05/01/2023
When Elvis arrived in Honolulu on January 9th, 1973, several days ahead of the Aloha From Hawaii rehearsal concert and satellite broadcast, he was helicoptered from the airport to the Hilton Village for a filmed reception with fans, and where he had a few brief words with an old friend, ‘Uncle’ Tom Moffatt.
Tom Moffatt was a DJ and concert promoter who, according to his 2016 obituary on Hawaii News Now, ‘made his name in the islands in 1957, when he brought Elvis Presley to perform before thousands of adoring fans’. Tom Moffatt described Elvis' first show in Hawaii as one of the most exciting events he had ever presented; ‘I remember he did Hound Dog and then everybody's screaming. He jumped off the stage, got on his knees with his guitar and the place went bananas.’
Moffatt had been promoting Elvis’ Hawaiian fan club around the time of Love Me Tender, organising a competition to win the hat Elvis wore in the movie and receiving 53 000 entries, alerting Colonel Parker to Elvis’ enormous local popularity. Elvis played three very successful shows in Honolulu over November 10th and 11th, 1957, cementing the relationship. Keen to secure Elvis for his first touring show after discharge from the Army, Moffatt bailed up Colonel Parker who was vacationing in Hawaii while Elvis was still in Germany, securing a commitment on the promise of a huge petition signed by local fans, urging Elvis to come back to Hawaii.
The result would be the famous USS Arizona Memorial benefit show in 1961, which raised over $65 000, more than 10% of the final cost of the project. According to Moffatt in an interview with Dutch television, the idea for the benefit aspect was Colonel Parker’s alone, responding to news that the entire memorial project was about to collapse through lack of funding. Parker and Elvis covered all their own expenses (as they did in 1975 for the McComb Tornado benefit in Mississippi).
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser described Tom Moffatt as ‘one of the most influential figures in the Hawaii entertainment industry’, the first rock DJ in Hawaii and one of the pioneers of modern Top 40 Radio, dominating the ratings throughout the 1960s on radio station KPOI. He was clearly liked and trusted by both Elvis and Colonel Parker, and was given access for interviews, including long-distance by phone to Germany, and later brought some Hawaiian fans, contest winners, to visit Elvis on the Hollywood set of Blue Hawaii.
Over six-decades as a concert and event promoter, Tom Moffatt Productions brought a spectacular roster of artists to Hawaii, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, The Shirelles, Connie Francis, the Beach Boys, Rolling Stones, Everly Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jnr, Liza Minelli, Michael and Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston and the Eagles. According to his obituary, he presented almost every big name in the music business at least once, presented classical concerts, ballet and musical theatre, and was the leading promoter of ‘mega-concerts’ at the 50 000 seat Aloha Stadium. He also ran record labels and was strongly committed to actively promoting local artists and material.
He continued working as a promoter and DJ into his 80s, and passed away in December 2016, aged 85.
When Elvis arrived in Honolulu on January 9th, 1973, several days ahead of the Aloha From Hawaii rehearsal concert and satellite broadcast, he was helicopter...
