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Joined: Jul 07, 2005
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More about Eli Hedley and some about Russell Kellmer Sorry about the pics. They couldn't be much worse. I even tried to clean them up a little.
(from the Long Beach Independent Press Telegram 22 January 1961)
Miday City's Tribe of Gods
By Dick Bach
A SET of grotesque black
shadows flick out and lie
twisted across your path as
you drive north on State
Hwy. 39 and enter the little
town of Midway City.
Tracing the source of the
shadows the traveler is startled
to come face to face with
the high carved figures of a
dozen tiki—stone and wooden
images of South Pacific gods.
This is the carving ground
of Weldon Eli Hedley. who
also owns and manages the
Island Trade Store in Walt
Disney's Adventureland.
FROM THIS BIRTHPLACE
of gods have come some 300
tiki who in the past 10 years
have traveled to rule new
kingdoms throughout the
United States.
Medley's tiki range from a
few inches high to 15 feet
tall and weigh from one
pound to 13,000 pounds.
Hedley became fascinated
by the primitive beauty of
these gods more than 10
years ago. He began by
sketching tiki from photographs
and models in museums.
When he had the feel
of their design and structure,
he chalked out designs on
wood and began carving. But,
except for some stone replicas,
of Easter Island's great
stone faces. Medley's tikis are
not exact copies of any other
gods in this world—though
they could be set in a crowd
of 1000 - year - old brethren
without being recognized as
intruders.
HEDLEY WASN'T exactly
deluged with orders when he
began carving images in California
palm trunks 10 years
ago. The first tropical restaurant
owner he approached
with one of his craggy idols
said, "They're wonderful. What
are they good for?"
Hedley took a different
tack to get his idols recognition.
He supplied movie studios
with sea-drifted beachcomb
for island sagas and won a
reputation as a tropical designer.
He was called upon to
arrange society parties and
yacht club luaus. He'd fit a
tiki into the decorations and
found it was sold before the
party was over.
A tiki by your swimming
pool was a novelty at first,
then an expected thing. Tiki
now are standard accessories
for swimming pools.
TODAY, WITH Eli handling
the business end, the
art of tikl-oarving has passed
on to Russell Kellmer, who
without training gives evidence
that in some other life
he was a chief carver of tiki.
With a crude-looking adze,
the only tool used on the
wood until the final stages of
carving, Kellmer works like a
man possessed, stopping only
for a second every 10 or 15
minutes to rest his working
arm. After four hours of almost
constant chopping, the
tiki lies rough-hewn on the
ground.
A heavy wood-chisel runs
over the form of the god,
smoothing and refining the
heavier strokes of the adze.
Finally, an electric disc sander
touches it to coarse fibery
smoothness 'and rounds the
hard-cut corners. A stiff
brush and a stream of icy
water mark the last minutes
that the god will ever spend
on his back on the ground.
The hands that shaped the
tiki lift him to a standing
position, and he quickly assumes
the still power and..."
(Sorry, the story continues on page 14 but I misplaced it somewhere. Dang!)
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