Post #250518 by ookoo lady on Thu, Aug 24, 2006 9:22 AM

Here's the article:

Published Wednesday, August 23, 2006 10:13 PM PDT

Family tribute to a tiki father
Book signing to be held in honor of 'The Original Beachcomber'
By Kelly Strodl

Ever since they were little girls, Marilyn, Bungy and Ba Hedley have been scouring beaches for little things left behind that could be transformed into treasures. They learned this love from their father, Eli Hedley, the man named by the Wall Street Journal as "The Original Beachcomber."

The San Pedro resident had quite an impressive resume by the time he died in 1981, having worked in Hollywood as a set designer and decorated hotels, bars and entire apartment complexes in his tiki style. Hedley was also responsible for part of the tiki look within Disneyland, where he ran "The Island Trade Store" gift shop in Adventureland for about a decade.

Hedley's masterpiece, though, has always been considered the family home built out of driftwood at White Point in San Pedro. Now a state park, the house stood for years as a monument to the family's love for the washed up treasures of the ocean.

On Sunday, the famous tiki master's daughters will be at Bamboo Ben's tiki shop in Huntington Beach to sign books and memorabilia from the beachcombing days.

The sisters will be signing copies of "Eli Hedley Beachcomber, the Original 1943 Catalog," "View from the Top of the Mast" and "How Daddy Became a Beachcomber" at the shop owned by Huntington Beach resident Bamboo Ben , Ba Hedley's son.

"It's neat how the whole Polynesian pop business is coming back again," Bamboo Ben said of his business building tiki bars.

His aunts are equally proud of the third-generation tiki aficionado.

"We're really proud of Bamboo Ben taking after Dad," Marilyn Hedley said of her nephew.

Marilyn is the author of "How Daddy became a Beachcomber," which was first published in 1947 and illustrated by the Hedley's oldest sister, Flo Ann Hedley, who died last year.