Post #20958 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Jan 26, 2003 11:28 AM

That Shell Bar on the cover was a set built on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, just like the Hotel front porte cochere and the lobby. Only once a year cast and crew would venture to Hawaii to film the scenes and background plates necessary for the whole season (they even shot the beach scenes on the soundstage, with rear projection of the beach in Waikiki).
I don't know how closely the set resembled the original Shell Bar at the Henry Kaiser (later Hilton) Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki.

Not Martin Denny but Arthur Lyman appeared in several Hawaiian Eye episodes as the band in the Shell Bar. I guess he guested whenever he was touring or recording on the mainland. Conny always sang one song in each episode, mostly American, not Hapa Haole tunes, with an anonymous background combo. Whenever Arthur was on the show, he was announced by name.
Sometimes Poncie Ponce sang, and it got really scary when Robert Conrad took the mike and crooned.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2003-01-26 11:33 ]