Elaine Newton oral history interview: transcript

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AN INTERVIEW WITH ELAINE NEWTON 

An Oral History Conducted by Cecilia Winchell 

Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander 

Oral History Project 

Oral History Research Center at UNLV 

University Libraries 

University of Nevada Las Vegas 

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©Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islander 

Oral History Project 

University of Nevada Las Vegas, 2020 

Produced by: The Oral History Research Center at UNLV – University Libraries 

Director: Claytee D. White 

Project Manager: Stefani Evans 

Transcriber: Kristin Hicks 

Editors and Project Assistants: Vanessa Concepcion, Kristel Peralta, Jerwin Tiu, Cecilia Winchell, Ayrton Yamaguchi 

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The recorded interview and transcript have been made possible through the generosity of a grant from the City of Las Vegas Commission for the Las Vegas Centennial and funding from private individuals and foundations. The Oral History Research Center enables students and staff to work together with community members to generate this selection of first-person narratives. The participants in this project thank University of Nevada Las Vegas for the support given that allowed an idea the opportunity to flourish. 

The transcript received minimal editing that includes the elimination of fragments, false starts, and repetitions in order to enhance the reader’s understanding of the material. In several cases photographic sources accompany the individual interviews with permission of the narrator. 

The following interview is part of a series of interviews conducted under the auspices of Reflections: The Las Vegas Asian American and Pacific Islanders Oral History Project. 

Claytee D. White 

Director, Oral History Research Center 

University Libraries 

University of Nevada Las Vegas 

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PREFACE 

“My biggest education was through other people while I was traveling.” 

Born in the beautiful city of Honolulu, Hawaii, to two Japanese immigrants, Elaine Newton grew up surrounded by a big family and beautiful landscapes. Recounting stories of parakeets and beaches, her childhood reflects a sunny disposition that she brings to the rest of her story. Scouted while walking down the street after getting her tonsils taken out, Newton was hired by Pan Am Airlines at the age of twenty-one and started a lifelong journey of learning and exploration. 

It was on an unscheduled stop in Saigon during the Vietnam War where Elaine Newton met her first husband, Wayne. While together, Newton traveled with him wherever he performed, meeting all kinds of people ranging from Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli to former presidents Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon. Throughout the interview, Newton talks about her daughter Erin, whom she has grown closer to as time has gone on, and the impact of her siblings on her life. 

Having lived in Las Vegas for a long time now, Newton has seen the city change and grow immensely. She remembers the days of the ‘80s, when women went to dinner dressed in ball gowns and celebrated decadently. Her memories of a bygone era are tinged with a wistful lens, and helps to cement her belief in that it is important to know where one comes from. Her own outlook and philosophy is one that has been informed by her decades of extensive traveling and strongly believes in the power of learning through people in order to create a better world. 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Interview with Elaine Newton 

May 19, 2021 

in Las Vegas, Nevada 

Conducted by Cecilia Winchell 

Preface…………………………………………………………………………………….……..iv 

Born in 1943, Newton begins by narrating her childhood in Honolulu, Hawaii. Surrounded by nature and wildlife, she details experiences such as raising parakeets and eating the fish that she learned to catch. Her parents owned and ran a grocery store that helped to support her and her six siblings all the way through college. Growing up in Hawaii, she remembers playing in a bomb shelter in her backyard as well as riding a green delivery truck to deliver groceries……….…..1–6 

With six siblings, Newton came from a large family and shared unique relationships with each person. She recalls being especially close and learning a lot from her older sisters Helen and Shirley. Newton recalls joining Pan Am Airlines after being recruited while walking down the street. She describes the demanding process it took to become a stewardess as well as the knowledge she acquired while on the job………………………………………………….…..7–16 

Newton recounts the story of meeting her husband, Wayne Newton, while on a Pan Am flight and their subsequent courtship. She remembers her mother being especially flabbergasted that she was going to marry an entertainer in show business. Nonetheless, Newton details the people she met while with Wayne and through his involvement with the Republican Party that led to close ties with the White House. She also talks about her daughter, with whom she has grown close over the years………………………………...………………………………………..………..……..16–26 

Having lived in Las Vegas for a long time, Newton has seen the city change and grow immensely. She describes living in Casa de Shenandoah, and she recalls the old restaurants of the Sands and the Dunes, always going to dinner in long gowns and celebrating anything and everything. She talks about the education she obtained through traveling………………………….……..…..26–33 

Newton stresses the importance of knowing one’s history and heritage. Although she was ethnically Japanese, growing up in Hawaii gave her a strong appreciation for Hawaiian culture. She still calls the islands home and hopes to retire there someday…………………………..33–37 

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Good afternoon. Today’s date is May 19th, 2021. I am Cecilia Winchell and I’m here joined by… 

Kristel Peralta. 

Nessa Concepcion. 

And Elaine Newton. Elaine, could you please spell your name for the record? 

Elaine Newton; E-L-A-I-N-E, N-E-W-T-O-N. 

Thank you. To start off, we just want to ask about your childhood. If you could tell us about your family and how you grew up. 

That is going to take longer than what we have today. My childhood, first of all, I was born in November 19, 1943. My childhood was interesting because my recollection is, when you’re growing up and you see your backyard—I don’t know if you’ve experienced this—but everything seems so large. I grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, with mango trees in my backyard, Plumeria trees, and that was my playground. I had all kinds of fantasies when I was growing up. I always loved animals. Of course, my parents would not let me have a dog. We had a watchdog, but the only pet I could have was a parakeet. I raised parakeets as a child and always had them by my bedside in a cage whereupon, of course, every morning they would hop out of their cage onto my shoulder and kiss my face in the morning. That’s how I woke up as a child. 

Growing up in Honolulu is quite different, I guess, than most other states. As I grew up I loved going to my neighbor’s. They had grandparents that I didn’t have in Hawaii, they were in Japan. As I grew up, both grandfathers were gone, but my grandmother was alive and living in Japan. I loved going to my neighbors because the grandmother and grandfather loved cooking for the youngsters that were my peers. I always snuck over there to have lunch. My mother was always looking for me, calling for me, as I was having a meal next door. I loved my neighbor’s 

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grandfather because he would take me fishing. During those years we would walk down the street to Ala Wai Canal. Then, it was very clean, the water was clean. Now, you couldn’t fish out of there, and if you did fish there, what you ate for dinner would make you ill because it’s so polluted. But in my young years we would go down there and we do our fishing. I’d sit there on the embankment and ojisan would teach me how to fish. That was another part of my growing up. 

I had very fond memories of my childhood because I loved going down to the beach. I’d go swimming on my own. On the way down to the beach there was the zoo. Along the side of the zoo were these enormous date trees. I’d go there and I’d throw rocks up at the trees so that the dates would fall, so I would pick them up to take it home to eat. Growing up in Honolulu during my youth was always simple and a happy life. 

