Peter T Young

January 15, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Beauty Hole

Laniloa Point (or Lāʻie Point) is a protrusion of rock separating Lāʻie Beach to the south from Laniloa Beach to the north. Laniloa, literally means “tall, majesty.”

In ancient times this point was a moʻo (lizard-like creature,) standing upright; Lua Laniloa was a hole that was the home of the moʻo, who “menaced all travelers pausing to refresh themselves beside his pool.”

The moʻo were slain by the demi-hero Kana and his brother Nīheu. When the brothers killed the monsters, they chopped them up into the five islands off shore of Mālaekahana and Lāʻie.

The moʻo hole has been confused with a pool known as the “Beauty Hole,” which formed in the 1930s during construction of Kamehameha Highway when excavation led to the collapse of a sinkhole. (Cultural Surveys)

“The mere mention of the Beauty Hole brings tears to the eyes of those who remember it fondly. It might not have looked like much to the passerby … but to people like Phyllis Kuamoʻo, ‘it was our Natatorium.’”

“Indeed, the chance to jump into the refreshing water was a reward that had to be earned … making it all the more cherished. Phyllis remembers going directly from Lāʻie Elementary School in the afternoons to the taro patch, where she and her siblings would get hot and muddy pulling taro. It was only after she pulled her share that her dad might offer the chance to jump in the swimming hole.”

“Vatau Galeai Neria also holds happy memories of the Beauty Hole. Coming from Sāmoa in 1952, she never learned to swim. That is, until her friends encouraged her to try out the Beauty Hole, which she did by boldly jumping in the first time.”

“Thankfully, there was a ‘learner’s section,’ where you could doggie paddle from rock to rock and never stray into the center.”

“Of course there were always the dare devils. Using a hand made diving board, some adventurous young swimmers would dive down to where the water was dark and deep, fill a glass soda bottle with water that was noticeably colder, and offer proof to friends waiting on the surface of how close to the bottom they’d been.”

“Young people and families from Lāʻie would flock to the swimming hole where, inevitably, musicians would set themselves up on a nearby mound for an impromptu concert, and many would feel blissfully connected and carefree.” (Hoʻomua)

“The pond was not much more than twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. And of course, when you’re used to it, you don’t become frightened. But I learned to swim there by having someone throw me in, and that’s the way many of us swim.”

“They’d throw us in the pond and it was supposedly bottomless, but you could swim around the edges.” (Adam Forsythe, BYUH Oral Histories)

“The beauty hole … was an indentation, the origins of which are somewhat obscure, but people do remember it back as far as present memory can go. The accounts have been that it was possibly uncovered as a result of digging off the end of Lāʻie point during road construction.”

“(T)hat’s where our swimming hole was and this is where Hawaiian boys and girls – myself – learn how to swim. I’ve been living here seventy-two and I never noticed any drowning in here.”

“And this beauty hole here has produced two boys they was raised in Laie and they called themselves Kelii brothers and they were once-upon-a-time champion swimmers in 1925, ’26, ’27, ’29; they were champion swimmers. It was from the Beauty Hole they learned it from here.”

“Close to the road you cannot touch there; it’s very deep, but close to the wall, you can. It is only about twenty feet deep and this is the pool where I used to make a lot of money like diving for nickels twenty-five cents. Oh, yes especially on Sunday.”

“This one Sunday I didn’t go to priesthood meeting but I made a lot of money … When you throw the money you don’t jump on the money you jump on the side because when you jump on the money you just find bubbles coming up.”

“So that’s how I beat the other boys. So they named me Five-Cents, so today I’m still Five-Cents. Well I’m glad I’m Five-Cents because if you raised me up twenty-five cents, then the government tax me more.”

“We had three little diving boards … that’s where we learned how to dive on that high tower.” (Thomas Au (‘Uncle Five-Cents,’) BYUH)

Some say Beauty Hole got its name because a beautiful old woman with long grey hair would come to swim during each full moon, and then sit on a rock under the moonlight and comb her hair.

She had apparently found solace in that spot after losing her daughter. Whether or not the story is true is irrelevant, because for all those who long ago got to swim there, it was unquestionably a place of beauty. (Hoʻomua)

Located across from where Foodland is now, the Beauty Hole eventually got covered over in the 1960s and built on.

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January 14, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bull Pen

Betty Jean O’Hara was “born in Chicago, Illinois in 1913, the year preceding the 1st World War. The early years of (her) life were happy and normal. Being the only child of a physician, (she) was given the best schooling in preparation for a career.”

