Post #670085 by creativenative on Thu, Mar 7, 2013 4:08 AM

Yesterday I had lunch with an old friend, retired Hawaiian actor Doug Mossman. He had lots of great Hollywood stories from the 60s when he worked in Tinseltown. In one story he mentioned he owned a Chinese restaurant. I was surprised and interrupted his story to learn more. What was the name? China Trader Doug, you are Hawaiian, tell me did it have a Polynesian decor? Of course, he answered. So I looked it up today in other websites and of course in this one. I know the restaurant is now in the boneyard but I have to share a few picts from these other sites to illustrate the Chinese Tiki connection:

A drawing from the menu, I think:

Neon sign with the restaurant's Chinese Junk logo:

Part of the menu, lots of nouveau Chinese pupus & lots of tiki drinks:

Rare shot of the exterior with tikis from Bora Boris:

Quote from one of the other websites Jazz Profiles a blog by Steven A. Cerra:
"The China Trader is not there anymore.
Originally located at 4200 Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, Ca, it was a Chinese restaurant that had a South Sea islands and nautical theme with lots of tiki heads and bamboo sprouting from every nook and cranny.
For a time it was best known for being the birthplace of the Hawaiian Eye drink [think Mai Tai]."

Doug was one of the regulars on HAWAIIAN EYE playing the Hawaiian cop Moke. It all makes sense.

Different matter:
a few pages ago I think John-0 put out a pict. of the Chinese restaurant used in the CHRISTMAS STORY. It was a resin model. I have a better one from Dept 56 that came out a couple of years ago. It's in my Christmas Chinatown village (probably the only one of its kind) we put up every year. It's the building with the green roof and the "Bo ling" sign. Here's a pict.:

[ Edited by: creativenative 2013-03-07 04:13 ]