by Teru Shimada » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:42 pm
It looks to be a rather nice house Shigato has in S03E08, The Reunion, when Chin Ho is outside in his car standing guard. Where is this in real life, does anyone know?
by Guest » Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:43 pmI'm 99% sure that that house is one house West of Sunhala (which was best known as the Vachon compound). Both homes are oceanfront on Kahala avenue in Kahala and Shigato's house is falling apart, I passed by there a few weeks ago on a bicycle with my wife and the part of the house you see in your pic has had a part of the roof collapse. It's sad to see so many of those nice low key, low slung beautifully landscaped mid-century homes getting bulldozed. There are at least a dozen oceanfront lots with houses removed for sale right now, and they inevitably end up with these tacky monster McMansions built on them. In fairness a lot of those original homes were cheaply constructed and many were let go as the owners aged. In Hawaii if you don't stay on top of the upkeep the bugs and humidity can destroy a house very quickly. I guess most people who have multi-millions nowadays want the big showy box! Back when Kahala was being developed in the 50-60's most wealthy local buyers were very low key and valued privacy over show. Many of the old Kahala ocean front homes had more money in the landscaping than the house itself.
by Teru Shimada » Sun Jan 15, 2017 8:19 pmThanks for the insight, I think you're probably right if what I remember of that area is correct (from when I lived in Honolulu in the late 80s), and yes that would be a great shame if it were (and it likely is) in such disrepair. I wonder how the H-5O crew got access to film there - perhaps it was a crew member's home.
It is a tendency for the more wealthy to want to show off their house to the maximum effect, and that wasn't the case as much (or at least in different ways) as it was 60-50 years ago or so.
by North » Mon Jan 16, 2017 3:37 pmmostly it was homes offered for rent to visitors, even back then many homes especially oceanfront were rented by the week or month when the owner was not using it
by Guest » Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:31 pmSunhala was frequently rented out to Five 0 producers when the owners were on the mainland during summer months. A good friend of mine is the nephew of the former owners-Tom and Dorothy Mc Millan-and shared a number of stories relating to the house. He tells me that the entire house would be re-carpeted at the studio's expense when filming was completed, and that it was selected as one of the only houses on Kahala Avenue that had a pool facing the ocean. Aunt Dorothy was famous for raising orchids, and this house was always on the annual Kahala garden tour when Five 0 was not otherwise busy. My friend showed me personal family photos of the house-and it IS the same as seen in numerous episodes. He relayed a number of stories about his Aunt Dorothy and Jack Lord that probably have been told to no one. Apparently the McMillans and the Lords were personal friends, and travelled in the same exclusive social circuit back in the day. As the story is told, Jack would occasionally stop by during the day for lunch to get away from things-and was always welcomed. He apparently once had a New York deli lunch brought in via overnight air express from NYC and delivered to the house via helicopter landing on the beach , which apparently was some form of internal joke as Aunt Dorothy was frequently in circuit court seeking injunctions against the helicopter tour owners.
The house I am told was built in the late 1940's by the Sun Oil Corporation and was to be a get-away for senior executives. Aunt Dorothy bought it about 1962 and remained there on an off until her death in 1995. The house is still owned by her descendants and has apparently gone through some needed repairs and capital renovations-but has not been demolished as previously reported. James Mac Arthur's eyes lit up when I told him the story some years ago-he did not know the McMillans but knew exactly who they were. My friend communicates occasionally with cousin Jim, the present owner, but I do not expect that I will be getting any type of invitation for a tour of the house.
by Shigato » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:07 pmVery interesting, thank you!