A TRY AT HOLLYWOOD as CHABING COOPER and GIVING UP ON LIFE

Isabel Rosario Cooper went back to entertainment or tried to.  Life in Hollywood didn't renew her work or fame that she'd left behind in Manila.

"Chabing (the name she used as an actor) went from playing a nurse, a geisha, a Siamese harem wife, a Native American, a Chinese servant, a Chinese-American secretary, a hula dancer, another Chinese servant, a Filipina servant, a Carabean slave, and an "Oriental" belly dancer.  In lower budget Charlie Chan films she has full scenes, exchanges dialogue with the lead.  In others she is just another body providing color, being a type.  (Pages 128-129)

"In the decade following her arrangement with MacArthur, Isabel Cooper relentlessly remakes herself, Isabel Kennamer, housewife from Washington, D.C; Belle Cooper, ingénue; Isabel Cooper, actress, possibly Isabel Moreno, wife, Chabing Cooper, nightclub hula dancer; Chabing, actress.  She shaves at least a decade from her actual age, claims to be white, Malay, Scottish, Irish, Javanese.  She moves from being a mistress to getting married, then divorced, to married again (and again.)

Finding herself evicted from a familiar role, and unsatisfied with the one that follows, she invents a plethora of selves in order to survive --sometimes just barely and with bruises to show--in the manifold niches available to women like her.  Both distant from and yet intimately bound to the war raging across both oceans, these roles show a woman making do with scant material and doggedly crafting a life and livelihood through ingenuity and manipulation, or what perhaps has been dismissed as "feminine wiles."  (Excerpt page 110)

The last film she appeared in was shot in 1953 and released the following year and was a fake documentary about burlesque. She had no other roles.

How Isabel continued to live is unknown. However, when she died, she was probably fifty years old and it was an overdose of barbiturates and was likely suicide. Her once upon a time husband, Frank Kennamer, now remarried with children, and a lawyer, was called upon and provided her a burial plot but it is without a headstone in Holy Cross Cemetery, Los Angeles.

There may have been an investigation but the file is lost.

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VOLCANIC ANGER

 

BEATRICE PATTON's HAWAII : WHERE SHE LEARNED A HAWAIIAN CURSE

EVOLS LIBRARY MANOA HAWAII EDU : BEATRICE PATTON'S HAWAII by Nancy J. Morris

This sixteen page paper, part of a longer one, is in a pdf file. And according to it, yes, Beatrice Ayers Patton, General George Patton's wife, loved Hawaii and in the years they were stationed there, 1925-1928 and 1935-1937, she learned much about the culture. 

The couple lived a life of luxury in Hawaii, on base during the week, in smart hotels on the weekends. The men played Polo. They sailed,  They partied with celebrities'.  However, something in Beatrice made her most interested in the native culture, the pre-missionary Pan-Polynesian society, Hearing the old stories of the goddess Pele, ghosts, and so on, she wrote them down and began a serious study of the history and religion of the ancients which she would later use when she wrote books and became a published author.

EXCERPT: (page 80) Beatrice's collection of tales grew. Apueo, the Hawaiian owl said to be a messenger of death, flew into a Queens's Hospital ward. None of the patients were on the critical list, but in the morning, seven of the eleven Hawaiian patients were found unexplainably dead. The black magic arts of the kahuna, according some credence be a plantation doctor acquaintance of the Patton's, especially seized Beatrice's imagination. The doctor told Beatrice that at least six of his patients had been prayed to death.....

(Beatrice began to write poetry, short stories, and a novel, interwoven with Hawaiian themes. Love without End was partially autobiographical.)

(I have not read this book.  It was reissued in paperback in the 1980's)

Beatrice was given a secret Hawaiian name and came to believe in the power of the Hawaiian gods. In her books she includes the art of black magic and a chant used by Hawaiian sorcerers to pray their enemies to death "MAY THE GREAT WORM GNAW YOUR VITALS AND MAY YOUR BONES ROT, JOINT BY LITTLE JOINT."

Was this the curse she may have used on Jean Gordon?

