March 19, 2021 • 11 mins
Holly and Tracy talk about the appeal of Duke Kahanamoku, his story being illustrative of the problematic nature of cultures being subverted in an effort to get along with others, and his love of naps.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and Happy Friday, everybody. I'm
Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Oh. We had
to talk a lot about Hawaii this week. Tracy. Yeah,
I know, I know. It's one of your favorite places
(00:22):
that you love so much. I love it so much.
I can't even describe it. Hawaii change the way I vacation,
which I have maybe talked about on the show before,
but prior to that, most of our vacations were like
running vacations, where we would be like, let's go and
I'll run a half marathon in this city, and we'll
also explore the city. And then for our our anniversary
(00:43):
one year, we went to Hawaii went we went to
Oahu incid Emily and like we did nothing. It was
the first time I had ever done nothing on a
vacation and I was like, wait, you mean I don't
have to get up at three in the morning and
put on my shoes and warm up and go run
a bunch of This is how we vacation from now on.
It changed my life. The story of Duke Kahanamoku was
very appealing to me for a number of reasons, obviously,
(01:06):
but one of the ones that I really thought was
important about his story is how clearly it illustrates the
ways that people assume that they know how someone who
is in the public spotlight lives. Right. We presume that
if you are famous, you are also wealthy, in your
life is fairly easy, and people give you things and
(01:26):
take care of you. And this evidence is that that
is often not the case. In the case of Duke Kahanamoku,
there is a racist element to that, right, Like he
went to Hollywood and struck out, whereas Johnny wise Miller
went to Hollywood and made it big. He talked later
in his life about how Jim Thorpe suffered a similar
(01:46):
situation where it was like after the Olympics, he didn't
have a lot of options because the things that he
may have been able to succeed in he was not
allowed access to because he was not white, which is
is really interesting. Um, we also talked you and I
talked before we started recording about like the whole tangled
(02:08):
mess of assimilation that has always been perceived in very
similar ways to what we've talked about before. Yeah, we
have talked uh in a number of previous episodes about
basically when a colonized people was trying to figure out
how to survive, um, not everybody having the same opinion
(02:31):
on the best way to do that, and having uh,
you know, one part of a community thinking Okay, maybe
if we assimilate with this to at least some extent,
we will be able to survive, and then other people
within the community thinking that basically the opposite of that, like,
let's retain our culture at all costs. And I always
feel like like I am a white woman talking from
(02:51):
the safety of my house where I live and have
none of these pressures on me, so like I don't
really feel like I ever uh have space to judge.
There's things, but so a tangel At the same time, Yes,
it seems there's this extra layer to it in the
Hawaiian scenario to where I think so much of Hawaiian
(03:15):
culture is about being relaxed and cool with everybody, and
that there was a very um there seemed to be,
at least again from my perspective reading on it, a
very concerted effort to maintain that image to the whole world. Um.
And so that gets into a whole other thing. We're
like no, we have to be the nicest, coolest, best,
(03:38):
most relaxed and accepting, and that also means part of this,
but that caused a lot of problems as well obviously. Um.
It's also really interesting. I watched there's an episode of
This Is Your Life about Duke. Oh yeah, you were
telling me about this That was filmed I think in
the nineteen fifties. He was already married. Um, and it's
(04:01):
really interesting because I was one blessed the host you
can see sort of that same the way Victorian exoticism,
uh wanted to like, you know, assimilate its language to
include other cultures and felt like they were being inclusive,
but really there was a whole weird construct going on there.
(04:23):
There's a similar thing going on there, and bless them,
Duke roles with the whole thing, where like the host
keeps calling it havaii and I'm like, um, yeah, I
mean the listeners can't see the face I just made.
This is easy to see online this episode. Um, but
it is really interesting. And one thing that really struck
me was Duke's sister Bernice talking about the day they
(04:47):
all became American citizens and how proud they were of
that and I'm like, where you really are you just
being super nice because you're a super nice person. Um,
And we don't I don't know. I mean that whole
family seemed incredibly nice and kind. Um. I will not
go into specifics because it's way too adult for this podcast.
