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While this column often focuses on one story, sometimes I find myself with several short stories that are unrelated, that I think readers will enjoy.
This week’s Rearview Mirror has stories about a local man and the Beatles song he inspired; next, we’ll look into why there is no “Belt Road” connecting Waianae with the North Shore; the third vignette is about the richest man in Hawaii in the 1950s. He never got beyond eighth grade in school, but he built 60 companies in 32 states.
After that I’ll look into a reader’s question about whether Hawaiian cowboys are “paniolo” or “paniola.” Then we’ll finish at the Kahuku theater, where a rodent often made a cameo appearance during showings.
Bungalow Bill
Chicago journalist Peter von Buol often writes about Hawaii. He told me recently that a member of the Cooke Family was immortalized by the Beatles on their 1968 eponymous record “The Beatles,” which is frequently called “The White Album.”
The White Album had many great songs, in my opinion, such as “Blackbird,” “Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “I Will” and “Back in the USSR.”
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” is about Richard A. Cooke III and his mother, von Buol said. “He had met the band in India, and the experience changed his life. Cooke became an ardent conservationist known for his photographs of wildlife and landscapes.”
I had no idea the song was inspired by a local man, even though I was a big fan of the Beatles.
Grandson of missionaries, “Rikki” Cooke describes how it happened. “Fifty years ago, after graduating from college, I traveled to India and had a great adventure hunting in Nainital.
“I grew up hunting deer on Molokai and had taken my gun all over the world. I loved hunting.
“My mother, Nancy Cooke de Herrera, and I were in Northern India to learn transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Beatles were there at the same time.
“A friend from India who was an adventure guide was able to get me on a tiger hunt during which we rode elephants. It was a thrilling experience — and I shot a tiger.
“The following day, my mother related the adventure to the Maharishi as John Lennon listened. I was proud of my accomplishment, and my mother was proud of me. The Maharishi, however, was not impressed.
“After listening to the story, he replied in a very cold tone, ‘Life destruction is life destruction.’ I simply had never thought of hunting in those terms before.
“Some months later my sister pointed out a new song by John Lennon.” The lyrics were as follows:
Hey Bungalow Bill. What did you kill, Bungalow Bill?
He went out tiger hunting with his elephant and gun.
In case of accidents, he always took his mom.
He’s the all-American, bullet-headed, Saxon mother’s son.
John Lennon sang the lead vocals. If you listen closely, you can clearly hear that Yoko Ono sang backup vocals.
For Cooke it was a life-changer. “I decided to exchange my gun for a camera,” he said. “Photographing wild animals in Africa was much more challenging and thrilling and, in the end, much more rewarding.
“I became a National Geographic photographer for 22 years, covering many stories and books for them. Now I am an advocate for the natural world and beauty that I so love to photograph.”
Belt Road
The Oahu Railway went around Kaena Point from about 1895 to 1947. Was there ever an attempt to build a road for cars to connect the Waianae Coast with the North Shore?
The Territorial Highway Department wanted to. In the 1930s the state was building “belt roads” to encircle the islands, where practical.
On Oahu the discussion was that Kalanianaole and Kamehameha highways were two parts of the Belt Road. The third would travel west from Pearl Harbor and around Kaena Point.
Planners preferred all three be given Hawaiian names and wanted to call it “Kaena Highway.”
Kaena means “the heat.” One Hawaiian legend said that the ghosts of Oahu’s dead travel westward from Kaena Point into the Pacific’s endless night.
Decision-makers in 1935 said it was too late to go with a Hawaiian word. It would be named for Gov. Wallace R. Farrington. And it would not go around Kaena Point.
Some four-wheel-drive vehicles made it around the rugged point in the 1970s or 1980s, using the path of the former railway. The state put up a rock wall on the Mokuleia side to block them.
The end of the paved road on the Waianae Coast is at Keawaula Beach, often called Yokohama Bay by locals. I wondered where that name came from.
John Clark, in his book “Beaches of Oahu,” said winter surf at the western tip of Oahu could be so devastating that it frequently tore up the railroad tracks.
The OR&L posted a small group of Japanese workers to handle the repairs. They were the first non-Hawaiians to fish at Keawaula, and the beach was referred to as Yokohama Bay.
Richest man in Hawaii
I came across some information on Henry J. Kaiser, the richest man in Hawaii in the 1950s.
Honolulu Advertiser columnist Bob Krauss wrote that Kaiser “never went past the eighth grade. He began his career as a $1.50 a week dry goods clerk in Utica, N.Y., in 1895. Since that time, he built dozens of dams, hundreds of bridges and untold miles of highways.
“During World War II, he built 1,490 Liberty ships. He is the founder of 60 companies that operated 176 major plants in 32 states and 30 countries and had an annual sales volume nearly $2 billion. Kaiser also founded 53 hospitals.”
In his “retirement years,” he built what is now the Hilton Hawaiian Village and subdivision of Hawaii Kai.
Paniolo or paniola?
Connie O’Dwyer asked the correct spelling of “paniolo,” which are our Hawaiian cowboys.
“Years ago, I read an article that explained that the word ‘paniolo’ should actually be spelled ‘paniola,’” she said. “I wish I had saved the article. Maybe you can search the archives and shed some light on this.”
When I searched the Star-Advertiser archives, the word “paniolo” appears over 20,000 times. “Paniola” with an ‘a’ appears fewer, 1,500. That’s 93% “paniolo” compared with 7% “paniola.”
Dave Donnelly wrote about this in 1969 in the Star-Bulletin. He said, “Disney Studios is coming out with a film called ‘Paniola,’ which Hawaiiana buff Donald Billam-Walker claims is the correct spelling.”
Donnelly asked Richard Smart from the Parker Ranch on the Big Island. He employed many cowboys. Which spelling is correct?
“I’m afraid I must correct Mr. Billam-Walker, in pointing out that the word ‘paniolo’ was used long before I was born,” Smart replied.
“The ‘a’ ending in ‘paniola’ came about through careless speech and from mispronunciation.”
Smart said that the Mexican “vaqueros” (literally, “cowboys”) who came to Hawaii in 1832 called themselves “Espanoles,” — masculine plural of “Spanish” — and added, “ending in a’s would be feminine.”
“Paniolo” is correct, Smart concluded.
Donnelly sent a letter to Walt Disney Productions, “telling them how to spell ‘paniolo’ and also the correct pronunciation, as we Hawaiians want the best for Hawaii Nei.”
Kahuku Theater
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Joan Sato growing up in Kahuku. Dr. Marc Shlachter had a cute story about the Kahuku Theater.
“I have been a family doctor in the Kahuku Oahu area from 1971 until I retired in May 2023.
“In 1971 I would be a doctor on call from the Kahuku Theater. One night each week would be either a Filipino movie, Japanese, kung fu, American or an X-rated.
“There was a rodent named ‘Gus Gus’ that would run across the top of the movie screen, usually at the peak of the movie, projecting a blown-up shadow on the screen.
“Everyone would start yelling, ‘Gus Gus,’ and throw popcorn boxes at the screen to scare him off.”
Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Contact him at Sigall@Yahoo.com or sign up for his free email newsletter at RearviewMirrorInsider.com.
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