My father loved taking us for rides in the car around the other side of the island. We lived by Waikiki Beach. He would take us in the car on the other side of the island, and we’d see acres of pineapple fields and sugarcane fields, and we’d stop and get sugarcane. My dad would slice off the outer side of the cane and we would chew it for the pulp; that was dessert. I had a wonderful childhood. I could go on and on. Any more questions? 

Could you tell us a bit more about what your parents did? 

My parents worked together. My father, being an immigrant from Japan, came over when he was a young boy looking for his father. His father had left Japan and was nowhere to be found. He knew his father was in Hawaii, so he came to the islands and ran ads in the Japanese paper trying to find his father. 

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Newton’s paternal grandparents, 1913 

He had all kinds of jobs. He worked in the pineapple field, he worked in a gas station and worked in this tiny, little…I wouldn’t know how to describe it because I was not alive then, but it was like a market on wheels, if you will. He learned all these different trades. His father finally answered his ad. He had saved all his money, and his father took that money, went back to Japan, and left my father there in Hawaii. My father stayed in Honolulu and made a life there. 

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He started working and doing all kinds of different things. He was very industrious. He decided that he would open a grocery store because living there, he saw that people had to drive a long way to find anything to buy from a market, a little market. He decided to open a grocery store and did very well because during those years there were no supermarkets. He did very well for his children, my siblings. I was one of the younger siblings, so by that time I was born and raised in that store, he was doing very well. 

I forgot a little thing, if memory serves. When I was growing up as a young child with my playground in my backyard, I remember that we still had a bomb shelter. I would go down in that bomb shelter and there were benches on both sides. My playmates and I would go down and play in this bomb shelter. I don’t remember the war. When I was born the war had just ended, but I do remember the bomb shelter. I had to put that in there because most people would not have experienced that as a child growing up. 

What was it like going to school in Honolulu, and what were your friends like? 

That’s a very interesting question because I was an extremely bad student. My mother, who was from Japan as well, she was actually a kibinisay, and what the term means is that she was born in Hawaii but raised in Japan. It was very primitive then, her parents sent her back to Japan to keep her grandmother company. She was only five years old when they sent her back. Her siblings were older and knew better; they didn’t want to get on that boat all the way to Japan. Her parents had neighbors who were going back to Japan. They offered to take this little girl of five to her grandmother. My mother was education oriented, she was very smart, very quick. She had a very mathematical mind. I can add. I can’t subtract. I tease everybody about that. But my mother loved academics. All of my siblings, of course, went to college with the exception of myself. I was the rebel in my family. Growing up with the kind of parents I had…even though my father 

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did not have a secondary education he was very smart, he used an abacus and when I was growing up, I could hear him calculating whatever the store made during the day or whatever, and I could hear that click click click sound. That abacus was very long. It was not one of those short abacuses. 

My mother loved listening to the radio ironically. My mother loved to play the stock market. Growing up I remember my mom saying this and that, and I didn’t understand. I still don’t. 

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Newton’s parents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary 

My parents were very hardworking, very disciplined. My father would wake up every morning at five and go down to the beach to swim to get exercise. My mother worked with him. I remember my father in his grocery store carrying these enormous rice bags and boxes to our warehouse. As I’ve said, in those days they didn’t have supermarkets, so we were it for quite a few miles around us. He had a delivery service, so he would be making these notes on daily deliveries. He had someone working for him. I would jump in back of this green delivery truck and drive all over to make the deliveries of people calling in. My parents were hardworking. My mother helped my father. My mom and dad, by God’s grace, did well enough to send all of my siblings with the exception of myself to college. Everybody went away to. He took care of their tuitions, everything. 

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Newton’s siblings, before she was born 

Could you actually tell us a little bit more about your siblings? How many? 

I was one of seven. I was the sixth child of seven. My eldest brother, also a mathematician, is still alive today, thank God, and he is ninety. Wait, he’ll get upset with me. I think he is eighty-eight. Anyway, he’s still alive and well. He was in education the latter part of his life, but he allocated the school funds for Honolulu. He did very well. He was the golden child being the eldest. In Asian families, as you know, the firstborn, and that was my brother, he could do no wrong. Everything he did was right. He was quite the bon vivant when he was in college. He 

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went to Arizona State in Tempe. I’ll never forget. I remember my mother thought it was all right, but I was very young. He called home and he belonged to fraternity and wanted to buy them leis. He had my parents ship from Hawaii boxes of leis. I remember my mother was upset because he always wanted items from Hawaii. They were always sending him things. He turned out to be a great older brother. When he was younger my eldest brother was a pain in the neck for me because I was younger and felt picked on. But as he grew older, he became very mellow especially after having children. Now he’s a grandparent and has turned into the best grandparent. 

I don’t know if this is true, you can tell me, about this whole issue with anima, animus. As you get older you kind of do a switch. The male becomes female and the female becomes male. My brothers love to bake cookies these days and they love to cook; they never used to. But in older age they love serving their grandkids. A huge change. If you look at older couples, and you’ll notice it from now on, that you’ll see the woman driving and the man sitting on the side in the passenger seat. Well, that’s what happens. You do a reverse. That’s what happened to my brothers. Now it’s the wives driving, and they’re in their eighties and my brothers are sitting there. I’ve got very kind siblings and that’s my eldest brother. His wife Grace has been by his side for sixty years. 

My second brother, Stanley, he actually worked at NASA for a while. He’s an engineer. His wife teases that, “I wish they’d give us money instead of all these awards.” He is an engineer, also retired now and in his eighties. He’s two years younger than my eldest brother. He also now loves baking cookies and cooking for the family. He has grandchildren. Recently my niece moved into his daughter’s house that he purchased for her in Honolulu. She’s a teacher. They take care of their granddaughter. It’s sort of this…happening in my family. But he also, 

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Stanley, who got all the awards for being this top engineer, has now become housebound, house grandfather. My sister-in-law as well. That’s my second brother and his wife Joyce has been by his side for sixty years. 

My third brother, Thomas, just passed away this past year. We were very sad because he would come to me every holiday. He would stay here with me and he would say to me in the morning, “I want two cups of coffee, two fried eggs, make sure you don’t break the yolks, and I’ll have either ham or bacon and two pieces of toast.” That was my brother Thomas. When we didn’t hear from him this past holiday season when we kept calling and calling, we didn’t know that he obviously had a massive coronary because we didn’t find him for two weeks. He was at home when he passed. We thought he went to the racetrack or something because he loved doing that. He was not answering phone. We had the neighbors check on him and pound on his door. He had passed this past year, so that’s very sad for me. I’m going to miss him coming to me for the holiday season. He loved coming here for the holidays. I have pictures of all them that I’ll send to you. 

