Post #417597 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Nov 6, 2008 8:28 AM

Hahaha. Those shells probably used to rest on shelves behind the booths. Maybe they hide some unseemly carpet/column base damage. The Bogart poster proves that, as Trader Tark pointed out, they understand that the place has "nostalgic" value. Nostalgic = Casablanca = Bogart!
(This might be in part due to the fact that I had a friend bring them a copy of the BOT in 2003 or so)

These naive columns are very early Trader Vic style, that style was also used at the FIRST Trader Vic franchise in Seattle, which opened in 1949, two years before San Francisco (which then already had the better Tahitian/Marquesan columns). Here is a pic of the Seattle gift shop, quite pre-Tiki in style:

I am not sure if I posted about his here before (search-checked but could not find), but I recently discovered that, while the bird cage lamps I pointed out above, AND these table lamps:

were both borrowed from the Havana Trader for the set of "I Am Cuba", the huge statues are African:

....and were copied from photos in this book:

...a Czech book which was published here under the title "Exotic Art":

We believe that those idols could have hailed from this club:

...which also could have provided the I Am Cuba "club entrance" location, because its address, and the view below, place it right across from the Hotel Capri:

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-11-06 08:31 ]