Post #554720 by TIKIBOSKO on Sun, Sep 19, 2010 7:52 AM

Cool post, great info Sabu and what a beautiful matchbook Kate, it is amazing how much information is still out there waiting to be discovered. I would add Noels to the list (although it may not have been open in 63?), it was just across the street from Sam’s, I have no idea if it went by another name at one time but it was thick with Tiki décor right before it closed. I met the manager in the 90’s when I was trying to sell my very first carvings and he informed me they were (soon) going to change the “theme” and it would all be up for grabs. The thought that I could finally save the contents of one of these palaces excited this young urban archeologist like you wouldn’t believe. But later he never took my phone calls, by the next time I went by it was gutted only the outside Tikis remained. This has happened enough times to be a phenomena, I would talk to someone in “charge” of a business about saving the “Tikis” (artifacts) they would sound interested and I’d never hear from them again. Whether I come off as a lunatic wanting their junk or gave them the impression it was worth a pile of gold I’ll never know. Sitting here thinking about all the establishments that closed down during the period soon afterwards is making me feel very old and realizing just how naïve we were back then. I think Kelbos went soon after, all the remodeling on Shelter Island, then the Hanalei sign a few years later the whole interior exterior of the Islands was gutted. It is depressing to think that at one time I navigated between San Diego and Los Angeles by these landmarks, stop in once or twice a year and slowly they all vanished.

Bosko