Then there were my sisters. My sister Helen, my eldest sister, passed away from cancer when she was only twenty-nine. I was flying for Pan America Airlines at that time and when I had gotten to San Francisco. I got a message from the office, “You’ve got to turn around and go home.” By the time I got home, she was just passing over, but I got a chance to say goodbye. She was an extraordinary person, my sister Helen. She was a medical librarian, so she understood (she worked for Shriner’s Hospital) very well her condition. She was my mentor because she would say to me all the time, “You will learn more from traveling and meeting people of other ethnic backgrounds and countries and all of that.” For my high school graduation she took me on my first trip leaving the islands. I had lots of flower leis because everybody was saying goodbye. 

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My friends, my peers who hadn’t left the islands all came to give me leis. Helen took me to…first to Los Angeles, and then we got on a train and traveled all along the West Coast. We went to Oregon and on to Washington on this trip. I’m very grateful to her. Growing up with her, I learned a lot. She was really into education. She also played the piano and wanted me to learn to play it. I did take lessons but all I could play was “Chopsticks,” my forte. She did play beautifully, she was very musical as well and loved to teach. She had a lot of pearls of wisdom to share. Of course, during those years growing up, you’re in la-la-land; you don’t really listen. In retrospect, I realize all the things that she taught me, and my remaining sister, which I’ll get into. My remaining sister, thank God, she lives across the street from me. 

I had a younger sister, Jane. She was in college in L.A. and went on that toboggan. She was in a ski trip and fell and hit her head. Anyway, she was never the same. She went back to Hawaii and was living with my parents. She became a terrible diabetic and lived at home with my parents. My younger sister was very shy, she never really got to have a job after that. She died very young from diabetes. She went into a diabetic coma and didn’t recover. I lost my sister Jane. 

My sister who is still alive and well, thank God, had her eightieth birthday last year, and she reminds me I’m not far behind, my sister and I have gotten closer as time goes on. I was living in Los Angeles for a while, and she would come back and forth. I gave her a wedding party to her now husband, and I cannot believe they’ve been married now over thirty years. That was a long time ago. When her husband was not well (her husband had two bouts of cancer) I came back from Los Angeles, sold my house in Spanish Trails, and bought this home and moved across the street. My brother-in-law was afraid that she would be left alone because he had been 

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ill twice with the chemo so he wanted me close to her. I bought this house and by God’s grace they both got well, and now I’m across the street. 

Every day it’s something. She is always knocking on my door. But it’s great having my sister close by now that we’re both up in years. We had very different lives, she was married to her first husband then, raising her two sons, and I was married. During those years she was living in Okinawa for a while. Now that we’re in the autumn of our years, if you will, we’ve become closer. I love cooking Italian food and roast beef and beef stew and things like that because my boyfriend that you met is Irish. I’m forever making beef stew. But anyway, she’s there. 

Her name is Shirley. Her name is Shirley Fujiko. My father and mother named her Fujiko because Mount Fuji and she was the most beautiful girl in the family. She was named appropriately after the most beautiful mountain, they feel, in the world, Mount Fuji. That’s my sister Shirley Fujiko and my surname will come with that. My name is Elaine Mariko. My father wanted me named Mariko because Mariko is from the word marui, which means round. My father said that was me, round. Round because he says, “You look at the daruma, which is that doll that doesn’t fall over. He said, “Round, you won’t fall over; you’re always on your feet, keep going.” That’s my middle name. My elder sister that I was talking about, Helen, her name was Hisako. I’m not sure what that means, but it was a beautiful name, anyway. My younger sister Jane, I have to tell you I’ve forgotten what her middle name was. My sister will remember, so I’ll do that as a catchup for you. But we all had Japanese middle names, and my father only called me by my middle name. He never called me Elaine. I never liked the name Elaine when I was growing up. I just thought they should have named me Veronica or something. But he always called me Mariko or Marichan. That’s kind of a very condensed story about my siblings. Any questions? 

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Newton’s family meeting in Las Vegas, 1969 

Actually, yes. Growing up—you mentioned that your father gave you all Japanese middle names—how connected were you and your family to Japanese culture? 

Very. I went to Japanese school as well as English school. When I realized that I didn’t need to go anymore in high school, I stopped. Of course, I went to elementary and intermediate school both English and Japanese school. I’m actually the only one amongst my siblings that writes Katakana and Hiragana. Elementary and from high school, I stopped going. Until this day, yes, I can read and write Katakana and Hiragana. 

Now I would like to touch more on what you did after high school and how you ended up at Pan Am. 

That’s an interesting story, I always wanted to be in media. I had this far cry; I wanted to either be in media or I wanted to be a biologist. My sister Helen said, “You were never a very good student, so maybe what you should do is go to City College first.” I said, “Okay.” When we were 

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in Los Angeles, she said, “I want you to enroll in LACC because you’re never going to make it in a college-college because your grades are so bad.” She said, “You can start here.” 

My life took a little turn because when I was modeling in this kimono show (believe me) I was a far cry from those little geisha steps you had to take. I was a Hawaiian Japanese girl. I loved going barefoot. The woman saw me and wanted me to model in this kimono show, so I did. I met her son. Don’t ask me how, because he spoke very little English, but we started dating. She wanted me to marry him. She was a very famous woman from Japan. Her name was Yamano Aiko. She owned a beauty college, and she had a makeup company, almost like Estee Lauder. She was a very big deal. I thought, I’m going to end up marrying this man who doesn’t speak English and my Japanese was not perfect. I was in Los Angeles with his family because they had a college there as well, a school, a beauty college. 

I got sick, needed my tonsils out, so I got on a plane and went home to Hawaii. When I was at home, I was walking down the street after I recovered, and I bumped into the person who was hiring for Pan Am. That’s a long route to the story. I bumped into this woman. Her name was Jackie Higa. She said, “Elaine, are you twenty-one yet?” And I said, “As a matter of fact, I’m going to be twenty-one on this birthday.” She said, “I want you to come and see me.” And she said, “Do you speak Japanese?” And I said, “Well, I speak what we call champon, half-Japanese and half-English.” In Hawaii a lot of us do that. She said, “Come and see me because if you speak a little Japanese and you have the height requirement, the college…” I said, “Jackie, you know I never finished college.” She said, “Come and see me anyway.” That was on a Monday when I bumped into her. 

On a Friday I had an appointment to go and see her, I went to the Pan Am office at the airport, she hired me on the spot, and she said, “You’re going to have to go into the program 

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where you’ve got to study your Japanese, improve your Japanese,” because you had to be bilingual. I said, “Okay, I’ll do whatever you need.” My dream was to travel. As a child growing up in my backyard I was telling you about, I’d daydream and say, “Someday I’m going to be flying and going hither and yon.” 

