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Agnes Nalani Lum (; born May 21, 1956), or Lum-chan, is an American former model, singer, and actress who gained popularity in Japan in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She began modeling while still in high school. She won the Miss Hawaii USA contest in 1974, but was disqualified due to barely missing the age cutoff.
After modeling for Shiseido in 1974, she became a very popular model in Japan, appearing in advertisements for Coca-Cola, Lion Corporation, Toyota, Asahi Kasei, and Kodak. She was also featured on the covers and in interior photo collections in magazines such as Weekly Playboy, Heibon Punch, Myojo, Goro, and Yomiuri Weekly. The fictional character Lum, from the Urusei Yatsura manga series by Rumiko Takahashi, was modeled after her.
During her short singing career, Lum released two singles and two albums from 1977 to 1978. The first single, Ame-agari no Dauntaun, charted at #79 on the Oricon singles chart. A compilation album was released in 2002. She appeared as herself in a short promotional film released in 1976, as well as taking a supporting role in the 1981 film, Kaettekita Wakadaishō. She has made numerous appearances on television variety shows and "what is this celebrity doing now?" shows.
Lum married a childhood friend in 1986, and they had twins in 1987.
Lum became an overnight success in Japan after becoming the first Clarion Girl in June 1975, hired to promote Clarion products in a television and print advertising campaign. The first Clarion poster to feature Lum had 10,000 copies printed, but most of them were shortly stolen from storefronts. 100,000 additional copies of the poster were printed, but most of them also disappeared quickly. Lion offered 50 posters featuring Lum as promotional gifts for those who purchased their Emeron Minky Treatment (a hair product), and they were flooded with over 140,000 requests for the poster. Her popularity was considered unusual for a photographic model as she was not an actor or a singer at the time, and she showed little interest in those.
She was scheduled for a trip to Japan in July 1976, but canceled it amid rumors that she disliked the busy photography and media appearance schedule. A short promotional video, Taiyō no Koibito: Agunesu Ramu, was released in September. She traveled to Japan a second time in November that year, where she was enthusiastically greeted by fans at the airport. At a signing event at a bookstore, 3000 people showed up for an event with space for only 100, and the event was ended after only 20 minutes. At her appearance at the first Hiroshima Flower Festival in May 1977, she had to be taken away on a fire truck due to the number of fans overwhelming the venue.
In July 1977, she released her first single, Ame-agari no Dauntaun, which sold 8,000 copies and reached #79 on the Oricon singles chart. Her first full album, I Am Agnes Lum, was also released in July. That same year, she made her debut appearance on NHK's Kōhaku Uta Gassen variety show and on Sutā Sen'ichiya, a long-running celebrity variety show. Her second single, Sayonara wa Iwanai, was released in March 1978 along with her second and final non-collection album, With Love. She appeared as "Flora" in the Toho film Kaettekita Wakadaishō in February 1981.
Photobooks and other works documenting her career were only released years after she retired. Eden no Minami – Mai Hawaian Uei obu Raifu, with photography by Tsuyoshi Inaji, was released in July 1998. It contains photos of and essays about Lum and her family in Hawaii. Agnes Lum, with photography by Kenji Nagatomo, was released in April 2000. Agunesu Ramu no Ita Jidai by Kenji Nagatomo and Miho Osada was released in February 2007. September 2012 saw the release of Za Gurabia Aidoru: Rakuen no Yōsei: Agunesu Ramu Shashinshū by Kenji Nagatomo. Ten years later, Agunesu Ramu Shashinshū: 1974 Memories, by Hogara Iketani, was released in January 2017. An ebook, Agunesu Ramu: Sunahama no Koibito by Kenji Nagatomo and Hogara Iketani, was released in July 2019.
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