Hawaii

From The Joe Frank Wiki
Series
In The Dark
Original Broadcast Date
1994-08
Cast
Arthur Miller, Tim Jerome
Format
Scripted Actors, Singing, 25 minutes
Preceded by: Just Hold Me
Followed by: Soul Mate
Purchase

"I remember it was one night, it was in summer, and the doors were open because it was so hot."

Hawaii is a program Joe Frank produced as part of the series In The Dark. It was originally broadcast in 1994.

Synopsis

Arthur Miller hums and sings part of 'Honolulu I am coming back again', accompanying himself on the ukulele, at the beginning, end, and duration of this show.[1]

0:30: Jean-Paul recalls performing a splenectomy in the dark. The door was left open, allowing animals to come in, who assisted by licking up the blood. The nurse couldn't thread the needle to sew the patient up so he used gaffers' tape. The patient died.

3:50: ('Honolulu I am coming back again')

4:40: Jean-Paul recounts ski jumping at the Olympics. He got blown off course, landed on the roof of a villa. It was the longest jump ever but didn't count because he didn't land on the snow.

7:30: ('Honolulu I am coming back again')

7:50: Jean-Paul,

'It's funny. I've had so much time here drifting along on the sea, hoping to get to Hawaii. I haven't thought of these, these incidents in my life for so long. But 32 days without food, 32 days waiting to be rescued, waiting to see Hawaii rise up over the horizon, all the waiting and the longing seems to have brought out of me the history, the memories of my past, interesting times.'

8:30: ('Honolulu I am coming back again')

9:10: Jean-Paul recalls playing in the Pepper Martin Quartet. [2] He took heroin, attributed his playing to the muse entering him because he took it. The other members also took it, which caused the muse to leave, which ruined their playing. They ended up in rehab.

12:10: ('Honolulu I am coming back again')

12:30: Jean-Paul recalls picking up a fare in a cab, a woman who thought he was cute, took him home and made love with him.

15:10: ('Honolulu I am coming back again')

15:50: Jean-Paul recalls hunting an elephant in Africa. They ran it down; it had a heart attack and died, but Jean-Paul shot it anyway. He took the foot and tail (for teething children). The other hunter took the trunk.

17:50: Jean-Paul recalls flying a passenger plane. The wing was about to fall off. He and a stewardess got into an argument. He crashed the plane into a mountain. Only he and the stewardess survived.

20:10: Jean-Paul recalls meeting Angelique, a dental hygienist in Oahu. He was a sailor. They fell in love, went to a hotel, made love.

23:20: Jean-Paul,

'So I wait here, waiting for the island of Oahu to rise over the horizon. I wait to see my Angelique again and I look at this short, misshapen door for a man, this ukulele. Who is he? The entire ship goes down, as if in a moment. And only the two of us, myself, why me, and this man, why him? Why am I together with this man? This man who can merely strum his ukulele and sing the same song over and over again? Why, why?'

24:20:


I seem to hear the Pali calling me,
I seem to feel the sands of Waikiki.
And from Pacific heights,
I seem to see the lights
of a city that is really dear to me.
I start to smell the waving sugar cane,
the cocoa palms are waving in the rain.
I give a thousand smiles just to be in paradise,
Honolulu, I'll be coming back again.
I seem to hear the Pali calling me,
I seem to feel the sands of Waikiki.
And from Pacific heights,
I seem to see the lights
of a city that is very dear to me.
I start to smell the waving sugar cane,
the cocoa palms are waving in the rain.
I give a thousand smiles just to be in paradise,
Honolulu, I'll be coming back again.
Honolulu, I'll be coming back again.
Honolulu, I'll be coming back again.

Legacy Synopsis

A man on a life boat with a ukulele player tells stories of his exploits as a surgeon, a ski jumper, a heroin addict musician, a cab driver, an elephant hunter, a pilot in plane crash, traveling by ship and falling in love with a one-eyed dental technician on Oahu.

Music

  • "Honolulu I Am Coming Back Again" - ukulele version sung by Arthur Miller

Miscellanea

  • Also broadcast as A Trip To Hawaii

External links

Footnotes

  1. He sings only the refrain, many words differ from the original.
  2. fictional, as near as I can tell.