EXCERPT (page 85-86)

When Beatrice's niece, Jean Gordon, visited (Hawaii), Patton began a flirtation with the girl.  Gordon was a recent Boston debutante, pretty, lively, and the best friend of Ruth Ellen, the Patton's daughter. Unwisely Beatrice did not accompany Patton and Jean on a horse buying trip to a neighbor island, and when the two returned, it was clear to Beatrice that the flirtation had become an affair.  Beatrice forgave Patton, and the marriage survived.

MAUNA 'ALA ROYAL MAUSOLEUM STATE MONUMENT ON THE ISLAND OF OAHU

The first Westerner to be buried at the Royal Mausoleum was John Young, the father of Jane Lahilahi Young,  He ended up in this Royal Mausoleum because he was so close to King Kamehameha I.  But this is also the resting place of Jane.

PACIFIC WORLDS - NU'UANA O'AHU - -MEMORIES

You may be shocked at the burial customs of the Pre-Christian Hawaiians.

GOLD HAWAII

 

HIGH CHIEFESS JULIA ALAPA'I KAUWA'A's THE MOTHER BY ADOPTION OF JANE LAHILAHI's SON PETER KA'EO

PROJECT GUTTENBERG SELF PUBLISHED WORK by JULIA ALAPAI 

Julia Alapa'i Kauwa'a lived from 1814-1849 and was a contemporary of Jane Lahilahi Young Ka'eo.

In her work, she gives an account of the lifestyle she lived as a member of Royal Hawaiian family, both parents being Chief/Chiefess rank. She also rests in death in the Royal Tomb.

EXCERPT:  (Julia) She became a close friend and attendant (similar to a European lady-in-waiting) of Princess Nahi ena ena, the youngest daughter of Kamehameha  and his most scared wife Keopuolani and the sister of King Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. During her youth, she along with other attendants of the Princess, the Chiefesses JANE LAHILAHI, Laura Konia, Ulumahelhei Polupolu and Kapoli were punished by Queen Ka'ahumanu for breaking Christian laws and corrupting the young King Kamehameha III who had ascended the throne after his brother's untimely death in London.

She married John Kaleipalhala Young II, more commonly known as Keoni Ana, the son of Kamehameha I's most trusted advisor John Young and a childhood companion of Kamehameha III. The couple remained childless, so in 1836, they adopted in the Hawaiian tradition of hanai, their nephew PETER KA'EO, the son of Joshua Ka'eo and Jane Lahilahi, her husband's sister.

This passage gives us the feel for just how entwinned the Hawaiian Royals were nit also how powerful Queens could be.  High Chiefs and Chiefesses were already feared by common people. The commoners often lived like the serfs in Europe, not owning land and owing the land owner. The Queen had adopted Christianity.  I wonder what is meant by corrupt, but I think it means that they had not accepted Christianity if it meant giving up traditional Hawaiian culture.

Missy

KONA SURFER

 

HAWAIIAN KAHIKO HULA "O Ke Ahi Lonomakua"

POEM BY JANE LAHILAHI's SON PRINCE ALBERT

 KALENACOM: Sweet Moonlight by Prine Albert Kukailmoku Kunuikea

SWEET MOONLIGHT - Prince Albert Kukailimoku Kunuiakea

‘Auhea wale ‘oe e Sweet Moonlight E ke onaona e hea mai nei Eia hoi au ka maile lau li‘i I moe i ke anu o uka Hui: E kiss goodnight, o Sweet Moonlight Ke ua kilihune mai nei Ho‘olai nâ manu luhe me ka palai Ho‘ope ‘a‘ala o ka nahele Ua nani no ‘oe e beauty Laniuma E kahi manu hulu laha a‘ole Ua hanu ia aku kou meheu E ka ua kilihune o uka E ake wale au ea ‘ike la I ka ua lanipili o uka Ho‘oipo mau no ke ‘ala huihui I ka pua o ke ‘a‘ali‘i

Listen to me o Sweet Moonlight A gentle fragrance now calls to me Here I am, dainty leafed maile That grew in the cold of the upland Chorus: E kiss goodnight, o Sweet Moonlight Gentle rains are falling around Birds poise aloft amid the drooping fern That fill the forest with their scent You are a beauty, Geranium A bird with feather, rare Whose footstep is being traced By the light showers of the upland I am eager to see The pouring upland rain Where I will woo the gentle perfume Of the a‘ali‘i blossom

SPEAKING TO THE MOON

 

DID THE POLYGAMOUS MORMON MISSIONARIES FIND CONVERTS AMONG POLYAMOROUS HAWAIIANS?

