Post #636668 by AceExplorer on Tue, May 15, 2012 5:38 PM

Here's a reference on TV to a certain tiki palace in Florida... Tonight my local PBS station broadcast a show called "American Masters: Johnny Carson." In the episode they interview Perry Cross who was a producer of the Johnny Carson show. He mentions a trip where a group from the show went to Fort Lauderdale and stayed at a beach-front hotel, then went to "a Polynesian restaurant" which must have been the one-and-only Mai Kai. He continued to describe what a great time they had at the restaurant including "everyone had about 4 mai tais each," they participated in hula lessons on the stage, and how they had a great time with considerable privacy. At one point in the show, either in or around the interview with Perry Cross, they said that this was at a time when Johnny wasn't yet famous enough to be recognized by other people in the general public. They didn't show any photos of the evening at the restaurant, but did show photos and home movies of Johnny with his family on a yacht and at the beach-front hotel.