Magnum Mania!

I'm embarrassed to ask this question, and I feel it may disqualify me as CoziTV's Magnum, P.I. superfan, but do we know the significance of the 44 on the King Kamehameha tank top Thomas wears? The actual person was to young to do anything in 1744, wasn't alive in 1844 and the Club was founded in 1905 . . .

Hi Conch,
Good question!
I always thought it was a competition shirt (surf ski race etc.) that Thomas participated in and he picked the #44 as it goes perfectly with his last name - 44 Magnum as in gun. No idea if this is the correct answer or not though. Look forward to hearing a few more responses.

I always considered it was some kind of team jersey type number, and that it was just a random number. Kenji has a good idea though, could be a "magnum" pun.

As the shirt logo smacks of a rather military design, is it possible this is a reference to Fort Kamehameha, which guarded the entrance to Pearl Harbor? The fort was active during WWII and operational until 1949. It is now part of Hickam AFB.

The only possible reference I could find for the "44" is that: the 15th Coast Artillery manned the Harbor Defenses at Fort Kamehameha (and other fortified sites on Oahu) until the regiment was broken up into battalions in 1944. Militaries like this kind of symbolism in their identifying graphics.

I think perhaps Magnum may have pulled this out of the bottom drawer of his dresser to wear during the race simply because the Kamehameha silhouette connects him to the club of the same name.

Selleck was a member of the Honolulu Outrigger Canoe Club and I always thought it was his crew tank top for boat 44.
I think he also has one that was 14.

This shows what the little logo was on the Magnum 44 tank top. http://www.store-t-shirts.com/king-kame ... 68026.html If you look at photos of Magnum in his tank top, you see that logo.

ConchRepublican wrote:I'm embarrassed to ask this question, and I feel it may disqualify me as CoziTV's Magnum, P.I. superfan, but do we know the significance of the 44 on the King Kamehameha tank top Thomas wears?

Hi ConchRepublican.

Thanks for asking - I always wondered this too, but was too afraid to ask, lol...

I like the 44 Magnum idea!!!

MagnumILWU wrote:This shows what the little logo was on the Magnum 44 tank top. http://www.store-t-shirts.com/king-kame ... 68026.html If you look at photos of Magnum in his tank top, you see that logo.

Thanks for posting this. I think I will send away for one of these.

NotthatRick wrote:

MagnumILWU wrote:This shows what the little logo was on the Magnum 44 tank top. http://www.store-t-shirts.com/king-kame ... 68026.html If you look at photos of Magnum in his tank top, you see that logo.

Thanks for posting this. I think I will send away for one of these.

I got mine here:
https://magnum.logosoftwear.com/

ConchRepublican wrote:

NotthatRick wrote:

MagnumILWU wrote:This shows what the little logo was on the Magnum 44 tank top. http://www.store-t-shirts.com/king-kame ... 68026.html If you look at photos of Magnum in his tank top, you see that logo.

Thanks for posting this. I think I will send away for one of these.

I got mine here:
https://magnum.logosoftwear.com/

I got two there also! I showed that ad, because of the small logo. I've always wonder why you never find one in the lighter blue, with the gray King Kamehameha, like Magnum wore!

The "44" theory is a good one - in season 1 Episode 11 "The Curse of the Kamehameha Club" you can see other guys wearing the same tank top in the 'surf ski' race with differing numbers. So Magnum's choice of 44 might make sense, for a non-gun guy. A .45 caliber ACP is the caliber of his 1911 - so it's not exactly clear. A smith 44 Magnum is about the same gun as TC carries and might be the vernacular of the street.

He wore number 42 when he played ball at SC so I don’t know. Maybe we’re reading too much into this and it was some random wardrobe person who picked it.