But I did tell you also about a quote from
(05:08):
Duke's brother that we cannot use about Duke's relationship with
tourists young women, but basically confirming that he played the
field a lot. Yeah, like that's also become a stereotype
right of the of the having the fling with the
hot swimming instructor. Yes, you also mentioned the sleeping. Yeah,
(05:34):
so much napping. I'm I'm on board. I mean, I
number one, if you're an athlete, sometimes you gotta take
the nap when you can get it. But also that
was just about athletic I know he was. There is
a really good nap story that I saved for this. Yeah,
tell me so. We mentioned in the episode that at
(05:55):
one point, to try to make ends meet, he had
taken a job as an underwater inspector for the city government,
which meant that he would put on his scuba gear
and like go down and inspect like the pilings underneath
docs and stuff. He fell asleep underwater once the person
(06:16):
that was working with him expected him. Like, it sounds
like I could be misremembering the details, but it sounds
like they were moving on land from spot to spot
and like signaling back and forth with Duke who is underwater.
And they got to the next spot and Duke never
showed up and never showed up, and they went back
and he had just curled up in his scuba gear underwater,
sleeping away, having a naperu. That seems terrifying to me
(06:41):
as a person with lifelong insomnia. This is just a
majestic unicorn of a concept. I'm like, you mean you
just closed your eyes if you were asleep? What is that?
How does Yeah? I should also mention it's less fun,
but that um. That statue of do at Waikiki is
(07:02):
not universally loved because of the way it's positioned, which
is that Duke is facing towards the city and away
from the beach. And there were several people that said, like,
if you ever took lessons from Duke, and he would
just casually teach people, like even if it was not
a formal lesson, and he was not getting paid. If
he saw someone like struggling with a surfboard on the beach,
(07:24):
he would be like, do you want some pointers? Like
and they often wouldn't even know, like, oh, an olympian
is literally standing here teaching me how to surf and
swim in the waters of Hawaii. Right, But he would
tell people, and told apparently several people like that you
never turn your back on the water, like just so
you maintain aware situational awareness. And so the fact that
his statue is turned with its back to the water
(07:44):
really troubles some people, and that he is facing like
all of the kind of tourist parts of Waikiki and
not the natural part of Waikiki is, you know, not
something everyone loves, so oin of mind if you go visit.
I encourage everyone who am has any opportunity to to
go visit Hawaii and ohah who in particular is I
(08:06):
love it? Yeah? Yeah, I um So, before the pandemic started,
I think Hawaiian Airlines announced that they were starting direct
service from Boston to Hawaii, and I had this moment
where I was like, should we good? We had a
different vacation planned for that year, so it was not
(08:27):
something that was possible. Um, and then the then the
pandemic started. So I'm definitely not getting on an airplane
to fly any place at this moment. Yeah, we were
supposed to go to Hawaii this year because um, I
am turning fifty this year and two days after that,
Brian's mom turns eighty and we were all going to
(08:50):
go for thats just not going to happen. Now. It's
also our anniversary at the end of the year, so
we may see if that will work. Yeah, but I
certainly have my list of all the things I want
to do. Sometimes you just nothing, and that's great. I
have my same beautiful breakfast every morning. Yeah, I just
(09:13):
see what happens. I take naps on vacation in Hawaii.
It's magical. Like I said, I know, that's an incredibly
privileging to be able to do. So I hope if
anyone has the opportunity they seize it because it really
is a spectacular place and like just beautiful. And I
always get in great conversations with people that live there,
(09:34):
and they're so willing to like teach you about the land,
and they'll tell you where their secret hangouts are on
where the beaches are like not the touristy beaches, and
it's just really wonderful. So I love so much, so
much love for Hawaii. Um, if you are having a
weekend that is a real weekend and not a work weekend,
(09:55):
we hope it's wonderful. If you're working, we hope everyone
is nice to you and that you have his little
stress as possible, uh, to honor that Hawaiian spirit and
maybe take a nap in honor of Duke Kahanamoku, who
I like I said at the top of that two
parter was delightful to research because he really was not
a jerk. Yeah, couldn't find find dirt on that man.
(10:21):
So thank you, thank you, thank you for listening. Subscribe
if you wish. We'll be here every Friday with our
little shorty insights into how we researched the week's episode
and what we loved about it. UH and sometimes random
other stuff. Sometimes random other stuff. Let's all go to Hawaii. UH.
