[Back in December 2024, I dedicated a weeklong series to histories from our 50th state. This week, in honor of the 75th anniversary of James Jones’s debut novel From Here to Eternity, I’ll offer a complementary series on Hawaiian stories!]
[NOTE: The first four posts in this series expand on texts I discussed briefly in this weekend post concluding that 2024 series.]
On two actors who connect directly to Hawaiian stories, and how their famous show did too.
Jack Lord’s Detective Captain Steve McGarrett was unquestionably the protagonist of Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980), and thanks to Steve’s catchphrase “Book ‘em, Danno!” the second most famous character was certainly James MacArthur’s Danny “Danno” Williams. But I would argue that by far the most tellingly Hawaiian actor on the show was Kam Fong Chun, a former police officer who had turned to film acting after retirement (appearing in such classics as Gidget Goes Hawaiian [1961]) before portraying Detective Chin Ho Kelly for nearly all of the show’s run. That’s the case not only because Chun lived in Hawaii for his entire life, nor only because he reminds us of the islands’ longstanding Chinese American community, but also because his story connects to so many defining 20th century Hawaiian histories. To name just two especially striking and tragic connections: while working at the Pearl Harbor shipyard he witnessed the 1941 attack; and three years later, his wife and two young children were killed when two B-25 bombers crashed over the family’s home.
To their credit the show’s creators also cast another native Hawaiian in a prominent role, and his story likewise connects to a number of other, less tragic sides to the islands. By the show’s 1968 debut the Polynesian comedian, impression artist, and singer Gilbert Lani Kauhi, better known by his stage name Zulu (later changed to Zoulou after a former manager refused to give him the rights to the original name), had been performing his famous nightly show at C’est Si Bon Supper Club in Waikiki for many years. He was also both an accomplished surfer (nicknamed Waikiki Beach Boy for his exploits in the waves) and a local DJ as well as a member of the famous Sons of Hawaii musical group. His casting as state police officer Kono Kalakaua on Hawaii Five-O could thus be seen as stunt casting I suppose, but to me it reflects a creative team who were determined to include multiple layers of Hawaiian culture and community on screen, and I think these two Hawaiian actors complement each other very nicely in that regard.
I’m not going to pretend that the show on which these performers appeared wasn’t first and foremost a cop show, and one that could have been set in plenty of other locales without drastic changes. But that doesn’t mean that there weren’t a number of genuinely Hawaiian layers to 5-0, including for example the fact that roughly 2/3rds of most episodes were filmed on location in the islands, rather than on sound stages or production lots. Or there’s Jack Lord’s famous send-off to each episode, where he would foreshadow the next episode and end with “Be here. Aloha.” Or even the most consistently recurring villain, a Chinese criminal mastermind named Wo Fat (played by the multiethnic actor Khigh Dheigh). When we remember that the show premiered less than a decade after Hawaii became a state, it’s fair to say that it was quite possibly one of the first introductions of this newest state to many American audiences, and I’d say in terms of both cast and production it offered them a genuine glimpse into this unique community and setting.
Next Hawaiian story tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Hawaiian texts or contexts you’d highlight?
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