A Five-0 Experience

by Linda 

I moved to Hawaii from New Jersey in 1970 to get married. I lived two blocks from the new Sheraton Waikiki Hotel being built. Since I was looking for work, I went and applied for a job there. They must have like me for I landed the job working in the Hotel laundry located in the basement. One of the machines I operated was one that folded the towels and sheets.

My co-workers and I were all excited one day to learn that Hawaii Five-0 would be coming to film in the Hotel and that the laundry was part of the scene. There was even talk that some of us might be offered jobs as extras for that scene. We were told to go about our duties as the crew moved all around us.

As excited as I was (I was only 20 at the time) I was a bit nervous having them there. Finally, they just started pointing to us one by one. They pointed at me and said, "Okay, you."

Oh, I was crazed with excitement. I couldn't believe it.

"Only people with lines get paid, and there are no lines for you," they told me.

I was like, "who cares, I just want to do it." I couldn't wait to get home to tell my husband and my family back East that I was going to be on TV! How cool is that?

They watched us for a few more days. Then one morning, as I was folding towels, an assistant director/producer came over and talked with me. He had noticed my East Coast accent and asked where I was from.

It turned out he was from Pennsylvania, which is where my father is from. He was cool and we talked a lot. He then informed me about the breakfast wagon, which would arrive each morning for the cast and we were invited to help ourselves.

I felt like a star. It was great fun to come to work every morning and eat donuts and juice with the stars.

One morning I got to work a little bit too early. So I thought I would take the elevator up a few floors. As it turned out James MacArthur got in with me. ‘My God’, I thought, ‘this man is a real star’.

He was kinda quiet, said Hi and that was about it.

Jack Lord, on the other hand, was very friendly and talked a lot, as did the others.

Zulu was a sweetheart, always smiling just as Jack did.

It was very hectic, what with all the lights, cameras and such. The episode was about a man who was wanted by the police. He ran into the Hotel going up to one of the top floors. That’s where was a fight takes place and where he gets got shot. His body was then put into a laundry basket and dumped down the laundry shoot.

He ends up in the area where we were folding the towels. That’s where one of the workers discovered the body.

The scene has me standing in front of my machine feeding it towels. The camera was right in front of me with the cameraman. I would look up and see the camera.

They said, " look sweetie, try not to look at it, pretend it’s not here". It was hard not to, so a few times, they would holler, "cut". So it took a few times to get it right.

While I was living in Hawaii I would see them filming everywhere. We’d be eating or watching TV and hear some sirens and think, uh oh someone is getting busted. But when we’d go look outside and look, it was only Jack Lord’s big black car racing by doing a chase scene. It was so cool.

One day as I was walking home from work I found them doing another scene right near my home so I stopped to watch them. They kept looking at me. So did Jack who was smiling. Then someone came over to me and said, "Sorry, they really want a blond for this one." It would have been a talking scene, but that was ok. It was still so much fun to just be there and be a part of it.

It was a wonderful experience for a 20-year-old from New Jersey. I loved every minute of it. Going to work and eating breakfast with Hawaii Five-0.

A note from Terri...

Linda is looking for the name of the episode she was in.  She's been unable to remember which one it was.  She knows that it was in the first few years from when the show started. (No it isn't one of the Vashon episodes - it took place before then).

If any of you out there can think of the name of the episode, please email me. Hopefully I have the tape because she would like some screen captures & maybe a copy of the episode to show her sons.