Post #353233 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Jan 5, 2008 8:54 PM

Aloha Kapu Kai son, this one is for you. I am sorry it took me a while to pull all these materials together, and I hope you will dial in here again and see them. Your family's fate moved me, what a loss, I hope you all eventually recovered.

I am an urban archaeologist and author specializing in Tiki culture, and have been fascinated by the Kapu Kai since the beginning of my research in the early 90s. Luckily I found Oceanic Arts in Whittier, the company who outfitted the Kapu Kai. They told me about the K.K.'s fate. I even dug up Milan Guanko, the carver of the Tiki statues, and talked to him before he passed away.

I must assume that you do not have my "Book of Tiki" (BOT) that I mention above, unfortunately it has been out of print for a while, so I am posting some pictures from it here also. First, a yellow pages ad:

Here are two pages from a flier, I only have them as pdf's, so I photographed them from my laptop screen:

I did get a better shot of the architectural rendering of the front, but this side view is also very interesting:

Here is the better version of the front:

When I came upon it in 1992 it had been a "Country"-themed roller rink before it closed down. Here are two visiting German friends of mine in front of it:

The side entrance:

It was all boarded up then, but two years later me and some friends mounted a successful expedition that pushed into the inner sanctum. Among its members were L.A. Mod-Comers John English, Chris Nichols (now L.A. Magazine editor and author of "The Leisure Architecture of Wayne McAllister") and Jeff Berry, authority on and author of several books about Polynesian cocktail archeology:

There was nothing salvageable left by then...EXCEPT the gorgeous Milan Guanko Tikis that were serving as support posts between the bowling lanes!:

These could not be removed and had survived all the natural and stylistic catastrophes the place had endured over the years. Of course we tried to monitor the site to save them, but one day it was all gone. By sheer coincidence, my friend and Tiki carver Bosko ended up with one and built an A-frame shrine around it. (can someone post a pic, please?)

One of my favorite ephemera from the Kapu Kai was its menu cover:

...which design was used for other objects like matchbooks and glasses:

Here is a shot of the awesome sign:

...and the cool concrete screen that was used around the whole building:

I am assuming that THIS was the "Tahitian Fire":

Here is the main entrance with its amazing Guanko carvings:

..and the bowling alley counter, with some of the Tiki posts in the far background:

What is hard to see in the above photo, (and got covered with tons of mud later!) can be better appreciated in THIS one:

For me as a Tiki archaeologist it is always a thrill to find a so far unseen use of the Tiki image. The Kapu Kai is the only place to my knowledge that used TIKI CARPETING !:

A minor aspect to most, but a find for me. :)

Kapu Kai Son, I hope you will enjoy these images, and if you dig up any more photos from before your dad's place was hit by disaster, we would love to see them.