By Robert Thompson, a PCC volunteer in the Ukelele Experience shop
I noticed a lady looking at the photos of Elvis Presley (which are part of the Ukulele Experience in the Mahinalani Gift Shop). The friends who came with her shared with me that she co-starred in the 1966 film Paradise Hawaiian Style that was filmed partly at the PCC (in the summer of 1965, and released the following year). Her name was Irene Tsu. She said she hadn’t been back to the Center since that summer.
She sat alongside Elvis on the canoe in the movie, among other scenes. She reminisced and hoped to go into the islands and ride the canoe again, but tickets were sold out.
I decided she should be given the opportunity, so I took Irene and her friends into the islands and on the canoe ride from South to North. Irene then walked through the islands and stopped at the Mission Settlement, where Sister Trudy Robinson, a senior missionary, met her and took a photo of her showing a production picture of her and Elvis she keeps on her phone.
