COLUMN:

Sixty years later,
Punahou pals continue
to make music

By Elissa Josephsohn

Honolulu-born Joy Abbott is one of the most active women her age, and no wonder — she was an award-winning tennis player in high school and college; she’s a top-flight golfer who can beat others more than half her age, and she has a history in show business that few can top.

Now this 1948 Punahou graduate has teamed up with her long-time friend, the incomparable Betty Loo Taylor, Punahou ’46, to release their first joint CD.

Punahou grad Joy Abbott has produced her first CD.

It’s entitled “For All We Know” and features jazzy standards that have been popular throughout the years, including “Try A Little Tenderness, “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Where or When,” “I’ll Never Stop Loving You” and “For All We Know — I’ll Be Seeing You.”

Betty Loo, a keyboard staple for years at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and now a headliner at The Kahala Resort and Spa, did the arrangements and collaborates with Joy on the piano in this CD, which was recorded in a New York studio. Known in the Islands as accompanist for all the jazz greats, ranging from localites such as Jimmy Borges to visiting VIPs, Betty Loo plays every Monday in the Veranda at The Kahala.

“Betty Loo didn’t have any music on the piano when we were recording. She’d ad lib in her own beautiful style and everything evolved,” says Joy, who concurs with the name “Lady Fingers” bestowed on her high-school pal.

“I brought the CDs here to my condo overlooking the Academy of Arts, so I hope local friends and Betty Loo’s many fans will get online right away to order them,” says Joy, with her signature smile.

She may be in her 70s but she’s as involved with new technology as anyone in the music field, and has set up a Web site to process orders. Just log on to www.JoyAbbott.com or write to P.O. Box 403532. Miami Beach, FL 33140. Copies also are available at Harry’s Music on Waialae Avenue.

Originally Joy Valderrama, she won the Hawaii Junior Tennis Tournament and went on to the nationals in Philadelphia. She had great style even as a teen-ager, wearing a white Chinese silk tennis skirt and lace panties. “Norman Woolworth was there at the tournament and he would stand right behind me when I served to see my skirt fly-up revealing my lace panties,” she recalls.

It was a twist of fate that introduced her to the legendary George Abbott, the very first inductee into the Broadway Hall of Fame and the noted producer of hits ranging from “The Pajama Game” to “Damn Yankees,” “On Your Toes,” “Pal Joey,” “Wonderful Town” and “The Boys from Syracuse.”

She was a young college graduate from Temple University in Philadelphia where she was inducted into the Sports Hall of Fame as an undefeated college tennis player when she met Abbott in 1959. He was 72 and had just won the Pulitzer Prize for “Fiorello.”

“We dated for 25 years and married in 1983. He proposed by saying, ‘My lawyer says I have enough money for two to live on. It’s time we got married.’ He was 107 when he died,” Joy says, adding that in their years of producing, traveling and putting around together, they never had an argument.

“He taught me how to play golf, which has become such a big part of my life.”

Joy continues to be a force on the Broadway scene, and makes a point of attending shows with the Abbott legacy, such as “Damn Yankees” when Jim Hutchison directed it last season for Army Community Theatre or the Ron Bright-directed “Pajama Game” at Paliku Theatre on the Windward Community College campus.

She also performs, as she did in September at the historic Hawaii Theatre. The show was called “Broadway Reflections” and Broadway’s own Davis Gaines, best known for starring in the title role in “Phantom of the Opera,” jetted in to join Joy in the benefit. Proceeds went to the new Hawaii Performing Arts Foundation. That organization’s mission is to generate support for the performing arts in Hawaii, and Hawaii’s youth through the arts.

Betty Loo Taylor, left, and Joy Abbott collaborated on a CD of classic songs. Betty Loo plays piano every Monday in the Veranda lobby at The Kahala Resort.

Joy is one of the founding board members. And where she is, Betty Loo is not far behind, so that fund-raising concert featured her on the keyboards as accompanist for Joy.

Joy’s commitment to the artistic community has included writing and directing several celebrity AIDS benefits and other galas. She also is a patron of the American Theater Wing, which gives the Tony Awards for Broadway excellence each year, and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, sponsors of the annual “Mr. Abbott” award. With her late husband the first name on the marble wall at the Gershwin Theatre, it’s only natural that she chaired the Theater Hall of Fame for eight years.

And she has had a career in retailing, boutique ownership and musical fashion productions, named Moana Productions in honor of her Hawaii roots.

Never one to sit still — she travels between homes on the Mainland and a beautifully-appointed condo here — Joy is as at home on the golf course as in the theater. Even recent back surgery couldn’t sideline her. During her several months-stay in Honolulu, she and Betty Loo entertained friends with excerpts from their CD and as she hit the links regularly with former high school friends. They played at various courses including Waialae and Oahu country clubs.

Jazzy, sassy, stylish and performer: that’s why Joy Abbott brings “joy to the world.” As she says, she’s “turned back the odometer” with her recent surgery, pepped up her life, and with her new CD, she’s ready to reach out to audiences of all ages.

Joy is now back in her Miami Beach home for the holidays, but will return to the islands again next spring. Meanwhile, Betty Loo continues to entertain on piano weekly at The Kahala.

Lisa Josephsohn has been writing about the arts and entertainment scene in Honolulu for the past three decades, promoting awareness and appreciation of culture for all.

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