Louis Keouli Thompson

Louis Keouli Thompson (April 22, 1882 – July 15, 1937), better known by his stage name Segis Luvaun, was a Hawaiian singer and musician and the reported ''King of Ukulele Players''.Luvaun (1926), p. 2. Thompson, native to Hawai'i, claimed United States citizenship when Hawaii was annexed by the United States as a territory in 1898. He performed much of his life, first touring the United States and later throughout Scandinavia and Europe, many times for Royalty.

Personal life

Louis Thompson was born in Honolulu in the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1882. The earliest known record of him is the 1900 census showing him as a 17-year-old student at the Kamehameha School, then known as the Kamehameha School for Boys. Indeed, Thompson is shown in the school's Class of 1900 class photo.KS Archives – Kamehameha School for Boys, Class of 1900
Retrieved on 2012-06-02. The 1900 census shows both his parents being from the Hawaiian Islands. A 1919 Visa application, filled out by Thompson, records his father's name as ''Keouli Tawmsen''Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; ARC Identifier 583830 / MLR Number A1 534; NARA Series: M1490; Roll #807. and a 1916 Visa application indicated that his father was deceased at that time.Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Washington D.C.; Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925; ARC Identifier 583830 / MLR Number A1 534; NARA Series: M1490; Roll #315. However, on the marriage license to Eveline Walters (shown below), indicates his father's name is 'Carlo Luvaun'. No other information is known about his family.

Thompson married ''Mildred Elnora Rupp'' on July 26, 1910, in Chicago, Illinois.Source: Ancestry.com. Cook County, Illinois, Marriages Index, 1871–1920 atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. At the time, Thompson went by ''Lu'', with his full name on the marriage license recorded as ''Lu Kaoly Thompson''. Rupp was born on October 26, 1893, in Winfield, Kansas.Edmund West, comp.. Family Data Collection – Births atabase on-line Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2001. Although Thompson was actually 28 and Rupp was 17 at the time, the marriage license shows them as 26 and 21, respectively. He and Rupp had one child, Billven Keouli Thompson, born December 16, 1911, in Topeka, Kansas. Billven is Thompson's only known child.

Sometime after marrying Rupp in 1910 and before leaving for Europe in 1914, Thompson married ''Moana''. Although little is known about Moana, including her maiden name, one might speculate that she was the inspiration behind Thompson's chart 'Moana Waltz'.

Thompson married ''Eveline Walters'' on April 7, 1917, in St Giles, London, England. At this time, Thompson was 35 and Walters was 21.Certified Copy of an entry of marriage for Segis Luvaun and Eveline Walters, Registration District of St. Giles, entry Number 169. She was born on September 11, 1896, in Somersetshire, England.Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington D.C.; Emergency Passport Applications, Argentina thru Venezuela, 1906–1925; Collection Number: ARC Identifier 1244183 / MLR Number A1 544; ; ; Box #: 4715; Volume #: 3. and her father's name was Gaius Walters

Within three years (1903) of graduating from Kamehameha School for Boys, Thompson had already left his homeland of Hawai'i for the mainland of the United States. He toured there for ten years before moving to London in 1914. In 1919, he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark. By 1922, he once again moved, this time to Prague, Czechoslovakia. His last known residence in Europe, per Visa applications, was Riga, Latvia. He remained in Europe until September 1936 when he returned to the United States sailing from Marseille to Boston. He died of heart failure in a Pennsylvania hospital, on July 15, 1937.

Career

Much of Thompson's career has been gathered through newspaper ads and articles, as well as mentions in books about the Hawaiian music movement at the time. According to Kamehameha School archives, Thompson had left for the United States mainland by 1902 or 1903. Several articles show him touring in the United States as early as 1907 and as late as 1913. In his book ''How to Play the Ukulele'', Thompson records that he was discovered in 1912 while touring in the United States by Sir Walter de Freece, who brought him to Europe. Tracking his travels through passport and visa applications shows that he lived and performed in locations such as London, Oslo, Copenhagen, the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland from 1914 to 1931.

