Kamuualii - The Amazing Pre-Tiki Tiki of The Royal Hawaiian Hotel - General Tiki

STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Tiki Socialite Carson, California Joined: Aug 20, 2002 Posts: 2807	STCB Sabu The Coconut Boy Posted posted on Wed, Sep 29, 2010 10:25 PM If you search for tiki postcards and photos on eBay for more than a few years you will probably eventually see an image of this fellow: Here's another: :up: (photo recently discovered my martian-tiki on eBay) He was located at the big pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu and you most often see him posing with sailors and servicemen stationed there during World War II. Sometimes you even see him posing with tourists from the 1920s and 1930s. But wait a minute... tikis didn't appear at hotels in Hawaii until the mid-1950s, when Ed Brownlee and that other Fern-Wood carver started reviving the lost art of tiki carving. So this guy must not be a tiki at all. I mean, look at the silly hat on his head. He must be some fanciful westerner's idea of a menehune or Hawaiian elf. Those legends were around in the 1920s. That must be it. Right? Another mystery about this carving is the fact that it never decayed. There's a beautiful color postcard of him from the 1960s. Tiki-Kate had one in her collection. They're hard to find because they're simply captioned "Royal Hawaiian Hotel" so they don't show up under tiki searches. But in that postcard, he takes up the whole image, and looks exactly the same as the old photos from the 40s and earlier. So I eventually came to the conclusion that he must be made of cement, not wood. But who made him? Recently I found the following newspaper article from 1953: The photo's caption reads: "Statue, looking like wood, is cement mixed with black lava sand. It was moulded by Homer Merrill, an island artist, more than 40 years ago." And the Headline and full text reads: HE SCARES SHARKS! - Hawaiians claim this face frightens man-killers HONOLULU, Hawaii. There's an idol here that's so ugly it's claimed to scare even sharks! It's a statue of Kamuualii, the Shark God, known as the Fisherman's Friend. This mammoth version, six feet high on a three-foot base, stands on the lawn of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel here. Fishermen carry smaller versions. They claim that one look at those bulging eyes and sharp teeth and net-raiding sharks head for the open sea. Can't blame them! ======================== There's also this photo from 1955: :up: "Vacationing in Hawaii at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Thomas of Harrisonburg and her sister, Mrs. Anna C. Witt of Roanoke, discovered a replica of an old shark god on the hotel grounds..." I looked up Homer Merrill. He designed the Historic Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii in 1922: He also helped create the artificial palm trees and foliage inside the Waikiki Theater in the 1930s: This cement statue must have been one of his earlier creations, having been done in the 1910s or slightly earlier. Was Homer Merrill truly inspired by small carvings of a shark god carried by local fishermen? Or was that just story that the owners of the Royal Hawaiian were promoting in the 1950s. The statue shares a few traits with true native Hawaiian carvings. The cockscomb-like crest on the head is typical of several old idols, as well as the bulging eyes and grinning, tooth-filled mouth. However, the hands are wrong - they should be at the sides, and what's with the funny ears and the hat that looks more like a leprechaun's cap than a tiki's headdress? The name Kamuualii doesn't show up on the internet associated with any Hawaiian gods. The Shark God of Molokai is listed as Kauhuhu, which is sort of close, but not really. If this sculpture was indeed inspired by ancient Hawaiian gods, then it would be one of the earliest "tiki" statues done by a modern artist in the name of tourism. It would pre-date the Poly-pop tiki movement by 40 years. We might call it The Exception That Proves The Rule. The fact that it was readily accessable to tourists at the Royal Hawaiian may well have helped, (along with the tikis on display at the Bishop Museum), to inspire Donn Beach and architects Wimberly & Cook to hire Ed Brownlee to carve tikis for their own hotels and restaurants. We've discussed this tiki briefly a long time ago in another thread. And I believe Phil Roberts provided a photo. Unfortunately the photo is long gone. I used to own a couple more but can't seem to find them at the moment. If you've got photos of Kamuualii in your collections, please post them here. Maybe we can eventually solve more of the mysteries of the Amazing Pre-tiki Tiki.

