Browsing tag: Hall Of Fame

  • July 1, 2024

    HALL OF FAME: KING DAVID KALAKAUA

    IT’S no exaggeration to say that without King David Kalakaua, the ukulele would not be as popular as it is today. 

    Known as the ‘Merrie Monarch’, Kalakaua was elected to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii on February 12, 1874 and quickly became a patron of the arts. A staunch nationalist, he was devoted to restoring the islands’ cultural traditions, most notably the hula, which had been banned in 1830 by Queen Ka’ahumanu following her conversion to Christianity. 

    Hula dancers pose with ukes and a guitar, circa 1885

    As well as promoting surfing and an ancient martial art called Kapu Kuʻialua, Kalakaua encouraged more modern art forms and was instantly attracted to the newly developed ukulele. A talented musician, the King took up the uke and recommended that it be employed to accompany hula, effectively making it the national instrument of Hawaii. He also introduced it into performances at royal gatherings and used it to entertain famous acquaintances, such as Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. 

    Kalakaua (middle) dining with author Robert Louis Stevenson (far left) in 1889

    In 1881, Kalakaua became the first ruling monarch to travel around the world, but his days in power were numbered because the prominent Missionary Party had become frustrated with him and his big-spending ways. Before his opulent world tour, the King had paid the then-astronomical sum of more than US$300,000 to build the European-styled ‘Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu. The impressive two-storey residence featured electricity (thanks to Kalakaua’s friend Thomas Edison) and telephones even before the White House.  

    Consequently, a hardline group called the Hawaiian League, which was in favour of annexing the islands to the United States, wrote a new constitution and forced Kalakaua to sign it at gunpoint in 1887.

    By 1890, with his authority limited and his health failing, the King travelled to California on the advice of his personal physician. Sadly, the move didn’t help and he died on January 20, 1891 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. His last words were reportedly, “Tell my people I tried.” 

    But the name Kalakaua lives on. The main avenue of Waikiki is named after him, the state song of Hawaii, Hawaiʻi Ponoʻī, was written by him, and his fun-loving nature is celebrated during the annual Merrie Monarch Festival, a week-long cultural event that takes place in Hilo on the Big Island. 

    King David Kalakaua was a big man with big ambitions, but he saw the value and the potential of the small ukulele, and for that we say, “Mahalo.” 

    This article originally appeared in Issue 3 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the Store

  • November 29, 2022

    Hall of Fame: Arthur Godfrey

    HE MAY not appear on anyone’s list of great ukulele players, but Arthur Godfrey certainly deserves his place in the KAMUKE Hall of Fame. 

    Born in 1903 in New York City, the ginger-haired entertainer got his start in show business as ‘Red Godfrey, the Warbling Banjoist’ on a radio program in Baltimore in 1929. Over the next two decades, Godfrey built up a loyal national audience, thanks largely to his laidback personality and an easygoing broadcasting style that was in stark contrast to that of his prim and proper contemporaries. 

    In 1948, Godfrey made his television debut and went on to become the most popular and powerful American media personality of the 1950s. Throughout his stellar career, there was one constant: the ukulele. Godfrey learnt to play while serving in the navy and would often sing and strum on his daily radio program and two weekly TV shows. He even hosted televised uke lessons in 1950. 

    Part-time actor Godfrey duetting with Doris Day in the 1966 film The Glass Bottom Boat

    Affectionately known as ‘The Old Redhead’, Godfrey was one of the first masters of on-air advertising and preferred to spruik products he actually used. When he promoted Mario Macaferri’s new plastic Islander ukulele, literally millions were sold, sparking the Second Wave of Uke. And, although it can’t be verified, Godfrey may well be the father of the baritone ukulele. There is no record of the largest uke size until the late 1940s, when Godfrey asked Eddie Connors to design one for him. 

    (L-R) Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Godfrey

    The one product ‘The Old Redhead’ regretted endorsing was Chesterfield cigarettes. He developed lung cancer in the late 50s and died of emphysema on March 16, 1983. 

    This article originally appeared in Issue 4 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the Store

  • April 16, 2020

    Hall Of Fame: Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards

    THE life of Cliff Edwards is as remarkable as it is tragic. 

    Born in 1895 in Hannibal, Missouri, the same town that informed Mark Twain’s youth and work, Edwards left school at 14 and moved to St Louis, where he got his start singing in saloons. As many of the venues didn’t have pianos, he bought a soprano uke to accompany his voice and was given the moniker ‘Ike’ by a waiter who couldn’t remember his name. 

