Hula Heck Are You? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Hilo Hattie

It's only right to start with one of the definitive hula girls! Born Clarissa Haili in 1901, Hilo Hattie got her start singing in church choir and entertaining her elementary school students with little routines. She had no formal training in hula or any other kind of dance; her routines were loose, comedic performances set to modern Hawaiian tunes that proved very popular on the mainland.

She had a small-screen role on the original "Hawaii Five-O" and a big-screen one in the Elvis Presley vehicle "Blue Hawaii." While you could certainly argue her "hula dances" simplified complex religious rituals, you can equally credit her with popularizing a new, "modern" style of hula, known as hula auana. Alongside figures like Duke Kahanamoku, Hilo Hattie is largely to thank for the spread of Hawaiian culture, fashion, language, and that famous "aloha spirit."

Answer: Daniel Inouye

Born in 1924 and raised in Honolulu, Daniel Inouye was eager to partake in public service as early as possible. He joined the Red Cross while he was in high school, then joined the U.S. Army in 1943, at a time when American sentiment towards Japan was at its nadir. During World War II, Inouye sustained disabling wounds in a firefight against the Germans, a battle he won by prying a live grenade from his own severed arm.

During his long recovery in a Michigan hospital, Inouye happened to meet two other future senators: Bob Dole and Philip Hart. Once Hawaii became a U.S. state, Inouye enjoyed a long career in the Senate - the second-longest tenure of any U.S. Senator at the time of his death. His public and military service make him one of the very few people to earn both the Medal of Honor and the Medal of Freedom (the U.S.'s highest military and civil honors, respectively).

The first Asian-American Senator, Hiram Fong, was also Hawaiian (Fong and Inouye served together from 1963 to 1977). Hawaii is also the birthplace of former President Barrack Obama, who I considered too well-known for this quiz.

Answer: Bruno Mars

Young Bruno (real name Pete Hernandez) became a fixation throughout the islands. At five years old, "Little Elvis" got a big break as the halftime show at the 1990 Aloha Bowl, a long-defunct college football game. It was his first 15 minutes of fame, but not his last. In spite of that taste of future stardom, Mars had a poor and unstable childhood, which he has credited with teaching him resiliency.

He liked the name "Mars" for its nonspecific origins, stymieing the attempts by record labels to lump him in with other "Latin" artists. Individuality proved a strength: his like "24K Magic," "Treasure," and "Just the Way You Are" sounded unique in a crowded pop scene. His showmanship has been compared to several of his idols: Prince, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, and of course, Elvis.

Answer: Nicole Kidman

Believe it or not, Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman belongs on this list. Her parents were students at the University of Honolulu, and borrowed the name "Hokulani" from a baby elephant, visiting Hawaii from Thailand. Older, wiser, and much wealthier, Kidman went on to christen her yacht "Hokulani".

Kidman is known for appearing in "Days of Thunder," "Batman Forever," "Eyes Wide Shut," "Moulin Rouge," and "The Hours." She had a small part in "Aquaman", alongside the more obviously Hawaiian star Jason Momoa. Other Hawaiian-born stars include Timothy Olyphant and Bette Midler.

Answer: Ellison Onizuka

Ellison Onizuka was an astronaut, Eagle Scout, and Air Force Colonel from Kealakekua, Hawaii. After his military career, Onizuka was chosen for NASA's astronaut corps in 1978. After years of experimental and support roles, he finally visited space in 1985. On his one and only spaceflight, aboard Space Shuttle Discovery, Onizuka became the first Asian American in outer space.

His second mission was his last. During the mission, the Challenger spontaneously incinerated due to a structural failure, killing Onizuka and six other crew mates. Excluding the grounded test mission Apollo 1, these were the first casualties to occur during American spaceflight.

Amazingly, a flag on board the Challenger donated by a Boy Scout troop was recovered in tact. The flag was returned to the troop, and it's still used for Eagle Scout ceremonies today. Onizuka's recovered remains are buried in Honolulu.

Answer: Duke Kahanamoku

In some ways, Duke Kahanamoku would fit the ancient Greek Olympics better than he fit the modern ones. Duke (his given name, not a title) grew up on the outskirts of Waikiki, the town he'd make synonymous with surfboards. The traditional boards of his youth, carved from a single piece of native hardwood, weighed 114 pounds.

