My column is usually about one topic, but every now and then, I like to fill it with several short subjects. Today they all revolve around music in one way or another. We’ll start with Frank Sinatra and John F. Kennedy, then spend $2 to go to a KPOI “Million Dollar Party.”
After that we’ll listen to a local entertainer who heard his mistakes over and over. We’ll also look at a mainland entertainer who jammed here with locals and couldn’t stop singing our praises ever after.
And finally, we’ll check in with the European mayor of the town where Henry Berger grew up.
‘Koncert for Kennedy’
My research assistant, Steve Miura, uncovered an interesting story about Sinatra and Tom Moffatt. They were brought together to raise funds for Kennedy, who was elected president in 1960.
On Oct. 2, 1960, “The Koncert for Kennedy” fundraiser was held at the Waikiki Shell. This event was headlined by Sinatra, who was backed by a 32-piece orchestra led by his musical director Nelson Riddle.
Other acts on the show were comedian Paul Desmond, the Roosevelt High School Corals and the “Hula Cop” Sterling Mossman with his Barefoot Bar gang. The tickets were $1.50-$5 and the concert was sold out. Over 9,000 attended, and the show raised over $250,000 (in 2024 dollars).
Policeman by day and entertainer by night, Mossman brought down the house with a number called “Leihua Looks More Bettah When She Hulas in a Sweater.”
Actor Peter Lawford, then-Sen. Kennedy’s brother-in-law, introduced Sinatra, calling him “our next ambassador to Italy.”
Sinatra joked that he was interested in a different job. “I just want to run the Miss Universe contest.”
Sinatra’s song “High Hopes” was the theme song for Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. He performed 14 songs that night, including “Come Fly With Me,” “I Love Paris,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin,” “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “Willow Weep for Me” and “My Funny Valentine.”
Moffatt said that was the first time he had worked with Sinatra and that it was “too marvelous for words” (another Sinatra song).
$2 got a $1 million seat
Four years later, in 1964, Arena Associates, which consisted of Moffatt, Ron Jacobs and Tom Rounds, all KPOI disc jockeys, sponsored a concert at the Honolulu International Center (today’s Neal Blaisdell Center). Admission was $2.
They called it the “Million Dollar Party.” Performers included Bobby Rydell, Jan & Dean, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Johnny Crawford, Ray Peterson and Paul & Paula.
Chuck Berry was invited, but his parole officer said he couldn’t “leave the country” and go to Hawaii. This was five years after statehood!
I hear my mistakes
I came across a 1967 interview with Don Ho and was surprised at some of the things the 36-year-old entertainer told Wayne Harada of The Honolulu Advertiser.
Ho was at the top of his game then. His records were selling well. His nightclub act had lines around the block to get in, and his TV show was getting great reviews. He was the most popular Hawaii entertainer in the world.
He had recently purchased a Cadillac and a home near Diamond Head, or as he preferred to call it, “upper Kapahulu.”
Still, he had some doubts. I was surprised that he laid them out so transparently for Harada.
“I never regarded myself as a singer,” Ho said, “so, I find it disgusting to listen to my own records. You can always do it better, I feel. Only you know your own faults, and listening to my records, I hear my mistakes over and over.
“I’ll be honest with you. I’d be happy to just do a show and not sing at all. I’m an organizer. I lead the Aliis. But the people expect me to sing.
“I love to sing songs with a lot of personal meaning, but they’re not salable. The people wouldn’t be interested in what I love to do. They expect ‘I’ll Remember You’ and ‘Tiny Bubbles,’ songs like that.
“It’s commercial, I know. But I don’t ever want to be a slave to any audience. Pretty soon I’d be a yes man. When it reaches that point, forget it.
“This business has its frustrations. My ambition has been to play Carnegie Hall. I hope to go to Europe and play before the queen in London.
“I was approached to do something before the president at the White House, but I had to turn it down due to a conflict.
“I’m still learning, you know? I’m struggling. Some nights, I have so much trouble doing a show. What’s really depressing is the fact that while I’m trying to create a little happiness every night for the people, the whole damned world around me is all screwed up.
“I’m getting concerned, not for myself, but for my kids. Every night, I see these guys who’ve come from Vietnam for R&R. What I’m doing is so unimportant when the whole damned world may go up in a puff of smoke at any time.”
Harada asked if he thought about retiring.
“I know it won’t last forever,” Ho said. “But I figure 10 years more is a good long run.” He looked around his plush, comfortable office, at the Reprise Records album cover on the wall, at the montage of pictures and clippings, everything denoting his success, and shrugged.
“When I get out of this business, all of this comes down. The pictures come down. Everything. But it ain’t no big thing. I’ll just start another life.”
Hawaii booster
Arthur Godfrey was a TV personality and entertainer in the 1950s and 1960s. He was also a huge booster of Hawaii. In 1950 he received a standing ovation from 600 people at a Honolulu Chamber of Commerce luncheon.
He told them why he has been boosting Hawaii “until I’ve got them saying, ‘Will you, for goodness sake, shut up about your Honolulu!’
“It started when I stayed at the Willows in 1944, found an ukulele and started a series of jam sessions with Honolulu musicians. Those great people took me in, didn’t know who I was and didn’t care,” he said.
“I went back full of love for this place and couldn’t get it out of my system.”
Godfrey usually wore an aloha shirt and played ukulele on his TV show. He often featured Hawaii co-stars and entertainers.
His enthusiasm caused ukulele sales to soar. “Manufacturers have sold 1,500,000 in the last six months,” he said. “I’ve tried in my little way to get folks at home to realize you people really deserve statehood and should have gotten it long ago.”
Sister city?
I received an email this week from Axel Clauss, “burgermeister” (mayor) of Coswig, Germany, where Henry Berger grew up.
Berger spent his childhood in Coswig, about 60 miles south of Berlin. He came to Hawaii in 1872 and led the Royal Hawaiian Band in over 30,000 concerts over 43 years. Queen Lili‘uokalani called him the “Father of Hawaiian Music.”
To deepen the connection between our two cities, Clauss has been hoping to establish a sister-city relationship between Coswig and Honolulu.
He told me recently, “Mayor Rick Blangiardi sent me a message in which he once again emphasized how important Henry Berger is to Hawaii and for the connection between Hawaii and Coswig.”
Clauss thinks there are two possible obstacles: Coswig is small, just 20,000 people, and Honolulu usually wants sister cities to be similar in size. Also, delegations would need to fly to each city, and that’s expensive.
He’d also like to erect a statue of Berger in Hawaii, which he thinks is long overdue. He and German Honorary Council Denis Salle were hoping to redesign Berger’s grave at Kawaiaha‘o Church in the shape of a musical instrument.
Clauss’ seven-year term as mayor is over in two weeks; his successor takes over July 1. I asked him what he plans to do.
“I could see myself becoming an honorary ‘ambassador’ of Hawaii to Berger’s homeland. Perhaps the City and County of Honolulu can support that.” He invited those wishing to help these projects to contact him through me.
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.
