Early Career

His father’s desertion “is what got me in this business,” Tapia said. The family needed the money. The eight-year-old, who was born and raised in Honolulu, took up the ukulele after hearing neighbors playing the instrument. After a couple of lessons, he got the hang of it and continued learning on his own. In the following clip, Tapia tells an audience how he learned to play ukulele:

At age 10, during World War I, Tapia played for soldiers at the local Army-Navy YMCA. Two years later, he left school to help support his family by working in the Honolulu vaudeville circuit. His trademark was playing a spirited “Stars and Stripes Forever” with his ukulele behind his head.

Tapia wanted to perform with bands, but in the 1920s, ukuleles weren’t used in bands outside of Hawaii—however, banjos were. So he quit the ukulele at 15 and learned to play banjo. At 19, he was good enough to start playing with bands on cruise ships, performing during lunch, dinner, and in the evening, for dancing. In the 1930s, bands gave up banjos for guitars, so to keep from losing his job, he taught himself how to play the guitar. “After a gig, I practiced (guitar) till daylight, then I’d sleep for a couple hours, then have something to eat, go to rehearsal,” he said. “I practiced like mad and learned guitar.”