Post #580536 by Grand Kahu on Wed, Mar 16, 2011 4:42 PM

Unfortunately, I don't own the original cocktail menu and there is not one in a public collection, as with the food menu. I have high res-scans of the Cornell food menu, which I knew about the other year when I found the reference online, but out of deference to the archives, did not want to post the images without permission. And, there is another reason we have been "holding out."

Full disclosure here -- Kenike and I have been amassing a great deal of information and images relative to the Dallas and Ft. Worth tiki bars, now gone, including Ren Clark's, which has been the focus of my own research. You can read about it here (before we knew of the cocktail menu!):

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/cityofate/2010/08/not_dallas_don_the_beachcomber.php

As to that picture of the fellow sitting next to one of the signature tikis, I don't think that one is Clark, though I did not find it with the other publicity pictures I have seen. That said, we do have access to a great deal of information and images which we want to publish in a modest (probably electronic format) publication chronicling the history of these places -- Dallas locations of Trader Vic's, Ports O'Call, Don the Beachcomber, Dobbs House, the Hawaiian Century Room at the Adolphus, the Bamboo Room at the Tower Courts -- and in Ft. Worth, Ren Clark's Polynesian Village.

So, ohana, we are asking for your help, not for profit-making (which one can imagine there is little to be made in such a focus publication), but for disseminating information, stories, and images about these sites in a way which goes beyond the entires here in Tiki Central. The reason we are not just dumping it all here is one of design and structure -- to be able to write, graphically orchestrate, and otherwise assemble a publication which will be (hopefully) of use to not only the tiki-enlightened, but to those preservation and pop culture minded individuals in Dallas and environs. The other reason is one of cost in acquiring images and permission to publish. Rest assured the final result will be as cheap as possible, hence the idea of an electronic publication; we simply want to recoup our costs in photography, scanning, etc.

How can you help? Let us know of your related items, images, or anything you can share about these sites OR, importantly, the people associated with them -- owners, chefs, bartenders, or just that father or grand-pap with the story about drinking from a severed head mug. (Sorry Bigbro, I've yet to find a woman with a beehive drinking from one, but have found period pictures of ladies and men drinking from the other PV mugs!) Again, let me stress we are interested in information and images -- not treasure hunting. Would we love to know what happened to the various artifacts and rarer ephemera from the sites? Absolutely. Are we looking to buy, beg, or steal them? No!

If you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them, here or via PM. Kenike is an accomplished photographer and I am (immodestly, he says) reasonably accomplished author and researcher, so the combination of our respective talents and interest in tiki culture makes this project a natural fit for us.

We will post more information in the build-up to the completion of the project, but for now, please keep us in mind and know we will certainly do what we can to make this project one which will be exciting AND as accessible as possible.

Thanks,
GK

Grand Kahu

Tied by my Mai Tai...

[ Edited by: Grand Kahu 2011-03-16 16:43 ]