“(Her) parents were Catholic, and were strict in the regimentation of (her) life. (She) was permitted however to attend parties and movies with other children (her) age.”

At about the age of 16, she met a girl and her boyfriend at a party. The girl was covered in fine jewelry and nice clothes. Young, and easily led, she “agreed to their sordid plans and went into the business of the ‘oldest profession.’” A month later, she left home and headed to San Francisco. (O’Hara)

“Jean O’Hara was a pretty girl who became a handsome woman. She was ‘black Irish,’ fair-skinned with a clear complexion which set off her dark eyes, raven hair, and even her features. She stood about 5’4” and at 120 pounds was slender by that era’s standards. Her good looks and classy bearing would serve her well.” (Bailey & Farber)

“(O’Hara) got used to the fast money.”

“(She) started working in one of the better class houses, and (she) became definitely committed to the practice of prostitution. (Her) father and mother tried every means available to frighten (her) into going home …”

“… but being headstrong, and enticed by the seemingly fabulous earnings (she) resisted their every attempt. Although (she) actually loathed the life, (her) sense of shame and sin aroused in (her) a perverse independence.” (O’Hara)

In mid-1938, O’Hara arrived in Honolulu from San Francisco.

There was an unofficial system of regulated prostitution in the Islands, with the also unofficial sanction of the military. Army military police and the Navy shore patrol helped monitor it.

All girls had to live in the houses where they worked; no white girls were allowed on the other side of River Street. The Army, Navy, and civilian police picketed any house violating the rules, and no man could enter it. According to the agreement, the civil police regulated prostitution “with full cooperation by the Army and Navy.” (Greer)

“The business of procuring girls to work in the brothels, or “factories”, before the war (WWII,) was usually handled by the same … “procurer.” He handled nothing but the transportation of the girls. … The fee for procuring a girl from the mainland rage(d) from $500 to $1,000 depending on the looks and the capability of the girl.” (O’Hara)

A detective would meet the ships coming in and the girls were taken to the ‘receiving station.’ (In O’Hara’s case, that was the Blaisdell Hotel on Fort Street.) The girls were explained the rules – in no uncertain terms, the girls were told that any violation of the rules meant banishment from the Territory.

All of the girls have a Territorial tax book and a Territorial license (they were licensed as ‘entertainers,’) which cost each $1 per year. In addition, every month the Vice Squad would collect an unofficial tax of $30 per girl from the brothels.

The girls paid Federal income taxes, as well as state taxes. “It has been said that (the) girls and Madames are the heaviest tax payers in Honolulu. … Each girl in Honolulu can average from $4,000 per month to $5,000 per month. … Taxes are collected by the Madame of the house, who also files the returns for them.” (O’Hara)

Before WWII, the girls usually started to work around 1 pm, and ended around 5 am. The ‘blackout’ during the war meant they worked from 8 am to noon.

“Very few girls made under a $100 a day, some of these double that and some of them made over $300 a day. It all depends upon the girl. She can make as much as she wants.”

“The price charged is $3.00 per date. Of this, the Madame gets one dollar. Out of the remaining two dollars, the girl must pay the Madame for her room and board and laundry.” (O’Hara)

The Madames were women from the mainland. Although prostitution was not legal, they needed permission from the local Police before operating.

When WWII broke out, and martial law was in effect, the military called the shots (1941-1943.) A “substantial number” of prostitutes were brought to Honolulu from the mainland under military priorities – a common rumor – and that under military government prostitution “flourished.” (Greer)

Most brothels required girls to see at least 100 men a day and to work at least 20 days per month.

To speed things along, O’Hara is credited with inventing the ‘bull pen’ system where a single prostitute would work three rooms in rotation (including maid service.)

In one room a man would be undressing, in a second room the prostitute would be having sex, and in the third room the man would be dressing. (The guy had three minutes to achieve release, after which she said ‘aloha’ and was off to the next room while he washed up and got dressed.) (McNeill)

After a few months’ work in a Hotel Street brothel, she had amassed a sizable bankroll. She leased a house near Waikiki Beach with a friend.

“The life of a prostitute is not an easy one, and the stringent rules of the Honolulu Police Department, headed by Chief of Police Gabrielson, left her no more freedom that a prisoner.”

O’Hara broke the rules (often) and ended up getting the regular attention of the Police, including Gabrielson. She was fined, imprisoned and beat black and blue, with two broken ribs.

O’Hara filed a $100,000 lawsuit in 1941 against the Police department for her two broken ribs and black eyes. The lawsuit was dropped, but conflicts with the Police continued.

