Post #696867 by tikicoma on Mon, Oct 21, 2013 12:21 AM

ATP, I don't think I can agree with you. Though Sven's construct that tiki bars started in, what, the '50's?, is very compelling the use of the the phrase "tiki bar" didn't come about until the 80's or 90's? So, to rephrase you, any vintage mug that came from this era was a polynesian/tropical mug. I've always felt that a step was left out from the 50's-60's, the exotic stage, when influences from the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Polynesia/South Sea's were frequently jumbled together in popular culture. The most successful establishments seem to have gone to Polynesian tiki/PNG carvings but our view of the "classic" tiki era is just the present labeling the past. Even the Tiki Restaurant in Lakewood, WA (from the 60's) was referred to as a Hawaiian restaurant though it had tiki decor. So in one respect a tiki mug is just a mug made to look like a tiki but if you see the classic era as being the tiki era than any mug from that era's tiki joints would be a tiki mug.

But is this mug,

from this classic era joint

in any respect "tiki"?

And either way I still don't like Stephen Cranes Ku mug!

aloha, tikicoma

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2013-10-21 00:22 ]

[ Edited by: tikicoma 2013-10-21 00:37 ]