Tiki Central / General Tiki / Ernie Menehune (img heavy)
Post #245885 by cheeky half on Mon, Jul 31, 2006 10:29 AM
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Mon, Jul 31, 2006 10:29 AM
Most people outside of Tucson probably don't know about a little gem we have here called Ernie Menehune. He is a WWII veteran and bills himself as "Hawaii's Suntanned Irishman." Ernie is the consumate perfomer and has been performing with his Polynesian Review here in Tucson at Ye Ole Lantern for years (Ye Ole Lantern was one of Dean Shorts' restaurants, his other restaurants included the Kon Tiki, Pago Pago and Ports o' Call.) Unfortunately the Lantern closed down about six months ago, fortunately we now have the opportunity to see Ernie again at the Kon Tiki here in Tucson. See this thread Ernie's records can be found in the thrift stores around town pretty easily. It is however rather difficult to find a record that he has not been previously signed so we usually just have him resign them for us. He loves it when people bring in his old LP's, just a hint for anyone who might be coming to the show. Here are a couple of newspaper articles that give a bit more info on him. Ernie lives on the outskirts of Tucson in Menehune Village, a compound that he built and planted with his own two hands decades ago. Here are some pictures of the Tucson Polynesian Society's luau at Menehune Village last spring. Ernie carves his own tikis.
Anyway, that's a little history on Ernie. He really is the sweetest man you could ever meet. Hopefully sometime we can have a reunion show at the Kon Tiki with Ernie and his longtime friend and polynesian crooner Freddie Baker. Freddie still performs nightly in Albuquerque. I highly recommend catching his show if you are in the area. cheeky half [ Edited by: cheeky half 2006-08-14 14:20 ] [ Edited by: cheeky half 2006-08-20 09:10 ] |