The History of Hawai‘i From Our Files: Magnum Mania
We flipped back 40 years to see what the city was buzzing about in February 1983 from Paradise of the Pacific.
Magnum Mania
London had Sherlock Holmes. Los Angeles had Mannix. San Francisco had Ironside. And back in the ’80s, Honolulu got its very own crack private detective in the form of the mustachioed, short shorts-loving investigator Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV. Launched in 1980, the original Magnum, P.I. television show, and star Tom Selleck’s chest hair, took the Islands and the country by storm. To find out what all the fuss was about, Paradise of the Pacific writer Win Anderson did some investigating, spending some time on set to observe the actors and 125-person production team at work.
Along the shoulders of Kalanianaole Highway, are the equipment trucks,” Anderson notes, watching a scene being filmed at the fictional Robin’s Nest mansion. “Two uniformed cops stand at the entrance gate; a crowd of tourists has gathered across the highway. The owner of the estate says there are often as many as 200 people gathered outside. They sometimes climb over the gate or up on the walls. Many tourists believe Selleck actually lives in the 52-year-old house. They toss gifts over the walls to him, they leave packages and boxes of food at the gate.”
SEE ALSO: Charisma, P.I. – Learning Lessons from Robin’s Nest
Anderson continues: “On the Magnum set Selleck is in command. … When he is working under the lights, he receives absolute attention from the company. Crew members and extras often crowd together so they can see him deliver his lines.” The series catapulted Selleck “into a position of grandeur unprecedented in show business history. His likeness appears and reappears on the covers of tabloids and national magazines. Interviews and feature stories about him have been distributed by major wire services and by every major syndicator in the world. Ten thousand letters a week pour into his Los Angeles office.”
Tokyo Vice
The issue’s cover image was taken during the filming of the third season’s “The Arrow That Is Not Aimed” episode, in which Magnum must recover a rare antique Japanese plate brought to the Islands, thwarting samurai, yakuza and ninjas. Oh my!
Learn more about the evolution of covers in HONOLULU Magazine and Paradise of the Pacific: 125 Years of Covers, available at shop.honolulumagazine.com.
