The Eagles In Hawaii, 1976

On February 12th, 1976, the Eagles played the Blaisdell Arena, also known as H.I.C.(Honolulu International Center), in Honolulu. It was the last stop on their Tour Of The Pacific, which included dates in New Zealand, Australia and Japan.

_{The ad for the concert from the Honolulu Advertiser features the first band photo with Joe Walsh, taken by David Alexander.}

Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and their twelve-year-old son, Dana, accompanied him on the tour. Their youngest children, five-year-old twins, Heather and Eric, stayed behind with Jennifer’s parents in Nebraska. This was Randy’s fourth visit to Hawaii with the Eagles. The first was in December 1972, when they opened for Yes at the Blaisdell Arena. Following that, there were two stints at the Waikiki Shell in 1974 and 1975.

Original poster for the 1976 concert:

The Eagles onstage at Blaisdell. @Jennifer Meisner.

Photos below ©P.F. Bentley:

For the Honolulu concert, Randy wore a personalized t-shirt given to him (and all band members) by WEA New Zealand as a “thank you” for their appearance in Auckland on January 18th, 1976. Randy’s family still has his shirt, as modeled by his fourteen-year-old granddaughter, Brooklyn (below), daughter of Randy’s son, Eric (in yellow hat).

Photos ©Jennifer Meisner.

While in Honolulu, the Eagles stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach.¹

_{c.1970s postcard:}

The view from the Meisner’s hotel balcony, via their home movie footage:

Photo of Randy taken by Jennifer in their hotel room at the Hilton.
_{@Jennifer Meisner. Do Not Republish Without Permission.}

Home Movie Footage

The following is home movie footage from the Meisner’s visit to Honolulu, graciously shared with me by Jennifer and Dana Meisner. Dana digitized and edited the films, which were shot with their Super 8 video camera. The footage shows Randy and his family having a seemingly normal family vacation, except they were traveling with one of the most famous rock bands in America at the time.

The first clip shows Jennifer and Dana enjoying activities at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. First we see them riding the paddle boats, then the footage cuts to Jennifer watching the dolphins. “I loved watching them and talking to them,” she remembered. The cameraman was Randy. A husband and father filming his family on vacation.

The film is silent. Footage courtesy of the Meisner Family.

The next clip is a portion of the Eagles concert filmed by Jennifer. Normally, she and Dana would sit on the left-hand side of the stage behind Randy. But, for this show, they sat on the opposite side behind Joe Walsh. What’s great about the footage is that Randy knew Jennifer was filming him, so he was smiling and playing to the camera.

The film is silent. ©Jennifer Meisner. Do not republish without permission.

Shortly after the concert, Randy and his family returned to their home in Mitchell, Nebraska. Except for a couple of benefit concerts in May 1976, the Eagles didn’t perform again for nearly five months until the beginning of their summer tour on July 1st. You can browse these dates in my Concert Archive.

Notes

1. Elvis Presley famously landed in a helicopter at the Hilton Hawaiian Village when he arrived for his iconic Aloha From Hawaii Via Satellite concert in January 1973. The concert, also filmed at the Blaisdell Center, was broadcast live around the world. ↩︎