If you search for tiki postcards and photos on eBay for more than a few years you will probably eventually see an image of this fellow:

Here's another:

:up: (photo recently discovered my martian-tiki on eBay)

He was located at the big pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu and you most often see him posing with sailors and servicemen stationed there during World War II. Sometimes you even see him posing with tourists from the 1920s and 1930s. But wait a minute... tikis didn't appear at hotels in Hawaii until the mid-1950s, when Ed Brownlee and that other Fern-Wood carver started reviving the lost art of tiki carving.

So this guy must not be a tiki at all. I mean, look at the silly hat on his head. He must be some fanciful westerner's idea of a menehune or Hawaiian elf. Those legends were around in the 1920s. That must be it. Right?

Another mystery about this carving is the fact that it never decayed. There's a beautiful color postcard of him from the 1960s. Tiki-Kate had one in her collection. They're hard to find because they're simply captioned "Royal Hawaiian Hotel" so they don't show up under tiki searches. But in that postcard, he takes up the whole image, and looks exactly the same as the old photos from the 40s and earlier. So I eventually came to the conclusion that he must be made of cement, not wood. But who made him?

Recently I found the following newspaper article from 1953:

The photo's caption reads:

"Statue, looking like wood, is cement mixed with black lava sand. It was moulded by Homer Merrill, an island artist, more than 40 years ago."

And the Headline and full text reads:

HE SCARES SHARKS! - *Hawaiians claim this face frightens man-killers

HONOLULU, Hawaii. There's an idol here that's so ugly it's claimed to scare even sharks! It's a statue of Kamuualii, the Shark God, known as the Fisherman's Friend. This mammoth version, six feet high on a three-foot base, stands on the lawn of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel here.

Fishermen carry smaller versions. They claim that one look at those bulging eyes and sharp teeth and net-raiding sharks head for the open sea. Can't blame them!*

========================

There's also this photo from 1955:

:up: "Vacationing in Hawaii at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Mr. and Mrs. D. W. Thomas of Harrisonburg and her sister, Mrs. Anna C. Witt of Roanoke, discovered a replica of an old shark god on the hotel grounds..."

I looked up Homer Merrill. He designed the Historic Hawaii Theatre in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii in 1922:

He also helped create the artificial palm trees and foliage inside the Waikiki Theater in the 1930s:

This cement statue must have been one of his earlier creations, having been done in the 1910s or slightly earlier.

Was Homer Merrill truly inspired by small carvings of a shark god carried by local fishermen? Or was that just story that the owners of the Royal Hawaiian were promoting in the 1950s.

The statue shares a few traits with true native Hawaiian carvings. The cockscomb-like crest on the head is typical of several old idols, as well as the bulging eyes and grinning, tooth-filled mouth. However, the hands are wrong - they should be at the sides, and what's with the funny ears and the hat that looks more like a leprechaun's cap than a tiki's headdress?

The name Kamuualii doesn't show up on the internet associated with any Hawaiian gods. The Shark God of Molokai is listed as Kauhuhu, which is sort of close, but not really.

If this sculpture was indeed inspired by ancient Hawaiian gods, then it would be one of the earliest "tiki" statues done by a modern artist in the name of tourism. It would pre-date the Poly-pop tiki movement by 40 years. We might call it The Exception That Proves The Rule.

The fact that it was readily accessable to tourists at the Royal Hawaiian may well have helped, (along with the tikis on display at the Bishop Museum), to inspire Donn Beach and architects Wimberly & Cook to hire Ed Brownlee to carve tikis for their own hotels and restaurants.

We've discussed this tiki briefly a long time ago in another thread. And I believe Phil Roberts provided a photo. Unfortunately the photo is long gone. I used to own a couple more but can't seem to find them at the moment.

If you've got photos of Kamuualii in your collections, please post them here. Maybe we can eventually solve more of the mysteries of the Amazing Pre-tiki Tiki.

Post #556982 by Sabu The Coconut Boy on Wed, Sep 29, 2010 10:25 PM