(Wave crashing) NARRATOR Hail to the conquering hero.

Spectrum Hawaii pays tribute to Olympic world champion swimmer and island surfer Duke Kahanamoku.

But first, a hero of the keyboard, to his many faithful piano students, Ernest Chang is a paragon of poise, discipline and discernment.

He teaches that happiness can be expressed.

Hi John.

Hi Mr. Chang.

Come on in.

Hi Carol.

Hi.

Come in.

How are you today?

Fine.

Good.

You look happy.

Did you have a good lunch?

Yeah.

What did you have for lunch?

Pork fried rice.

Oh my, that sounds delicious.

Okay.

How's the practicing this week?

Did you practice every day?

Good, good.

What shall we work on first, you want to start with Bach?

Bach music in D Major right?

Okay.

(piano music) Ernest Chang To deal with studying the piano, you learn many, many things about yourself, about life, and gain many skills that you can apply to other areas in your life.

Like, for example, when you study the piano, it takes a great deal of discipline.

It takes a great deal of self-control.

It's necessarily also a lonely type of a business because you spend many, many hours practicing by yourself.

So, you have to learn to live with yourself.

Again, you have to achieve a bigger contrast between the loud part here and the soft part over here.

Okay, just pretend there's a party going on next door.

Okay, and lots of people and they're having a lot of fun, and they're making a lot of noise.

So, when you open up your door, you hear all of this noise there.

Okay?

And when you close the door, like on this part over here, it's very soft.

And then you open up the door again over there.

And then you have soft part when you close the door, okay.

Alright?

NARRATOR Those who teach piano can find themselves absorbed in their work.

Ernest Chang teaches piano in his studio in Honolulu.

He finds it fulfilling.

Here we go, here we go.

Ernest Chang It's not necessarily like piano teacher is an occupation or it's a job you might say.

It's how I live, how I breathe, it's my everyday life.

Every day of the year.

The piano teachers relationship to his or her student is a very special one.

A piano teacher or music teacher is more of the one-on-one type of situation.

And this relationship is sort of a long-term relationship lasting four or five to ten or even more years.

So, as a piano teacher, you become not only a source of information and inspiration, authority, but you become also a friend or even a part of the family.

NARRATOR Chang studied piano at the Juilliard School in New York.

For five years his teacher was Madame Adele Marcus who has taught a number of pianists now playing on the concert stage.

Ernest Chang As distinguished a person as she was with such a great reputation, and in such demand from people who were clamoring to study with her, she was yet very, very devoted and dedicated to all of her students.

NARRATOR She gave Chang a special gift of appreciation.

Ernest Chang I always felt that whenever I learned to play a piece that she taught me that I could play it better than anyone else.

NARRATOR Now, Chang shares this gift with his own students here in Hawaiʻi.

(piano music) Great, all right!

Thank you.

NARRATOR There are several schools of thought about how to teach piano.

Ernest Chang Like there's the old European school with a very prescribed curriculum, and very set grade levels and examinations after each grade level.

It's very rigid, very rigid sort of course of study.

NARRATOR But Chang disagrees.

Ernest Chang I tried to gear the course of study toward the individuality of the student, rather than try to move the student to the course of study.

NARRATOR From a vast selection of music, he will choose specific pieces to achieve certain learning skills.

Ernest Chang For example, if you want to develop their strength and their sound, if I give them something that's cordial, and heavy, like a Chopin Polonaise.

Or if you wanted to develop expressiveness, well then you would give them a nocturne.

Or if you wanted to develop a certain kind of finger technique, well then maybe a more classical sonata.

NARRATOR The mechanical aspect of playing is stressed.

Fingering peddling, the use of the entire body is not ignored.

But the soul of the written score comes to life from the pianist’s own expressiveness.

(piano music) Soft and soft and soft.

(piano music) Don't be so calculated on this part.

Try and make it sound a little bit more like waterfall okay or fountains okay?

Start it slow and then just rush up toward the top a little bit more okay.

One.

(piano music) Rest (piano music) Come off slowly.

Fine, fine, nice, lyrical feeling on this piece now.

Ernest Chang What type of emotion are you trying to express?

Are you trying to express sadness?

Are you trying to express the feeling of happiness?

Patriotism?

And even when you're talking about happiness, what type of happiness are you trying to express?

(piano music) NARRATOR Many students like Judy are learning for their own enjoyment.

Others like five-year-old Nikki and eight-year-old Shawn are learning as a part of growing up.

Those like Susan strive for a possible career as a concert pianist.

NARRATOR As a child of seven in Korea, Akiko Takahashi decided to be a concert pianist.

When she and her family moved to Hawaiʻi several years later, she began her studies with Ernest Chang.

She remembers the choices she had to make as an aspiring musician.

Akiko Takahashi I didn't have time to do a whole lot of frivolous playing, when everybody was out there, you know, playing tennis or something I was I had to practice.

So, in one sense, it gave me a very serious outlook.

What as to what life is all about, you became focused all of a sudden.

You know, it's like, from the day of age seven, this is what you were gonna be.

