The First Cat — James Strauss

The Duke of Earl wasn't real, any more than Duke Kahanamoku was real in any royal sense of the descriptor.A rock and roll song was released just as Duke Kahanmoku was getting involved with Elvis and the work going on for Blue Hawaii,filming on Waikiki Beach. That song was called Duke of Earl and the phrase was adopted by those surrounding the Duke although never to his face. The great triple gold medal Olympian of his day and kind of surfing in the Hawaiian Islands was, in spite of being named after a visiting British dignitary, was however a great man.Duke Kakanamoku was known as The Sheriff of Honolulu and Prince of Waikiki'He associated with the likes of Elvis Presley, the 'Colonel,' Elvis' manager, Aron Banks, creator of the Green Berets, along with many more back in the early sixties of Hawaii's expected coming statehood.At their very formative teenage years Darren, his schoolyard pals and Pearl Harbor wreck-scouring crew associated with such famous men, and some women, during the hectic times of the early part of the nineteen sixties, and the retelling is an adventure all of itself.