Post #710423 by creativenative on Thu, Mar 6, 2014 6:59 PM

As a young man he was part of a crew that delivered a large yacht (his uncle's business) to Australia from Florida. He fell in love with Hawaii and the South Seas on the way and he took his time coming back to the U.S. stopping at many islands in the Pacific and buying many nice items from the islands. He arrived back in California to visit his brother who was, among other things, an extra in the movies. With his South Seas artifacts and the big South Seas movie demand at the time, it didn't take him long to be a specialized prop man and consultant. From there he started a little bar, again using his Pacific artifacts and the rest is history.

This is from his rare bio found in the University of Hawaii library and the Hawaii State Archives. Beside the history, that we all know about him, his WWII experience was also legendary. I wish Clooney did his story instead of Monuments Men because Don's story was even more fascinating. Between his South Seas, Hawaii, Hollywood, WWII Europe and his restaurant/bar business and all his high end connections this movie could be in 3 parts with anyone of the parts, hard for one to believe.

[ Edited by: creativenative 2014-03-06 19:29 ]