Ed Kenney

Edward Kamanaloha Kenney, Jr. was an American singer and actor born on August 8, 1933, in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. His mother was of Hawaiian-Chinese descent and his father of Swedish-Irish heritage. Kenney died on October 5, 2018, and spent his later years living on the island of Kaua'i, where he occasionally made public appearances.

Kenney's Broadway career spanned from 1956 to 1961. His first Broadway credit was the musical Shangri-La in 1956, in which he played the role of Rimshi. He went on to originate the role of Wang Ta in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Flower Drum Song, which ran from 1958 to 1960 and for which he is best known. His final Broadway appearance came in 1961 in 13 Daughters, where he portrayed Mana, Prince of Hawai'i.

Beyond Broadway, Kenney performed in a range of theatrical productions throughout his career. At the Honolulu Community Theater he took on the principal role of Ali Baba in a production of the musical Kismet during the late 1960s. He also appeared in a University of Oregon production of Brigadoon. He returned to 13 Daughters in later decades, playing the role of Chun at President William McKinley High School Theater in the late 1980s and the role of Kahuna at the Hawaii Theatre in the early 1990s.

Kenney was married to hula dancer Beverly Noa, with whom he headlined shows at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel and the Halekulani Hotel. The two reunited for a television program on Honolulu's KGMB-TV in the 1980s. He was the father of Edward Kenney III, a Honolulu restaurateur. He was also married to Judy Bailey.

As a recording artist, Kenney released a substantial body of solo work. His solo albums included Exotic Sounds of the Spice Island on Columbia Records in 1960, My Hawai'i on Columbia in 1962, Ed Kenney's Hawaii on ABC/Paramount in 1962, Somewhere in Hawai'i on the Waikiki label in 1964, Waikiki on Decca in 1966, Royal Hawaiian Luau on Decca in 1967, and An Island on the Lehua label in 1977. My Hawai'i was later reissued on Columbia's budget label Harmony, and Ed Kenney's Hawaii was reissued by Decca. He also appeared on the 1958 original Broadway cast recording of Flower Drum Song and on several Hawaiian compilation albums. Kenney co-wrote the Hawaiian Pidgin song "Numbah One Day of Christmas," a version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, with Eaton "Bob" Magoon, Jr., the composer of 13 Daughters, and Gordon Phelps.