Author: Wayne Harada

Entertainer Joe Mundo, who was the leader of The Aliis – the group supporting Don Ho –died Wednesday  (April 2) while in the hospital, in Auburn, WA.

His son Mark Mundo said his dad had heart issues but ultimately died of kidney failure.

Mundo was 83 and a 1960 graduate of Farrington High School.

“He had a long, successful life,” said Mark, who remembers the time he spent with his dad and The Aliis on tour.

“It was pretty cool, hanging out in the summers. My dad was resilient and persistent and fun to watch,” he said.

Mundo played keyboards in Ho’s performances, a talent nurtured while he was a student pianist at Farrington. Mundo often put a comedic spin with The Aliis.

“It was a whole culture, watching and touring with the group,” said Mark. He was inspired to work in several rock groups but never turned professional in music. “I stopped touring with the group when I turned 18 and was hired by Hawaiian Airlines.”

He described his father as “a kind soul, very strong, and a good dad and husband. The time I spent with him as a kid was the best.”

Arleen Laimana, a longtime friend of Joe (they both attended Kalakaua Intermediate School in Kalihi), said she got an unexpected  phone call from Mundo on March 14. “He told me he was calling to say goodbye,” she said. “What do you mean?” she asked. “My body hurts all over,” he said. She concluded, about the phone comments, that “Joe had a weird sense of humor.”

The Aliis last performed in a reunion concert in 2017 In Los Angeles and rehearsed at Laimana’s home in Torrance.

Mundo was in Honolulu for the unveiling of Don Ho’s statue at the International Market Place, an iconic location where Don Ho and The Aliis were the main nightlife attraction at Duke Kahanamoku’s. The supper club no longer exists.

“I miss the guys and the touring,” said Benny Chong, the original guitarist of The Aliis who has navigated his career as a jazz ukulele virtuoso since retirement. “But the guys are scattered all over, and I hate to drive at night (to make the gigs). We had so many memorable good times together.”

Mark is the lone survivor of his family; his mom Patricia died in 2014.

Services are pending but will be private. “My dad wanted something simple and private; his ashes will be scattered off Waikiki, just like my mom’s,” he said…

And that’s Show Biz…

Brother Noland (Conjugacion), who marked his Waikiki comeback last month with a two-night gig at Blue Note Hawaii at the Outrigger Waikiki resort,  embarks on round two of his planned re-entry on the club scene.

His next pair of shows will be on the Big Island, as follows:

• April 11, at 7 p.m., at the Kaleiopapa Convention Center, at the  Outrigger Kona Resort, at 78-128 Ehukai St., Kailua-Kona. Tickets: $45, general admission, at  www.brothernoland.com
• April 12, at 7 p.m., at the Palace Theatre, in downtown Hilo’s waterfront. Tickets: $45, priority seating, $35 general admission, in advance; $5 extra on day of performance. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Noland’s Island Incredibles, his powerhouse all-star group, will perform in both shows. The group features Noland on guitars and vocals, with Gaylord Holomalia on keyboards, David Garibaldi on drums, Kata Maduli on bass, Michael Ruff on keyboards, Tavana on guitars, Fred Schreuders on guitars, Olivia Ruff on vocals, and Lila Chris on vocals.

Noland is introducing three new singles – “Ride the Water”, “Walkabout”, and “Las Vegas” –in the shows, notable for the group’s alter-native rhythms and funky grooves, embracing dynamic vocals that take Noland beyond the reef with his socko sound…

Locals loved Chamberlain’s ‘Island Sons’

Actor Richard Chamberlain, who died Saturday (March 29) following a stroke in Waimanalo, would have been 91 today (March 31).

While he was considered the king of the mini-series, because of his vast successes with the likes of “Shogun” and “The Thorn Birds,” locals adored him for his Honolulu-based “Island Sons” TV series, which was filmed here 25 years after “Dr. Kildare,” was his first big success where he portrayed a physician.

 I remember some women here mentioned they’d love to be treated by Dr. Daniel Kulani, a doc Chamberlain portrayed at the fictional Kamehameha Medical Center, because of his kind demeanor.

He had a gentle manner, on and off screen, and a sweet singing voice, too, recording the theme song from “Dr. Kildare.” He earned three Golden Globes, for his performance in “Kildare,” “Shogun” and “Thorn Birds.”

The series ran for one season on CBS, during the1989-90 season.

Donations may be made  in his name to either NPR or the Hawaiiia Humane Society…

And that’s Show Biz…

The Kilohana Hula Show, which opened on Feb. 15, 2024, as a free Hawaiian music and hula attraction at the Tom Moffatt Waikiki Shell Amphitheater, will give its final performance at 9:30 a.m. Monday (March 31).

It was touted as a grand endeavor, with island musicians backing up a cast of hula dancers, sounding and looking like what Hawaii is all about.

The effort has dwindled down into an ensemble of five, still representing the aloha spirt in song and dance. But Kilohana will shut down at the end of the month, in a minimalist program at the Kuhio Beach Hula Mound, where it has been staged three days a week – on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays – since last fall.

Blow the conch shell: Monday’s show be the finale.

Kilohana had great intentions and enviable spirit, when it was launched in the amphitheater chock full of Waikiki visitors filling the seats, but no solid plan to keep the show afloat.

One of the troupers from the opening weeks is veteran entertainer Karen Keawehawaii, who also has been a rotating cast member playing for tourists at the Kuhio  Beach Hula Mound.

“It’s been a little more than a year,” she said with a tone of sadness, about the finale she’ll be part of,  as singer and ukulele player, and a kupuna.

But like any production, payroll becomes a major issue  without paid admission.

Kilohana  had lofty intentions, envisioned as a replacement, or a new-generation hula spectacle, like the long-running Kodak Hula Show, in same location in the shadows of Diamond Head.  

But the Kodak original was sponsored by the camera and film company, the title sponsor of the original show, which ran from 1930 to 2002 without charging an entry fee. The end was somewhat logical; cameras and film were being replaced by telephones with built-in cameras.

Kilohana originators maintained the free-admission policy like its predecessor but clearly struggled with the overhead of a show in a zone defined as a Hawaiian park, forbidding admission charges. At one point, the operators wanted to do an early evening show with paid admission to subsidize the morning shows, which was nixed by the city.

Footnote: Google “Kilohana Hula Show,” and an online image appears with the show’s title, with a “Southwest Presents” credit. However, if the airline became a title presenter, the show has kept it a secret…

And that”s Show Biz…