O’Hara later married a ‘local boy’ and quit the business. She was a prostitute for 13-years, and temporarily was a Madame. She had homes in Waikiki and Pacific Heights.

After leaving the brothels, “(her) only desire (was) to live a useful family life, and help others to live and let live, as one resurrected from the sordid flesh mines of humanity.”

In 1944, she wrote a booklet, ‘My Life as a Honolulu Prostitute.’ She died in 1973. (Lots of information here is from that booklet.)

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Jean_OHara

My Life as a Honolulu Prostitute

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January 13, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Cats and Dogs

“I saw cats – Tom cats, Mary Ann cats, long-tailed cats, bobtail cats, blind cats, one-eyed cats, walleyed cats, cross-eyed cats, gray cats, black cats, white cats, yellow cats, striped cats, spotted cats, tame cats, wild cats, singed cats …”

“… individual cats, groups of cats, platoons of cats, companies of cats, regiments of cats, armies of cats, multitudes of cats, millions of cats, and all of them sleek, fat, lazy, and sound asleep”. (Twain, April 19, 1866)

They had taxed the cats, but dropped that in 1851. Let’s look back …

“The history of taxation in Hawaii is very brief. … Taxes were summarily levied on what was nearest and most convenient. … In 1850 all taxes, except labor, were made payable in money.”

“A chattel tax, which was really a tax on personal property, as well as a specific tax on cattle, horses, mules, asses, cats and dogs was, by said act, also provided.”

“Cats and dogs not useful in guarding flocks, herds or households were taxed $1 each. All other chattels, etc., were taxed 2 per cent ad valorem.” (Castle)

“All dogs and cats shall be subject to an annual tax of one rial per head, payable to the tax-gatherer previously to the first of January of each year; otherwise they must be killed.” (Laws Passed by the Annual Council of the Hawaiian Nobles and Representatives, Lahaina, 1843)

“It shall in like manner be incumbent upon all owners of cattle, horses, mules, asses, cats and dogs on or before the first day of December, to file with the governor of the island in which they happen to be, a true statement of the number owned by them respectively attested as aforesaid.” (Chattel Tax in Statute Laws, 1846)

“(T)hinking the horse and dog tax to which we are subject in these Islands not only heavy but unusual, I have to my surprise found out they paid in England the following taxes for 1850, and I presume for every year. Dog Tax – For every greyhound, $5.00, For every other dog, where two or more are kept, $3.50.” (Polynesian, January 10, 1852)

However, in 1851 the cat tax was dropped, “That all laws of this kingdom imposing any tax on cats be and the same are hereby repealed. … The tax of one dollar on dogs shall remain”. (Approved by the King, July 11, 1851)

When William Root Bliss visited Honolulu in 1873, he discovered that what should have been a quiet port city had been transformed into a noisy, yowling place by the pets of its residents. “Every family keeps at least one dog; every native family a brace of cats.”

The dogs would then begin to howl, joined by the cats who protest with “every vowel sound in the Hawaiian language.” It was impossible, he wrote, for him to sleep. (Bliss; Amanda)

Mormon missionary Joseph Fielding Smith (later LDS Church President,) in particular, noted their presence in his diaries. With few exceptions, he wrote in his July 4th, 1856 journal entry, “hoges, doges, cates and they live together.” (Smith; Amanda)

“I cannot account for the apathy of this community, in relation to the numerous and increasing fierce foreign dogs allowed to range about, or not safely secured in their owners’ yards.”

“I think it is a scandalous thing that those whose duty it is to see their salary paid, do not see the other part of their duty, to look after these animals and report them to the Magistrate, as often as they are loose or their chain too near the door path.”

“Dogs ought not to be allowed their liberty in any yard, that will seize a person approaching the house in the day time. If the owners do not wish visitors, let them notify that they keep a savage dog within, to prevent calls.” (Letter to the Editor, March 12, 1857)

“… and if any dog shall injure or destroy any sheep or cattle, goats, hogs, fowls or other property belonging to any person other than the owner of such dog, the owner shall be liable in damages to the person injured, for the value of the property so injured or destroyed …”

“… and it shall be the duty of the owner to confine or destroy such dog, and if he neglects – or refuse to do so, he shall in event of any further damage being done to the person or property of any person, by such dog …”

“… in addition to paying the person injured for such damage, pay the cost of the trial, together with a fine often dollars or in default of the payment of such fine, be imprisoned at hard labor for the term of thirty days, and it shall be lawful for any other person to destroy said dog.” (Approved by the King, July 11, 1851)

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January 12, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Bill Anderson

‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson, a silent screen actor, was the first western film hero and star in The Great Train Robbery (1903.) He later played in over 300 short films.

