Post #571770 by congawa on Wed, Jan 12, 2011 4:08 PM

I recently watched Ma and Pa Kettle in Waikiki (1955), and it's the first time I've seen a reference to okolehao in any movie.

Pa Kettle gets waylaid on a fictitious smaller island off Hawaii, where a Hawaiian equivalent to the Kettles and their large brood of children named Papa and Mama Lotus (Hilo Hattie plays Mama). When Pa Kettle first encounters Papa (Charlie Lung), who like Pa is the laziest man around, he is laying beneath a tree. A large straw hangs above him from a source above (can't remember if it was from a sack, but I don't think the tree itself) which is draining into his mouth. Whenever he wants to stop the flow, he reaches up with a stick to tickle a crab, which closes its claw around the straw to pinch it.

When Pa Kettle comes and asks what he's drinking, Papa Lotus says "okolehao." Pa tries it, reacts big to it, and says something like, "It's a lot stronger than the apple cider we make back home." And the two appreciators of fine home brew end up having a bit of Hawaiian-hillbilly bonding.

Caltiki Brent