how cool is that - a tiki-plane ! ! ! - General Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Sun, Jun 20, 2010 3:30 PM I am always hoping for something like this: Coming upon one little mosaic piece of Tiki's glorious past (like the Tiki Bird plane here) and stirring up interest and attention so that other elements surface, and help to eventually uncover a forgotten story from Tiki's glorious heyday. I could smell that there was a great story here: Together with others here, including Bosko, I am fascinated by the failed dream development of the Salton Sea, where hopes for a glamourous Lake resort like Palm Springs got dashed by the water turning brackish and smelly: Now, was it possible that there was a POLYNESIAN version of the Salton Sea out there !? Sort of "The Tikis" in the sand dunes? An exciting prospect, but to temper everybody's excitement, it did not turn out that way. What I did find though was that there was not one, but MANY Polynesian paradises of the mind. The renderings that Joe posted above are two of SIX proposed Polynesian style desert developments envisioned by Gus Raigosa in the late 1960s ! Knowing that I had no money and no space to adequately display these amazing Desert Polynesia renderings that Joe and Eileen had discovered at a yard sale in San Diego, I was racking my brains over WHO in the Tiki community could afford these, before the rightful owners would sell them at their regular booth at the Rose Bowl, which is their business. I knew of a handful of folks who probably would have taken some, but likely would have picked the best and left the rest... but I wanted them to stay together. Luckily, I thought of the right person, someone who has her own little Desert Polynesia, and is acutely interested in the Newberry Springs area and history, as can be witnessed in this thread: Queen Kamehameha/ Amy :) So I contacted her and she was all into it, and I brokered a deal between her and the sellers. My pay-off was that I got to photograph these amazing time documents of America's Polynesian dream period. I drove down to San Diego to pick them up and brought them to my house. Two weeks later at Tiki Caliente I delivered them to the happy new owner. Watch for the next post, the first of many: Lake Aloha !

I am always hoping for something like this: Coming upon one little mosaic piece of Tiki's glorious past (like the Tiki Bird plane here) and stirring up interest and attention so that other elements surface, and help to eventually uncover a forgotten story from Tiki's glorious heyday. I could smell that there was a great story here:

Together with others here, including Bosko, I am fascinated by the failed dream development of the Salton Sea, where hopes for a glamourous Lake resort like Palm Springs got dashed by the water turning brackish and smelly:

Now, was it possible that there was a POLYNESIAN version of the Salton Sea out there !? Sort of "The Tikis" in the sand dunes?
An exciting prospect, but to temper everybody's excitement, it did not turn out that way. What I did find though was that there was not one, but MANY Polynesian paradises of the mind. The renderings that Joe posted above are two of SIX proposed Polynesian style desert developments envisioned by Gus Raigosa in the late 1960s !

Knowing that I had no money and no space to adequately display these amazing Desert Polynesia renderings that Joe and Eileen had discovered at a yard sale in San Diego, I was racking my brains over WHO in the Tiki community could afford these, before the rightful owners would sell them at their regular booth at the Rose Bowl, which is their business. I knew of a handful of folks who probably would have taken some, but likely would have picked the best and left the rest... but I wanted them to stay together.

Luckily, I thought of the right person, someone who has her own little Desert Polynesia, and is acutely interested in the Newberry Springs area and history, as can be witnessed in this thread: Queen Kamehameha/ Amy :)

So I contacted her and she was all into it, and I brokered a deal between her and the sellers. My pay-off was that I got to photograph these amazing time documents of America's Polynesian dream period. I drove down to San Diego to pick them up and brought them to my house. Two weeks later at Tiki Caliente I delivered them to the happy new owner.

Watch for the next post, the first of many: Lake Aloha !

Post #537849 by bigbrotiki on Sun, Jun 20, 2010 3:30 PM