May people do with stuff you miss an history class
(10:41):
trip to Hawaii one day. I would do it. I
think that sounds like a grand plant. Otherwise, we hope
you all take care and we'll see you back here
next week. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(11:03):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H m
hm
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, A production
of I Heart Radio. Hello, and Happy Friday, everybody. I'm
Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Oh. We had
to talk a lot about Hawaii this week. Tracy. Yeah,
I know, I know. It's one of your favorite places
(00:22):
that you love so much. I love it so much.
I can't even describe it. Hawaii change the way I vacation,
which I have maybe talked about on the show before,
but prior to that, most of our vacations were like
running vacations, where we would be like, let's go and
I'll run a half marathon in this city, and we'll
also explore the city. And then for our our anniversary
(00:43):
one year, we went to Hawaii went we went to
Oahu incid Emily and like we did nothing. It was
the first time I had ever done nothing on a
vacation and I was like, wait, you mean I don't
have to get up at three in the morning and
put on my shoes and warm up and go run
a bunch of This is how we vacation from now on.
It changed my life. The story of Duke Kahanamoku was
very appealing to me for a number of reasons, obviously,
(01:06):
but one of the ones that I really thought was
important about his story is how clearly it illustrates the
ways that people assume that they know how someone who
is in the public spotlight lives. Right. We presume that
if you are famous, you are also wealthy, in your
life is fairly easy, and people give you things and
(01:26):
take care of you. And this evidence is that that
is often not the case. In the case of Duke Kahanamoku,
there is a racist element to that, right, Like he
went to Hollywood and struck out, whereas Johnny wise Miller
went to Hollywood and made it big. He talked later
in his life about how Jim Thorpe suffered a similar
(01:46):
situation where it was like after the Olympics, he didn't
have a lot of options because the things that he
may have been able to succeed in he was not
allowed access to because he was not white, which is
is really interesting. Um, we also talked you and I
talked before we started recording about like the whole tangled
(02:08):
mess of assimilation that has always been perceived in very
similar ways to what we've talked about before. Yeah, we
have talked uh in a number of previous episodes about
basically when a colonized people was trying to figure out
how to survive, um, not everybody having the same opinion
(02:31):
on the best way to do that, and having uh,
you know, one part of a community thinking Okay, maybe
if we assimilate with this to at least some extent,
we will be able to survive, and then other people
within the community thinking that basically the opposite of that, like,
let's retain our culture at all costs. And I always
feel like like I am a white woman talking from
(02:51):
the safety of my house where I live and have
none of these pressures on me, so like I don't
really feel like I ever uh have space to judge.
There's things, but so a tangel At the same time, Yes,
it seems there's this extra layer to it in the
Hawaiian scenario to where I think so much of Hawaiian
(03:15):
culture is about being relaxed and cool with everybody, and
that there was a very um there seemed to be,
at least again from my perspective reading on it, a
very concerted effort to maintain that image to the whole world. Um.
And so that gets into a whole other thing. We're
like no, we have to be the nicest, coolest, best,
(03:38):
most relaxed and accepting, and that also means part of this,
but that caused a lot of problems as well obviously. Um.
It's also really interesting. I watched there's an episode of
This Is Your Life about Duke. Oh yeah, you were
telling me about this That was filmed I think in
the nineteen fifties. He was already married. Um, and it's
(04:01):
really interesting because I was one blessed the host you
can see sort of that same the way Victorian exoticism,
uh wanted to like, you know, assimilate its language to
include other cultures and felt like they were being inclusive,
but really there was a whole weird construct going on there.
(04:23):
There's a similar thing going on there, and bless them,
Duke roles with the whole thing, where like the host
keeps calling it havaii and I'm like, um, yeah, I
mean the listeners can't see the face I just made.
This is easy to see online this episode. Um, but
it is really interesting. And one thing that really struck
me was Duke's sister Bernice talking about the day they
(04:47):
all became American citizens and how proud they were of
that and I'm like, where you really are you just
being super nice because you're a super nice person. Um,
And we don't I don't know. I mean that whole
family seemed incredibly nice and kind. Um. I will not
go into specifics because it's way too adult for this podcast.