    “Ukulele Ike” went to Chicago in 1917 and got his first big break performing a novelty song called Ja Da with its composer, Bob Carleton, at the Arsonia Café in 1918. On the back of the tune’s success, vaudeville headliner Joe Frisco hired Edwards and he was soon performing on Broadway in New York, first at the famed Palace Theatre and later with the Ziegfeld Follies. 

    The pioneer of a distinctive form of scat singing he called “effin”, Edwards made his recording debut in 1922 and quickly became popular. His version of Singin’ In The Rain was number one for three weeks in 1929, and he was the first person to perform the standard on screen in The Hollywood Revue Of 1929. 

    As Ike got more famous, so did the ukulele. Millions of instruments were sold in the 1920s and Tin Pan Alley publishers responded to the craze by printing ukulele chord diagrams on the sheet music of the day. Edwards always favoured Martin ukes and developed a unique roll stroke. 

    “Most people play the four-finger roll starting with the pinky finger and ending with the index finger or thumb,” says Ike expert Terry Chapman. “But Cliff Edwards played it differently; he started with the index and followed it with the other fingers, with the pinky last.” 

    In his only instructional booklet, 1927’s Ukulele Ike’s Complete Ukulele Method, Edwards describes his technique: “If you were to make a series of six consecutive strokes, in strict cadence, all down, in this order: index finger, second finger, third finger, fourth finger followed by the thumb then return up by the thumb, you will have laid the foundation for the very flashy roll stroke which very few amateurs know how to use.”  

    Throughout the 1930s, Ike appeared in Hollywood musicals and on radio, but his star began to fade as the public became enamoured with crooners such as Bing Crosby. Edwards’ last great role was as the voice of the infectiously happy Jiminy Cricket in the 1940 Disney feature Pinocchio, and his tender treatment of the song When You Wish Upon A Star made it an instant classic. 

    Sadly, massive alimony payments to three ex-wives and alcohol and drug problems plagued Ike’s latter years and he died penniless in a Hollywood nursing home in 1971. The Walt Disney Company paid for his grave marker. 

    Blessed with a three-octave vocal range and the ability to sell both comedy ditties and heartfelt ballads, Cliff “Ukulele Ike” Edwards sold an estimated 74 million records and appeared in more than 100 films. Aptly described by American movie expert Leonard Maltin as “probably the best known/least known performer in show business history”, he was a true original who deserves to be remembered. 

    This article originally appeared in Issue 2 of KAMUKE Ukulele Magazine, which is available in the Store

  • March 4, 2019

    Hall Of Fame: George Formby

    BORN George Hoy Booth on May 26, 1904 in Wigan, England, one of the greatest ukulele players who ever lived almost didn’t pick up the instrument.

    The son of an Edwardian music hall star who never wanted any of his family to enter show business, George was forced to become an apprentice jockey at age seven and rode in his first professional race when he was 10.

    Following his father’s unexpected death in 1921, George was encouraged by his mother to perform his dad’s old material, so he took to the stage. Spectacularly unsuccessful at first, he bought a banjo-ukulele from a fellow actor and accepted a bet that he wouldn’t play it in his act. Naturally, the audience loved the uke and George was soon topping the bill all over the country.

    By 1932, he had adopted his father’s stage name of ‘Formby’ and had his first hit record with a funny song called Chinese Laundry Blues. In 1934, George starred in a high-grossing comedy called Boots! Boots! and subsequently signed a contract worth an incredible £100,000 to make a further 11 films with Associated Talking Pictures. He later agreed to make another seven movies for US studio Columbia for the mind-blowing sum of £500,000.

    With the help of his shrewd wife Beryl, George Formby became the top comedian in Britain between 1934 and 1945, and also found considerable fame in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In 1946, he received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his tireless work entertaining Allied forces in Europe and North Africa during World War II. In fact, he was one of the first entertainers to enter Normandy after the D-Day invasion, where he was personally invited by General Montgomery to play for the frontline troops.

    In 1951, while starring in a critically acclaimed West End musical called Zip Goes a Million, Formby suffered a heart attack and was forced to leave the show. He went back to work 18 months later, but it didn’t last as long as it should have. After another heart attack, George Formby died on March 6, 1961, aged 56.

    But even though the great man is gone, he’ll never be forgotten. Songs such as Leaning On A Lamp Post and The Window Cleaner have become timeless classics, and ukulele players everywhere have been trying to emulate his legendary ‘split stroke’ for more than 70 years. To quote his much-loved catchphrase, “It’s turned out nice again!”