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KeOlaMagazine.com | March/April 2014
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of news or culture of their home for immigrant workers in the islands. The Tanimoto family was responsible for building and running several movie houses on the island, including what is now the Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu and what were theaters in Honomū and Mountain View.
Family Fare
It is the legacy of the Tanimoto family that the Keeney Family is carrying Chris Tanimoto on today. Phaethon Keeney remembers Mrs. Peggy Tanimoto fondly, in what were her salad days in town. “Mrs. Tanimoto occasionally performed in whiteface and costume as a Kamigata-mai—a female Kabuki soloist. She danced hula and was an active and lively community member who performed in talent shows, parades, and bon dances. She was quite gracious and a wonderful lady. I remember her well,” Phaethon shares. Peggy’s husband, Mr. Christian Tanimoto Sr. ran films until he passed. Then, his good friend, Jiro Kawatachi took over managing; he also ran the sweet shop across street where the Filipino Store is now. At that time it was operated as a Consolidated Theatre; films would come three to six months after they were released elsewhere. Tawn Keeney, a family doctor in town, took over the lease in 1987, and lived behind the screen, in what was an apartment back then. Yolanda Keeney, took over managing, and the theater Peggy Tanimoto was soon an independent theater enterprise with private booking that enabled them to get the films requested sooner. Cut to 2013 the theater is nearly empty, not dark... George Santos Jr., projectionist and son of a former master of the magical pyrotechnic wonder called a carbon arc projector, looks up at the large empty screen, side lit with the exit doors emitting beaming afternoon light and remembers. A slow dissolve to…1978
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“Back then, Mrs. Tanimoto had two cats, the rascals, and I had to hunt them down before the movie ‘cause they would brush up against the customers legs in the dark and people would think they were rats.”