Colleagues remember entertainer Moe Keale

By Mike Gordon and Wayne Harada
Advertiser Staff Writers

The entertainment community yesterday remembered Moe Keale as a witty, soulful musician and singer with jokes and songs to share.

Moe Keale was a musician, singer and actor.

A full-blooded Native Hawaiian, Keale was born Dec. 3, 1939, on Ni'ihau, but grew up on O'ahu.

"He was a beautiful, soulful man, who had a wonderful way of uniting people around him," said Keola Beamer, a longtime singer-composer-musician who now lives on Maui. "It was always a great feeling to be around him."

"He had a great sense of humor," said Dennis Kamakahi, who performed with Keale as a member of Eddie Kamae's Sons of Hawai'i. "I was a baby of the group, when I joined in 1973, but I had known Moe from his beach days. He had a neat four-part harmony group.

"In those early days, he looked like a walking mountain — he was huge, about 300 pounds — but he had a real big heart," said Kamakahi, who also is a member of Na Oiwi. "Big people have big hearts, I guess, and the thing about him I'll always remember was his outrageous sense of humor. He always had a story to share, a joke to tell. And when he sang, he had that pure Ni'ihau voice, that real sound of Hawai'i."

Roy Sakuma, organizer of the annual summertime 'Ukulele Festival at Kapi'olani Park, said that Keale's generosity quickly made him part of the 'ohana.

"From way back, he would always tell me, don't call, just put my name down. I'm going to be there every year for you," said Sakuma of Keale's commitment to share his talent with the public. "It's a real tribute to Moe that he wholeheartedly came out for the people and the kids. He had become tradition, usually coming on at 12:15 p.m., so we're planning to play a quiet song at that moment at this year's festival."

Keale, whose voice brought a tingle of aloha to his music, will be remembered as a gentle, giving treasure in the Island entertainment scene.

Don Ho called Keale a "multi-talented, sweet man. He did everything right, from beating the Tahitian drums to acting and singing, everything."

"He just exuded a lot of spirit and aloha; he was my dad but my friend, my buddy, too. We cruised; we hanged out together," said Scott Nalani Keale, his only son.

The younger Keale talked to his father Sunday while he was on a teaching mission in Japan. He was en route home, aboard a flight yesterday, when Moe Keale died.

"I called him because I couldn't find a couple of chords to 'Pua Mae'ole,' a song I wanted to teach," Nalani Keale said. "He taught me how; he told me to play it in this particular chord. And I got it. It was awesome. It must've been midnight in Hawai'i at the time. And it was the last time I heard his voice."

Keale nearly died a year ago when he had a heart attack while working out at 24 Hour Fitness in the Windward City Shopping Center. Police officers saved his life.

Keale's regular performing gig was Thursdays and Sundays poolside at the Sheraton Waikiki. Of his many recorded songs, he was best known for "Aloha Is ... A Part of Me, a Part of You," for which he won a Na Hoku Hanohano Award in 1987.

A frequent nightclub performer, Keale was the lead singer in Eddie Kamae's Sons Of Hawai'i back in the late '60s. He also had his own group, Moe Keale & Anuenue. In 1978, he recorded a solo album, "South Sea Island Magic."

Keale was the seventh child in his family. His father came from Ni'ihau, his mother from Kaua'i.

He learned to play the 'ukulele when he was 4; an older brother even taught him how to double-strum. He played the instrument as a boy growing up in Palolo Valley, taking it to Palolo Elementary School and Kaimuki High School and, later, as a beachboy, to Waikiki.

Keale did a little of everything in his life, redefining the word versatile. As a beachboy, his long hair earned him a nickname that stuck for years: "Animal." He was a professional high-diver, a part-time electrician and a radio deejay.

Once, when he was a deejay at KCCN in 1983, a listener requested "Kamehameha Waltz," but Keale couldn't find a copy in the studio. He quickly grabbed an 'ukulele and played it himself.

Most recently, he also was the co-owner of the Lomi Shop at Windward Mall, giving lomi massages by day and performing his music at night.

He got his acting start in 1959 with a role in the Spencer Tracy feature film "The Devil at Four O'Clock," which was followed by a long-run in New York of the stage production of "Paradise Island."

He appeared in many TV shows, with recurring roles and guest appearances across the dial. It began with a role as a loveable policeman in "The Little People," which later became "The Brian Keith Show."

That led to a recurring role as Truck Kealoha in "Hawaii Five-O," but not until after he worked on the set as an electrician.

He also appeared in "Big Hawaii" and "Magnum, P.I." and in such diverse shows as "Kung Fu," "Charlie's Angels" and Donny and Marie Osmond's "Going Coconuts."

In a 1982 interview, he lamented the way Hawai'i actors typically were cast.

"Local guys like myself get some pretty awful roles," he said. "It's work." Of the fact that he was frequently cast as a "heavy," he said: "I guess I look mean."

He once said acting comes naturally for him, an extension of his personality.

"I'm a happy-go-lucky person," he said in 1977, when he played Garfield Kalahani in "Big Hawai'i."

Bill Kaiwa knew Keale since childhood.

"All our treasures are going," Kaiwa said. "I was with Moe two Sundays ago. I waited at the hospital for six hours the first time he had a heart attack a year ago. He was feeling fine, looking fine. I am shocked."