And I never thought about anything else.

NARRATOR For personal reasons, she relinquished her dreams at nineteen, and is now the Director of Training at a Waikīkī hotel.

She attributes her years of piano study to the development of skills she uses in her present career.

Akiko Takahashi When I'm doing training or when I'm giving a speech, I think about the time that I had to get on that stage, and perform the Rhapsody in Blue or something, and I say, you know, if you could do the Rhapsody in Blue, you can certainly go out there and speak for 15 minutes.

And one and two and three.

Now lean towards.

(piano music) I recommend music to anyone, regardless of their age.

Reach up a little bit.

Music adds creativity.

It provides intensity to whatever you do.

When you play music, it's a feeling and your your concern all the time with the intensity to express things.

And when you do that with music, you intend to do that with your life and I think that's very important.

Ernest Chang Okay, now you see what happens over here.

It's not stationary anymore, it reaches up.

NARRATOR Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, better known as The Duke, is still regarded today as one of the world's greatest aquatic sportsmen of all time.

Participant in five Olympic Games dating back to his gold medal performance in the 1912 competition in Stockholm, Sweden, this quiet-mannered, muscular Hawaiian beach boy from Waikīkī captured the hearts and respect of countless generations of admirers from around the globe.

The Duke taught us all the meaning of brotherhood and love.

NARRATOR Of the many fans from around the globe, no stronger group exists than those who have grown up in Duke's own backyard here in Hawaiʻi.

Fred Hemmings I remember when I was a kid Duke used to come out all the time.

Just to go out for a paddle or take a swim by himself.

It was mostly just to be alone I think with his thoughts in the ocean.

He had this lifelong relationship with the ocean.

It was quite unique I think for modern Hawaiʻi but quite natural to do.

Chinn Ho Duke Kahanamoku was my neighbor.

We lived in a duck pond about approximately 100 acres, all in swamps with a series of date trees planted.

Originally, that area was scheduled to be a date farm, supposed to be commercial.

That location was on corner McCully and Kalākaua Avenue.

And there was a street car that turns right smack at the corner.

And I we lived about two blocks away from Duke Kahanamoku.

He was living on the Paoa property which they were related to and Duke Kahanamoku was a very humble person.

And very what I would call a first-class Hawaiian.

Sargent Kahanamoku Growing up with my famous brother, the whole family never took advantage of the name.

I never have.

I'm 76 today and proud of it, because we kept it clean.

We came from our beautiful parents, mother and father, and then my mother came from the island of Kauaʻi.

She was a daughter of a high chief there.

My father came from, I think it was Maui, Hawaiʻi.

And they were great parents, great parents.

So, they had 14 youngsters.

I'm the 14th.

I only knew six boys and three girls, but some died before brother Duke and after.

So, once I lived with monotype was brother Duke, David, Bernice, Bill, whom we lost us there Samuel, Kapiʻolani, Maria, Louis and myself.

My brother Louis is over in Kona, my sister Bernice in Hilo.

Well, when I grew up, yes, my brother Duke was, always had to listen up to listen to him, I always looked up to him.

Nadine Kahanamoku I came over here in December 1938.

I didn't meet Duke until about a month or so afterwards.

I was introduced to him by his brother, Sam.

But I wanted to meet Duke because I had read about him when I was a little girl in school.

I had read about him in a movie magazine, where he had been discovered by Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford.

When I heard the name, Duke Kahanamoku, because I couldn't pronounce it then, I have no idea how to pronounce it.

I said, that's the man I want to meet.

Well, I think I met all of his five brothers first.

And little by little I met Duke.

And it was love at first sight for Duke, which was very lucky for me.

Henry Ayau There was one experience, well we boated from here to Maui overnight in Maui.

And then from Maui to the Big Island.

The channel known as ʻAlenuihāhā channel.

You know supposedly one of the roughest channels in the world, when it's really when it's real bad.

And there were four of us.

And we were hanging on trying to you know, stay in the boat as as much as you can, because it was so rough.

And Duke was just standing there, like nothing was phasing him, you know.

And he turned to us and said, 'What's the matter boys, it's too rough, for you', you know.

And, but I tell you that was a day.

I thought we were going to see the end of, end of Hawaiʻi.

It was a scary experience.

But Duke was very, you know, in control and it didn't phase him at all.

Ralph Edwards contacted me here in Hawaiʻi, and said that he was going to ask Duke to appear on This Is Your Life.

But it had to be very secretive.

Nobody was supposed to know only the people concerned.

And I had to keep a dark, dark secret.

He asked all the rest of his family, they were all living then in 1957.

So, we all kept silent, then we went over to the mainland separately so that nobody would suspect anything.

Duke especially wouldn't suspect anything.

Though he got him over there supposedly on a business trip.

Ralph called him and said, I'm like to have you come on the stage to see this set that we have of a Hawaiian village and to see if you will approve of it.

That was the way he lured him onto the stage.

Duke Kahanamoku.

Good to see you Duke.

Last time I saw you in Hawaiʻi.

