Edward Kamanaloha Kenney, Jr. (born August 8, 1933) is a Hawai‘i-born American singer/actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

 best known for the role of "Wang Ta" in the original Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production of Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song

Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...

. Now retired, he lives on the island of Kaua‘i and occasionally makes public appearances.

Family

Born in Honolulu on Oahu to a Hawaiian-Chinese mother and a Swedish-Irish father.He is currently married to Judy Bailey and lives on Kauai.

Kenney was married to hula dancer Beverly Noa and is the father of Honolulu restaurateur, Edward Kenney, III http://starbulletin.com/2005/04/10/features/eater.html, http://www.midweek.com/sherman/sherman050405.html.

Kenney and Noa headlined shows at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel

Royal Hawaiian Hotel

Royal Hawaiian Hotel, also known as the Pink Palace of the Pacific, is a hotel located at 2259 Kalākaua Avenue in Honolulu, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. One of the first hotels established in Waikiki, the Royal Hawaiian Hotel is considered one of the flagship hotels in Hawaii tourism...

 and the Halekulani Hotel for years. They reunited for a Honolulu television show on KGMB

KGMB

KGMB is the CBS-affiliated television station for the state of Hawaii that is licensed to Honolulu. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 23 from a transmitter in Palehua....

-TV in the 1980s.

Broadway

• 13 Daughters as Mana, Prince of Hawai‘i (1961)
• Flower Drum Song
  Flower Drum Song
  Flower Drum Song was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. It was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was afterwards presented in the West End and on tour...
  
  as Wan Ta (1958–1960)
• Shangri-La
  Shangri-La
  Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains...
  
  as Rimshi (1956)

Solo

• Exotic Sounds of the Spice Island (Columbia
  Columbia Records
  Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
  
  , 1960)
• My Hawai‘i (Columbia, 1962) (later reissued with a different cover on a Columbia budget label, Harmony)
• Ed Kenney's Hawaii (ABC/Paramount
  ABC Records
  ABC Records was an American record label, founded in New York City in 1955 as ABC-Paramount Records. It originated as the main popular music label operated the Am-Par Record Corporation, the music subsidiary of the American Broadcasting Company . ABC-Paramount Records' first president was Samuel H....
  
  , 1962) (later reissued with a different cover by Decca
  Decca Records
  Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
  
  , 196?)
• Somewhere in Hawai‘i (Waikiki, 1964)
• Waikiki (Decca, 1966)
• Royal Hawaiian Luau (Decca, 1967)
• An Island (Lehua, 1977)

Included

• Hawaii's Favorite Christmas Songs - Vol 2 (1999)
• Hawaii's Sunset Melodies (1996)
• Hawaii's Golden Treasures (1996)
• Hawaii's Favorite Christmas Songs (1993)
• Flower Drum Song: 1958 Original Broadway Cast (1958)

Singles

• "Numbah One Day of Christmas" the Hawaiian Pidgin
  Hawaiian Pidgin
  Hawaii Pidgin English, Hawaii Creole English, HCE, or simply Pidgin, is a creole language based in part on English used by many "local" residents of Hawaii. Although English and Hawaiian are the co-official languages of the state of Hawaii, Pidgin is used by many Hawaii residents in everyday...
  
   version of The Twelve Days of Christmas

Co-wrote this with Eaton "Bob" Magoon, Jr. (13 Daughters composer) and Gordon Phelps.

External links

• Liner notes from My Hawaii album