Every week, I find interesting questions in my inbox. I often learn something while researching them. The first one today deals with Amelia Earhart in Hawaii. The second one looks at Liliha Bakery’s first location, and the last question explores the word “manuahi.”
Did aviator Amelia Earhart land at Moanalua?
Clay Takara said, “An employee at the Moanalua Golf (Club) informed me that Amelia Earhart landed her plane (on) one of the fairways, which is parallel to the Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center.
“I tried to research this but was not able to find any documentation of it. Did it really occur?”
Answer: Moanalua Golf Club, built by Samuel Mills Damon, was the first in Hawaii and the first west of the Rocky Mountains in 1898.
The Moanalua Golf Club staff has heard the story, and it’s in some of their documents. One booklet says, “The huge fairway on the third hole once doubled as a polo field and a landing strip for airplanes. Legendary aviator Amelia Earhart actually landed her plane on this fairway.”
Their fairways are long and wide, and a small plane could easily take off or land on them.
Earhart (1897-1937) was in Hawaii a few times in the mid-1930s. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, and the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the mainland in 1935.
Hawaii Golf Hall of Famer Ron Castillo was a member at Moanalua. “The third hole at Moanalua was an airfield where a plaque memorialized the time Amelia Earhart landed her plane on it,” he told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser in 2020.
“Amelia Earhart landed there and greeted the children,” Castillo said, “My mom told me that. She was one of the kids.”
Castillo died a few years ago, but his widow, Dorothy, talked to me after wrapping up a round of golf Tuesday. It was her 86th birthday.
Dorothy remembers her mother-in-law, Elizabeth Molina (1917-2008), talking about meeting Earhart.
If there was a plaque commemorating Earhart’s landing on the golf course, it does not appear to still be there.
Staff member Kerry Shishido and I looked for it from a golf cart. We didn’t see it, and no one we asked had ever seen it.
The local newspapers did not mention Earhart landing a plane at Moanalua in the mid-1930s. If she had an unplanned landing there, reporters and photographers might have missed it.
I talked to John Phillip “J.P.” Damon, great-grandson of Samuel Mills Damon.
J.P. says his dad, Henry Edward Damon (1922-1990), told the family stories about Earhart landing her plane at Moanalua. Henry was a caddy at Moanalua as a boy, and a fighter pilot in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He flew more than 100 missions over China and Burma.
Damon would have been 13 to 15 years old when Earhart was in the islands. If he didn’t see her land personally, he would have known people who saw it firsthand.
I do know with certainty that a Curtiss biplane landed at Moanalua. It was the first plane to fly in Hawaii, piloted by James C. “Bud” Mars in 1910. We have photos of that and the newspapers covered it. He charged admission to see it.
I wonder if people conflate Mars and his biplane landing at Moanalua in 1910 with Earhart 25 years later.
I’m inclined to think the weight of evidence is strong that Earhart landed a plane on the golf course, but I don’t think it is proven beyond a doubt. Readers, what do you think?
Original Liliha Bakery
Donald Fukumoto asked today’s second question. “When I talk to some friends about bakeries, they say that Liliha Bakery’s original spot was the location on Kuakini Street.
“I thought it was on Liliha Street, right next to L&L. I used to walk past there almost every day in the 1950s. Maybe it was another bakery, but I swear it was Liliha Bakery.”
Answer: You’re correct. It opened on Aug. 26, 1950, at 1703 Liliha St., just makai of the L&L Hawaiian Barbecue. It moved to 515 N. Kuakini St. in 1961.
Yonosuke Takakuwa was Liliha Bakery’s general manager. The new location had an exclusive feature: an open-vision bake shop, which he believed was the first of its kind in the world.
“The open-vision shop makes it possible for customers to see how cakes are decorated and watch the pastries coming out of the oven.”
Takakuwa said the bakery began in 1950 with just five employees and 10 years later, it employed 50. Kenichi Higa was its chief baker. It’s Coco Puff is a signature item, with thousands a day being sold.
Entrepreneur Peter Kim bought Liliha Bakery in 2008 and has opened up new locations on Nimitz Highway in Iwilei, at the International Market Place in Waikiki, in Macy’s at Ala Moana Center and at Pearl Highlands in Pearl City.
Kim also owns Yummy Korean B-B-Q, Lahaina Chicken Co., Signature Prime Steak & Seafood, Mama’s Spaghetti House and several other restaurants.
Manuahi
Today’s last question is about a Hawaiian word. Emerick LeMontagne said: “A Hawaiian word heard less and less these days is ‘manuahi.’ It was used back in the day when something was ‘free’ or ‘no charge.’
“I read in a book some years back that manuahi was the name of a male Hawaiian clerk that worked in a small store in Honolulu.
“When certain customers made purchases of fruits or vegetables, Manuahi would throw in a few freebies without charge. His name came to be used as being given something for free. Can anyone elaborate on manuahi?”
Answer: That appears to be correct. Clarice Taylor wrote a column in the Star- Bulletin in the 1950s called “Tales About Hawaii.” She had this to say in 1959:
“Manuahi was the name of a Hawaiian clerk in a dry goods store about 1850. Manuahi was popular with his Hawaiian friends because he always threw in an extra yard of goods with a sale. As a result, anything which came free was called manuahi.”
I asked Puakea Nogelmeier about this word. He said, “Manuahi is said to mean ‘free of charge,’ and (Mary Kawena) Pukui’s Hawaiian dictionary mentions the possible origin of a Hawaiian merchant who gave ‘good measure.’
“I know I see it in many old advertisements, where it seems used to mean well priced, or inexpensive, but not likely free.”
Former Iolani Palace docent Willson Moore offered an alternative definition for manuahi. “My kumu (teacher) reminded me that manuahi literally means ‘fire-bird.’
“Centuries ago it was applied by Hawaiian onlookers to rockets shot into the sky. It seems Capt. Cook (probably as a standard maritime practice) kept pyrotechnics on board to use in distress situations to signal for help.
“Cook reputedly demonstrated their use by setting samples off for the Hawaiians, and they called those rockets manuahi — firebirds.”
Do you have a question? If so, send me an email.
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.