Every month or so, I like to respond to reader questions. The first one today is about “Captain Honolulu,” an afternoon TV show for kids. The second looks into how the Barefoot Bar in Waikiki got its name. And the last is about a couple of monkeys named Butch and Mary Ann.
CAPTAIN HONOLULU
John Chong asked about the TV show called “Captain Honolulu.” It was on TV from 1958 to 1969.
“There was supposed to be a Captain Honolulu to host the show, but due to unforeseen circumstances, Bob Smith had to fill in as Sgt. Sacto. Who was supposed to be the original Captain Honolulu?”
Answer: KGMB had a very successful afternoon kids’ TV show called “The Checkers & Pogo Show.” KHVH (KITV today) created a show to compete with it called “Captain Honolulu.”
John Farrington was hired to play Captain Honolulu. “Unfortunately, the night before, Farrington partied too hard and didn’t show up for the live show,” then-station manager Dick Grimm said.
“We panicked. The program director, Bob Smith, said he had an Air Force flight jacket and cap, and we sent him home to get it.
“We decided he would be ‘Sgt. Sacto’ and substitute for Captain Honolulu, who was ‘chasing criminals on Mars.’” Grimm theorized that the name Sacto may have come from the acronym of SAC — the Strategic Air Command.
“Farrington was fired and never appeared as Captain Honolulu, leaving sidekick Sgt. Sacto to host the show. It ran for 11 years,” Grimm said.
The show aired in the 1960s when television was black and white. Sgt. Sacto chatted with kids between cartoons of Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Mickey Mouse and more.
“Sgt. Sacto was famous for creating a mask with his thumb and fingers, turned inside out in a way that few could mimic. Kids at every elementary school tried, and those that could earned a special status,” he said.
BAREFOOT BAR
Emerick LeMontagne asked how the Barefoot Bar at Queen’s Surf in Waikiki was named.
“I was told years ago that Sterling Mossman earned the nickname ‘Barefoot.’ He was a cop by day and an entertainer at night.
“This was because when he would respond to bar fights in Chinatown, he would often remove his shoes upon entering these establishments. This would give him better foot traction on the floor when breaking up fights or subduing those fighting.
“Was the Barefoot Bar named after him?”
Answer: Yes, that is correct. The Barefoot Bar was a popular place for locals and tourists to hang out. It was upstairs at Spencecliff’s Queen’s Surf complex and featured barefoot footprints of celebrities on the walls.
It opened in 1958 on leased city property, and Mayor Frank Fasi ordered it closed and torn down in 1969.
The Barefoot Bar was one of the most popular places in town. “You couldn’t get in unless you knew someone,” recalls Miyuki Hruby, who started working with Spencecliff in 1944. “There was always a big line.”
“Sterling Mossman was the Barefoot Bar,” Hruby said. “He was a cop by day and an entertainer at night. He sang, danced the hula and was a comedian. He was a very versatile man.”
Mossman was scheduled to perform in Palm Springs in 1964, and the Desert Sun newspaper explained how he came to be called the “Barefoot Detective.”
“The muscular thief stood at the box office window buying a ticket for the movie. From his patrol car across the street, Detective Lieutenant Sterling Mossman spotted the wanted man. He shouted at the burglar who promptly took to his heels.
“Slipping off his shoes, Mossman raced after the fleeing man. There in the heat of downtown Honolulu at high noon, the detective pursued the crook through teaming crowds of shoppers.
“With handcuffs rattling and his gun flapping in its holster, he finally overtook the speeding fugitive and collared him.
“From that time on, Sterling Mossman was known as the ‘Barefoot Detective.’ And from that time on, the famous bar in the Queen’s Surf night club at Waikiki Beach became known as ‘The Barefoot Bar.’”
Mossman’s son, Kula, said, “Dad loved entertaining, but being a cop paid the bills. He helped many get their careers going, including Don Ho, Danny Kaleikini and this big guy who parked cars at Queen’s Surf named Zulu.”
Mossman died in 1986 and is buried at Oahu Cemetery. His burial marker reads, “Sterling ‘Barefoot’ Mossman.”
GORILLAS?
Peter Burns asked our third question for today. “One of my golf pals, at recent 19th-hole festivities, kept insisting that there used to be gorillas kept where the current Kalani High School stands. We keep thinking he’s had one too many. He’s not right, is he?”
Answer: I don’t know if he’s had one too many, but he is half right. They weren’t gorillas; they were chimpanzees. They belonged to Christian Holmes, who owned Coconut Island and Queen’s Surf when it was a private home.
On Coconut Island, Holmes built a large saltwater swimming pool, bowling alley, movie theater and amusement park shooting gallery.
Holmes created a small zoo, with a baby elephant named Empress, a giraffe, a camel, spotted deer, donkeys and three monkeys.
In 1938, Holmes married Mona Hind, whose father, Robert, had founded Hind-Clarke Dairy in what became Aina Haina.
Jim Napier, who managed the Aina Haina Shopping Center, grew up in the area. He remembered Christian Holmes lived three houses Ewa of the Ranch House on Kalanianaole Highway.
Napier recalled the two chimps were often in the area. They were named Butch and Mary Ann. He walked into his home on one occasion to find that Butch was sitting in his father’s chair in the living room, with his father’s pipe in his mouth.
Holmes died in 1944, and the chimps and other animals were given to the Waialae Zoo, near where the Kahala Resort is today.
Daniel Paul Rice Isenberg owned Oahu’s largest dairy, beginning in 1887 on 3,000 acres of land at Waialae. Isenberg died in 1919, and the Dairymen’s Association came to own the ranch.
Dairymen’s maintained the small zoo at Waialae. Kahala resident Helen Lind recalled that Butch sometimes escaped and could be found peering into the windows of nearby homes.
Butch could eat with a spoon, ride a tricycle, use carpenter tools and wear clothes. Thousands of children visited Waialae Zoo, and the chimpanzees were crowd favorites.
Thomas Blackman took care of them. The chimpanzees were each given a quart of milk a day, together with a variety of raw fruits and vegetables and a little bread.
They particularly liked bananas, each eating a dozen or more and six or seven oranges each day.
Blackman recalled that on Dec. 7, 1941, he, his wife and the chimps all sat under a coconut tree waiting for a Japanese invasion that never came.
After the war, the animals at Waialae Zoo were given to the Honolulu Zoo under the direction of Paul Breese.
Have a question? Send me an email. I’ll answer as many as I can.
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.
