Post #430029 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 11:51 AM

Uncle Trav, wow, you have a book form The Grass Shack, predecessor to the Kahiki! And that embossed breasts one is great, where was that from? And the Gobbler, what a nice rendering --and yes, what a classic website for this Madonna Inn of the post-Space Age, glad to see it's still up!

I wanted to share some of my Non-Tiki match books, just to continue my "Ode to the art of the matchbook":

Here is a modern tropical place that no one has ever heard of. If postcards do not exist of a place, matchbooks are often the only imagery of the architecture that has survived:

Among the many "feature" (in match collectors talk, extra elaborate treatments) concepts, like images printed on matches, and little pop out stands, embossing is among my favorites, here the name and the frame are raised:

Who has ever heard of this club? And what happened to all those paintings? And who was GLORIA...an especially large and fetching nude?

There was a time when nude paintings were standard decor in bars and supper clubs, but this place must have taken the cake. I was lucky to visit some, like Nickodell's on Melrose, and to this day, some of the Clearman's Inns have a few.

Matchbooks are also of special value to the urban archeologist because they, unlike mugs or menus, sometimes contain detailed maps that show us where the establishment once stood:

Maybe "Gloria" was the "live undraped model"? And were you given pencil and paper to sketch her while you waited for your food? If matchbooks could only talk! Wonder what is there today.

And last, one of my favorites, in color and concept:

This was in my old neighborhood of Telegraph Hill when I moved to the States in 1980. I used to live on the hill, just a block and a half below Coit Tower:

Check out the matches decorated with that classic prop of beatnik bohemia, the "drippy wax candle in wine bottle". When I got there, that place was gone, and only a few vestiges of North Beach's beatnik past were left:

Yours truly in 1980

I have a map from where my pad was exactly, somewhere...
....wait, here it is (red arrow)! That's where I lived while I went to the San Francisco Art Institute :)

...maybe this is where my love affair with "raised features" began.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2009-01-22 11:59 ]