Post #557002 by Phillip Roberts on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 12:08 AM

Aloha,

Excellent history and research as usual, Mr. Sabu! I dig your kung-fu. Mahalo Nui Loa!

**A name (Kamuualii) and a creator (Homer Merrill) !!! **

There is loads of important information here to digest about this very important statue, and I will take my time with it. I will go to the library this weekend.

Martha Beckwith's "Hawaiian Mythology" does not document this name, "Kamuualii." But I do find legends featuring Kamohoali'i, the shark brother of Pele. 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 192, 206; 90, 129-130 and 142. If you like to read Hawaiian legends, you should own this book. It is the best source and published originally in 1940 by Yale University!

*Here is the original photograph that you mention in the long ago thread. I did indeed buy the 8 x 10 from the e-bay auction. It cost a pretty penny if I remember (This was about 2004 and I simply don’t remember but I think I won it for $29.95.) That set me off on a mission to find it. *

While I did use a few photos of this statue in "Waikiki Tiki: Art, History and Photographs," I referred to it as a menehune. I had often thought this might be Trader Vic’s inspiration for the menehunes he often used in his menu graphics. After dissolving the partnership with Granville “Granny” Abbott (four months after opening the “lost” Ward Avenue Trader Vic’s in 1940.) his next gig was supervising cocktails at the “Royal Hawaiian Hotel” from afar.

• from the Dustycajun archive* I did use the full drink menu from the "Surf Bar" in "Waikiki Tiki."

The statue is pictured with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funichello on an album that I don’t own. I’ve got to search my archives, as I have quite a few pictures of this icon of “Hawaii’s Tiki Age.” (It seems everybody wanted a photograph with it.)

I do know that it was originally at a private residence (Merrill’s?) I did use that pic with the statue wearing a loin cloth and was donated to the RH around 1928.

The hotel management was apparently never too keen on it but wouldn’t remove it. They came up with a novel solution.

Allow the plants to grow over and around it and thus it simply disappeared. One night Tiki_Bong messaged me. He’d been looking around the hotel and alerted me to the location. I sped there and did some photographs. This must have been around 2005.

By 2008, the statue was un-covered by the groundskeepers and I took great pride in showing it and shooting it with visitors. In 2009, I heard about the renovation of the hotel and wondered if it would survive. It did not.

I DO have a story (heard second hand from an employee who was a witness at the time) about this event to share sometime in the future...