Post #657523 by tikicleen on Fri, Nov 2, 2012 7:52 AM

posted in today's stockton record by mike fitzgerald:

Restaurant relic is big kahuna for tiki heads

David Jon Foster poses with the tiki statue that stood outside The Islander.

Courtesy Alice van Ommeren The Islander, Stockton's tiki restaurant and lounge, was open from 1963 to 1983. Tiki buffs have long sought the giant moai head visible to the right of the building's entrance.

Fans of Stockton's tiki history are celebrating the discovery of a long-lost and venerated artifact: the 6-foot tiki head that stood outside The Islander.

The moai head, as it is properly called, proves the gods work in mysterious ways. The vanished monolith has been in Stockton all its 26 missing years.

"I found it!" David Jon Foster, a tiki buff and researcher, cheered on the Tiki Central website. "I have been hunting this sacred tiki for a long time. ... The gods are with me."

Stockton has a surprisingly rich history of tiki, the post World War II craze of kitschy Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs. The Islander was the King Kamehameha of these establishments.

Designed by Stockton architect Warren Wong, the exotic building hosted a running luau in Lincoln Center South from 1963 to 1983. The vacant building was moved in 1986.

In an architecturally blasphemous act that probably angered the gods, it was demolished in 2010.

Tiki heads love The Islander. They post articles about it, argue over facts and scour California for such artifacts as Islander postcards, menus, float lamps and cocktail mugs.

The moai head is the big kahuna of these coveted items. An imposing hardwood monolith, it was carved by Richard M. Ellis, an artisan who worked for Oceanic Arts, a renowned tiki supply house in Whittier.

Ellis gave the head the dignified but inscrutable visage of authentic Polynesian moai. But he added a touch of fun by endowing it with a 5-foot schnozz.

The head's whereabouts has long been the subject of speculation. Foster stumbled onto it.

"Oh, man, it was just awesome," Foster said. "I could just hardly believe my luck."

An artist, Foster was talking tiki at a recent art reception in Lockeford. "This old man approached me and said, 'Hey, I got one of those Islander tikis in my yard.' "

Eureka. "What luck," Foster bubbled. "Is that crazy?"

The tiki's owner is Verdell "Sam" Austin.

A Stockton contractor, Austin, 78, is a lifelong friend of Neal Pollard, the entrepreneur and founder of Pollardville, who bought the Islander building in 1986.

Pollard moved it to Pollardville, his roadside attraction on Hwy. 99 outside Stockton. But he gave away some Islander accessories.

The moai he gave to Austin.

"It was just different," Austin said. "Not that I'm a tiki head. I didn't know there was anything significant about it."

Austin remembered that lifting the head, 6 feet of hardwood log, took four men. The indignity possibly displeased the god. "It bent the tailgate of my pickup," Austin ruefully recalled.

Austin planted the head in the backyard of his north Stockton home. The backyard has a sweeping vista of rolling golf links.

So there you go: For the past 26 years, the missing moai has been gazing majestically over the back nine of Elkhorn Golf Club.

It has probably had to endure some knocks from the flying golf balls, too, said Susan Austin, Sam's wife.

"They hit the roof," she said. "They hit the side of the house. They hit the patio. They hit out front. They hit the skylight. I'm sure the tiki has been hit, but he hasn't said anything."

Aside from golf balls, nobody disturbed the head during its 26-year idyll. But the head disturbed at least one person: a man from Hawaii the Austins hired to do backyard work.

The man halted, full of superstitious fear, when he spotted the head.

"If it's not facing in the right direction, all sorts of bad stuff can happen," the man stammered. "I ain't coming back there!"

The tiki community applauded the discovery.

"Of course it's a huge find," said Colleen Weidman, a Ripon resident and Islander researcher who identified the carver. "It was surrounded in mystery, kind of like folklore: What happened to the moai?"

Islander designer Warren Wong, now 87, was tickled by the tiki head's resurrection, too.

"It's like life," he said mystically, "because it regenerates itself."

The fuss may seem silly. But The Islander has gained recognition as a classic of American tiki architecture.

It certainly was one of Stockton's most distinctive buildings, said Wes Swanson, chairman of the Cultural Heritage Board,

"Were it intact today, it would easily be recognized as a Structure of Merit, and probably qualify for landmark status," Swanson said.

Sam Austin said he'll take better care of the big guy now that he knows it's a VIP.

"Maybe I'll put some linseed oil on it," he said.

nice job! here's hoping he adds marine varnish to his shopping list to save that moai!