where they doubled the space and seating of their restaurant. I’m sure they expected their existing customers to follow them to their new location.
“But to my folks’ dismay, the new Dick’s did not have the same homey local ambiance and feel to it. It was more like a sparkly Spencecliff coffee shop, filled with yuppies. And parking was more difficult. They felt out of place.
“So they stopped going to Dick’s and instead switched their lunchtime loyalties to places like the Firehouse Restaurant in Kaiko‘o Mall, and Don’s Grill in the Waiakea Houselots.
“The clientele and demographic base for the new Dick’s went from senior retired consumers to younger customers, often workers from around the area and shoppers at the mall. These new customers were not the leisurely retirees of the old Dick’s in the Hilo Shopping Center, but younger folks who had a limited lunch hour of 30 or more minutes and wanted a quick in-and-out meal.
“One time when I was with my folks in Hilo, we ventured into Dick’s. Dick himself came over to sit with us and to chat with my folks (I believe that they knew each other from their days as youngsters in Waiakea). And he lamented that the kitchen at the new restaurant was too small to accommodate the large space filled with time-constrained eaters.
“Customers began to complain about slow service, since most of them had to return to work. With their kitchen unable to meet the time demands of their new customer demographic, patronage decreased.” The coffee shop closed in 1997.
“This just goes to show how important it is for business owners to know their customers,” Fujii surmises. “A success in one location or with one demographic may not translate to success in another. It’s so much more than just having a great product or service.”
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