Hilo Hattie - Fame, Film, and Television Work

Fame, Film, and Television Work

By 1940, Harry Owens was conducting the Royal Hawaiian Hotel orchestra and hired her. Hattie joined the Webley Edwards-hosted Hawaii Calls broadcasts that went out to 600 radio stations around the world. From that point on, she became a global household name, touring the world and performing in movies and on television, with a recurring role in Hawaii Five-O as Mrs. Pruitt. In 1945, she was referred to as "the Polynesian Sophie Tucker" when she entertained at the Holland Supper Club in Eugene, Oregon. The divorced Clara married bandleader and violinist, Carlyle Nelson, in Las Veges in 1949.

She was still touring the mainland in 1956, when she performed four days and nights at the Merced County, California Spring Fair. Hilo Hattie and her Hawaiian Revue played the Peabody Auditorium in Daytona Beach, Florida in January 1959. Hilo Hattie began doing two shows a night, six nights a week, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Tapa Room in 1960. It was an arrangement that continued for more than a decade. In June 1963, she entertained at the Sportsmen of Stanislaus luau in Modesto, California.