ALVIN KALEOLANI ISAACS

Hawaiian music has been Alvin Isaacs' joy since birth, in 1904, on the old Broad estate at Kamakela, Honolulu. One of Hawaii's most prolific writers, Alvin composed more than 300 songs--the most famous are "No Huhu," "Analani E" and "Nalani." Alvin composed the whacky "No Huhu" in a brief two hours while producing a show at the Mormon Church and during the rehearsal of a one-act skit featuring a Chinese-dialect comedian, Alvin dreamed up the idea of the song and set it to music. He introduced the song the next day and an instant hit was born.

Alvin won the 1948 Aloha Week song contest with "A World of Happy Days" and legendary heiress Doris Duke became the world's wealthiest song-plugger after hearing Alvin's "Nalani." She gave a party in Honolulu and invited a vacationing Nat King Cole to audition the song. Cole loved it and immediately recorded it on Capitol Records.

Alvin's English-Hawaiian mother and Spanish-Hawaiian father raised 16 children, and Alvin, the 3rd-born, raised 10 of his own. Alvin adapted a cheap "cracker-box guitar" and copied the steel guitar stylings of Pali K. Lua and Joseph Kekuku (the inventor of the steel guitar) and, despite no proper musical training, learned to play nearly all wind and stringed instruments. He formed his own orchestra at age 13, and after an accident which forced him off the Honolulu police force, formed his first big-time orchestra in 1929. Later he founded the original Royal Hawaiians, often featuring singer Ray Kinney. His next group was called The Islanders and they played a long gig at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. They broadcast from the roof of the Alexander Young hotel for a radio program called "The Voice of Hawaii." The group toured with the USO in the war years.

In 1947, Alvin assembled the best quartet ever, with Tommy Castro on steel, Benny Kalama on bass, George Kainapau and Alvin vocalizing and this group, the Royal Hawaiian Serenaders, played at the Royal from 1947 to 1951, as well as touring the mainland. They appeared on Big Crosby's radio show and in Harry Owens' movies. He is the patriarch of a gifted family of performers, including sons Barney and Norman.


Biographical material from Tony Todaro, The Golden Years of Hawaiian Entertainment (Tony Todaro Pub., 1974).