Post #601303 by tigertail777 on Sun, Aug 7, 2011 6:09 AM

My favorite one is being fixed right now, it got a rip in one of the button holes. It is a reproduction of a WWII aloha shirt that has tigers all over it. The exact same shirt design that Bruce Willis wore in "12 Monkeys".

My second favorite one however is my miniature golf one by Reyn Spooner. I love miniature golf, and wigged out when I saw this shirt on ebay: mini golf, tiki, and all on a aloha shirt??? Oh my god! Interesting story goes with this shirt; I was told by the seller that Reyn Spooner got sued for not licensing the images, and that is why the tag is ripped.The seller told me that these shirts were supposed to be destroyed but a few got out. The tag does look like it was intentionally cut and the few other shirts with the same print I have seen all have cut tags. I don't know if the story is true or not, but somehow I believe it and I will show you why in just a sec.

Okay now, for those that don't know there is a following of old school miniature golfers out there, and like tiki-dom there are very few original "sacred" courses out there left. So to those of us who know of them, or of ones that are now long gone but were infamous in mini golf circles images from them are highly recognizable. The "bible" on mini golf is the long out of print Abbeville press book: "Miniature Golf" by John Margolies, Nina Garfinkel, and Maria Reidelbach. It is a thin book, but covers a huge amount on the history of mini golf and has tons of pictures of courses past and present.
So remember that cool Moai? Pretty generic mini golf image...right?...right?

Hmm... how about that candy house? Also a pretty standard old mini golf prop... (I have actually played where this particular image was taken from: Golf 'N' Stuff)

This is the one that kills me. Goony Golf is absolutely infamous, it was one of the earliest mini golf chains all made by one specific artist. "Spoony Golf" indeed.

There is some dispute about who started mini golf, but it is widely agreed that Tom Thumb is the ancestor of the first actual course (the first course was called "thistle dhu" by the same husband and wife team).

This is hilarious in two ways because it is a double rip off. The original is obviously a rip off of Snoopy and the red baron, and then the shirt designer went and ripped it off again.


Seriously the designer thought they could hide ripping this off by changing the top of the lighthouse? Really? You may want to ditch the iconic seagulls... we all know this is from Putter's Paradise in Massachusetts.

You have to be crapping me... they even copied the PAR SIGN??? Does this designer have a creative bone in their body?


Yes, even the life preserver is a poor rip off...

This one was on a lot of atomic age mini golf courses, but the resemblance to the photo is just too uncanny.

And this is just too iconic to be ANYTHING else...

I am an artist, I know there is sometimes a fine line between being inspired by something original and borrowing from that source. But then there is the other thing... WHOLESALE RIPPING OFF. About 90% of this shirt is original. But I love it all the more for all of this because it is like one of those forbidden treasures your not supposed to have. I can full well imagine Reyn Spooner got sued over this or taken to court if not by the existing course owners then by the book authors. As a artist/graphic designer it makes it have even more meaning, and doubly special because I have played a few of the courses that are represented on the shirt.

Sorry didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, but felt the story behind the shirt needed explaining to fully appreciate it.