[Dixielandjazz] Don Ho has left the Building, at Age 76 R.I. P.

[tcashwigg at aol.com]

'Tiny Bubbles' Crooner Don Ho Dies
By JAYMES SONG
AP
HONOLULU (April 14) -- Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained 
tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing 
the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died. He was 76.

He died Saturday morning of heart failure, publicist Donna Jung said.

Ho had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had 
a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental 
stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand.

Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for 
four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing 
his Waikiki show -- a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii 
history and audience participation.

Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles." Ho 
mostly hummed the song's swaying melody as the audience 
enthusiastically took over the familiar lyrics: "Tiny bubbles/in the 
wine/make me happy/make me feel fine."

"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd. He said he performed 
it twice because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."

The son of bar owners, Ho broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene in 
the early 1960s and, except for short periods, never left. Few artists 
are more associated with one place.

"Hawaii is my partner," Ho told The Associated Press in 2004.

Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and 
German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the 
then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

In high school, he was a star football  player and worked for a brief 
time in a pineapple cannery. After graduating in 1949, he attended 
Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He 
grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the 
University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during 
World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he 
piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and 
Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling 
neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started 
performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played 
songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. 
Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians 
stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots at 
Hawaii, and soon, he was packing places such as the Coconut Grove in 
Hollywood and the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas.

Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra  were 
known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on 
ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 
cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. 
"I feel real guilty about it."

Besides "Tiny Bubbles," his other well-known songs include "I'll 
Remember You," "With All My Love," and the "Hawaiian Wedding Song."

In the final years of his life, Ho's heart problems couldn't keep him 
away from the stage. He was back performing at the Waikiki Beachcomber 
Hotel on a limited schedule less than two months after his heart 
procedure in Thailand.

 His final performance was Thursday, Jung said.
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