''United States Tour'' (1902–1913)

Thompson was manager of a troupe called the ''Honolulu Students'' that he toured with across various venues within the United States. The stage name that he used while with the Honolulu Students is ''Professor Lu Thompson Keouli''. During 1907 and 1908, Thompson, along with the Honolulu Students toured as part of the Chautauqua circuitThe Honolulu Students : from the Hawaiian islands.
, Rochester, N.Y., The Central Printing & Engraving Company (190-?)

''European Tour'' (1914–1928)

Stage Names

Thompson appears to have been very prolific with his epithet. Although there is no record of why he chose different aliases, he chose both unique names and spellings at different times in his career. Below is a list of names he was known to use.

* Juan Akoni
* L. Thompson
* Lewis Thompson
* Louis K Thompson
* Lu Kaoly Thompson
* Lu Keouli Thompson
* Luvaun
* Luvaun Tawmsen
* San Juan
* Segis Luvaun

Discography

1916 HMV Label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under the HMV label as Segis LuvaunBio-Discography (1990)

1917 Zonophone label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under the Zonophone label as Juan Akoni

1917 Winner Label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under the Winner label as Luvaun assisted by Lady Chetwynd

1917 Zonophone Label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under the Zonophone label as Juan Akoni

1920 Ekophon Label (Saltsjöbaden, Sweden)

Recorded in Saltsjöbaden, Sweden under the Ekophon label as Segis Luvaun

1920–1921 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under the Grammaphon/Polydor label as Segis Luvaun

Early 1921 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under the Grammaphon/Polydor label as Segis Luvaun

Late 1921 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under the Grammaphon/Polydor label as Segis Luvaun

Sept 1924 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under the Grammaphon/Polydor label with Eric Borchard's Jazzband

1923–1926 Deutsche Grammophon Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under the Deutsche Grammophon label with Efim Schachmeister

Mar 1925 Vox Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under Vox label as Segis Luvaun

Late 1925 Vox Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under Vox label with Original Hawaiian Trio (Bruquil, Milissa, San Juan) as San Juan

Sept–Oct 1925 Winner Label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under Winner label as Segis Luvaun

1925–1926 The Bell Label (London, England)

Recorded in London, England under The Bell label as Unknown

Mar 1928 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under Grammaphon/Polydor label as Segis Luvaun

Apr 1928 Grammaphon/Polydor Label (Berlin, Germany)

Recorded in Berlin, Germany under Grammaphon/Polydor label as Segis Luvaun

Publications

* Book, ''How to Play the Ukulele'', by Luvaun, London, Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, Ltd. (1926), T645.L9;* Sheet Music, ''Hawaiian Onestep, für Salonorchester'', by Segis Luvaun, arr. von B. Bernards; für Pianoforte, arr. von Kurt Lubbe, Leipzig Publishing House, Germany, c 1919–1923.
* Sheet Music, ''Moana. Hawaiian Waltz'', by Luvaun. Amsterdam Frederiksplein, Louis Noiret Music Publishing Company. 1922.

Notes

References

* Luvaun, ''How to Play the Ukulele'', London, Ascherberg, Hopwood & Crew, Ltd. (1926), T645.L9;* ''The Hawaiian Gazette'', March 2, 1909
"Hawaiian Singers in the Empire State"
Honolulu, Hawaii, pg. 7.
* ''The Segis Luvaun Bio-Discography'', Rainer E. Lotz, Rugby/England, The International Talking Machine Review, 77, Spring 1990, pp. 2255–2259.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Louis Keouli
1882 births
1937 deaths
Kamehameha Schools alumni
Ukulele players from Hawaii
Music of Hawaii
Native Hawaiian musicians
Songwriters from Hawaii
Musicians from Hawaii
Hawaiian Kingdom people
20th-century American songwriters