Discovering Oahu, Hawaii with Charlie Chan - Part 1

In July, Carlos and I traveled from Boston to Hawaii for our honeymoon. And what a grand time we had! We did lots of fun things including parasailing, kayaking, hiking, swimming, golfing and more. We ate lots of great local food and also got to see the U.S.S. Arizona at Pearl Harbor. We hadn't done much planning for our trip so a lot of what we did was on the fly. However, we did have one impromptu tour guide. His name was Charlie Chan.

Before we left Boston, I had started reading the book Charlie Chan: The Untold Story of the Honorable Detective and His Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang (check out my review of the book here). The timing of this couldn't be more perfect. I brought the book with me on the two 6 hours plane rides to Honolulu and I spent a lot of time reading about early Hawaiian history, Chang Apana (the Honolulu Detective who would inspire the character Charlie Chan),  author Earl Derr Biggers and the Charlie Chan film legacy.

What was really great about reading the book on my trip to Oahu was that we could visit any of the locations mentioned in the book because we were right on the island!

One of the places we went to was the House Without a Key Lounge on Waikiki. It's part of the Halekulani Resort hotel in Honolulu. Now this lounge wasn't mentioned in the book. In fact a fellow blogger and Charlie Chan enthusiast pointed it out to me before the trip. "House Without a Key" is very important in the history of the Charlie Chan legacy. It's the name of the first of the 6 Charlie Chan novels that author Earl Derr Biggers would write. In fact, the novel House Without a Key doesn't even feature Charlie Chan prominently (something that disappointed me when I first read that novel). Fans were so enamored with the Chinese detective from Honolulu that they begged for more! And it led to Biggers writing five more stories featuring Charlie Chan. These include: The Chinese Parrot, Behind That Curtain, The Black Camel, Charlie Chan Carries On and The Keeper of Keys.

While Earl Derr Biggers was alive, he only allowed movie studios to adapt his novels into film. All 6 novels were adapted but they could not create new Charlie Chan stories to meet the growing demand. When Biggers passed away in 1933, his widow sold the rights to the Charlie Chan character to Fox and thus the waive of Charlie Chan films started. Out of all of the film adaptations of Biggers novels, only one of those films exists. And that's The Black Camel (1931). More on that film to come!

So what's so important about the House Without a Key lounge in regards to the Charlie Chan legacy? Read below:

Here in the shade of the Halekulani's giant kiawe tree is the House Without a Key.

Once owned by retired Sea Captain Brown, this tranquil spot is world-famous thanks to Charlie Chan, the inscrutable Honolulu detective who always got his man and frequently coined old Chinese proverbs.

Chan's creator, novelist Earl Derr Biggers, is said to have conceived the series while staying in a nearby Halekulani cottage in 1925. His first Charlie Chan mystery - called "The House Without a Key" - focused on the keen-eyed detective's solution of a cunning murder of a former sea captain. Site of the murder was a home on this precise spot in the late 1800s.

 As for Charlie Chan, there is evidence Biggers didn't just dream him up. Many believe the character was based on Chang Apana, a real-life Chinese detective on the Honolulu police force in the '20s. Some say the two met during Biggers' first Hawaii visit. Others say the author only read accounts of Apana's daring deeds.

 Today's House Without a Key was rebuilt in  1983  as part of the new Halekulani, in tribute to the famous Chinese detective, who is as much a part of the hotel's folklore as is the great kiawe tree which has sheltered visitors on Waikiki Beach for more than a century.

And there is the big kiawe tree. Behind it is the famous Waikiki beach. The lounge is partly indoors but mostly outside with a bar area under the kiawe tree and a dining area just behind that.

It was quite a magical experience having dinner and drinks at the House Without a Key lounge. It's quite pricey but worth the expense. The food and drink were amazing but nothing beats the ambiance and the history.

From our table at the lounge we could see Diamond Head in the background.

This is a screen shot of Diamond Head from the Charlie Chan film The Black Camel (1931). It's probably stock footage put in the film to give it more of a sense of place. Here are some surfers and there is Diamond Head in the background, you know you are in Hawaii. Did you know that The Black Camel (1931) is the only Charlie Chan movie filmed on location in Hawaii? Not even Charlie Chan in Honolulu (1938) was filmed there. Stay tuned as I'll be including a post about a special filming location from The Black Camel.

Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone situated on the south east tip of Oahu. It's about a 45 minute walk to the top.

Once you get to the top of Diamond Head, you are greeted with spectacular views of Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Pearl Harbor and the south east coast of Oahu.