Naturally, then, this amateur Olympian was in incredible physical shape. He won a silver and a gold medal in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, then won two golds in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics, and a final silver in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Upon winning the second pair, he suggested that surfing be added as an Olympic event. A century later, in 2020, surfing was officially added.

Kahanamoku is widely credited with bringing the Hawaiian pastime to the U.S. mainland and to Australia. A statue of Kahanamoku can be found in New South Wales, and a beach in Waikiki bears his name.

Answer: Kamehameha the Great

Born some time during the 1750s, Kamehameha I was the first king of a unified Hawaii, ascending to power during a wave of change. He was nephew, though not heir, to the chief of the islands, Kalani'opu'u, a position that let him become a renowned warrior. Kalani'opu'u died shortly after the arrival of James Cook in 1778, giving Kamehameha the opportunity to challenge other tribal leaders.

In the ensuring civil war, Kamehameha's advantage was his willingness to use the new firearms brought by the Europeans. He both traded for guns and salvaged cannons from some of Captain Cook's ships. It proved decisive: by 1795, he was recognized as the first ruler of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.

Every U.S. state submits two statues of significant people to the National Statuary Hall Collection. Hawaii submitted Kamehameha and Father Damien, a Belgian priest who managed a leper colony on the island of Molokai.

Answer: Hiram Bingham III

Predictably, Hiram Bingham III was born to Hiram Bingham II, a Protestant missionary who lived on Hawaii. In 1820, Hiram Bingham I, a New Englander, led the first group of Christian missionaries to Hawaii in 1820, coincidentally around the time of Kamehameha I's death. Newly unified Hawaii was receptive to the new religion, and you could rightly say Bingham I began a dynasty of his own.

After growing up Hawaiian, Hiram Bingham III returned to Massachusetts to teach Latin American history at Yale. Historians in Bingham's time were aware that the Inca's last capital had become a "lost city," and Bingham wanted to find it. In the expedition to Peru that followed, Bingham located several sites. Machu Picchu is the most iconic, a mountain fortress abandoned during the 16th century, though not actually a "city" proper. Of course, locals were generally aware of the structures, but Bingham popularized the stories and, crucially, wrote a bestselling memoir, "Lost City of the Incas."

Funnily enough, Bingham did discover the true "lost city" - it just wasn't Machu Picchu, as he claimed. It was a site called Vilcabamba, which he only briefly visited.

Answer: Lili'uokalani

Lili'uokalani was the eighth and final monarch, and the only ruling queen, of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands. Although her rule lasted less than two years, she gained fame as the sister of King Kalakaua, even attending Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee.

Though Hawaii's sovereignty was acknowledged by President John Tyler in 1846, much changed between then and 1893. The establishment of valuable plantations and concerns about Japanese encroachment led to Hawaii's annexation as an American territory. U.S. Marines landed on Hawaii and, although no one was injured, the threat to the queen's supporters prompted her to give up the throne. A pro-U.S. government led by Sanford Dole (of pineapple fame) took her place. Hawaii officially became a U.S. territory in 1898, a move Lili'uokalani openly protested.

While still a princess, Lili'uokalani composed "Aloha Oe," a song that's appeared in many movies, including "From Here to Eternity," "Blue Hawaii," and "Lilo and Stitch."

Answer: Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole was born mere months before Hawaii's annexation as a U.S. state. Better known as IZ, his soulful, acoustic recordings have defined Hawaiian music in recent decades. IZ was only 38 years old when he died, but his influence and popularity continue to grow posthumously.

His best-known song is an acoustic medley of "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" (the "Over the Rainbow" portion is often played by itself), totally reinventing the original songs. The song's sound engineer recounts that IZ was given just a few minutes to record at 3 in the morning. When he arrived at the studio, IZ banged it out in a single take.

Unless you're a fan of Frank Sinatra (most of his songs were one-and-done), it's hard to name a more impressive one-take wonder. Beyond its dozens of film and TV appearances, and over a billion YouTube views, the medley has had a choke hold on Billboard's "World Digital Song Sales" chart. Immediately upon the chart's inception, it stayed number 1 for 116 weeks, a record "The Girl from Ipanema," "La Vie en Rose," and the venerable "Gangnam Style" have since tried and failed to overtake.