Post #564799 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Nov 12, 2010 7:37 PM

I was inspired to go and dig up these photos of the Palm Springs location that I took in the late 90s, when the building was still sitting there, empty:

For comparison from an earlier page:

Full shot of the entrance:

closer shot of entrance:

closer shot of Tiki column and the cool torch on the roof. Amazingly so, three of those torches (see rendering above, on the right corner) are still on top of the otherwise generically renovated building today:

A word about this style of Tiki column: Because of their inferior design (kinda crude and totem pole-like) they did not interest me, but in retrospect, historically speaking, they seem to be sort of a transition piece between Pre-Tiki and full-fledged Tiki style from the early to the mid-50s, I would call them (bear with me here) "Pre-Tiki Tikis" :)

Don the Beachcomber franchises remained pretty Tiki-less even into the Tiki-era, except for his Cannibal carvings, which Donn took with him to Hawaii. It was not until later that the much more authentic Tahitian/Marquesan Tiki posts and statues were employed, by Trader Vic that is.

In Vic's early places, like the Seattle location, built in 1947 and expanded in the early 50s: Vic used similarly crude columns, here at their gift shop at the Outrigger:

Two of these were for sale at the big Trader Vic's warehouse sale:

Artistically not that amazing, but historically an important step in the evolution of Tiki style.
And in case anybody feels that I am insulting the poor Tiki columns, or being a nit-picker, just take a deep breath, and click on a party thread. This is heavy Tiki archeology talk.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-11-12 21:43 ]