Stay tuned for Part 2 in my 3-part series when I explore more of Oahu with Charlie Chan.

An Art Deco & Classic Hollywood Wedding - Part 2

I promised in my post about my Art Deco & Classic Hollywood themed wedding that I would post some professional pictures when I got them. Here are a few (or a lot!). Photographs are courtesy of Creative Images Boston.

My dress and accessories

Carlos getting ready

 

The Art Deco-Hawaii themed shoe box my friend Haze designed for me. Guests wrote on vintage styled postcards and dropped them in the shoe box in lieu of signing a guest book.

This was the Grace Kelly - Prince Rainier table

 

Ricardo Montalban and Georgiana Young 

 

Jack Lemmon and Felicia Farr

Carlos being goofy. His goofiness helped me calm down so much!

 

First look

My mom and aunt. They're twins!

We didn't get to take the Bentley home with us.

Geez, Raquelle is running a bit late isn't she?

 

I get my big laugh from my mom.

 

It was a great day. One I'll never forget.

Remember this photo? It was taken by Carlos' cousin on an iPhone. 

My friend Julianna illustrated it and the pieces as a wedding gift! Isn't it amazing?

Julianna does custom pet portraiture at her shop Friends with Pets on Etsy. Check it out!

Singin' in the Rain (1952) Encore Performance August 22nd, 2012

Thanks to TCM and Fathom Events we got to see Singin' in the Rain (1952) on the big screen!

And at a local theater at that! There are two cinemas in my area and neither of them show classic films. I usually have to go further into the city to see one. But for one special day, the AMC theater in the next town over showed Singin' in the Rain!

The performance started with an introduction from TCM's Robert Osborne and was followed by an interview with Osborne and film star Debbie Reynolds. It was intermixed with other pre-recorded interviews, much further in the past, by the widow of Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor (from 1997) and Cyd Charisse (2003 I think). Debbie Reynolds was wonderfully candid, made lots of fun remarks and wasn't afraid to poke fun at herself. She referred to herself as a virgin in a town with a whole lot of them and mentioned that her only regret was that her voice was way too high in the film.

There were a lot of tidbits of information shared. For example, the famous Make 'Em Laugh sequence performed by Donald O'Connor is the only dancing piece in the whole film that wasn't choreographed by Gene Kelly. Kelly knew that O'Connor would be able to choreograph his only solo piece and let him have at it. And the result was truly glorious.



 

During the TCM opening, we got to see lots of pictures from behind the scenes as well as publicity stills. I really loved seeing this picture of Donald O'Connor, director Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly with tiny umbrellas. It made me laugh!

I was briefly reminded how amazing it was that I got to see Stanley Donen in person!

Then it was on to the main event. The film! Oh how wonderful it is to see Singin' in the Rain in all it's Technicolor glory and on it's 60th anniversary. The film was shown in it's original aspect ratio of 1.37 : 1. There were about 40 or so people in the theater and we all applauded after Donald O'Connor's Make 'Em Laugh scene (it's also my favorite number in the picture) and at the very end. The long 16 minute (or so) musical sequence with Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse is the perfect time to go to the bathroom or take a quick snooze. To me that sequence has always been a showcase of Gene Kelly's larger-than-life ego. It's a bore in the midst of what otherwise was a great film. I did however come to appreciate the small number in the sequence with the flowing white fabric that Cyd Charisse wears. It's so long and it took several well-positioned fans to get it to flow back, side to side and straight up to the ceiling like it did in the number. I made sure to pay attention to that. 

There were a few things I noticed during this viewing of the film. I totally forgot that Rita Moreno is in the film (as Zelda). On the marquee of the theater on the big opening night for The Dancing Cavalier it said All Talking! All Singing! All Dancing! which made me think of my friend Jonas the Talkie King. Also when they are premiering the bomb of a talkie The Dueling Cavalier I spotted William Haines' name on one of the posters behind the actors. It's those little things I like to pick up on. And I don't want to be remiss and not mention Jean Hagen who I think is a marvelous delight in the film. We just all love to hate her. Carlos asked me if that was her real voice and I was happy to tell him no that it's not. However, Debbie Reynold's Kathy Selden who dubs Hagen's Lina Lamont is dubbed herself while singing. Ahh Hollywood! You can be so silly sometimes.

There truly is nothing quite like watching a beloved classic film on the big screen. I thank Fathom Events and TCM for giving me the chance to watch one of my favorites this way!