PCC night show cast shared more than aloha with Jack Regas

During a recent telephone interview with Larry Nielson, a retired professional performer and artist with his own fine-arts gallery in Ephraim, Utah, as well as a returned missionary from both the Cook Islands and Samoa, and the Polynesian Cultural Centers first full-time stage manager beginning before opening day in October 1963 for the next five years, shared the following about one of his dearest friends from those special days.

PCC leaders bring in Hollywood choreographer, Jack Regas: Nielson said he believes Jack Regas was one of the most unique strengths in the early days of the PCC. “I give Jack Regas more credit than he has ever been given before. He was a major player, simply dynamite, and everybody adored him and his family.”

Nielson explained Regas and his wife, Catheryne “Kit” Regas, were later baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of their experiences in Laie, “and me and Alan Osmond, who recently died, baptized him and his family.”

“We flew to Los Angeles,” he continued, “but they were converted by the PCC kids. It wasnʻt missionaries, but the Polynesian kids at the Center who influenced them with their aloha. This was a beautiful and profound story that I witnessed.”

A bit of Regas background: Jack, who was born in Florida, became a contract dancer in Hollywood films during the “star” era of the late 1940s and 1950s. For example, actress Donna Reed introduced him to his future wife.

He later switched to TV choreography, and concurrent with some of his PCC night show involvement, he is credited for his work with early productions including Shindig, The Andy Williams Show and The Andy Williams Christmas Show, and more in the mid-1960s. He also worked with Perry Como, Petula Clark, Jimmy Durante, and the Lennon Sisters, and others.

Over time, he expanded into TV directing, and is best known in that capacity for his work with The Kroft Supershow, Magic Mongo, The Bay City Show, and work with The Brady Bunch, Dance Fever, and more.

After joining the Church in about 1970, he and Kit also helped choreograph large LDS dance festivals at the Rose Bowl, “road shows,” and other productions. Typically, Jack did the choreography, and Kit was the writer.

Regas died in Ventura, California, in 2018. In a legacy article Kit wrote for her husbandʻs obituary, she described how she and Jack “had the privilege of working with hundreds of loving, caring Polynesians for seven years, and loving every minute of it.”

She also stressed how much they learned from Polynesian colleagues during their seven years of frequently visiting Laie in the beginnings of the PCC, “not by preaching, but by living all of [the Churchʻs] ideals.” (Kit passed away in California in 2019.)