Anyway, they hired me on that Friday. They needed me to be in school at the Pan Am offices in New York in Kew Gardens, it was in the winter. But Pan Am did not fly intercontinental during those years, so I had to go via London, over the pole, New York, to get to Kew Gardens to get into my class. Well, a girl coming from Hawaii, I didn’t know—and I was flying via London—in winter, I didn’t know that it was going to be that cold, get into Kew Gardens and I meet the other girls and they said, “you need a coat and galoshes.” During those years in that wet snow, I go shopping and I buy—now, mind you, in Hawaii we don’t wear overcoats like that. Anyway, I buy this coat that’s in the window in Kew Gardens. It’s not even New York and it’s not Madison Avenue. But in Kew Gardens I see this tweed coat. I go in and I buy it and I buy boots. Well, that coat was oversized and not my size. I bought it anyway. I was freezing. Now I’ve got this heavy tweed, ugly coat, and my galoshes, and now I’m good to go. Here I am, I’m going to start my classes to become a Pan Am stewardess. 

If anyone tells you that it’s easy to become a stewardess for Pan Am in those years, it wasn’t. You had to study and you had to know your aircraft. It wasn’t what most people assume being a stewardess today. It’s not like, “Oh, would you like coffee, tea, or milk?” It’s not like that at all. I did that whole course. Then you have to take a test. The test is not only a written test, but it’s also the test where you’re on the aircraft and you’ve got to slide down those slides in water and you’ve got to know what you’re doing, opening those emergency exits, all of that. Well, you could have bought me for a nickel. I mean, I had to do all of that. Thank goodness I 

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passed. Yes, I learned to get rid of the exit door and slide down. When you get down in the water, you’ve got to help the other people coming down. We had to go through all of that training. On top of that you’ve got to learn to cook on the plane because in those days on Pan American first class was really first class. You learned to make breakfast in the galley (very small) and all meals on that plane. I never drank wine or I didn’t know anything about mixing drinks. You learned. We had a purser onboard and we had to learn what went…white wine with this, red wine with that. Pan Am was a real education for me. I learned about good wines, and I learned to drink good wines, too, but that came much later. That was my education with Pan Am. Of course, the written test also was no piece of cake. Some of the girls failed. Thank goodness I passed my exams. 

Now they make an announcement. You actually get a Pan American diploma. Then they assign you where you are going to be based. Some of the girls didn’t want to be based in Miami and went to Miami, but it was because of their language, the Latin languages. I had, of course, Pacific Rim, obviously because of the Japanese language, so I got to go home. That was my introduction into Pan American Airlines. 

With Pan American, I must tell you—before they give you your wings, you had these flights and you’re under the wing of people who are real long-time stewardesses. You’re a novice and with the purser and a steward on the flight. My test flight to see if I was okay to be onboard this trip was to Rome. On that trip I was very innocent coming from Honolulu. You wouldn’t believe it today, but I was, honest. I met a man who was famous, but I didn’t know he was famous (he was famous). All the other stewardesses knew who he was. I’m not going to mention his name because that was my first flight. As I was walking up the aisle, he pinched me. I guess that was okay for this naughty, dirty old man. I reported him, and he was none too happy 

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because the purser went to first class and told him, “No, you don’t do that on our flights. These are very respectable girls.” I had to put that in there. That was my first trip. After that it never happened again, but I just thought…when I got back to the other girls and told them the story of what happened, I became the most popular girl there. They wanted to hear all about this trip I had to Rome. That was my introduction to becoming a stewardess, getting my wings. By the way, that never happened again. Here I was off and running. 

What I didn’t know is that the junior stewardesses always got the long trips. The senior stewardesses always took the short trips so they could be at home. I was always out on flights for eleven, twelve days, and that was long, going around the world. But when I look back, it was really my education into becoming an adult. You learned a lot being on your own because we changed crews. The Pacific Rim girls went around completely; the other girls didn’t. They had crew changes. The New York girls got as far as London and they got off, and I had to keep going. It was a wonderful education for sure. I learned things the hard way. Who knew that Bangkok was as hot as Honolulu in the summer? I left on my trip during winter, so I didn’t know that when you got to Bangkok and I had a suit on. I’ll never forget the other crew members laughed at me because I went into the crew room where we all met, and here I was in a wool suit. I had nothing else. But I learned, sometimes the hard way. I learned in Bangkok you could go anywhere and have things made and by the end of the day you could pick it up. That was my world of Pan Am. I loved every moment and I met Wayne on a trip. 

Could you talk about meeting Wayne? 

I met him while I was engaged, actually. Well, not really engaged, but I was pinned, if you will. My boyfriend was away at medical school. I had already broken up with the other guy. I didn’t know that you couldn’t be pinned and engaged at the same time. The boy in Japan gave me a 

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ring, and the boy in medical school gave me his pin. I had a very humorous time. I met Wayne on my second flight. No one wanted to go on this trip because we stopped in Vietnam. We were right in the middle of the Vietnam War, and the girls signed waivers that they were not going into Vietnam. I was new, so I had to take that trip. We made a nonscheduled stop in Saigon. Wayne was there entertaining the troops. He walks onto the flight in a uniform. The purser said to him, “Military in back.” He said, “No. We’re sitting up front.” I guess they got into a confrontation. I didn’t know it because I was in the galley. I was the cook that day. By the way, everybody ignores the cook that’s behind those drapes that you see in the galley. I was back there and I peeked out. This stewardess said, “Did you hear that it’s Wayne Newton?” I went, “Wayne Newton? You mean ‘Danke Schoen?’” And she says, “Yes.” I said, “What’s he doing here?” She said, “Oh, he’s entertaining the troops or something.” 

Wayne comes up to…at that time the Pan Am first class had a bench right across the galley where people came and had their cocktails (Do you remember that?). Well, the first-class section had a lounge, and it was right by the galley where you cook. Wayne comes up. He’s sitting in that lounge and he’s looking at me. He says something cute to be flirty, so I ignored him. I was busy cooking. He said, “Listen, there’s a stop in Hong Kong. Will you have lunch with me?” And I said, “No. No, I can’t. I’m going to lunch with my crew members.” He went back to his seat. He sent his manager up. His name was Tommy Amato at that time. He said, “We’re going to stop in Hong Kong. Will you have lunch with us?” And I said, “No.” He said, “Well, can we get your phone number at least?” And I said, “No.” 

Anyway, I’m cooking, cooking, and this steward says to me, “You’ve got to help us.” We’re serving and all that. During those years Pan Am was served on this cart. You could order sliced beef on the cart and all that. I was the galley girl, so I had to pick up the dirty dishes, 

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because I was the new stewardess. I go back there and again Wayne says to me, “What’s your name?” Anyway, we started talking. He said, “Are you sure you won’t have lunch with me?” I’m like, “No, I can’t. I’m going with the crew.” 