Wait … this summary is not about that actor, this is about Bill Anderson (another actor,) born September 19, 1928 in Walla Walla, Washington, to parents Otto and Audrey Anderson.

He was raised on the family farm. When his parents divorced (when he was 15,) he moved with his mother and his younger brother, John, to Seattle. He was torn between being a farmer like his father or pursue art, which his mother (a concert pianist, singer and artist) had been unable to do.

He attended Walla Walla High School during his freshman and sophomore years, and later enrolled in Lakeside School in Seattle and graduated in 1946.

A childhood and college buddy was Carl Hebenstreit. Bill and Carl both went to Whitman College in Walla Walla and graduated in 1951. Anderson played water polo, ran track, skied and swam at Whitman College.

Anderson earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Literature and a minor in Psychology; he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and participated in the speech and debate team. (Patalon)

His interest in entertainment was evident while he was at college, where he was involved in the launch of a television station, as well as working as a disc jockey.

After graduating, he got a job as a DJ at a local radio station; then enrolled at Stanford for post-graduate courses. Drafted into the military, he spent the next 2 years starting military TV stations, first at San Luis Obispo, CA, then at Fort Monmouth, NJ. Afterwards, he and his wife (Billie Lou) toured Europe, visiting Germany, Switzerland and Italy’s Isle of Capri.

Then, the money ran out.

It was 1955 … he met up with his old friend, Carl Hebenstreit, who encouraged Bill to come to Hawai‘i. Carl just previously made Hawai‘i television history when at shortly after 5 pm, December 1, 1952, he uttered, “Hello Everybody. Welcome to the first official broadcast of KGMB-TV.” It was the pioneer broadcast in the Islands.

Carl had been starring in a children’s program in Hawai‘i called ‘The Kini Popo Show’ (the first morning television show in Hawai‘i) and asked Bill to work with him on the show. (Carl took the stage name ‘Kini Popo.’)

“I started at CBS in Honolulu, and the guy who was the first big TV personality on the islands, Kini Popo, was an old school friend. He decided to go south to New Zealand, and I was picked to take his place. And that’s what started it all for me. It was like two hours every morning, doing whatever I could to be entertaining.” (Anderson; AVClub)

In 1956, he divorced Billie Lou, and while in the Islands met and married an attractive Tahitian Princess Ngatokoruaimatauaia called Frisbie Dawson, whom he calls ‘Nga.’

That year he made his film debut occurs in the film “Voodoo Island” starring Boris Karloff who happened to be filming in the Islands at the time. To make ends meet he also worked as a tour guide.

He moved to Hollywood and did some other films with supporting roles with the Three Stooges, Paul Newman and Spaghetti and local Westerns.

Still a relatively unknown, his break came after filming a TV commercial for Nestle’s Quik chocolate mix, playing a comical spy in a deadpan manner. Here’s a link to the commercial:

By then, Bill Anderson was using the stage name, ‘Adam West.’

“My agent told me that 20th Century Fox and ABC were impressed by commercial I did for Nestle, and I now need to start a new project … Batman.” (West; Batmania)

Finally the day of the debut comes a January 12, 1966, with thousands of watching what was advertised as a feat of special effects never seen colors and foremost a totally modern and renovated hero television viewers.

“I was going to my house when I stopped at a supermarket to step to buy some things, and people who were in the boxes rebuked him to the cashier: ‘Hurry up, fast please, that is Batman started,’ I was really moved by all the expectations that had been generated in the people and that he could not experience by being locked in studies in recent weeks.” (West; Batmania)

Though he has over 60-movies and over 80-TV guest appearance credits, “Batman” is what the fans remember him for. The series, which lasted three seasons, made him not just nationally but internationally famous.

The movie version, Batman: The Movie (1966) earned Adam the “Most Promising New Star” award in 1967. The downside was that the “Batman” fame was partly responsible for ruining his marriage, and he would be typecast and almost unemployable for a while after the series ended (he did nothing but personal appearances for 2 years). (IMDb)

West married his first wife, Billie Lou Yeager, in 1950, only to divorce in 1956. His second marriage to Nga Dawson, a Hawaiian Dancer, resulted in two children. In 1970 he married his present wife, Marcelle Lear, with whom he now has four children.

Adam West is the author of two books, ‘Back to the Batcave’ and ‘Climbing the Walls.’ More than 50 years after starting his career in Hollywood, Adam West continues to work consistently in TV and film. (AdamWest) (Carl Hebenstreit is president and CEO of Trade Publishing, which produces magazines and newsletters.) (Lots of information here is from Batmania, IMDb, SoylentComm and AdamWest-com.)

