Rearview Mirror: Bed races, National Dollar Stores pique interest

People ask me all the time where I get the ideas for my columns. Many of them come from questions readers send me. Here are three I’ve gotten in the past few weeks.

One reader, who wished to be anonymous, asked about bed racing. Carole Kai had a bed race from 1974 to 1994. Weren’t there bed races in Hawaii before that? they asked.

Yes, there were. In 1967 a bed race was part of Greek Week at the University of Hawaii. But five years earlier Hawaii’s first rock ’n’ roll radio station, KPOI, sponsored an April Fools’ bed race in 1962, 61 years ago from this Saturday.

KPOI’s bed race was from Kapiolani Boulevard and Piikoi Street, near McKinley High School’s athletic field to Iolani Palace, about a mile away.

Two teams participated, one composed of Democratic politicians, the other composed of Republicans. Each team had 12 members who took turns, two at a time, running with the mobile beds in the relay race. Every 800 feet, the two runners passed the bed to the next two members of their team.

KPOI disc jockeys and staff dressed in night clothes hung on to the frame or mattress for dear life.

Police Chief Dan Liu was the official starter, but his blank-firing starter pistol misfired three times. Liu switched to a “voice starting system.”

“Bang,” he said. The two teams dashed off toward the palace.

Over 1,000 spectators watched the race along Ka­piolani Boulevard. Mayor Neal Blaisdell and Senate Majority Leader William “Doc” Hill held the finish ribbon.

The GOP was the first to cross the finish line, in a respectable time of 12 minutes and 25 seconds. The Democrats finished 10 seconds later.

Two Democrats tripped and received minor injuries. They were taken to The Queen’s Medical Center for some antiseptic and bandages.

The Easter Seals and the Red Cross were beneficiaries of the $5,000 (in 2023 dollars) in charity raised.

And that’s how Hawaii’s first bed race came to an end. It was on April Fools’ Day, but was no joke. If you are aware of one before 1962, please let me know.

National Dollar Stores

Reader Nikki Erickson had a question. “Every so often I see a photograph in the ‘Back in the Day’ section of the paper that triggers a question in my mind.

“On Feb. 24, 2023, there was a photo from 1953 that showed the National Dollar Stores at the corner of Fort and King. Not knowing which corner it was on, I don’t know what is there today. Can you enlighten me?”

National Dollar Stores was on the makai-Waikiki corner of Fort and King streets. Today it’s where the Financial Plaza of the Pacific is — about the location of Bank of Hawaii’s main branch.

The site has a lot of history. A Hawaiian man named Mathuselah Mahuka had a home on that location. In 1847 the Land Commission awarded him lot No. 721, bordered by Fort, Merchant and King streets. Bishop Street didn’t exist at the time. His family had lived there since the days of Kamehameha I, he said.

Mahuka worked for the government during the reigns of Kings Kamehameha III, IV, V and William Lunalilo. When he retired in 1874, King David Kalakaua awarded him a pension of $300 a year. Mahuka died in 1881.

In 1851, E.O. Hall & Son erected its first building on that block. It sold hardware, kitchen appliances, sporting goods and other consumer products.

Ninety-six years later, in 1947, it moved to 850 Richards St., and National Dollar Stores, a chain store based in San Francisco, took over the three-story building. At the time, it had 42 stores from Vancouver, British Columbia, to California.

It was founded by Joe Shoong in San Francisco in 1903 as the China Toggery and Sang Lee Dry Goods store. In 1928 it changed its name to National Dollar Stores. It was one of the largest Chinese American-owned retail chains in U.S. history.

National Dollar Stores was similar to J.C. Penney. National Dollar sold household goods, shoes, apparel and notions at affordable prices. National Dollar later opened stores in Kaimuki, Hilo and Wailuku.

By 1964 the downtown business landscape was changing. Ala Moana Center had shifted many retail customers away from downtown. The block was purchased, and plans were underway to build the Financial Plaza of the Pacific.

