Post #511411 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Feb 16, 2010 11:52 AM

Inspired by Babalu's recent posts on Papua New Guinea culture, I am posing this question: In America's urban bamboo hideaways of the 30s and 40s, the iconography of Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa and other Polynesian islands was the dominant style. So when did MELANESIAN artifacts actually become a part of this world? It all seems to coincide with the heyday of Tiki, beginning in the late 50s.

I am pegging Trader Vic as the main disseminator of Melanesian art into Poly pop. The T.V.'s logo mask (which all BOT readers know was based on a Covarrubias illustration from the 1946 Museum of Modern Art show)...

...became their icon sometime in the mid and late 50s. I do not recall it being used for their earliest franchises, the 1949 Seattle Outrigger, and the 1951 San Francisco Vic. I first found it in the 1955 Beverly Hilton menu (which also introduced the Maori logo Tiki on its cover):

and the 1958 Savoy Hilton N.Y. menu:

From then on it appeared on their matches...

...and their plates and many other items.

In terms of decor, it was Barney West, who provided most of T.V.'s carvings, whose masks I noticed first at the Portland Trader Vic's, which opened in 1959:

It seems Melanesian decor coincided with the introduction of the A-frame, which of course was inspired by PNG/Palau architecture.

Of course, Bob and Leroy were there too, literally, with their rite of passage trip to Papua New Guinea in 1960:

I also believe that the 1954 book "Oceanic Art", which was used by Bob & Leroy and so many Poly Pop artists of the time, played an important role and was a main reason PNG art infiltrated Tiki temples.

So I call upon the gods of paper ephemera (that'll be you Sabu, DC, etc...): What other examples of PNG art can you find from the Tiki period in

A.) Graphic design, and
B.) Tiki temple decor in situ

AND, I am especially curious: Do you have any examples of the use of PNG art in PRE-Tiki times? (30s- early 50s ?)

Also, all the Mai Kai afficionados (Gator Rob, Swanky, Kiliki, etc..): What Barney West and other PNG examples can you share from there....and, here's the challenge, can you DATE their introduction?