Post #271298 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Dec 8, 2006 1:34 PM

Aaaah...so it IS the same print than on the photos on page 148 of the BOT. Not the Cook Islands god but the "Tahitian Cannibal Carvings"...these guys are a pet research subject of mine.

WHY did they become the logo Tikis of the Mai Kai? Because the Thornton brothers were inspired to go and open their own Polynesian Paradise through their favourite hangout in their home town of Chicago: Don The Beachcomber's, in Chicago in the 1940s.

And it was Don Beach who first introduced these three Tikis into Polynesian Pop (BOT p.69 and 72/73). They were his personal Pet Tikis, he even took them to Waikiki with him. You can see them in the back bar in Hollywood on page 72. I was lucky to find a set at the PCC fleamarket years ago, you can see them on my mantlepiece in the Kon-Id mug thread in Marketplace.

After Don and the Mai Kai, Stephen Crane used them for The Luau, and later his Kon Tikis. Of course, the design these were based on was not Tahitian, but Marquesan.

I want to see the beachcomber lamp shirt print real bad, too, please!