Post #1380 by bigbrotiki on Fri, May 10, 2002 8:59 AM

How does the Samoan Village card look? I only saw one exterior once and it was bad quality and not very glamourous. I am also very interested in the New York World's Fair restaurant, I have a matchbook from it that shows a WITCO mask that also hung outside The Polynesia in Seattle. We have already discussed the Seattle/Spokane Polynesia World's Fair connection (on the old Tiki Central), but I called their proprietor (thanks woofmut) and he said there was none. I still wonder if there actually was Witco stuff in the New York Polynesian. Is it an exterior or interior? Can you make out any Tikis?
Needless to say that the BOT would be a lot poorer without postcards, it has over 60 in it. After collecting and viewing hundreds of them, to my mind the most desirable ones are the ones with people in them. I have interiors of every Trader Vic's there ever was, but looking at them in a row they do get a little repetitious. The Seattle and Portland ones are among my faves because the Americans in period clothing give them the cultural context and contrast.(People AND Tikis are off course the best, for that nothing so far tops the page 24/Pompano Beach Kon-Tiki postcard).
I am still looking for a St.Louis Bel-Air Trader Vic's exterior with the Barney West Tiki(s) guarding the A-frame entrance, contrasting the Mondrianesque modern box highrise. It is painful to know that T.V.'s once kept photo folders for every franchise they ever opend, but tossed them out in the 80s, under the same manager that "cleansed" a lot of the T.V.'s of the Beachcomber lamps...