Fast forward, we get to Hong Kong. We land. Here we are, I’m with the crew members and I’m going to go to lunch. Anybody who knows me, I never refuse food. Everyone makes fun of me. In fact, when I was married to Wayne, once said to me, “I would rather clothe you than feed you.” I was always eating. I got off the flight and I see my girlfriend getting on the next flight. We took them as far as Tokyo. I got off in Tokyo. I see Sheila coming on. She goes, “Hey, we’re going on from here to San Francisco.” I said, “Well, I’m laying over in Japan.” He gets on because he’s going on with them, the new crew. He asked her for my phone number, so she gave it to him. 

Fast forward the story, I got home to Honolulu, and my father says to me (my father had a very strong accent). He comes to me and he said, “You got telephone call. Haole boy.” I said, “Who?” He hands me the phone and I said, “Hello?” He said, “Hey, it’s Wayne.” I said, “Oh, Mr. Newton.” He said, “Don’t call me Mr. Newton. Call me Wayne. I feel like you’re talking to my father.” I said, “Oh, what can I help you with?” He says, “Well, you wouldn’t give me your number.” So, “Sheila gave me your number. I want to know if I can meet you at some point somewhere.” 

Well, when he got off the plane, he gave me two roses, one red and one yellow. It was on his dinner tray. Anyway, I kept it. He sends me a bouquet of flowers with yellow and red roses. My daddy was, “Oh my god, a haole boy, oh, no.” Wayne kept calling me. He called me every day. He said, “When is your next trip?” I told him, “It’s going to be in a month to San Francisco. I’m going to San Francisco over the pole again around the world.” He said, “I’m going to meet 

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you in San Francisco.” I thought, okay, but why? He said, “I’d like to take you to dinner.” I said, “Okay. I’m staying at the Holiday Inn.” And he said, “The Holiday Inn by the airport?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “I’m going to come and pick you up. You’ll tell me when you’re there.” 

Now, during those years I didn’t wear designer clothes and I didn’t have all the fluff, but I wore what I wore in Hawaii. I’m in San Francisco and he’s coming to pick me up in a limousine. Now, I’m sitting in the lobby at the Holiday Inn, and in walks Wayne. The closer he got, the bigger he got. I didn’t realize that he was that tall. He was sitting down on the flight. I didn’t know that if I stood next to him, I looked like a tree stump. I didn’t have high heels. I was wearing flats. Here was Wayne, six-foot-four, and here I was. I looked up at him and I thought, oh my god. When he finally walked into the lobby, I was like, “Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize you were so tall.” 

Anyway, that was our first date. He took me to Coit Tower in the limousine. He started asking me questions and blah, blah, blah. I don’t even remember where he took me to dinner. It was so long ago. But he took me there because he wanted to know me better. I’ll never forget. He said, “Do you have a boyfriend?” And I said, “Yes, I do.” He said, “Well, I want you to break up with him because I’m not promising you, but I think I’m going to marry you.” That was our first date. I said, “But you don’t know me and I don’t know you.” He said, “But I know I’m going to marry you. Someday I’m going to marry you.” 

My boyfriend in medical school—there are so many gaps in this story because I had two boyfriends at the time. I said to him, “What do you think about this? He wants to take me out again. He wants me to come to Las Vegas.” He said, “Ah, go. We’ll tell our kids about it someday.” That was… 

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When I was going to see him on another flight to San Francisco, Wayne said, “I am going to pay for a trip for you to come and see me in Las Vegas. I’m playing with Mr. Benny.” Jack Benny. You’re too young to know who that is. For those of us that was exciting, Mr. Benny. My girlfriends in Hawaii who were stewardesses said, “You’re going to Las Vegas?” They tried to put me together to impress him. They loaned me their handbag, one girl with a big handbag. I didn’t have clothes like that during those years because I didn’t dress like that. Another girl loaned me her high heels because I told her how tall Wayne was. I wore my one and only black dress. My girlfriend Florence loaned me a cigarette holder because she smoked. That cigarette holder was quite long. Here I was in Las Vegas with a borrowed handbag, borrowed shoes, and this cigarette holder. 

When Wayne saw me that way, he said, “This doesn’t feel like who you are.” And so I had to tell him the story. “These are borrowed shoes, borrowed handbag, and borrowed cigarette holder.” He says, “You don’t have to do that when you’re with me.” And I said, “No. My girlfriends all said, ‘You know how they are in show business.’” 

Anyway, Wayne and I were finally dating, a lot. It went on for two and a half years. He finally asked me to marry him after that long because I was about to break up and go bye-bye. I said, “Two years; that’s long enough.” Over two years. He said, “Okay, we’re going to get married. It will be a short engagement.” When he finally asked me to marry him, it was on Christmas. He said, “Start planning for the wedding. We’re getting married in June.” And we did. We dated all that time and then got married June first. Then began a very different life. 

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My mother wanted to stick her head in the oven when I told her I was getting married to him. She didn’t care about the fact that he was Caucasian. She cared that he was an entertainer. For Asians, marrying an entertainer and somebody in show business, my mother was not happy, giving up my doctor to marry an entertainer. 

As most of you know—maybe you don’t know—I was married to Wayne for twenty years and lived in that life where Las Vegas was really just beginning to become a hub and everyone started coming here when Wayne was performing and became a big star. Initially he wasn’t. He was with his brother, the Newton Brothers. He was an opening act for Jack Benny. On our honeymoon we went to Australia because he was an opening act for Jack Benny, and that’s where I met Peter Allen and Liza Minnelli because Wayne knew all of them. They were all 

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contemporaries. It was an exciting thing. I met them and traveled with Mr. Benny and Pearl Bailey. It was a period in time that will never be again. He was friendly with Frank Sinatra. We had these games at our house at the ranch. It was volleyball games with all the performers on the Strip. I got a chance to meet Engelbert Humperdinck and Tom Jones, everybody who performed on the Strip during those years. 

Life with Wayne, of course, was not only exciting as far as his performing, but Wayne was very political. He was very much involved in the Republican Party. I don’t know if you know that. We got a chance to go to the White House. We were very involved in the fundraising for Ronald Reagan. I have all those pictures up there of President Ford and myself. When we went to the inaugural ball, President Ford asked me to dance, so I have a picture of that in the albums. Then, of course, it was Richard Nixon, and there’s a picture of me shaking his hand. Ronald Reagan, of course, was very much a part of our lives because both times Wayne was doing a lot of fundraising. We were traveling all over raising money for Ronald Reagan. We were there at his inauguration. I think during the course of my marriage to Wayne in the twenty years, I had been to the White House about ten or eleven times. In fact, one year we were on the west side of the White House watching the fireworks for Fourth of July because they were not there. They invited us to stay after Wayne performed and we watched the fireworks from there. 