Today the Mormons go by the name Latter Day Saints and their church is called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

SUNSTONE MAGAZINE POLYGAMY AND THE EARLY MORMON HAWAII MISSION by John J. Hammond, who was a college professor.  (There's even an audio to listen to at this link!)

A very interesting article about the history of Mormon missionaries coming into Hawaii really.

Here's an EXCERPT:

Although Mormon Church leaders and many members had been secretly practicing polygamy since at least the early 1940's, Apostle Orson Pratt had made that practice public on 29 August 1852.  The news circulated the world in non-Mormon newspapers and created something of a sensation in the Sandwich Islands.

In a 16 March 1843 letter to Brigham Young, Hammond reported that the news about polygamy 'Does not create half the excitement which I had anticipated; the people appear as if some unseen hand had prepared them for it.  The (Hawaiian) government officers were not at all surprised at it but told us we would be narrowly watched, and if we were caught marrying two women to one man, they would be down heavy upon us; we told them that was not what we were sent out for, but to preach the gospel and to live in subjection to the (secular government) powers that be and to uphold them.

And Another:

In April 1854, Mormon Elder B.F. Johnson, who had been converted to polygamy by Joseph Smith (the founder of Mormonism) in the early 1840's, wrote an essay defending it against scathing attacks that were appearing in Honolulu newspapers.  When he could not find a newspaper that would publish it, he arranged to have it printed in San Francisco in the form of a twenty-six-page pamphlet, entitled WHY THE LATTER DAY SAINSR MARRY A PLURALITY OF WIVES; A GLANCE AT SCRIPTURE AND REASON. He distributed four hundred copies throughout the Islands, and was thrilled with the attention they received. "For many days," he wrote, "there was general excitement throughout the city (Honolulu) and had a thunderbolt fallen at the feet of our enemies, it would not have made a greater sensation."

***

Did the Hawaiian's accept Mormon Christianity because they understood Polyamorous lifestyle?  This article suggests just the opposite. I consider that only allowing a man to have many wives, but not allowing women to have many husbands, might have irked some of the Hawaii women.

April 2014 is the month in which I featured SISTER WIVES (Modern Mormon Polygamous couples) so check that out in my archives if you're interested in the man-sharing lifestyle!

DID A POLYAMOROUS POLYNESIAN HISTORY ACCOUNT FOR JANE LAHILAHI'S TAKE ON LIFE?

(Why does it seem that POLYAMOUOROUS relationships are considered to be either PRIMATIVE/ INDIGENOUS or EXTREMELY MODERN?)

POLYNESIA refers to Islands in the Pacific, some which are thousands of miles from others.  The Hawaiian Island chain, which formed due to volcanic eruption, is one of the largest group of Islands in the Pacific and considered to be extreme northern Polynesia. Speculation on how it is that groups of people managed to arrive there in canoes hundreds of years ago, goes on.

Culturally, the ancient Hawaiians practiced POLYAMORY - at least the term means LOVING MORE THAN ONE PARTNER.

In about 1820, however, Christian missionaries began to think Hawaii just might be the next place to convert the "natives." Following whaler boats and merchant ships, the missionaries of many faiths - Catholic, Mormon (Latter Day Saints), and various Protestant groups showed up, keen to establish missions and save souls from their Pagan ways.

What did they find?

