I’m sure many readers will remember that my predecessor at the paper, Bob Krauss, wrote a column called In One Ear. It began in 1953 with things people told him. This week’s column pays homage to him with things people told me recently.
Olympics
With the Tokyo Olympics approaching their midway point, I thought I’d look back to 1932, when some young Hawaii men were dominating world swimming.
Sandy Hall, who’s working on a biography of Olympian Duke Kahanamoku, told me that brothers Maiola and Manuella Kalili from Hawaii were national champions and Olympic silver medalists in 1932.
They were on the men’s freestyle relay in Los Angeles in the 1932 Olympics and came in second.
Punahou graduate “Buster” Crabbe took the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle swim. This led to a Hollywood career of over 100 films, playing Tarzan and Flash Gordon.
Hall suggested I ask readers whether they have Olympic memories from attending or participating. If so, let me know.
Paralympics
David Davis authored a book a few years ago about Kahanamoku.
His latest book is about the Paralympics: “Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans From World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation.”
“Back in 1964, when U.S. wheelchair athletes traveled to Tokyo for what was the second-ever Paralympics, they stopped off in Hawaii and gave wheelchair sports exhibitions on Oahu,” Davis told me.
“This was truly a historic event, both for the Paralympic athletes and for Hawaii. After all, many of the pioneering wheelchair athletes were World War II veterans who were paralyzed during the war in the Pacific theater.
“Many of the injured initially healed in hospitals on Oahu before returning to the mainland. And, of course, the fact that Tokyo was the host country of the 1964 Olympics and Paralympics represented something of ‘comeback story’ for Japan’s relations with the world after Pearl Harbor and their devastation during the war.”
On Nov. 3 and 4, 1964, the United States Paralympic team put on performances at Fort DeRussy and Schofield Barracks.
The 65 men and women of the U.S. team participated in more than 25 events in the Paralympics, including archery, basketball, club throw, discus, fencing, javelin, shot put, swimming and weightlifting.
Only amateur athletes who were confined to wheelchairs because of physical disabilities caused by war, illness or accident were qualified to participate.
Seven members of the team paid a visit to Shriners Hospitals for Children — Honolulu to show kids what could be done from a wheelchair.
Archer Jean Howe, 20, had the pleasure of explaining her technique in archery to first lady Beatrice Burns, wife of Gov. John Burns. The first lady, who had been confined to a wheelchair for many years as a victim of polio, lent a receptive ear.
The Paralympic Games ran Nov. 8-12 in Tokyo. A total of 379 athletes from 22 countries attended.
The U.S. team won the overall contest, winning 45 gold medals, including wheelchair racing and basketball.
Hawaii’s first strip mall
Kendrick Lee told me about Hawaii’s first strip mall, which opened in 1929. Some of the original buildings still exist today, 92 years later, and those of us on Oahu probably drive by it often, without knowing.
It was called May’s Shopping Center and was on both sides of Pensacola Street between Beretania and Young streets.
May’s was a grocery store that moved from an earlier downtown location on Fort Street to about where First Hawaiian Bank is today. It began around 1854, making it four years older than our oldest bank.
A newspaper article about May’s in 1929 says it extended Pensacola Street makai to Young Street and built shops on both sides.
May had bought some of the land from Hawaiian Electric, which had a stable in the middle of the Pensacola and Young streets intersection.
May’s called its store a Groceteria.
Benson Smith Drugs opened a store in the center, as did Young Laundry, and Union Oil had a service station there. A hardware store and several other shops opened their doors. Most were on the Ewa side of the street.
May’s closed in 1956 after 102 years in business. Safeway opened its first Oahu store on the site at 1121 S. Beretania St. in 1963.
The building May’s erected in 1929 on the Ewa side of Pensacola Street is still there and occupied by small shops, a Subway, a bakery and Auntie Pasto’s restaurant.
A check that didn’t bounce
Gene Kaneshiro told me last month that his father, Tosh, who ran the Columbia Inn, asked noted check forger Sammy Amalu to write him a check. He wouldn’t cash it, he said. He’d frame it and hang it on the wall.
Tosh Kaneshiro was a big Los Angeles Dodgers fan. Amalu wrote in a 1975 Honolulu Advertiser column, “I happened to walk into the place just as the Dodgers won. Tosh was so elated that I decided to buy the house a drink, and told him so.
“It was then that he asked me if it were possible for me to pay for the drinks with a check instead of cash, as he wanted to frame it and hang it up on his walls.”
Amalu immediately ordered the house a second round of drinks and wrote a check. Kaneshiro framed it and hung it on the wall.
Son Gene found it and sent me a photo, which is part of this article today.
Amalu said that he felt it was a personal breakthrough. After serving years in jail for writing bad checks, someone actually wanted and valued one from him.
The Kailua state Capitol
Mitch D’Olier and Terry George of the Castle Foundation told me many years ago that Harold K.L. Castle offered to donate land in Kailua for a state Capitol. I found a drawing of it this week.
The story begins in 1949, when state leaders felt our territorial government was outgrowing Iolani Palace, and started looking for alternatives.
Hundreds of citizens suggested and debated over 20 potential Capitol locations, such as Aala Park, Ala Wai Golf Course, Diamond Head crater, Fort Armstrong, Fort DeRussy, Magic Island, Punchbowl, Sand Island, Thomas Square and the Ward Estate.
Harold Castle offered to donate 100 acres of land across from the Pali Golf Course in Windward Oahu, where Hawaii Pacific University’s Hawaii Loa campus is today.
The setting was beautiful, and the size was ample for any conceivable future demand, supporters argued. And, of course, the price was right. But it was a 20-minute drive from Honolulu.
The Civic Center site, where the Capitol was finally built, was once occupied by several buildings, including the state armory along Beretania, and the Schumann Carriage auto dealership, at Richards Street.
A Shell service station could be found at Punchbowl and Hotel streets, and Iolani Barracks was Ewa of it.
At 8 acres, Civic Center was centrally located but was felt by the Citizens Committee and Planning Director to be “too small, congested, not expandable, lacks prominence and setting. It can never be anything but the backyard to Iolani Palace,” they said.
But, in the end, legislators preferred it as many had law offices downtown and would be able to walk to the state Capitol. It opened in 1969.
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