Don Ho’s pool table

Sam Kapu1Back when I was a radio guy I met Sam Kapu.

Sam sang in Don’s show and then became a radio guy.

He’s still a radio guy today.

But back then he sang in the Don Ho Show when it was on Lewers Street in Waikiki and we became friends.

Sam loved to play pool.

Don Ho had a pool table back stage.
Sam and I ended up playing pool most nights after the show.

I learned a lot about live shows during that time.

Don HoStuff like you always put the pretty ladies in the front row.

Today you do that for the TV cameras.

Back then they did it so the stars of the show could have some eye candy to sing to.

After the show, Don Ho used to throw open his dressing room for folks to come and say hello and the ladies get a kiss.

The line was a hundred people long.

don-ho-kissingI bet he kissed a million women over his career.

Some were pecks and some were like a Vulcan Mind Meld of the lips.

The man was amazing.

The best ones to watch were the female Japanese tourists that flocked to his show.

Tiny Bubbles was always a big hit there.

They were nervous and very polite as they approached him standing there in his robe.

They’d start to bow, he’d grab one at a time, pull her into his arm and lay a big one.

The ladies would almost swoon and exit on wobbly legs.

“Next” – they kept the line moving quickly.

Did they hate it?

I doubt it.
Many were back the next night.

This was the real show for us.

Then it was back to the pool game.
Eight ball in the side pocket.

There was some other stuff going on but I’m not going to throw it around.

The wife would get grumpy and kill me.

2 thoughts on “Don Ho’s pool table

  1. My mother did a short stint working as secretary-assistant to Don Ho when he lived on Kaneohe Bay Drive. It was sometime between 1969-1970 when we lived on Kauinohea Place near the Yacht Club off the Bay Drive. If I remember correctly, she was to report to his home by 9 a.m. She said Don Ho and his boys would always be asleep, the place littered with empty beer bottles and cigarette butts.

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