After 'Swingtime,' slip over to Trappers

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Jimmy Borges, shown here in 1980, ruled Trappers for 10 years. At the piano just behind him is Betty Loo Taylor. He returns to Trappers tonight. Advertiser library photo Swingtime In Hawai'i Part II With Jimmy Borges, Keahi Conjugacion, Gabe Baltazar, Jeff Peterson and others 8 tonight Hyatt Regency Waikiki $40, $55 550-8457, 941-9974 Also: On Maui, 8 p.m. Saturday, Four Seasons Resort in Wailea

One of Waikiki's most elegant showrooms in its day (1976-91), Trappers also was where live local and national jazz acts and the kicky vocal stylings of Mr. Jimmy Borges ruled.

We asked Borges and a couple of longtime Trappers staffers to share a few of their more politically correct lounge memories. You can ask them (and former Trappers general manager Mai Tai Sing) to dish the uncensored stuff tonight.

Jimmy Borges, Trappers resident vocalist, 1976-86: "Once we set things up at Trappers, I had Betty Loo Taylor as my piano player, a bass player and a drummer. (Here Borges, uh, 'colorfully' explained how the latter two didn't exactly look the part of elegant jazz-lounge players.) When Ed Sullivan, the general manager, was showing me the stage, he pointed out my stool, the red piano for Betty Loo and two big flower plants. Then he asks, 'Can we hide the drummer and the bass player behind the plants so that people don't see 'em?' And he wasn't kidding."

John Morita, bartender, 1976-91: "Jimmy ran the stage. He'd set the mood ... set the pace for the night and could change it in an instant. He was just smooth ... a master of the stage."

Borges: "We had some of the best musicians in the world coming in. Joe Williams. Wynton Marsalis. Joe Sample. Tony Bennett came to see us whenever he was in town. ... He would sit in the back. And every time I would ask him to join us, he'd say, 'No, no thanks. I just want to listen.'

"But he'd sit back there and sketch us. Tony is a fine artist. And he'd sketch the whole band and give us all of the sketches. ... I still have sketches that Tony Bennett did of us."

Carolyn Taum, cocktail server, 1979-89: "Jerry Lee Lewis came in once during happy hour, unannounced. He just sat down at the piano and rocked the place. We filled to capacity and people on the street were trying to get in. He stayed there all night."

Borges: "Doris Duke was always in there."

Morita: "I got Smokin' Joe Frazier's autograph on a $20 bill. O.J. Simpson was there once, too. Evel Knievel came in quite a few times."

Borges: "I would never force anybody (famous) on to the stage. ... I would always go up to them privately and ask them first. And with a request like that, most of them would say 'yes,' especially locals. Don Ho, Danny Kaleikini, Robert Cazimero ... all got on stage. And my group was so good, they could play behind anybody."

Morita: "At one Christmas party, we talked Betty Loo into eating balut. ... That woman was game for anything."

Borges: "People dressed up to come to Trappers. It was a very elegant crowd ... Elegant without being snotty. ... But the dress code was strict. ... They turned away Al Jarreau at the door because he arrived in a sweater. That sweater was probably $800 and from France. And they wouldn't let him in!"

Taum: "This guy came in at happy hour one day, and he looked like a friend of mine who had done Marlboro commercials. ... I asked him what he did and he said, 'Well, I just got hired to do this TV series called 'Magnum P.I.' And I was, like, 'Oh, that's great! Good luck! I hope it does well!' It was Tom Selleck. ... He came in a lot after that."

Borges: "Trappers was a perfect mixture of ambience, quality music, quality drinks and aloha. There was no place like it then and no place like it now."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.