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24 Dancing with President Gerald Ford 

It was a very exciting twenty years. Unfortunately, as things happened…am I allowed to say he was engaged while we were still married? No, maybe it’s not a good thing to say for the archives. Wayne, before our divorce, met a beautiful girl. In fact, my daughter is still friendly with her, as I am, but I don’t really see her or speak to her that much. I like her because she was very good to my daughter when she was with Wayne. But he met someone who was a television actress and they became engaged. He forgot to tell me because we were still married. Ultimately we got divorced. He said, and not only did he say it to me, he said it to her, “I would have never left my wife. I would have stayed married.” She told me this story. Even after he told her that he would marry her, he said at the end of the day when I asked him for a divorce, he told her, “I would have never left my wife.” Marla did tell me that. I don’t know how true it is. You can delete that part if you like, but it’s a part that says why we got divorced. We got divorced. 

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We have a daughter, Erin. Her name is Erin Miel Newton-Mel-Vanguizen, and now she’s divorced. Her middle name is Miel, which means honey. She is hyphenating her name now. She was married to Adam Mel and got divorced and was married to Robert Vanguizen and they’re 

now divorced. It’s going to be a very long name. My daughter and I are very close. We speak, text every day. There was a period of time, though, after I got divorced from Wayne and during our divorce that she was not speaking to me because she thought…Daddy’s girl…it’s your fault. But now we’ve become very close. In fact, she’s always sending me text messages, always. “Mother, do you know this?” Or she’ll call me. Ironically, it’s taken time. Now that she’s a mother and she understands and is always telling me, “Mom, you are my best friend. I’m so glad that you waited for me to grow up.” 

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That’s a part of my life that was very exciting, lots of parties, lots of different experiences. 

You’ve obviously been here a long time. Could you tell us a little bit about how you’ve seen Vegas change and grow over time? 

Oh, it’s changed dramatically. You weren’t born yet, I guess. When I moved here and married Wayne, where we lived at the Casa de Shenandoah area, it was quite a drive to the strip on Sunset. Well, since then, Henderson and Clark County sort of melted together after many years. When I first moved here in the late ‘60s, that area where we built our home was completely barren. It was all open land, desert. Sunset and Pecos, do you know that area there? 

Yes. 

Well, that’s where I lived, Sunset and Pecos. There was nothing there. When I drove to the Strip on Sunset, all you saw was dirt. When you ask how much it’s changed, at one time to go for a drive, we would go towards Henderson and to Lake Mead, and for us it was a real outing. He’d say, “Okay, come on, let’s go for a drive.” We took picnic food because we went as far as Lake Mead. That should give you an idea of how much it’s changed because Henderson now, when you think of Henderson, you think MacDonald Highlands and the shopping center and all of that. Now the freeway takes you twenty minutes to get anywhere; that’s all it is. But when my friends in Henderson say, “Come on and come for cocktails,” I say, “I can’t.” I can’t go that far and drink. I can’t drink and drive twenty minutes. 

My girlfriend who lives in MacDonald Highlands, she and her husband will drive and meet us here because for me, Henderson is a long drive. It’s true. Now, no, it’s all built up and homes all around where I lived with Wayne. There still are a few people, I guess, that have horses there. 

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But having said that, the Strip has changed more dramatically, I think. Oh no, I can’t say that because Summerlin has been built up. This area here that’s called Summerlin was nothing but mountains. I mean, the poor coyotes that were run out of Red Rock and all that. Driving up here in the ‘60s and ‘70s, there was nothing but mountains. This whole city has changed. When I think of the Strip, there was nothing. Stefani, do you remember downtown Las Vegas? When Wayne was working the Strip and when I think back of the Flamingo and the Desert Inn and the Stardust, it was quite a different city then. Kind of primitive, would you say, Stefani, in those days? When you went downtown, there was very little there. I never went downtown unless—I would go to the pawn shops down there when I did go downtown. We never went there for dinners or anything. We were always at the Sands for dinner. During those years I was very close friends with Ann Anka, who was married to Paul Anka. Ann and I would meet at the Dunes Hotel. Do you remember the Dunes Hotel? Are you old enough to remember the Dunes? 

Oh no. I just read about it. 

Okay, I’ve been put in my place. Well, the Dunes, we would meet at a dining area that they had a harpist. Do you remember that, Stefani, at all? 

SE: Yes. Was it the Dome of the Sea? 

It was the Dome of the Sea. Good thinking. 

She was on a track. 

And we would go there and we’d be sitting there having dinner and listening to the harpist. We loved going there because it was relaxing. If we didn’t meet there, we met at Caesars Palace. At the top of Caesars there was that fabulous restaurant. Do you remember? 

Bacchanal? 

The Palace… 

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Palace Court. 

Yes. I’m sad that you have to read about it because it was a point in time in history here that we never went out without a long gown or a long dress. When we went to dinner, we were dressed. As a matter of fact, one funny story, I was very friendly with the Doumanis. Do you remember the Doumanis? He was part of the Tropicana Hotel, all the hotels because he was part of the La Concha and…You don’t remember the La Concha because you wouldn’t. It doesn’t exist. However, this family were very much a part in the growth of the city. 

One night we went to the Tropicana Hotel and a very social couple, their names are Dr. Parvin and Ted Jacobs—we had a group. We never went out without a long gown. Eleanora Doumani sent out invitations to our little group of close friends—the Molaskys and, of course, it was Ted and Parvin and…who else was a part of that group? It was Wayne and I. I’m trying to think of who else was there that night in celebration of a handbag. Theodore was getting dressed, and Parvin tells me this story. Parvin is ninety now, still alive, thank you, God. I love her so much. She was the original haute couturier. She wore haute couture clothes that she made. She was one of the best doctors in town, an internist. Both doctors, husband, wife, son and daughter are doctors. Her sister is a doctor. Her brother is a doctor. The whole family. Anyway, they were getting ready, and Theodore says to her, “Now, what are we celebrating tonight?” She said, “We’re celebrating a minaudiere.” He said, “What is a minaudiere?” She said, “It’s a handbag.” It’s an all-gold handbag. We had this minaudiere sitting in the middle of the table in celebration of this handbag. We were dressed to the nines. She said, “Put your jewelry on. Have a long gown on.” Off we went to the Tropicana Hotel. 