But I did tell you also about a quote from
(05:08):
Duke's brother that we cannot use about Duke's relationship with
tourists young women, but basically confirming that he played the
field a lot. Yeah, like that's also become a stereotype
right of the of the having the fling with the
hot swimming instructor. Yes, you also mentioned the sleeping. Yeah,
(05:34):
so much napping. I'm I'm on board. I mean, I
number one, if you're an athlete, sometimes you gotta take
the nap when you can get it. But also that
was just about athletic I know he was. There is
a really good nap story that I saved for this. Yeah,
tell me so. We mentioned in the episode that at
(05:55):
one point, to try to make ends meet, he had
taken a job as an underwater inspector for the city government,
which meant that he would put on his scuba gear
and like go down and inspect like the pilings underneath
docs and stuff. He fell asleep underwater once the person
(06:16):
that was working with him expected him. Like, it sounds
like I could be misremembering the details, but it sounds
like they were moving on land from spot to spot
and like signaling back and forth with Duke who is underwater.
And they got to the next spot and Duke never
showed up and never showed up, and they went back
and he had just curled up in his scuba gear underwater,
sleeping away, having a naperu. That seems terrifying to me
(06:41):
as a person with lifelong insomnia. This is just a
majestic unicorn of a concept. I'm like, you mean you
just closed your eyes if you were asleep? What is that?
How does Yeah? I should also mention it's less fun,
but that um. That statue of do at Waikiki is
(07:02):
not universally loved because of the way it's positioned, which
is that Duke is facing towards the city and away
from the beach. And there were several people that said, like,
if you ever took lessons from Duke, and he would
just casually teach people, like even if it was not
a formal lesson, and he was not getting paid. If
he saw someone like struggling with a surfboard on the beach,
(07:24):
he would be like, do you want some pointers? Like
and they often wouldn't even know, like, oh, an olympian
is literally standing here teaching me how to surf and
swim in the waters of Hawaii. Right, But he would
tell people, and told apparently several people like that you
never turn your back on the water, like just so
you maintain aware situational awareness. And so the fact that
his statue is turned with its back to the water
(07:44):
really troubles some people, and that he is facing like
all of the kind of tourist parts of Waikiki and
not the natural part of Waikiki is, you know, not
something everyone loves, so oin of mind if you go visit.
I encourage everyone who am has any opportunity to to
go visit Hawaii and ohah who in particular is I
(08:06):
love it? Yeah? Yeah, I um So, before the pandemic started,
I think Hawaiian Airlines announced that they were starting direct
service from Boston to Hawaii, and I had this moment
where I was like, should we good? We had a
different vacation planned for that year, so it was not
(08:27):
something that was possible. Um, and then the then the
pandemic started. So I'm definitely not getting on an airplane
to fly any place at this moment. Yeah, we were
supposed to go to Hawaii this year because um, I
am turning fifty this year and two days after that,
Brian's mom turns eighty and we were all going to
(08:50):
go for thats just not going to happen. Now. It's
also our anniversary at the end of the year, so
we may see if that will work. Yeah, but I
certainly have my list of all the things I want
to do. Sometimes you just nothing, and that's great. I
have my same beautiful breakfast every morning. Yeah, I just
(09:13):
see what happens. I take naps on vacation in Hawaii.
It's magical. Like I said, I know, that's an incredibly
privileging to be able to do. So I hope if
anyone has the opportunity they seize it because it really
is a spectacular place and like just beautiful. And I
always get in great conversations with people that live there,
(09:34):
and they're so willing to like teach you about the land,
and they'll tell you where their secret hangouts are on
where the beaches are like not the touristy beaches, and
it's just really wonderful. So I love so much, so
much love for Hawaii. Um, if you are having a
weekend that is a real weekend and not a work weekend,
(09:55):
we hope it's wonderful. If you're working, we hope everyone
is nice to you and that you have his little
stress as possible, uh, to honor that Hawaiian spirit and
maybe take a nap in honor of Duke Kahanamoku, who
I like I said at the top of that two
parter was delightful to research because he really was not
a jerk. Yeah, couldn't find find dirt on that man.
(10:21):
So thank you, thank you, thank you for listening. Subscribe
if you wish. We'll be here every Friday with our
little shorty insights into how we researched the week's episode
and what we loved about it. UH and sometimes random
other stuff. Sometimes random other stuff. Let's all go to Hawaii. UH.
May people do with stuff you miss an history class
(10:41):
trip to Hawaii one day. I would do it. I
think that sounds like a grand plant. Otherwise, we hope
you all take care and we'll see you back here
next week. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from my
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(11:03):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H m
hm
Stuff You Missed in History Class News
Hosts And Creators
Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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