Post #560167 by aquarj on Sun, Oct 17, 2010 12:28 AM

Next I'd like to post some incredible vintage photos of the exterior of The Lanai. Before proceeding, I want to pause and acknowledge the source for much of what I'm posting. A few years ago I met with a manager at the Villa Hotel who happened to have a scrapbook from the whole Villa Square, including The Lanai. This included menus, the envelope and postcard and brochure above, and some photos. He generously trusted me to borrow these (with some collateral) and take them home for some fast and furious scanning. Unfortunately the Villa changed owners and management, first with the Radisson chain and now the senior living, so the contact is lost. But all the same I'd like to acknowledge the guy for letting me capture his materials. And now maybe I can finally make up for sitting on the scans all this time.

The first two of the following images were from the manager guy's scrapbook. I believe he told me these were some early photos around the time of one of the first remodels - I think there was a problem with the roof or termites or something like that. And I think these were also around the time of a major launch event at the new Villa Hotel, for which a photographer had come and taken a bunch of photos.

View of the Lanai looking from 40th. El Camino would be parallel on the right. :down:

During the roofwork, looking at the "first" turret thing from the last pic. :down:

OK, now a little analysis and closeups. First, we can play "spot-the-tiki". In some of these I tried to sharpen the heck out of the closeups, in an attempt to reveal more detail, but you can only do so much without making it worse rather than better. Apologies if I made it worse.

From the far left of the first pic, these tikis have their own little deck. They don't really have that Barney West look in the legs, but it's hard to tell. If those were there from the beginning in 1950, that would be pretty neat because it's relatively early in the scheme of things, in terms of overtly tiki-oriented restaurants. :down:

A look at the two tiki poles on the turrets :down:

Here we see those tile things that are used in many of these temples, and also a little more detail on the poles under the turret :down:

This closeup is from that construction / remodel photo, looking at those poles again, and also the door. The front door famously had the logo tiki carved into it, but this probably is not the "front" door since the main entrance would appear to be under the next turret. :down:

This closeup is for comparison with the image from the brochure posted earlier, showing what looked like a Barney West moai next to the neon sign with The Lanai and the curving palm tree. I squinted and stared, and stuck my nose to the monitor, but I can't make out any tiki kind of object in that little garden where the sign is nestled. MAYBE it's that kind of straight-ish object going up near the right edge, which looks a little too smooth to be a tree trunk. :down:

Here, for reference, is a closeup of that image from the brochure posted earlier :down:

Next, a little analysis comparing the postcard image posted earlier, with the view from the B&W image. Here's the postcard image again... :down:

And here's the B&W closeup :down:

The color postcard shot appears to be later. They've removed the thatch on the entry hut / turret thing. There's some extra little doohickey on the top of the torch coming out of the tiki pole. The palm trees look taller. Also, this closeup helps confirm that the two B&W images were 1957 or later, because it becomes more clear that the Villa Hotel sign appears behind the Villa Chartier sign and marquee.

This brings us to our next photo, from a different source (the "San Mateo" volume from the Images of America series, which is a nice affordable edition if you're into these kinds of things). This is a view from El Camino, giving an alternate angle on the view from the last two shots. :down:

Now if Luigi Troga and his darn janitorial service trucks hadn't been there, we might get a better view! Especially of that large object that has a Barney West tiki kind of ring to it! Anyway, you can cross-reference this with the preceding two pics, to see where the Villa Chartier restaurant and the Villa Hotel were situated. Here's my last shot for now, trying to sharpen the heck out of that tiki... :down:

Still more to come!

-Randy