They all worked so hard and on weekends we celebrated. That was a period in time that everyone dressed in Las Vegas. In the ‘70s, do you remember, Stefani, all the ‘70s, it was the 

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years of opulence here in Vegas where everyone wore long dresses. When they came into Las Vegas and they were at the Palace Court or whatever, you’d walk in and everyone was dressed. Yes, has it changed? Think of this. Now, you’re young. You go to the casinos. Think of us during those years. Now people wear shorts and T-shirts and tennis shoes or something. At night you can get away with wearing jeans and a nice jacket or whatever. During those days, we dressed up. Yes, has it changed? A lot! Is it more fun now? Probably. You’re more casual. You can go to nightclubs and not have to…But are you of age to go to nightclubs yet? 

No. 

Oh, okay. Well, when you get there. I’ll tell you how much it’s changed. This is just a little touch of humor. Whenever I go to the Strip now, the dresses are getting shorter on these girls. I look and even my boyfriend says, “Oh my gosh, she’s wearing a long top.” Things have evolved. There is much more freedom today for sure on the Strip. Would you say, Stefani? Right? We were a lot more conscious, I think, and we all behaved very well during those years. You dressed right. I always had someone with me. I never went out alone. Am I right? You too? Yes, that was it. That was the ‘70s. 

In the ‘80s it started changing all the more. And now, 2021, look, here we are. We have Summerlin all built. Now going up to Mount Charleston is easy. That was an outing. When we went to Mount Charleston in the old days, it was a real drive. It’s changed. Our city has all sort of melted together into one large community. 

What other kinds of activities did you end up doing in Vegas, and what are you doing now? 

In answer, I’ll go backwards. What I’m doing now, I’m going to say since COVID, I don’t travel as much. Prior to, I had wanderlust. I lived in L.A. I lived in New York. I spent three months a year in London. My biggest education was through other people while I was traveling. This is 

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why I’m in love with that Swedish person that started that shipping company. You know he’s Swedish? Is it Viking? That cruise line. Because he’s on PBS always talking about this and that. He gave the most profound little advertisement about his travels during COVID. Now in the time of COVID he has made these videos so you can continue to travel. I love this man because he talked, prior to COVID, about the education that you have through traveling and learning through other backgrounds, countries, ethnic groups. This is why I’m riveted watching NHK [Japanese Broadcasting Corporation]. I wish everyone would put it on their television because it’s not only about Japan, it’s about all of the Far East, Southeast, Asia. I’ve learned more about Myanmar, I’ve learned more about China, Bangkok. On NHK you learn more about what’s going on, and they don’t give commentary on the news. The newscasters give news and that’s what they record. There’s not these side commentaries about this and that and their personal opinions. 

We’re going to get into that about the Asians. I know you want to know how I feel about what’s happening in the Asian community. But I think that if you learn anything from me today, anything at all, one smidgen, I encourage you to learn about other backgrounds, ethnic groups. I have gotten much more compassionate towards different societies of people and now with what’s 

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going on in the Middle East. I seriously fear for my grandchildren without the knowledge of what is happening around the world today. I’m going to segue into this whole Asian hate crimes that are happening because I absolutely don’t understand it because it’s happening now around the world. In England it’s escalated. I lived in London for three months a year for three years. Not anymore, but during that time. There were so many, of course, Chinese because it was British in Hong Kong during those years. I don’t understand what’s happening with the Asian hate crimes that are going on because we have pockets of so many Asians around our country—New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles. I mean, the largest Japanese community outside of Japan is in Sao Paulo, in Brazil. I don’t understand why it’s happening, but I think that it’s really important for all of us to understand different ethnic groups. 

I was having dinner the other night with my girlfriend who is a fund-raiser for Israel in a very big way. We started talking about what’s happening with the Palestinians. Of course, my boyfriend who is Irish would have to open his mouth and get into this argument about, well, the Palestinians have been there forever. There is a time and place for people to discuss politics openly without feeling like you’re going to criticize one ethnic group against another ethnic group. I think it’s important that they educate these haters that are beating up people who are in their sixties and seventies on the street. Like in New York, a man punched a sixty-five-year-old woman in the head who was Asian. Why? I don’t like to say it’s because he’s this or that, but I do believe that it’s a lack of education and it starts at the home. What do you think? Am I wrong? If we don’t teach our children to be more compassionate and to learn about other communities… 

I don’t know if you like PBS. Well, if you do, if it runs again I want you to watch this documentary. Maybe you have seen it. It’s on Amy Tan. As you know, Amy Tan wrote Joy Luck 

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Club and a lot of other books. I can watch it again and again and see something different every time because the way her mind works and the way she’s able to articulate what happened in her life. For me, my life is good but when I watched her and saw what she went through and the process she took to become who she is today, it’s from the kind of parents that she had. She talks about her crazy mother. Did you see it? Well, yes, her mother was crazy. She was. She tried to kill herself several times. Anyway, watch it because I think as your life unfolds (if you will) it is a process and what we’re learning now with this whole Asian abuse that we’re talking about, I experienced it early on, long before this ever happened. 

I’ll just give you a little story. When I was married to Wayne, he was asked to perform in South Africa. He refused because they wouldn’t allow me to stay in the same hotel. They considered me Black, anybody of a different color if you were not White in South Africa. They wanted him to perform in one of the casinos, and he said, “No. My wife stays with me or I don’t come.” I was sort of scratching my head, like what was that about? Born and raised in Hawaii, we were in a majority, the Asians. 

But I experienced it again when we were fund-raising. I think this was the Ronald Reagan era. We were in Oklahoma. In Oklahoma I had no idea that they were so racist. I shouldn’t say that because it’s not true with all Oklahomans. This one woman was supposed to be my chaperone to show me around the city while Wayne was doing a fundraiser. She refused because she said I was Asian. She said, “No, I’m not going to escort her anywhere.” That was a shock to me and it was a shock to my husband at that time, Wayne. He couldn’t believe it and he was very offended by it. 

Wayne’s almost biggest fistfight was over me. It was in his dressing room. A group of baseball players came in to pay homage to him. One of the baseball players said loud enough for 

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his bodyguard to hear it, and Wayne went ballistic. He said to the other players, “I didn’t know Wayne Newton was married to a chink.” Wayne took off. They had to take that guy out of the dressing room because Wayne went ballistic. He wanted to choke him. 

Have I experienced? I guess that should tell you by just these few stories I have for you. Yes, I have. Of course, at that time my umbrella was very big. He was very protective, and we had a lot of bodyguards. Anybody that would have approached me would have gotten beaten up, if you will. Yes, I did experience that whole Asian hate thing and judgment. I truly did not understand it even when it happened because here I was married to one of the biggest stars on the Strip and they looked at me in a very unkind manner and would say a very pejorative comment like that. Yes, so in answer to the question you asked me, Stefani, early on, about discrimination. So, here it is. 

