Sometimes my research leads me off in a different direction than I expect. One thing leads me on to another that piques my interest.

I wrote about Frank Sinatra’s Hawaii connections in my column two weeks ago. In response, Roger Hawley called me with a story about the bow-tied baritone. Hawley lives on Maui.

He said that in 1987, when Sinatra was filming “Magnum P.I.” in Honolulu, he spent a few days on the Valley Isle. Hawley said Sinatra and his party dined at Mama’s Fish House in Paia, not far from Willie Nelson’s house in Spreckelsville, where Sinatra was staying.

Hawley said that Sinatra tipped all the restaurant employees $100 — everyone who worked there.

Martin Lenny was a floor manager at Mama’s Fish House. I called him to learn more about the story.

Lenny said that Sinatra was in a party of five to six. They had dined at Mama’s four nights in a row in a private room.

Sinatra ordered pasta, even though that’s not what they normally serve. The chefs put something together for him but he sent it back, ordering some chicken broth and rice.

A producer in the party paid the bill with his American Express card, adding a 20% tip.

When Sinatra asked for the bill, he was upset to find it had already been paid. He stood up and his chair flew back, Lenny recalled. He scolded his guest. “Nobody pays Frank Sinatra’s bill. Nobody,” he yelled.

The whole restaurant stopped eating and was silent, watching.

Sinatra’s bodyguard was sitting at the bar. He was a well-groomed, silver-haired gentleman, Lenny said. He got the credit card copy for Sinatra who ripped it up and threw it at the producer.

“I’ll burn this place down if you do that again,” he shouted.

Sinatra paid the bill. The bodyguard mentioned to take care of the staff. “Everyone. Valets. Dishwashers, and even I got $100,” Lenny said.

“It was quite an experience in my life,” he added. Lenny is now a Realtor with the Maui Real Estate Team.

I looked to see if that ever made the local or national newspapers, using newspapers.com, which has digitized many of the country’s papers, going back to the 1800s.

Sinatra tipping everyone $100 at a Maui restaurant didn’t make the papers, but I did find a story in a Fort Worth, Texas, newspaper that said it was Sinatra who popularized Maui onions in the 1960s. Could that be true? I set off to get to the bottom of it.

The Sinatra effect

In December 1967, a small misunderstanding took place. Sinatra’s secretary called Hono­lulu Advertiser columnist Eddie Sherman, asking if two dozen Maui onions could be air-shipped to the mainland for a party.

Sherman was a longtime friend of the singer-actor. He said, “Sure, we’ll take care of it.” But calls to local markets disclosed that a crop failure had reduced their numbers drastically. Calls to the other islands finally produced some onions.

Somehow, the message that Sinatra needed two dozen onions was scrambled. A few hours later two sacks of Maui onions weighing 99 pounds arrived at the airport, marked “V.I.P.”

The price tag was $60 ($500 in today’s dollars). Sherman, who felt money was no object, as long as it was someone else’s, put them on a flight to California.

If Sinatra had wanted two dozen onions and received same, perhaps we would never have heard of it. The misunderstanding made it an interesting story.

So the Advertiser printed a story on Dec. 28, 1967, with the headline, “The Great Maui Onion Caper.”

United Press International picked up the story and it ran in newspapers all around the country.

“Frank Sinatra may not know it but he has cornered the Maui onion market — all 99 pounds of it,” UPI reported.

“Two sacks of the onions — relished by gourmets for their sweet succulence — were en route to Los Angeles today,” the article read. “Trouble is, Sinatra wanted only two dozen.”

I think that article lit a spark. If Sinatra liked them, and they were that good, others wanted to try them.

In the next two decades, the modest onion was elevated to celebrity status. The Los Angeles Times said the onion was creating a frenzy. Sinatra, it said, had 10 pounds of Maui onions flown in each week.

Shoutout from HVB

In 1970, the Hawaii Visitors Bureau ran ads in newspapers around the country with a checklist of over 100 things to do in Hawaii, such as: Play a ukulele, sip a mai tai, watch whales, see upside-down waterfalls, walk on a black-sand beach, ride an outrigger canoe … and have a Maui onion.

While ordinary onions could make you cry, Maui onions could make you cool, it seemed.

Launching a career and a sailing canoe

Chicago journalist Peter von Buol said that Maui onions and Primo beer played a role in launching the Sons of Hawaii in 1971 and their album “The Sons of Hawaii: The Folk Music of Hawaii.”

Von Buol wrote about it in Maui magazine. “Hoping to secure a corporate underwriter for the album, artist Herb Kane and book publisher Bob Goodman traveled to Milwaukee to meet with Ralph Gibson, marketing director of the Schlitz Brewing Company, which owned Primo Beer.

“When we walked into Gibson’s office, I saw a big box of Maui onions,” Kane recalled. “I knew Ralph was a gourmet, the kind of guy who, once he had tasted a Maui onion, would have them flown in. I saw that box and knew we had a winner.”

Schlitz agreed to sponsor the record, and the project was a go.

“Many of the people behind the album went on to found the Polynesian Voyaging Society,” von Buol continued.

“The Sons of Hawaii (minus Pahinui) performed at the launch of the Hokule‘a, the Society’s historic ocean-crossing canoe.”

Therefore, von Buol says, “it can be said that a box of Maui onions helped both the album and the Hokule‘a set sail!”

More evidence

I was looking for more evidence that Sinatra had elevated Maui onions to near-celebrity status on the mainland. The Maui Onion Growers Association no longer seems to exist.

I talked to Jo-Anne Kaneshiro at the Fukuda Seed Co., started by her grandparents 102 years ago. She told me they carry Yellow Granex onion seeds. It’s not the botanical quality of the onion, she told me, that makes the difference. It’s the volcanic soil, elevation and temperature that make them sweet.

I called the University of Hawaii School of Tropical Agriculture, but could not find someone who could weigh in on the issue. So I searched newspapers.com again.

The words “Maui onions” appeared fewer than 10 times in mainland papers prior to 1967. Since then, “Maui onions” has appeared over 5,000 times.

Maui onions are hardly mentioned in mainland papers before 1967, then newspaper articles linking them to Frank Sinatra appear and they seem to take off.

Was that the thing that launched them into gourmet heaven? I’m inclined to say yes.

Readers, what do you think?

The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s now twice-weekly free email newsletter that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column, and lots of interesting details. Join and be an Insider at RearviewMirror Insider.com.