Thirty-five former Halekulani employees and a few current staffers held their annual get-together at the Garden Room of the hotel last month. The event, founded by the late food and beverage director Kenny Lum, was coordinated by Wanda Windrath and Bob Finley with June Wong and Debbie AhChong calling the alums together. Heavily discussed was the loss of the landmark keawe tree that fell over at the House Without a Key in the very early morning of Aug. 22 — just hours before the luncheon. Hotel general manager Ulrich Krauer visited with each former employee at the luncheon. He told the group he had reviewed the security footage, saying the tree waited for people walking by to clear away and then gently fell to rest without doing any damage to the property and not hurting anyone.
The loss hit many of us hard. I have covered singers, musicians and hula dancers under the tree, starting in the late 1960s. Fab hula dancer Kanoe Miller danced there early in her career and still dances there Friday and Saturday evenings backed by Hiram Olsen’s fine trio. Among the early groups I covered was Alice Fredlund and her Halekulani Girls. I can’t forget a tree story the attractive Alice told me. She wore colorful, Hawaiian attire with a fairly low neckline. Standing under the tree and looking upward at its branches she told me that one night a big gecko fell from a branch right into her neckline and down her long dress. I can imagine her turning, twisting and shaking to get that lizard to continue down and out of her dress. Guests must have thought it sure was a strange hula …
PILOT EXPERTISE: Look for “Sully,” a terrific picture, and Tom Hanks, who portrays U.S. Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger splendidly, to receive Academy Award nominations. Director Clint Eastwood should also get nominated, and it will be no surprise if Aaron Eckhart, who plays Sully’s first officer, also picks up a nomination. The movie, about Sully landing in the Hudson River in 2009, really goes full throttle when both engines on the jet with 155 aboard are knocked out after multiple bird strikes. Sully, fearing he did not have enough power to get to an airport, calmly lands the jet in the Hudson and orders the passengers to evacuate in freezing weather. It was miraculous. The filming of the passengers on the wings and rubber exit slides awaiting rescue and then being saved is fantastic. Visual effects deserve honors. The film also zeroes in on the little-known National Transportation Safety Board panel that gave Sully a hard time for not returning to the airport after the bird strikes. Sully, a legitimate hero, had to defend his landing on the Hudson. Don’t miss “Sully” …
HOME AT LAST: The late 1964 U.S. Olympic volleyball player Jacob “Jake” Highland of Honolulu and his wife, the late Florence Gascon of Honomu on the Big Island, are back home for good. A committal service and military honors — both served in the Air Force — will be held today at Kaneohe’s Hawaii State Veterans Cemetery columbarium at 2 p.m. They were living in California when they died, Jake on Nov. 23 in Novato at age 83, and Florence on March 19, 2012. Jake and I were classmates at Stevenson Intermediate and graduated together from Roosevelt High in 1949. He was a tall, thin, quiet, nice guy in school, sorta like me (haha). We were on a basketball team together in the eighth grade at Stevenson. Our team was OK. Jake developed into a world-class volleyball player and a big, handsome physical specimen, known as “The Legend,” in the Air Force. UH Rainbow Wahine volleyball player Kalei Greeley is his great-niece …
Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
