Beatles, Hawaii, 1969

General Hawaii nostalgia seems OK for "main discussion area" instead of bilge, so here goes. I'm enjoying "Magical Mystery Tours: My Life With the Beatles" (Bramwell, Tony, 2005) and one passage has a great portrayal of 1969 Hawaii and a few references with I found very humorous, and I think a few TCers will too. Quote (with omissions) (p. 332-333):
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With ABBEY ROAD in the bag, ready to be launched, Klein announced that we would be going to the Capitol Records/Apple convention, to be held in Hawaii ... Our team was mainly a very happy Allen Klein, who was finally in charge of the Beatles, and me and Jack Oliver who were in charge of drinking since I didn't think Klein would allow us to say much and we had no intention of hanging out with him anyway.

But I must admit it was wonderful to fly to Hawaii in a Boeing 707 in 1969 before it became so touristy. It was like being in the start of a Bond movie, the one where Ursula Andress came up out of the sea in that white swimsuit. The whole island smelled as if it had been sprayed over with the most wonderful subtle perfume. It was quite heady. As well as the small British contingent, Klein brought a load of his own people from New York ... Klein was very buoyant, practically bouncing around like a beach ball, slapping backs and beaming. "Look at me! Top of the world, Ma!" He spent the afternoons playing tennis with the Italian crowd from New York, running all over the court showing off, while Jack and I did the PR thing from our lounge chairs on the terrace, with lots of tropical booze served in hollowed-out pineapples. Every now and then, Jack would glance across at Klein and say, "Look at the fat bastard. I'd like to stuff this pineapple right up his jaxsey."

I said, "Nice thought. Great waste."

Our hotel, which was right on Waikiki Beach, was the hotel where the TV series HAWAII FIVE-0 was filmed. About a thousand drunks, in what is now known as "the full Jimmy Buffett" of lurid shirts and baggy shorts, staggered around with their pineapples slopping, laughing and mimicking Jack Lord's big closing line: "Book him Dann-O. Murder One." The cabaret was Freda Payne, doing "Band of Gold," and Glen Campbell and Joe South -- big mates of Elvis -- also performed. Elvis himself happened to be making a film there at the time and Glen and Joe introduced us to him. We didn't say a great deal; one never does in those situations. It was just a handshake and, "How do you do?"

I was totally in awe. His voice sounded as if he were speaking the words to "American Trilogy," as if he'd said, "Look away, Dixieland!" He looked fantastic and I remembered how that earlier summer in Los Angeles, the colonel had given me some tickets for his "comeback" -- which also happened to be in Hawaii...
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end of quote
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Hmm, "the full Jimmy Buffett" -- I'll have to remember that. (Yikes! I just had a very disturbing mental image!) On top of which, anything which references Hawaii Five-0 is cool by me.

[ Edited by: tropicalguy 2005-08-15 15:45 ]

[ Edited by: tropicalguy 2005-08-15 15:47 ]

wow! great post!

i love the Beatles and am always on the lookout for books about them with substance. those few quotes from the book you chose sound great. that description of Klein is incredibly honest and sharp. you get the point that if Klein hadn't been such an ass, Bramwell would've been just as honest in his affection for the bloke. i can only imagine what he says about the boys themselves.

not to mention, Hawaii...Beatles...nice combo!!!!!!!!!11

thanks for the tip, Tropicalguy! i'll summersault outta my hut and run and get it!

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-15 15:00 ]

Yeah, when he writes,
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the hotel where the TV series HAWAII FIVE-0 was filmed
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it seems a bit misleading. The show wasn't really filmed "at a hotel" at all. It was filmed all over the place; "HQ" was supposedly in Iolani Palace but of course the actual filming was done on studio sets on network property. I suppose there is one hotel that is most frequently/prominently featured, but I never really notice because I am always focusing on McGarrett's hair (just kidding!).

The Phoenix UPN has it on every weeknight at 2 am -- unedited versions of the shows -- and I am filling up DVR space with HFOs pretty rapidly. Tikis figure in a number of episodes. Recently there was one in which there was a scheme to ship heroin inside little carved tikis (the heads seemed to kind of screw off). They showed the workshop and tools and lots of carvings. Maybe some time I'll kind of put together all HFOs with tiki content, and then ... and then I'll have them, all together, and ... that'll be really cool ...

BTW while I'm on this little HFO tirade, let me note that this site:
http://www.mjq.net/fiveo/
is a fun, obsessively detailed fan site with news about DVD releases, speculation about upcoming HFO movie, and tons more. Strictly for idle moments...