Sinatra, Kennedy & Tiki - General Tiki

SS Satan's Sin Member Imperial Beach, CA Joined: Jun 13, 2004 Posts: 729	SS Satan's Sin Posted posted on Thu, Jul 8, 2004 8:28 PM I have found another interesting mid-century photo that speaks to our precious tiki heritage, and I think it is important to post it here because so few remember the “Tiki Gap” of the Cold War. Some of the older TCers surely recall how Kruschev, enraged by the rapid increase in the number of Polynesian-themed restaurants in the U.S., instituted an all-out catch-up program that resulted in the massive slave-labor camp in the Urals that came to be known as “Tiki City.” Thousands of lives and billions of rubles were sacrificed to round-the-clock production of mugs, home bars, and Bolshoi interpretations of Polynesian dance. These products fell flat on the international market, however, although in fairness to the commies their ill-planned Iron Tiki Mug of the Red Star was retrofitted with a pulley-and-lever device that made its forty-pound weight feel more like thirty-five. (These mugs still did not sell, and were forced upon Polish and East German tikiphiles at bayonet point.) But the true end of the Soviet tiki program came during the famous Nixon/Kruschev “Tiki Bar Debate” at Moscow’s Polynesian Tech Expo of 1959. It was at the American exhibit that the showdown came. There, in front of a gleaming, mass-produced tiki bar that was by then a common feature in every American rumpus room, Nixon told Kruschev that U.S. free enterprise had not only matched Soviet production of 10,000 barrels per day of cheap vodka, “but also 12,000 barrels of cheap rum and 15,000 barrels of even cheaper whiskey! With boxcars of mixers to boot!” And then Nixon intoned the immortal words: “Sir, vodka and cherry Hawaiian Punch does not a tiki drink make! Does not!” Humiliated, Kruschev tried to bluster his way out of the debate by banging his shoe on the tiki bar and bellowing, “We will outdrink you! We will outdrink you!” But Kruschev knew he was beaten, and when he returned to the Kremlin he quietly canceled the Tiki Five-Year Plan. Thus and the first round of the Cold War went to the U.S. This is the best picture I could find, but perhaps some other TCer might be able to locate one that gives a better view of the famous bar. The famous "Tiki Bar Debate" of 1959 -- to the victor goes the spoils! [ Edited by: Satan's Sin on 2004-07-08 20:29 ]

I have found another interesting mid-century photo that speaks to our precious tiki heritage, and I think it is important to post it here because so few remember the “Tiki Gap” of the Cold War.

Some of the older TCers surely recall how Kruschev, enraged by the rapid increase in the number of Polynesian-themed restaurants in the U.S., instituted an all-out catch-up program that resulted in the massive slave-labor camp in the Urals that came to be known as “Tiki City.” Thousands of lives and billions of rubles were sacrificed to round-the-clock production of mugs, home bars, and Bolshoi interpretations of Polynesian dance. These products fell flat on the international market, however, although in fairness to the commies their ill-planned Iron Tiki Mug of the Red Star was retrofitted with a pulley-and-lever device that made its forty-pound weight feel more like thirty-five. (These mugs still did not sell, and were forced upon Polish and East German tikiphiles at bayonet point.)

But the true end of the Soviet tiki program came during the famous Nixon/Kruschev “Tiki Bar Debate” at Moscow’s Polynesian Tech Expo of 1959. It was at the American exhibit that the showdown came. There, in front of a gleaming, mass-produced tiki bar that was by then a common feature in every American rumpus room, Nixon told Kruschev that U.S. free enterprise had not only matched Soviet production of 10,000 barrels per day of cheap vodka, “but also 12,000 barrels of cheap rum and 15,000 barrels of even cheaper whiskey! With boxcars of mixers to boot!” And then Nixon intoned the immortal words: “Sir, vodka and cherry Hawaiian Punch does not a tiki drink make! Does not!”

Humiliated, Kruschev tried to bluster his way out of the debate by banging his shoe on the tiki bar and bellowing, “We will outdrink you! We will outdrink you!”

But Kruschev knew he was beaten, and when he returned to the Kremlin he quietly canceled the Tiki Five-Year Plan. Thus and the first round of the Cold War went to the U.S.

This is the best picture I could find, but perhaps some other TCer might be able to locate one that gives a better view of the famous bar.

The famous "Tiki Bar Debate" of 1959 -- to the victor goes the spoils!

[ Edited by: Satan's Sin on 2004-07-08 20:29 ]

Post #100535 by Satan's Sin on Thu, Jul 8, 2004 8:28 PM