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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, March 18, 2002

ROD OHIRA'S PEOPLE
Hula dancer immortalized on board shorts

By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer

Dannette Kaleinani Brown's memories of her hula past were rekindled two years ago when she received a unique 65th birthday gift.

Dannette Kaleinani Brown was only about 15 when a postcard photo was taken of her as a hula dancer in Waikiki. The image showed up on a pair of Quiksilver shorts.

Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser

"I'm stoked they came out with it," Brown said of the classic Quiksilver surf shorts featuring mugshots of her and five other Kent Ghirard hula dancers, taken more than 50 years ago when they performed together. "It captures the Hawai'i spirit of old that won't ever come back again."

The individual head shots of Brown and her older sister, Dancette Chapman of Alameda, Calif., Winifred Wong, Frances Young and sisters Limoe and Leilani Apo were lifted from a postcard photograph.

Brown first learned about the item a couple of years ago, when Chapman's granddaughter, Anela Ota, bought it at a Hale'iwa surf shop and sent it to her grandmother. "I combed the island and couldn't find another one," Brown recalled. "My niece (Stacy Bauman) found one at an outlet in Wisconsin and sent it to her mother. My sister gave it to me as a birthday present."

The shorts, along with the original postcard in a framed display, are among the treasures hidden in Brown's house at the corner of Kama and Palamea lanes in Kalihi-Palama. She is a collector, and the interior of her home is adorned with dollhouses, unique rugs, antique furniture, needlepoint, figurines, Doric columns and Julius Caesar busts.

Brown grew up two houses away, the second of three children. Her late parents, Daniel Poepoe and the former Thelma Saffery, were married for 65 years. Each came from a family of 11 children. Her grandfathers, Henry Poepoe and Sam Saffery Sr., were both Hawaiian ministers, of Kaumakapili Church in Palama and Queen Lili'uokalani Protestant Church in Hale'iwa, respectively.

"My father came from a prominent musical family, and every night while doing the dishes he taught us to sing old Hawaiian songs in harmony," Brown recalled. "My mother's family never permitted any of the girls to learn hula. I think it had something to do with the image of being the minister's daughters.

"But my mother said no, her daughters were going to dance," Brown continued. "She was always going against the grain."

Brown and her sister, graduates of St. Andrew's Priory, began dancing professionally for Ghirard as teenagers and also performed with their parents at parties.

"In those days, the hula girls presented the image visitors to Hawai'i came to see," Ghirard said. "We met all the big celebrities."

Brown recalled dancing regularly in Waikiki at the Moana Surfrider, Royal Hawaiian, old Niumalu Hotel (on the site of the Hilton Hawaiian Village) and Aloha Week events. She also remembered greeting visitors arriving on the Lurline, on warships and at the old Honolulu Airport off Lagoon Drive.

"We had 15 to 20 girls in our group," she said. "I have such wonderful memories of my youth, and I feel like I contributed something with the little talent I had."

She recalled performing with Alfred Apaka, Sterling Mossman, Danny Kaleikini, Aunty Pauline Kekahuna, Benny Kalama and her father.

"Back then, hula wasn't so much a cultural thing but part of the image being presented by the tourist trade," Brown said. "On Wednesdays we'd walk down Kalakaua Avenue and dance in front of shops for the tourists. I learned then that a smile is so important, because hula girls were what they dreamed about and what they remember. To be on postcards was very flattering."

The dancers picked their own flowers for leis — usually plumeria — and everyone wore a hibiscus in her hair, Brown said. "It was the image that represented simplicity and beauty."

There were times when her parents let her and her sister skip school to perform.

"Once, around 1950, we had to take pictures on the beach outside the Royal Hawaiian," Brown said. "The school called, and my mother said we were sick. The next day our picture was on the front page of the newspaper."

Hula dancing provided disciplines that shaped her life, Brown said.

"Kent Ghirard was very fussy about neatness," she said. "Everything was very precise, even the length of our hair. The experience taught me the importance of grooming, punctuality, organization, self- confidence and how to get along with people. These are things still happening in my life."

Brown and her husband have five children, 12 grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

"It's awesome," said 15-year-old Anuhea Clark, a Kamehameha Schools sophomore, when asked about her grandmother's face on surfing shorts.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.