Post #478495 by Limbo Lizard on Thu, Aug 20, 2009 11:00 PM

Don't wanna be the skunk at the picnic, but I don't think this sign came from a DtB, anywhere. I think it's a... well, not a replica, but a "rendition" of a DtB sign.
'Or Got Rum?' seemed to be noticing the same thing - the lettering's wrong. It's not in the trademark style of the restaurant's, circa 1970's - all straight segments (e.g., the hexagonal 'O'). Nor is it in any of the earlier styles of lettering. DtB's lettering style evolved, over the years, but it stuck to a similar "look" or pattern. If you look through the pictures in Dustycajun's "Don the Beachcomber - The Locations" thread, this sign doesn't match any of the lettering styles.
It does resemble the sign in the artist's rendering of Palm Springs, posted above (from 1970). But the architect's artist was likely focused on the building, not on exactly reproducing the DtB-style lettering. Did the actual signs use the stylized lettering - duplicated on menu's, matchbooks, etc.? I believe they did.
Also, it doesn't appear to have spent decades in the weather. It could have been re-finished, I suppose, but it looks like the white paint and red stain is pretty new. Is that the same stain on the edge of the roof, over the sign? And the vertical pieces that join the horizontal planks are in front - shouldn't they be on the back? Almost looks like it was made from half the top of a picnic table, but I'm guessing from some old or distressed wood someone found.
I'm speculating on all this, of course, and I'd be happy to be found wrong. It would be much cooler for it to be an authentic piece of DtB history, recovered from Nowhere, Arizona.