It would house the Bank of Hawaii, the institution now called American Savings Bank, Territorial Savings, Castle & Cooke and many other companies in a 19-story office tower. Over 500,000 square feet of office space was planned. Forty percent of the property would be walkways and open space.

How much paint would be on the exterior of the buildings? Not a single gallon, planners said. Instead, 964 precast concrete panels weighing 10,000 pounds each would be brought to the site and assembled.

The site was completed by 1969, but if you look in your rearview mirror as you drive past it, you can just barely see the home Mathuselah Mahuka had in the mid-1800s, E.O. Hall & Son’s store, or the National Dollar Store.

Frenchy and Aggie

Ray Sokugawa had today’s third question. “I had the good fortune to have worked with Adelaide ‘Frenchy’ DeSoto and Agnes ‘Aggie’ Cope. Both women played a large part in my appreciating the Hawaiian people and culture.

“In my old age, and having time on my hands, I wonder how Frenchy got that nickname and if Auntie Aggie is any relation to St. Marianne Cope of Kalaupapa.”

Adelaide Conette Keanuenueokalaninuiamamao “Frenchy” DeSoto (1929-2011) was a legislator and Hawaiian activist, and is the acknowledged “mother” of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, as it was her creation during the last ConCon.

DeSoto was born Adelaide Conette French in 1929, in Honolulu. Her father was Harvey Scott French Sr., and her mother was Lillian Kaaipuaa Kekai Causley French.

I talked to her daughter-in-law, Pati DeSoto. She said Harvey Scott French was German and a sheriff in Hono­lulu. Unfortunately, he died early, at age 25, and Adelaide and her siblings went into the foster care system.

“She kept running away from foster homes to find her siblings,” Pati said. “I think that’s why she was such a revolutionary. She was always concerned about children. She had five of her own but always had several of her kids’ friends that ate and slept at her house because they were unhappy at home.

Adelaide married John “Cobra” DeSoto Sr. It was he who gave her the nickname “Frenchy,” Pati recalled. John was into motorcycles, and a funny pipe on the back of one of them led to his friends calling him “Cobra.”

Pati said John and Frenchy lived in Makaha, close to the water with their kids, dogs and a calf. “At one time there was a tsunami warning. They put the kids and animals in their old station wagon and headed mauka. The tsunami, fortunately, never came.”

Frenchy always lived near the water, Pati continued. She left her doors open because she wanted to be able to see and hear it.

Ray Sokugawa said Frenchy DeSoto told him of one incident in the South when her husband, John, was competing in a motorcycle race. “Some white guy was badmouthing her and her ‘Black’ husband — she punched the guy out!”

Pati said that sounded like her. She was 6-foot-1 — a big woman. DeSoto died in 2011, near the ocean in Makaha. Most of her sons and grandchildren are accomplished watermen, Pati said, except for John DeSoto Jr., who also was into motorcycles.

“Auntie Aggie” Kalaniho‘okaha Cope (1924-2015) was a co-founder of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. She was also a kumu hula and Native Hawaiian traditional healer.

I don’t think she was related to St. Marianne Cope, a nun who never married. St. Marianne led six sisters of Saint Francis from Syracuse, N.Y., to Hawaii in 1888 to help the kingdom face its leprosy challenges.

She did have siblings, and a great-great-grandnephew, Dr. Paul DeMare, was a radiation oncologist at St. Francis Medical Center and lived in Hawaii.

But she was related to former Gov. Neil Abercrombie. Auntie Aggie considered herself to be the hanai mother to Abercrombie.

“My mom came to visit, and Auntie Aggie, whom I’d met because of her work on the Waianae Coast with culture and arts for the kids, she met my mother and told my mother that she wanted to hanai me,” Abercrombie said.

Auntie Aggie also was very close to Violet Infante, Ben Cayetano’s mother’s sister, and helped care for Cayetano, who later became Hawaii’s governor, when he was young.

Do you have a question you’d like me to look into? If so, send me an email.

Bob Sigall is the author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books. Send your questions, comments or suggestions to Sigall@Yahoo.com.