NY site to explore... King Yum - General Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Thu, Nov 18, 2004 11:15 AM On 2004-11-18 00:38, tikijackalope wrote: Bigbro, about what year did Orchids of Hawaii begin to produce tiki stuff? Any chance you can convince the boys over at OA to publish some old Orchids catalogs? Orchids masks seem to be the bastard children of tiki decor, but even the Kahiki used some of the bamboo lamps and shell lamps. There's one up for auction (not mine) right now http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11861&forum=12&1 I've got quite a few older models of Orchids lamps and would love to nail down a timeline of production and a chain of manufacture (i.e. Sea and Jungle or Benson to Orchids of Hawaii to restaurant owner). A nice challenge, good luck. Sea and Jungle and O.A. were certainly better quality Tiki suppliers than Orchids. Orchids was mostly Chinese decor, and bamboo, fake palms, waterfalls etc. They have a name now because of the Tiki mugs they made, but there Otagiri was leagues ahead. The Orchids catalogue I have is from 1991-2, and says "Our 39th Year", so it seems they started in '62. Their address was in the Bronx, but I think they had just moved there. I talked to them on the phone from LA in the early 90s ( they closed shop in '94 ?) and they were very dissinterested in my research, saying they didn't have any old files/catalogues/whatever materials. Otto tried them too, but they were just unfriendly (I wonder if they were true to their return policy they touted in the catalogue: "Your money will be cheerfully and promptly refunded!"). We didn't have any TC agents then to send there! The back of the catalogue reads "Visit our showroom for decorating ideas!" Their Tikis probably were wood at some point, as evidenced by Vern's Tikis he got from this local Family Restaurant that closed..(name? thread?), but even those were already painted badly, and the later ones were all lightweight fiberglass (Easily shipped! Almost no time to hang! Half the cost of originals! Come ready to install! Your customers will love them!), badly molded and garishly painted. This shipping and price advantage must have appealed to the thrifty Chinese Restaurant operators. I agree that any Tiki Bar that has survived is a find, but I classify the standard prefab Orchids stuff as contributing to the Tiki Devolution of the 70s and 80s. The lamps are an exception though, their craftsmanship was excellent and their resin mosaics are a lost art. In '91 they ranged between 70.- and a 150.- bucks per piece! I doubt that O.A. has any interest in reprinting any old catalogues they might have.

On 2004-11-18 00:38, tikijackalope wrote:

Bigbro, about what year did Orchids of Hawaii begin to produce tiki stuff? Any chance you can convince the boys over at OA to publish some old Orchids catalogs?

Orchids masks seem to be the bastard children of tiki decor, but even the Kahiki used some of the bamboo lamps and shell lamps. There's one up for auction (not mine) right now http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11861&forum=12&1

I've got quite a few older models of Orchids lamps and would love to nail down a timeline of production and a chain of manufacture (i.e. Sea and Jungle or Benson to Orchids of Hawaii to restaurant owner).

A nice challenge, good luck. Sea and Jungle and O.A. were certainly better quality Tiki suppliers than Orchids. Orchids was mostly Chinese decor, and bamboo, fake palms, waterfalls etc. They have a name now because of the Tiki mugs they made, but there Otagiri was leagues ahead.

The Orchids catalogue I have is from 1991-2, and says "Our 39th Year", so it seems they started in '62. Their address was in the Bronx, but I think they had just moved there. I talked to them on the phone from LA in the early 90s ( they closed shop in '94 ?) and they were very dissinterested in my research, saying they didn't have any old files/catalogues/whatever materials. Otto tried them too, but they were just unfriendly (I wonder if they were true to their return policy they touted in the catalogue: "Your money will be cheerfully and promptly refunded!"). We didn't have any TC agents then to send there! The back of the catalogue reads "Visit our showroom for decorating ideas!"

Their Tikis probably were wood at some point, as evidenced by Vern's Tikis he got from this local Family Restaurant that closed..(name? thread?), but even those were already painted badly, and the later ones were all lightweight fiberglass (Easily shipped! Almost no time to hang! Half the cost of originals! Come ready to install! Your customers will love them!), badly molded and garishly painted. This shipping and price advantage must have appealed to the thrifty Chinese Restaurant operators.

I agree that any Tiki Bar that has survived is a find, but I classify the standard prefab Orchids stuff as contributing to the Tiki Devolution of the 70s and 80s.

The lamps are an exception though, their craftsmanship was excellent and their resin mosaics are a lost art. In '91 they ranged between 70.- and a 150.- bucks per piece!

I doubt that O.A. has any interest in reprinting any old catalogues they might have.

Post #126237 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Nov 18, 2004 11:15 AM