ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I could never understand how two men can write a book together; to me that’s like three people getting together to have a baby. —Evelyn Waugh
In seven years’ work, we have incurred numerous debts to a large group of friends, scholars, family, and members of the ‘ukulele community. We have built on the work of pioneers, including George Kanahele and his collaborators, whose mon-umental 1979 volume, Hawaiian Music and Musicians, remains an indispensable resource for anyone exploring this field; Bob Krauss of the old Honolulu Advertiser, who applied his considerable reportorial skills to a thicket of conflicting claims with admirable results; and Jim Beloff, who wrote the first history of the ‘ukulele and whose energy and vision have played such a central role in the latest ‘ukulele revival. We are grateful to Jim and to lyle Ritz and Ian Whitcomb for their willing-ness to be interviewed about their historical and musical roles in the modern life of the ‘ukulele. It has been our privilege to work with the descendants of a number of important historical figures who have been generous with their knowledge: Vicki Deleo of the Kia/nahaolelua family; Andrea low, a great-granddaughter of Ernest Kaai; Rick Cunha, grandson of “Sonny” Cunha; Eleanor Rente, granddaughter of leonardo nunes; and Ronnie French, a great-granddaughter of Jose do Espirito Santo.
As independent scholars, we owe a great debt to Dr. Amy K. Stillman of the University of Michigan and Dr. noenoe K. Silva of the University of Hawaii at Manoa for their willingness to share their expertise with two amateurs in the groves of academe. In the same way, we are grateful to fellow independent scholar Mal-colm Rockwell, author of the encyclopedic Hawaiian & Hawaiian Guitar Records 1891–1960; Doris naumu of the Portuguese Genealogical Society of Hawaii; War-ren nishimoto and Michi Kodama-nishimoto of the University of Hawaii’s Center for oral History; and Michael Simmons and Jason Verlinde of the Ukulele Occa-sional and the Fretboard Journal for their contributions to this book.
like all researchers, our work depends on the skill, knowledge, and profes-sionalism of librarians, whose role grows greater, not lesser, in this digital age.
We are grateful to the many librarians and staff members at Cal State northridge, Eckerd College, the national library of Australia, occidental College, Prince-ton, Stanford, SUnY Buffalo, UClA, UC Davis, UC San Diego, University of Hawaii at Manoa, University of Iowa, University of South Florida, Yale, the cen-tral branch of the los Angeles Public library, the Hawaii State Archives, Hawaii State library, Bishop Museum, Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society, Photographia Museu “Vicentes,” and the Arquivo Regional da Madeira whose assistance made this book possible. We are particularly grateful to Dick Boak of the C.F. Martin & Co. Archives, to the late lydia Guzman of Honolulu, and luis de Sousa Mello and Ana Isabel Spranger of Funchal, Madeira, for their help in ransacking the archives.