Douglas Simonson Gallery

The Story Behind PIDGIN TO DA MAX, in the Artist's Own Words

In the mid-1970's, having been in Hawaii for just a short time, I was still enthralled with (and dating quite a few) local boys, and the way they talked was one of the things I found most interesting about them. Since I had always been fascinated with language, it was no surprise I started writing down some of the more interesting things I heard.

At the time I was also experimenting with cartooning, and I created a 'pidgin' comic strip for a Honolulu giveaway youth newspaper called Sunbums. That got a positive response, and I started thinking about a full-length comic book based on some of the characters I'd created. And I thought it would be fun to attach a pidgin dictionary to the comic book, since I had this ever-growing list of words and definitions.

To make a long story short, the comic book never happened, and the "add-on" dictionary took on a life of its own. Two of my friends, Pat Sasaki and Ken Sakata, who had seen the dictionary and loved it, said I really should turn that into a book and illustrate it. That sounded like a good idea but a lot of work, and when I dragged my heels, the two of them said, Peppo (that was my nickname back then), we're gonna help you. (What they actually said was, we're gonna kick your ass and do whatever it takes because we want to see this book happen.)

Thus began a year-long series of meetings at my house, beginning in 1980 and continuing into 1981. Once a week the three of us would meet and brainstorm, mostly about cartoon ideas that would illustrate the definitions. In between meetings, I would work on drawings based on those ideas. Over time the book began to take shape and we came up with a title for it: 'Pidgin to da Max.'

We had basically accepted the fact, by then, that we were going to have to self-publish the book. Every local publisher we had talked to had expressed disinterest, pointing out that there was no market for such a book. Nothing like it had ever been done before in Hawaii, and they wondered who would buy it? Well, we knew our friends would like it, but we didn't really think there was that big a market for it either. But we didn't care. It was a labor of love for us, and we did it just because it was so much fun.

When we finally had the book ready to print, we each chipped in as much money as we could afford, and asked our friends to help, too, by selling coupons, each one good for one book, redeemable when the book was printed. We raised enough money for a small print run of 5,000 copies.

At this time, my day job was writing radio commercials at KGMB Radio in Honolulu, whose number-one DJ, a guy named Hal Lewis (on-air name 'Aku'), was at the time the highest-paid radio jock in the U.S. This was because everybody, and I mean everybody, in Hawaii listened to his morning radio show. Now because I was writing many of the commercials Aku voiced, we knew each other somewhat, and he heard about the pidgin book I was working on, and was curious. I told him about the project, mentioning that we were planning to donate 10% of any profits to charity (which was an easy thing to promise when we doubted there would ever be any profits - although it was also something we felt strongly about doing if we did have the chance).

Aku loved the samples of the book I showed him, and the fact that we were donating some of the profits to charity made him feel good about talking about it on-air, even though it was a for-profit venture. Well, that was all it took. As soon as Aku started talking about this new 'pidgin dictionary' on the air and how funny it was, everybody in Hawaii wanted a copy.

Soon after, the day arrived when our 5,000 copies of Pidgin to da Max were ready at the printers, and we needed pickup points for our friends who had bought those coupons and now wanted their books. We had friends at a little frame shop in a strip mall in Manoa, and at the community center in Moiliili. Those became our two pickup points, and we let our friends know about them.

But by this time Pidgin to da Max fever had begun, and word leaked out about the only two places in Hawaii you could pick up this book everybody wanted. By the second day, there were lines of people waiting outside the frame shop and the community center before opening time. As soon as the doors were opened, they would rush in and want to buy the book. Some people would buy 25 or 30 copies because they had taken orders for their whole block or neighborhood.

It took only one week to sell all 5,000 copies we had printed.

By this time, there was some word of mouth on the product - people weren't just going on Aku's recommendation. And the word of mouth was that the book was even better, and funnier, than people had expected. That combined with the fact that now the book was sold out and you couldn't get it anywhere, made people want it even more.

With the money from sales of the first 5,000 copies, we could now afford to print another 5,000. In the few days that it took for those books to be printed, demand ratcheted up dramatically. We now had buyers from every bookstore in town begging us to sell them some copies of the book.

The second printing sold out in about 3 days.

In the first month of its publication, Pidgin to da Max sold 25,000 copies, even with the book's being unavailable for about half that period. Over 100,000 copies were sold in the first year, and that was in a state with a total population of under 900,000 at the time. It's not exaggerating to say that everyone either owned the book, or had read it. The book was officially a publishing phenomenon.

There were stories in the papers, magazines, a proclamation from the Governor - I was even interviewed by Newsweek for an article on pidgin. Pat, Ken and I rented an office, hired some employees, and began work on a sequel, called Pidgin to da Max Hana Hou! (Hana hou! is a Hawaiian expression meaning 'encore!' or 'one more time!') We did produce that book the following year, followed by more sequels, including a book on local cuisine called Pupus to da Max.

We had a good run. In the late 80's we ended the publishing venture and the pidgin book franchise and licensed a local publishing house, Bess Press, to handle future printings and distribution. I turned my attention to what I'm doing now - being a painter.

But today, the books are still in print and still selling all over Hawaii. There are now around 400,000 copies in print. In 2006 the 25th anniversary edition of Pidgin to da Max came out and it became a best-seller all over again.

Five of the books are now available on the Simonson website: Pidgin to da Max, Pidgin to da Max Hana Hou, Pupus to da Max, Hawaii to da Max, and the Pidgin to da Max 25th Anniversary Edition.

Below are some article clippings from the 80's and 90's:

Articles

Pidgin to Da Max From Wikipedia

Pidgin to Da Max (full title: Peppo's Pidgin to Da Max) is a humorous illustrated dictionary of Hawaiian Pidgin words and phrases by Douglas Simonson, Pat Sasaki, and Ken Sakata.

With the definitions of most of the words and phrases also given in Pidgin, the book is not intended to be used as a Pidgin-English dictionary, although a reader unfamiliar with the dialect would likely understand most of the entries from context and the illustrations. Rather, the book is intended to be a humorous introspective for Hawaiians about the language they speak on a day-to-day basis. As such, it is a relatively popular book in Hawaii, and sold 25,000 copies in its first month in print.

There is an additional volume, titled Pidgin to Da Max: Hana Hou, which follows the first book.

As an example of an entry for which the dictionary may be of little help to outsiders, consider the definition of the word da kine:

DA KINE (da KINE) Da kine is the keystone of pidgin. You can use it anywhere, anytime, anyhow. Very convenient. What would we do without DA KINE? "Ey, I no can da kine if you no like da kine, too!"

The dictionary then turns around and uses "da kine" (often a notoriously difficult word for non-Hawaiians to understand) in some of the definitions of other words.

Interestingly enough, the authors of Pidgin to Da Max are not originally from Hawaii, and Simonson admits to not speaking Pidgin all that well.