I spent most of the last week on the couch with a nasty cold. It gave me time to look around You Tube and find some videos I want to share. If you have some time to watch. The first video of Lani McIntyre I think might be shot at the Hawaiian Room in the Hotel Lexington and just maybe the lead dancer is none other than Pualani Avon who danced for us at the Mai Kai for Hukilau 2004. This is a playlist, so you can skip to other videos by mousing over the bottom of the screen.
If it’s Swank…
Sponsored by Mai-Kai History
The book about the penultimate Tiki establishment
Hey Swanky,
I realize this is an older post, so this correction might be a moot point.
The dancer in the first video of Lani McIntyre, to the best of my research, is Lanis’ wife, Anna Lani. Very pretty but her dancing is not very traditional, more like Hollywoods’ idea of what hula dancing is.
Pualani Mossman Avon was part of Lanis’ ‘Aloha Girls’, four hawaiian dancers who generally danced in unison.
In the ’60s, as a teenager, I had the pleasure of knowing Pualani.
She had the lobby gift shop at the Mai Kai restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale.
A very warm, special person.
Aloha,
Hold the presses!!!
Found some more info on the above video.
“Although the soundie Hawaiian Hula Song (1947) has repeatedly been identified as featuring Ray Kinney, with the dancer supposedly being Ana Lani, these are actually the Kalua Islanders with Maurice and Esme Ash.
This soundie was recorded in England. Staged as a moody Hawaiian night, it opens with Esme dancing the hula very seductively as Maurice, accompanying himself on rhythm guita, sings “Au-we Wahine,” written by Paul Page.
After an English language introduction in praise of the girl who dances on the beach, it goes into an Hawaiian language lyric, as moodily done as the atmospherics of the night setting. Sitting stage left beside Maurice, on Hawaiian steel guitar, is Ronnie Saunders.
The instrumental that follows the vocals is an up-tempo arrangement of “South Sea Lullabies” to give greater attention to Ronnie Saunders’ Hawaiian guitar.”