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350 Beer. An islander of Chinese-Portuguese-German-Dutch ancestry, Don grew up on the other side of the mountains from Honolulu in Kaneohe, where his parents ran a neon cocktail lounge called Honey's. A top high school athlete, he won a scholarship to Springfield (Mass.) College. But after a homesick year, he finished up at the University of Hawaii (sociology), then spent five years as an Air Force pilot. "When I realized I'd never get to be a general," he says, "I resigned my commission and came home to run Honey's. Business was so bad that I began playing the electric organ and singing to get the customers to stay around for another 350 beer. I got them to sing with me, and pretty soon buiness picked up."
Today business has picked up to the point where Don earns $500,000 a year. He owns a record company, real estate as far east as Salt Lake City, two supper clubs in addition to Honey's. He has just bought out Restaurateur Trader Vic on the island, will expand the chain as Trader Ho's.
The shows at the Duke's remain his major interest. At 3 a.m., he says, "I tell everybody to go home and then I start unwinding, singing personal things for maybe 50 or 60 friends. When the sun comes up, I go home." Not always, of course, to his wife and six kids; he also keeps a bachelor's pad for further unwinding.
* Next day she invited Don to entertain a swinging party of 35 at her rented home in Kahala. So swinging, Ho says, that he pitched the Capri-pants-clad hostess into her own swimming pool.