According to multiple sites I referenced, Pre-Christian Hawaiians of both genders enjoyed the right to begin or end a sexual relationships, so we'd consider the women to be liberated in that way.  If you were Royal, a Chief or Chieftess, you had a marriage ceremony.  For common people being married was perhaps only understood as being someone's primary or longest held relationship. The birth of a child required a bit more celebration. Polygyny was normal for Chiefs, but not so much for the commoners. That might have had something to do with who was expected to raise or afford to raise a child, but everyone was living in extended family groups and raised children together, again blurring the definition of who is family for Westerners.  Neither matriarchal or patriarchal when it came to who went to live where, it was a pragmatic decision. Men, however, seemed to be the ones who owned land so I can imagine a man had say on who would be living on it.

I found the following site to be especially interesting: RANKERCOM' LOVE AND SEX IN ANCIENT HAWAII (PRE CHRISTIAN) by Rachel Souerbry

EXCERPTS:  

Siblings married frequently, all for the purpose of producing offspring with the most MANA or DIVINE LIFE FORCE.

Hi,uwai is a celebration held during the Hawaiian month of Weiehu, which cooresponds to the time period much of the world knows as November. Hi'uwai consists of a frenzied, splashing bath in the sea from midnight until daybreak, followed by a grand feast the next day.

Although the event is not overtly sexual, one observer in 1830 wrote that with all of the excitement the lavish and beautiful objects people had adorned themselves with, and the darkness all around, people became "attracted" to each other.

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot 

THE REAL HISTORY OF HAWAII by BRIEN FOERSTER ON JANE LAHILAHI

 

Thanks to Google Books, I'm able to EXCERPT from this book by Brien Foerster:

It was proposed in 1832 that Kamanele, the Governor of John Adams Kuakini, would be the most suitable in age, rank, and education for his Queen. Kamanele died in 1834 before the wedding take place. Instead, Kamehameha III chose to marry Chiefess Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili, of no relation. Kalama's father was a harbor pilot Naihekukui, giving her a much lower ranking family background. After his sister's death in late 1836, he married Kalama February 4, 1837, in a Christian ceremony, Kamehameha and Kalama had two children. ... Both died as infants. He and his mistress, Jane Lahilahi, a daughter of his father's advisor John Young, had twin illegitimate sons; Keoua who died young, and Albert Kanulakea, who lived to adulthood (1853-1902).

JANE LAHILAHI YOUNG KA'EO : MISTRESS OF KING KAMEHAMEHA III of HAWAII and BEARER OF HIS SONS

 JANE "KINI" LAHILAHI YOUNG - KA'EO

1812/1813 - 1862

This image is supposed to be Jane and is on the

FindAGrave site, but I wonder because she was

only 48 when she died and this person seems to me to be much older.

However I can't seem to find an image of her young.

Summer always brings to mind beach vacations, surfing, and the state of Hawaii which is perhaps the most famous American state for surfing since the sport originates there among the indigenous people and so many important surfing contests take place there. The Hawaiian people, of ancient Polynesian descent, had their own Royalty, though Hawaii being ruled by Kings and Queens was over in 1893, long before the islands were granted statehood in 1959. They had a system of High Chiefs and Chiefesses that controlled land and the common people living on it. Today there are still people in Hawaii who want these islands to go back to being a separate nation because they think that businessmen overthrew their native government illegally.

Traditionally, marrying or mating with your relatives was not allowed among common Hawaiian people, but accepted practice among royals. This attitude seems to have been the case among some other geographically distant ethnic royal groups in this world too, such as the Egyptians who even practiced sibling marriage. Long ago it was thought that royal people have a special blood line which it's important to preserve and goes along with the thinking called "The Divine Right of Kings To Rule." Very basically, this means that the person believes God himself gave them the Kingship. (It must be strange to realize what an exceptional place in life you have.) Today the study of genetics and DNA seems to show us that marrying relatives, especially close relatives, such as siblings or first cousins, often reinforces genetic and even psychological qualities that are not desirable. The European family The House of Hapsburgs, certainly played that out. 