I hope you are not experiencing anything in school. I hope not. If you are, by the way, a very good friend of mine who is involved in haute couture who worked for Oscar de la Renta is involved with Carolyn Goodman on this whole issue with anti-Asian comments and anti-Asian discrimination. If you ever experience anything, you have to bring it forward, because most Asians won’t. Asians, by and large, are not willing to come forward. I don’t know if it’s a shyness or whatever it is. But David did say in one of their meetings, they asked, “Have any of you gotten any kind of Asian abuse whether it be verbal or physical?” And he said, “One by one the hands went up.” He said, “Did you report it?” And they said, “No.” He did mention to all of the group that were there that if you have friends, family members, anyone, you must come forward. I do believe that our governor’s wife is Asian and she made a speech in one of her public appearances. It is important because I think no one wants abuse of any kind. I hope I helped you. I know that we went overtime. 

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I just have one last question. Why do you believe it’s valuable for the university to collect interviews such as yours? 

I can’t answer that. I can tell you that probably the best answers come from all of you who know nothing and have experienced nothing during my era because of your youth. You’re all newbies, if you will. Right? You’re not even twenty-one yet, and here I am in a few years going to be eighty. What I’ve experienced I can share with you. Hence, you write and make notes for the archives so that when we’re gone and my grandchildren are at your age, they have that to look forward to reading. I will give you one example. My nephew, who is an attorney, has children who were born and raised in Las Vegas. Italian mother. My nephew is Japanese American. They know nothing about our heritage. I believe that if you deny your heritage, you have none, so hang onto that. My nephew’s fiancé’s son, who is eight years old, said to me, “Auntie Elaine, what are you doing and what are you talking about?” His mother, Jill, who is Japanese Hawaiian, younger than me, obviously, everybody is these days, said, “I want to know about you. My son always asks.” She said, “My son says, ‘Where did Auntie Elaine come from and how come she was married to Wayne? How did she know about the rabbits?” That’s another story. 

Yes, I think that it’s important for you to remind everyone, your children and your children’s children who you are, where you came from, and go through the archive. I hope that answers your question. 

Yes. Thank you. 

KP: I actually had just one question. Earlier, a lot earlier, you mentioned that you had a lot of leis during the graduations and everything. For me, I actually don’t know a lot about them, but I see them everywhere. Could you tell me the cultural significance behind it, and any stories you have? 

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It’s actually not my story because it’s from the Hawaiian culture. Just recently, ironically, on Good Morning America—I don’t know if you saw it—they did a whole segment on Hawaii. It wasn’t my story because I don’t know that much about it except that I made my own leis and I made my own hula skirts. But on that program they had a girl from Hawaii explaining the significance about the lei. It is a ceremonial thing from the Hawaiians, leis for weddings, for certain ceremonies. And the crown you see that they wear, all of that was in celebration of different events. The maile lei, weddings, you see the maile lei with all the green leaves. It’s a wedding lei. The flowers, being from Hawaii, it was an ornament. If you can find that segment, it will explain to you exactly. I don’t know if you know this, but in Hawaii now the part-Hawaiians, at one time you couldn’t go to Kamehameha unless you had Hawaiian blood. Because the Hawaiian blood has been diffused by so many different nationalities—the Portuguese, the Chinese, the Japanese—if you have a smidgen of Hawaiian blood, you can still go to Kamehameha. Ironically, I never thought that any of my family would end up in these different private schools that had normally only Hawaiians. Now it’s opened up to other nationalities. But my niece’s children graduated from ‘Iolani. I don’t know if you know anything about ‘Iolani. Both of them, male and female, both children went there. There are a lot of interracial things in Hawaii and the lei is one of them, but I cannot really tell you a lot about it except that you can learn more by watching that about kids and young adults that learn about their background through research. 

As far as the lei, I only knew that while growing up…I was an oddball amongst my siblings because I loved everything Hawaiian. I dance the hula. I took hula classes from the time I was very little. My sister took Japanese voice classes and Japanese dancing. I learned to do the hula, play the ukulele, and made my own hula skirts. In our family, it was odd because my sister 

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did everything Japanese, till today. She’s eighty. We get in the car and she’s got Japanese tapes on. I go, “Oh my golly.” She’s listening to this Japanese music. I never knew what enka was. My sister still loves enka; it’s a Japanese form of music that is traditional Japanese. I’m still learning and loving my Japanese heritage everyday. 

Anyway, this is the Hawaiian lei thing. I grew up making leis. I would take plumeria flowers from our tree in the backyard and make my own plumeria leis. You’ll look into it and you’ll probably teach me something about my own background. 

I just wanted to ask, what made you stay in Vegas? I know that you traveled and you love to travel. 

Yes. This was my home base because my family is here. I have my nephews who moved here, my lawyer nephew, my dentist nephew, and my engineer nephew. My sister and her husband retired and moved here from Belgium. My brother-in-law is an aeronautical engineer, Japanese Hawaiian. My sister was with the IRS for thirty-five years. She’s a mathematician, also. Her forte was math in college, et cetera. Anyway, they moved here because her sons are here. I have a family unit here. As that family unit grew, I was in Los Angeles for six months during the year and six months here. Then from here I went six months here and six months New York because you have to; otherwise, taxes. I kept home base here because of the tax structure. When I was living in London, I lived in London three months only during the summer—June, July, August. In September I would come home. During that time my sister lived in Brussels, so I would go back and forth to Brussels, because he was stationed there with the FAA. My brother-in-law is really quite something. He was one of a few people with the FAA who decided whether the planes could fly and if they were good to go. When he retired, a Korean company, he sort of freelanced. He would go to Korea to check out airplanes, Israel. They live across the street. Now 

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we’re in Vegas because our family is here. We go back to Hawaii as well. November we’ll be going home. I still call Hawaii home and I’ll probably end up, I say in retirement, there, but who knows? Only God knows. But that’s the reason why I’m here. I can bounce back and forth. I haven’t been since COVID. 

Very quick side story. You can turn that off if you will. You see these rabbits and those rabbits. Well, rabbits in Japanese Asian numbers, the number eight and the number nine is very lucky, in Chinese, and number four and number six is not so lucky. I bought that eight painting rabbit at my front door because it’s lucky. I only have five there because those are the only ones that I could afford to buy at the time. This artist’s name is Hunt Slonem. He’s quite famous. You can look him up. In his genre he is the only American modernist that is in a Russian museum. This is why I bought it, for the number eight. Asians, right? Aren’t we superstitious? 

Well, thank you so much for coming. Hopefully this will help someone. Maybe, who knows, when I’m gone and you have grandchildren, you’ll take them to the archive and read all of the judges and whomever that you can introduce to a part of history that is far gone by that time. We’ll be going and flying into space according to the owner of Tesla. Isn’t it true? 

[End of recorded interview]