Noyes’ expertise in Hawaiian history and culture result from
residence in the islands virtually all her life with the exception
of eight years she spent working in Hollywood. Noyes said
she has always had interest in indigenous cultures and a rather
unusual way of looking at things.
She attributes these interests to her unusual upbringing.
She remembers when her father, a famous physician, took her
to stay at the house of the governor of Arkansas, and chose
to pitch a tent in the forest of the enormous estate rather
than stay in the governor’s mansion. Noyes spent much of her
childhood in Europe, where her father was often a visiting
professor at universities. Fluent in several languages, Noyes
graduated from Punahou in ’67, and went to Hollywood, where
she worked whatever gig came her way, including playing a
decomposing bride in a horror film and a hooker on the TV
series Mike Hammer. She recalls struggling, going to happy
hour at bars to scrounge for free food, saying “a big dinner
was extra popcorn.”
Noyes also played a bit part in Punchline, starring Tom Hanks
and was a production assistant for Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
As she worked her way through the movie business, she sold
two screenplays to Paramount Pictures, one about a pimp she
had met once while living in Honolulu.
Noyes also went to several colleges for seven years, and
instead of going for a major, she took whatever classes she
was interested in. Noyes said, “I was raised in a non-linear
fashion, which I think is natural, so I don’t ever do things
in a linear way.”
For a short while, Noyes was a Hawaiian Tropic suntan lotion
girl and dated the infamous Billy Bob Thornton. She lived
for an entire summer on a Navajo reservation, which she says
further enlarged her ability to see things in different ways.
Noyes returned to Hawai‘i a newlywed, and completed undergraduate
work at HPU, majoring in Communication Arts. She got her Masters
at the University of Hawai‘i Manoa in Communications in 1978.
Noyes has already had what anyone would agree to be an incredible
life, with more achievements than most people could hope to
accomplish, but she says there is still more to come, and
that the pinnacle of her life is on its way. She added,
“The best part better be coming; it’s the only thing that
keeps me going.”