There is another factor that I think we need to consider here at Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot and that is that people who are arranged to be married, especially to close relatives, seem to not often find their legitimate spouses especially desirable. When the couple also need to produce offspring to guarantee a succession, there can be the burden of duty in trying to do so, made more awful when the offspring are born disabled or weak or die. The King or Queen who takes a lover and companion may do so out of desire, loneliness, or love - or all three. Perhaps desperation is another factor. The plight of the Royal Mistress is often that she cannot be married and her offspring face uncertainty. However, the situation for Jane Lahilahi in Hawaii may also have been one of a unique cultural understanding and cooperation among several people in her story.

Our Mistress of this summer month, Jane Lahilahi Young Ka'eo, usually just called Jane Lahilahi, (the Ka'eo the surname of her husband Joshua Ka'oe) is, like that of many a Royal Mistress, part of the history of her country. Jane was born on the Big Island, Hawaii, in a community called  Kawaihae. She came from the elite status. Her mother was a High Chiefess named Ka'oana'ehu-u and a niece of King Kamehameha I. She was also associated with this King because of an important connection via her father, John Young, a Scottish man from England who had first arrived on an American fur trading ship. John Young Olohana (his honorary Hawaiian name) was the trusted advisor to King Kamehameha I. Jane, also affectionately called Jenny or Kini , was herself a High Chiefess.* 

Jane's husband, Joshua, was a Judge on the Supreme Court of Hawaii and the grandson of King Kalani'opa'a.  Therefore their two sons (we assume he was the father) also had Royal Hawaiian blood. Her son Peter, and to whom fatherhood is attributed to Joshua, was born in 1836, and for some reason was adopted to be raised by her brother John. Another son attributed to Joshua was adopted by her brother James, but died in 1851. One wonders why she wasn't raising them herself. The answer may simply be that there was a tradition of adoption in Hawaiian culture.

These people were living during a time when missionaries were coming in - Catholic, Protestant denominations, Mormons, and converting people to Christianity which was a shift in culture that became united with a shift in politics to Western forms of government.

As a Mistress to King Kamehameha III, Jane had twin sons. One of them, Albert  lived into adulthood. This was The King's only son as the two children he had with his wife died in infancy. However, guess who this son was raised by? The King's wife, Queen Kalama.  He was the last in the direct line of the House of Kamehameha. One wonders how Jane felt about not raising any of the children she birthed. Did she see having children as a joy or a duty? Was she simply too busy to also mother? 

Jane's son Peter with her husband could have been eligible for the throne of Hawaii but  he ended up living in a leper's colony for several years and died in 1880! Until vaccinations, illness had no respect for the elite in any country.

Jane remained married and signed an X next to her name on the legal paperwork used to settle her husband's estate. Her surviving son, though with royal blood, was not allowed to be the heir to his father's throne because of his illegitimacy.  His mother wrote poetry.  He wrote poetry.  He reportedly was a "womanizer" but was there such a thing with the liberal mentality about sexuality that existed in traditional Hawaiian culture?

Jane Lahilahi was only forty-nine when she died and had suffered paralysis from a stroke eight years earlier!  Reportedly she didn't let her disability get her down. This is an indication that she had a pleasant personality and open view of life. Little seems to be known about the relationship she had with the King but certainly his wife knew about it. Jane was buried at the Royal Mausoleum in the Wyllie Crypt, which is located in Mauna ;Ala (Fragrant Hills) in Honolulu. It is considered a sacred site.

A portrait of Kamehameha III, 

who was born in 1813

 and was King from 1825 to 1854, when he died.

Jane's husband Joshua died in 1858 

and she is called his "widow."

Jane's son Albert Kukailimoku Kunuiakea

image from Wikimedia and FindAGrave

1853-1903

C 2021 Mistress Manifesto BlogSpot

Research for this month's posts includes WikiVisually, multiple genealogy sites, the YouTube Video called The Royal Mausoleum Na Moolelo Lecture Series, Find a Grave, the book called The Real History of Hawaii by Brien Foerster, Documentaries on Hawaii that appear on streaming services, CrownOfHawaii.com, and several others, some of which we will link to.

HAWAII - PAN AM POSTER