So, Duke goes on and looks at this Hawaiian village and said well, it looks alright or whatever.

And then Ralph pounced on him and handed him the book and said Duke, this is your life.

Champion Olympic swimmer and Sheriff of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi.

Tonight, this is your life.

Let's tell the story ladies and gentlemen of a little Hawaiian boy who became the most famous swimmer in the world.

Participated in five Olympic games, used his great speed and power in a most heroic way.

Sargent Kahanamoku So, one day he was on the beach, some people sitting, and there was this cruiser going out, people going fishing.

I don't know whether you remember this or not.

But he was on the beach standing up there these people that he was with on, on the beach, he's kind of worried about them.

What he was up to.

He never said a word.

But he had a feeling that that boat was going to capsize because they were in the wrong lane that was too close, just just within the reef and a wave.

Sure enough.

There he goes.

So, what does he do?

He takes his surf board and paddles out there, he brings one in, he brings two in, he brings three.

Went out to get the fourth and the fourth was all tangled up in the net is what I was told, and he couldn't, he couldn't get that guy outta there.

He was so mad.

He was sad about it.

But he got the other.

I think he saved seven lives that day it was six all by himself.

And that's one thing about my brother, which I have always loved, never will forget because he was a great man.

He'd never sat around wait for the reporters.

He just went to sleep he likes to well let somebody else tell you all about but him you know, people will report what happened here on the beach.

And Duke is like that till the day he died.

You see, he tried to do what's right for the people, and he loved people.

And I want to thank you again, for the rescuing me and saving my life.

Chinn Ho I do not think anybody can measure up to Duke's personality.

He had a tremendous personality and a tremendous warmth.

And always meeting people and giving the regular aloha spirit.

And that in my estimation, is the not as only as a swimmer, but on account of his personality that made him so famous.

The name Duke was handed down to you from your daddy.

That's right.

Where do your brothers and sisters live Duke?

Well, they're all in Honolulu.

They are?

They're here in Hollywood to help us tell your story.

Here's Bernice, sister Bernice, Kapiʻolani.

Thank you Kapiʻolani.

You betcha.

This is David right?

Hey, man.

Here's Phil.

Here's Sam right here.

And here's Louis.

Hey Louis.

And here is Sargent.

Your lovely wife Nadine Kahanamoku.

And his favorite meal, his number one favorite food was poi, a big bowl of poi and a can of salmon, chilled.

Open the can and get an onion and quarter the onion and the big bowl of poi and that was his favorite meal.

Period.

His second favorite was the Argentine can corned beef, fried with onion.

And again, a great big bowl of poi.

Well, when I say a big bowl, I mean a big bowl like that.

And those were his two favorites.

But I started out with French cooking and trying to have all these different sauces and they very lovely.

And he'd say baby where's the ketchup.

He always called me baby.

He'd say where's the ketchup.

I'd say you can't put ketchup on that, that's a hollandaise sauce or sauce bearnaise whatever.

Well, I like ketchup.

Then finally it got to the point and he said, baby just cook it plain.

Everything Duke did athletically was championship performance of.

His surfing ability, he was way beyond his time.

Some of the things he did with with a surfboard were were profound in their day, considering also the equipment he was working with when Duke was surfing as a young man, in the earlier part of this century he was surfing on surfboards that were 15 or 16 feet long and weighed 120 or 130 pounds.

I'd venture to say that many kids nowadays couldn't even carry Duke's board to the water, much less surf it.

Sargent Kahanamoku Come up this way.

Make your feet on it.

Don't let go.

Balance, balance, balance.

Move up.

The wave small go forward, the wave big you go back.

And when you get back you want to turn right you just go, and the whole thing turns.

You want to go left you go.

It's right in here.

Chinn Ho Duke was so humble that he prevailed on me to be humble and be kind also.

He was a man of tremendous stature, but very humble and and down to earth.

It was a rare rare quality but among the Hawaiians it was a quality of unusual strength.

The only man who could have defeated you, your former opponent and now close friend.

The man who himself broke the world record, Johnny Weissmuller.

You recognize him now that he's Jungle Jim.

Duke actually helped you to beat him didn't he Johnny?

Yes, he did.

You know, we trained together in the Olympic Games, yes.

And this big lug, he just gave me all the confidence in the world.

Fred Hemmings Contemporary people, especially contemporary young people to realize that this name they hear Duke Kahanamoku was a real man and he was a man that gained his respect and his honor in our society through just being a good man, and not, not through being a capitalist or being a big businessman or being, being a talented, devoted, wonderful man.

He was, in my estimation, the embodiment of a law he always Duke was the type of person who, who might have felt or had ill feelings about a subject or someone, but he never, he never let you know about it.

The guy always had a smile on his face, and always a good word for everybody he met.

And he was not caught up in the modern day-to-day rat race that seems to consume so many people nowadays.

He had as I said earlier, a great sense of value in life.

He valued those things that money can neither buy nor destroy to a certain extent.

He valued human relationships.

He valued his relationship with the ocean and with his lifestyle with his ability to play in the ocean and these attributes I think, are very special.