Recently, I asked readers whether they had crossed paths with any celebrities in Hawaii. Here are three famous entertainers and stories about the islanders who met them.

Paul McCartney

Peggy Aurand said Paul and Linda McCartney rented a home in 1975 at 15 Hanapepe Place in Portlock. It was owned by Bill Crockett. Aurand lived next door.

“My mother, Patty Aurand, called, all excited, asking me if I knew who was renting the Crockett house.

“‘I don’t know,’ I said.

“‘Paul McCartney!’

“‘Have you met him?’

“‘Oh, yes.’

“‘What’s he like?’

“‘Oh, he’s a very nice young man.’”

Peggy says Paul wrote “Silly Love Songs” at the home on a piano that looked out over the ocean. McCartney said John Lennon and other critics had said he tended to write soapy, silly love songs, and Paul thought, what’s wrong with that?

McCartney wrote other silly love songs with the Beatles, such as “Here, There and Everywhere” and “I Will.”

Paul said “Silly Love Songs” was co-written with his wife, Linda. The song was the No. 1 Billboard song of 1976 and is McCartney’s best-selling single ever. It was on the album “Wings at the Speed of Sound.”

“Most people don’t tend to show their emotions,” McCartney wrote in his book “Lyrics,” “unless they are in private. But deep down, people are emotional and all I’m really saying in this song is love isn’t silly at all.”

The home — 15 Hanapepe Place — with four beds and 4-1/2 baths is valued today at $3,950,000.

“Word has it that Tom Jones also rented the Crocketts’ place,” Aurand continues.

China Wall

“Paul made the same mistake that many do,” Aurand says, “swimming off China Wall, which looms just one door from the Crockett house. He was one of the few lucky ones.

“Before everybody had a cellphone, I kept an old lawn chair and a big first aid kit to patch up the survivors, who would show up at my front gate, bloodied and needing help.”

Author John Clark, who has written about Hawaii surf breaks, said “China Wall” was named after the Great Wall of China because the break is so long and has so many sections.

Tom Horton, in The Honolulu Advertiser, wrote: “On November 26, 1975, Paul McCartney, who was in Hawaii for the first time, was enjoying a quiet family vacation, after completing the Australian Leg of his ‘Wings Over the World Tour.’ He and his family were staying at a rental in Hawaii Kai.

“Paul decided to go swimming alone off of Koko Head. He was enjoying his swim until suddenly, the strong waves in the choppy surf began tossing him about. He was worried that he was about to be dragged all the way out to sea.

“After a huge struggle, he finally made it back to shore, but only after suffering a nasty beating on the rocks, that left him with cuts and bruises.”

Paul was quoted as saying, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out into the noonday sun and choppy Hawaiian surf.”

Elvis Presley

Joseph Coconate said, “I grew up in Wailua on Kauai about a mile from the Coco Palms Hotel where a good portion of the film (Blue Hawaii) was made. My friend Paul and I used to stroll on down to the Coco Palms to catch a view of Elvis and watch with fascination the moviemaking process.

“One day we were just standing around by ourselves, gazing at all the equipment, lights and cameras. Then along came a tall, striking-looking man all dressed in white with a red sash around his waist. Paul and I shook at the knees as we realized, standing right in front of us was Elvis himself.

“He was holding a small piece of wood, telling us he could break it in half with a single strike. Of course, he was just trying to impress two middle school youngsters. Here he was talking to us, probably the most recognized face on earth at the time, but we were too dumbstruck to even utter a single word.

“He was extremely friendly, very good-looking with dark hair and bright blue eyes. We did manage to get his autograph and were particularly grateful to witness the final scene as he and Joan Blackman floated on the raft in the lagoon during the wedding scene.

“Elvis has always been my favorite singer since then. And I remember exactly where I was when the news flashed of his death in 1977.

“Since then I have made several visits to Graceland in Memphis, and always think back to my youth and Elvis at the Coco Palms. Sadly, seeing his grave site held a special meaning for me, but the memory of having met him has never faded.”

Mitzi Gaynor

The third celebrity I’ll write about today is actress/singer Mitzi Gaynor, who starred in the movie “South Pacific.” Hilo native Ken Fujii says he met her a long time ago at the Honolulu airport.

“This was in the days when the departure gates for mainland as well as interisland flights were outdoors bounded by chain-link fences and metal gates.

“As I was waiting for my Pan Am flight to the mainland, I spotted Miss Gaynor, who was seated on a bench near one of the departure gates. I recognized her right away.

“I timidly approached her and asked, ‘Miss Gaynor?’ And she turned toward me and replied,’Yessss!?’ And I said, ‘May I take your picture, please?’ And she smiled, and said, ‘Yes, Of course.’

“I had a cheap snapshot camera, which in the mid-1950s used rolls of paper- backed Kodak film. And you had to load the film carefully and turn a knob on the camera to advance the film in the camera lest you got a double exposure.

“I wasn’t prepared, as Miss Gaynor immediately went through a series of rapid-fire poses for me. I guess she was accustomed to professional photographers, not a country bumpkin amateur like me.

“And she stood up and posed in her short shorts and high heels, with hands on her hips, arms upraised, hands behind her head, head tilted back, head tilted to the side, one leg on the bench, and lots more poses … all so fast that I fumbled with my camera.

“She finally asked, ‘Is that enough?’ And I, out of breath, said, ‘Yes, thank you very much.’ But in reality, I hadn’t gotten a single shot in my nervous state. My film wasn’t even loaded yet!

“I asked her where she was going, and she said that she was scheduled to shoot a movie on Kauai called ‘South Pacific,’ a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. It was a role as Nellie Forbush, previously played by Mary Martin on the Broadway stage.

“Later on, when that movie was released, and I watched it at the Chicago Theatre in Todd-AO giant ultrawide, curved screen projection, I recognized many of her poses in the musical number called ‘I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair!’

“To this day, I regret that I didn’t catch a single one of her sexy poses with my box camera!” Fujii concludes. “And today I have no proof that I ever met Mitzi Gaynor.”

Do any readers have a story of meeting a celebrity? If so, send me an email at Sigall@Yahoo.com.