Post #57768 by Tangaroa on Thu, Oct 30, 2003 6:09 PM

Last week I did an interview with George Millay - creator of Sea World in the early 60s (which was the intent of the interview) - and found out some other interesting things as well....

• He was co-owner of The Reef in Long Beach and The Castaway in Burbank

• The Reef opened in August of 1958, his original designer for the interior was Bobby Mavis

• The genesis of Sea World came from an idea he had to create a tropical / underwater restaurant, and "submarine" bar actually located under water in Long Beach harbor - next to The Reef!

• The original designs for Sea World were done by Moffitt & Nichol engineering, but the design was not to his liking. He wanted landscaping as well as Polynesian theming, and to get away from the "concrete tube" look - prevalent at Marineland. So he hired Victor Gruen & Associates - Ben Southland and Kenny Norris were responsible for Sea World's design, and heavy Polynesian look...

• During the 2nd or 3rd year of The Reef opening, they created some Hula Grounds & he hired a young man (he didn't remember a name) to carve some large Tikis for the restaurant. When he came to see them, they were beautiful - but 3 or 4 of them had a 6 inch dick! He told the artist, "Hey - take the dicks off - we got customers with kids!" The artist refused, citing his artistic integrity. "That's censorship!", he said. Millay responded, "OK - I'll make you a deal - leave the dicks on - but I ain't gonna pay you!" Needless to say - the dicks came off...

I asked him, "Why do you think all the Tiki bars went away?" (Yeah, I know Sven has already answered this...) His opinion? "Two things - the price of booze, and that wine stuff is what killed booze in restaurants. But I'm not so sure that these things couldn't come back - they are very pleasing, colorful and restful!"

He was a real character, and a lot of fun to interview!

George Millay and son, recieving a lifetime achivement award at this years THEA awards.

Anyone have any good pics of The Reef from back in the day...?

"Oh mystic powers - hear my call...
From my limbs, let new life fall..."

[ Edited by: Tangaroa 2006-02-17 14:23 ]