![]() ![]() The Laie-born Ah Quin, a white-bearded Hawaiian who is best known for his beautiful singing voice and willingness to share it, came directly to the reunion from being hospitalized for a broken ankle. ![]() "I have learned to measure success by doing the most good for as many people as possible with that which the Lord has entrusted us." "The journey of Mahana has taught me many things," she said. Wilson added she receives a bag of similar letters from church headquarters every few years. It helped the people to rebuild."Īnd a church member from Ghana then serving a mission in Nigeria wrote about 10 years ago to tell Wilson that as he watched the movie, "I had a wonderful feeling that my life would be better if I continued to try, that my Heavenly Father knew my heart and would help me to become the man that I should." For example, an Air Force officer she met on a plane told her the Pentagon showed "Johnny Lingo" in various countries "that had experienced disasters. I was unaware of what the Lord was trying to make of us" but Mahana's character soon began playing a positive role in her life.She noted the film has also become an influence for good. Wilson also admitted that "the real potential and worth of the film was invisible to me at the time. "By the time I got to the top, I so became Mahana," she said, adding it was also hard for her to keep a straight face when she peeked down because the wigs Moki and his elderly adviser - played by the late Joe Te Ngaio, a Maori who worked at the Polynesian Cultural Center - looked so funny. Once filming began, Wilson recalled that Whitaker was worried about a scene where she was hiding up in a tree, but nobody had brought a ladder, so she simply used her Hawaiian childhood skills to climb a vine attached to the tree. "Judge" Whitaker picked her to play Mahana. When she was a sophomore speech major at Church College of Hawaii (renamed BYU–Hawaii in 1974), studio director Wetzel O. The 24-minute "Johnny Lingo," filmed on location here by the Brigham Young University Motion Picture Studio for the church's Sunday School auxiliary, tells how a Polynesian trader played by the late Hawaiian actor, Makee Blaisdell (also known as Blaizdel MaKee), gets ridiculed after he offers Moki the excessive bride-price of eight cows for Mahana.The film, which does not mention Mormonism, has proved consistently popular all over the world, as demonstrated by the fact that at least once a year, every year since it was produced, Wilson is asked to speak on her role as Mahana, and fans still recognize the Hawaiian beauty wherever she travels.Īfter the audience watched the film, Wilson explained that she grew up in the Hawaiian homestead community of Keaukaha near Hilo and since 1975 has lived in Spokane, Wash., where she teaches classical piano to advanced students. The BYU–Hawaii-based Mormon Pacific Historical Society and the Laie Community Association co-sponsored the reunion as part of the annual Laie Days, which, similar to the Days of '47 in Utah, celebrates Laie's Latter-day Saint pioneer heritage going back to 1865. At the same time, they heard from two of its main characters, Naomi Kaho'ilua Wilson, who acted in the role of Mahana, and Joseph Ah Quin, who played her father, Moki. LAIE, Hawaii - Cast and crew members of the 1969 Latter-day Saint film "Johnny Lingo" reunited on July 29, 2010, in the BYU–Hawaii Cannon Activities Center to celebrate the cinematic Polynesian fable's perennial popularity over the past 40 years.
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