Myles Takahashi wrote to me last month. He formerly resided on Kamanuwai Lane, which is about where Maunakea Street is, mauka of Beretania Street.
“I used to live there and remember Beretania Follies, and Columbia Inn at the top of the lane,” Takahashi said. “Who owned the Beretania Follies and what is its history?”
Much of the area mauka of Beretania Street from River Street to Nuuanu Avenue from before 1900 to the 1960s was filled with low- income tenement housing.
Kamanuwai Lane no longer exists. It has been straightened, widened and renamed Maunakea Street, and runs past the Chinatown Cultural Plaza.
A hundred years ago, the narrow, winding dirt passageway was filled with tin cans, broken bottles, rubbish and debris. It was virtually impassable in wet weather. Residents of the area nicknamed it Tin Can Alley in the 1920s.
It was paved with asphalt in 1923. The city launched numerous campaigns to tear down the dilapidated, dangerous structures. Thousands lived in its dingy shacks and hovels.
A two-room house, with a 4-foot veranda, a small outside kitchen and a sink that was shared by two families was common. Many structures had no indoor plumbing.
“We were poor but happy,” said Florence Ebina, who lived there in the 1930s. “Everybody was friends. We shared everything.
“We could talk to anybody. We’d lean over and say, ‘Eh, what you cooking?’ or ‘Come on over’ and we eat sashimi. We had some good times,” said Ebina, who had seven children and 17 grandchildren in 1973.
Columbia Inn
Many of my readers, I’m sure, remember Columbia Inn on Kapiolani Boulevard, next to the newspaper building. But that was not its original location.
It began in 1941 on Kamanuwai Lane — Tin Can Alley — on the corner of Beretania. The Chinese restaurant Yee Hong Pavilion is there now.
Brothers Frank Kaneshiro and Fred “Tosh” Kaneshiro opened Columbia Inn in mid-December 1941. They had to operate their new venture during daylight hours throughout World War II. Twenty-three years later, in 1964, they moved to Kapiolani Boulevard.
Beretania Follies
A block mauka of Beretania Street was the Beretania Theatre, which opened in 1938. It became a burlesque house, the Beretania Follies, in 1948.
Honolulu Advertiser reporter Bob Krauss wrote, “For those unfamiliar with burlesque, it’s the female art of removing one’s clothes on stage to music, with drum beats accentuating the movements. By today’s standards, the final result was prudish. You see more now on the beach.”
The theater became controversial in 1952 when it erected a “nude in the sky” neon sign, which stood three stories above the ground. The sign faced the harbor and could be seen from Aloha Tower. The Outdoor Circle was livid.
It was owned by William C. Ferreira in 1958, who launched a recruiting campaign to discover and train “native lasses for the shimmy circuit,” Krauss reported.
Strippers could earn as much as $2,500 a week, in today’s dollars. If they were successful, mainland “shake pay” could reach $7,000 a week, Ferreira said.
Orchid Kainoa, who Ferreira credits as the “first local stripper of consequence” in the 1950s, was born Jeanette Piper, I believe. She was called “Hawaii’s own Volcano” and the “Goddess of Grind.”
Orchid Kainoa found a handsome admirer in Kansas City and, at last report, had settled down to married life and was raising two boys in California.
The Beretania Theatre developed such “talent” as Pat “Crazy Legs” Griffin, who had a special “pillow of love” number; Tempest Storm; Patti Cake and Candy Barr. Military guys in particular filled the theater, which sold tickets rather than drinks. The liquor commission had no authority over their pasties or tassels.
Tempest Storm
Red-haired, hazel-eyed Tempest Storm was famous for her 41-inch bust and, when she was dressed, could often be found in a $7,500 mink coat.
In 1954, Lloyd’s of London insured her body for $1 million after she had to take several months off after breaking her ankle. Over 50 reporters witnessed her signing the policy, but none looked at the document, the Associated Press wrote.
Tempest Storm was born Annie Banks in Daytona Beach, Fla., in 1928. She’s 92 today.
Nightclub owner Jack Cione said he and Tempest Storm became friends. She married singer Herb Jeffries and settled down in Kailua. They had a daughter, Patricia Ann, who followed in her mom’s dance steps. She became known as Summer Storm. Cione is her godfather, he told me.
A well-known Castle High School teacher worked his way through college by playing piano at the Beretania Follies.
Ron Bright told Krauss that “the job paid $5 a show, two or three shows a night, seven nights a week, plus $5 for a rehearsal. Usually, that came out to $75 a week. It put me through school.”
The Beretania Follies was a ramshackle, frame building with a garish neon sign, Bright recalled. When it rained, the water ran down the aisle to the orchestra pit where he and a drummer provided melody and rhythm.
“The water would get up to 8 inches deep,” he said. “It didn’t bother the drummer because his bass drum stuck out of the water.
“But I couldn’t use the piano pedals. I played sitting cross-legged on the piano bench.”
Bright said the show typically opened with a production number danced by the often-aging ingenues in elaborate costumes. Next came a comedy skit by old-time vaudevillians, then a striptease.
He played three numbers for each performer, starting with an innocent ballad such as “Sweet and Lovely,” while the hat and gloves came off.
Then a sultry tune like “St. Louis Blues” permitted the dancer to slink here and there while shedding attire. Finally a torrid number like “Tiger Rag” while she performed “anatomical exercises,” Krauss reported in 2001.
“Since he played by ear, Bright simply fit the music to the dance. Once he got familiar with the numbers, he played while reading Shakespeare and other homework assignments propped on the piano.”
Bright worked on his school projects during comedy skits and intermissions. “The Beretania Follies suited me better than anything else for what I did the rest of my life,” he said. “It was excellent training.”
Today, the Performing Arts Center at Castle High School is named after him.
In 1961, the city condemned the property to redevelop the area and paid Ferreira $110,000 for the Beretania Follies. Kukui Gardens, the Chinese Cultural Center and many condos replaced the dilapidated slums and Tin Can Alley faded into our rearview mirror.
The Rearview Mirror Insider is Bob Sigall’s now twice-weekly free email newsletter that gives readers behind-the-scenes background, stories that wouldn’t fit in the column, and lots of interesting details. Join in and be an Insider at RearviewMirrorInsider.com. Mahalo!
