Mauna Loa, Detroit, MI (bar) - Locating Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Thu, Jan 3, 2008 2:46 PM On 2008-01-03 08:39, LightedPalmTreeGuy wrote: I am from Detroit born and raised in fact I lived right down the street from where this place was and had never heard of it before. A real Detroit tragedy to be sure.Imagine a restaurant that cost that much to build in the sixties. That's because it existed for barely two years or so. The Mauna Loa is the prime example of how much the cost of building a Polynesian Palace and doing it right had risen by 1967. That and the fact that there was no rich Hilton or Sheraton hotel chain behind it, PLUS the fact that the Tiki trend was on its way out, ...PLUS the downtown riots, made the place go bankrupt pretty quickly. That is why any ephemera from it are so rare. I don't think they ever had time to even print postcards. I have never seen one. Also notice how the matchbook artistry of the 50s was becoming extinct. Uncle Trav, you have been such a valiant and active contributor of Tiki archeology here on TC, here ya go: These are from a restaurant magazine from the O.A. archives. I heard a rumor from Leroy that after the Mauna Loa group went bankrupt, someone tried to run it as a Safari-style place, serving wild game like monkey and ostrich...didn't last either. That would have been THE bankruptcy sale of the century to attend. WHERE did all those carvings go !!? I know that the Chin Tiki took over the bar with the embedded Chinese coins and put it up in their upstairs lounge, but that was all I recognized there....hey LightedPalmTreeGuy, is the Chin Tiki building still standing? Someone should document it's destruction.

On 2008-01-03 08:39, LightedPalmTreeGuy wrote:
I am from Detroit born and raised in fact I lived right down the street from where this place was and had never heard of it before. A real Detroit tragedy to be sure.Imagine a restaurant that cost that much to build in the sixties.

That's because it existed for barely two years or so. The Mauna Loa is the prime example of how much the cost of building a Polynesian Palace and doing it right had risen by 1967. That and the fact that there was no rich Hilton or Sheraton hotel chain behind it, PLUS the fact that the Tiki trend was on its way out, ...PLUS the downtown riots, made the place go bankrupt pretty quickly. That is why any ephemera from it are so rare. I don't think they ever had time to even print postcards. I have never seen one. Also notice how the matchbook artistry of the 50s was becoming extinct.

Uncle Trav, you have been such a valiant and active contributor of Tiki archeology here on TC, here ya go:

These are from a restaurant magazine from the O.A. archives. I heard a rumor from Leroy that after the Mauna Loa group went bankrupt, someone tried to run it as a Safari-style place, serving wild game like monkey and ostrich...didn't last either.

That would have been THE bankruptcy sale of the century to attend. WHERE did all those carvings go !!? I know that the Chin Tiki took over the bar with the embedded Chinese coins and put it up in their upstairs lounge, but that was all I recognized there....hey LightedPalmTreeGuy, is the Chin Tiki building still standing? Someone should document it's destruction.

Post #352761 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jan 3, 2008 2:46 PM