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January 11, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Flying for Fun

“(Flying) may not be all plain sailing … But the fun of it is worth the price.” (Putnam, The Fun Of It)

Five hundred enjoyed Mrs Putnam’s free lecture through the University Extension Service, University of Hawaiʻi – titled, ‘Flying for Fun.”

It was an interesting subject back then, only a few short years after Charles Lindberg first flew solo over the Atlantic. (She repeated the feat on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s solo flight.)

‘Flying for fun’ (sport aviation) is basically flying for some purpose other than transportation or business (relaxation, hobby, competition, racing or thrill.) (CAP)

“I attempted to fly across the Atlantic ocean for my own person satisfaction. My flight added nothing to aviation. Literally hundreds of persons have crossed the Atlantic by aircraft, and one flight adds little to the starting sum total.”

“If my flight interested women to learn to fly as pilots or to fly as passengers on air lines, or to let their husbands and children fly as passengers, or to let their children embark on careers aeronautical engineers, then I think that my flight was worth while.” (Mrs Putnam, Rockford Morning Star, 02-15-1935; Genealogy Trails)

“A charming personality combined with a graciousness and ability in speaking to an audience as well as to the individual are paradoxically the qualities that the pioneering American woman flyer … possesses. In addition to these, her love for beauty is so real that she believes the lure of flying is the lure of beauty.”

She “described vividly and picturesquely her flight over the Pacific ocean, adding to her gift for pantomime a power of description and a true sense of humor that struck an immediate response in her audience.”

She insists “that the only reason for the flights was her own wish to fly. In this connection she said, ‘Women must often do for themselves what men have already done, and I look for the day to come when individual aptitude instead of sex will be the criterion for holding any job.’” (Daily Illini, March 22, 1935)

“I have long been interested in the comparative skills between the sexes. I have watched the flawless coordination of women champion drivers and I have watched the control and precision of women factory hands as they do work no man does (whether this should be ‘can do’ or not, I do not know)…”

“… and I wonder why the creatures who can with training perform these diverse tasks, and a hundred others, so excellently, should be balked by a contraption with an engine and four wheels or one with an engine and a couple of wings.” (Putnam to Wiggam, 1932)

She was rarely out of public view. In the many images of her after 1928, she appears as the epitome of grace and poise. During the years that America was in the grip of the Great Depression, she provided the nation with a sense of hope and optimism about its future.

After discovering the joy of flying, she came to see the airplane as her one true home. There she could escape, challenge herself, break records, and inspire others who longed to lead independent lives.

Although she was a vocal advocate for women’s rights and the future of aviation, she preferred being in the cockpit of a plane to anywhere else. She seemed to be happiest when flying an airplane. (Smithsonian)

At 4:44 pm, January 11, 1935, Putnam took off from Wheeler Field on Oʻahu for Oakland, California on a trans-Pacific flight never made solo before.

It was just one year prior that Commander M. Ginnis led his flight of six seaplanes from the West Coast to Hawaii. Now a woman was doing it in reverse, flying in one airplane, with one engine, and no other person aboard. (hawaii-gov)

A crowd of less than 1,000 was on hand to see the take-off. “Mr. Putnam was worried and perspiring as the plane got into the air. ‘I would rather have a baby,’ he said.”

“Despite the bad weather in the Schofield Barracks area, which included a drizzling rain and a muddy field, (Putnam) decided that conditions for her 2,400-mile cruise which she had planned ever since her arrival here two weeks ago, were right.”

“Everything fine; weather fair,” she radioed to Honolulu. (NYTimes, January 11, 1935)

The scene at Oakland Airport was a contrast to the Wheeler point of departure, as 5,000 people lined the field to offer a tumultuous reception for the first human to fly solo and non-stop over one ocean and 2,000 miles over another.

The West Coast appeared to the pilot twice in error, each time turning out to be cloud shadows on the water’s surface. The third time, however, was land.

Then she sighted the landing field and the hundreds of honking cars. The time was 12:50 pm, January 12, 1935. Some 2,090 nautical miles from Wheeler Field – 18 hours and 15 minutes later – she settled into a perfect landing in the California airport.

A brilliant success, the flight was accomplished by a flyer whose only motivation was the love of flying, and a desire to contribute trail-blazing marks to the world. (hawaii-gov)

Oh … we generally refer to Mrs George Palmer Putnam as Amelia Earhart. Today is the anniversary of her historic solo flight from Hawaiʻi to the continent, the first person, man or woman, to do so.

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