Post #69989 by bigbrotiki on Thu, Jan 15, 2004 6:41 PM

This is the discovery of Jeff "Beachbum" Berry, who as a filmmaker has also a great knowledge of Exotica and Tiki cinema. He recently purchased a fine "Something Weird Video" double feature DVD with the classics "Fiend of Dope Island" and "Pagan Island" on it. Among the DVD Extras is a curious color short entitled
"Meet the man who made the Pagan Island idol--artist Lewis Van Dercar"
(not the original title I assume)

Here is a brief web write up:
"About the only bright spot is the colorful feature starring Lewis Van Dercar. While supposedly an insight into the artistic temperament, it's really a first person narrative about a young woman's decision to totally give in to the world of nekkid artists modeling for elderly beatnik types."

What it REALLY is is purest "artistic nude" exploitation footage. In the process of discovering various sets of breasts we also see the head of the "Sea God" from Pagan Island on Lewis Van Dercar's mantlepiece.

Immediately Jeff recognized him as the lucky artiste who teaches a busty nude blonde how to paint on page 43 of the BOT. It all made sense when I read in the film credits that the photographer of the pic, glamour girl Bunny Yeager, also did the casting for "Pagan Island". They were all part of the Florida swingin' scene around 1960.

In the film clip, Lewis takes some models outside his house, and his frontyard is chock full of his sculptures and statues, (a dream for outsider art fans), among them several Moai-like pieces. This place was in the middle of Miami. There must be other evidence of it.

Now his "Sea God" has NOTHING in common with a Tiki, it looks definetely like an Alien, maybe it was also used in a Sci Fi B-movie.
You can view it (and many sets of fine breasts, the color ones being from the Dercar feature) here:

http://www.webhorror.com/reviews/e_l/fiend_dope_island/fiend_dope_island.html

My web research did unearth two points of contact with Tiki Central:
He was the sculptor of the bemourned Dragon Point sculpture
http://home.cfl.rr.com/floridafishing/Interest%20page.htm
whose demise was discussed in a Tiki Central thread some time ago...

AND he made a fountain for a restaurant whose parts have ended up in Mr. Mai Tiki Wayne Coombs backyard!:

"...NOW assistant editor of Florida Today's sister weeklies, Maggie wrote a feature story in our paper's "Sunrise" section in September 1969. From it:
"We received a phone call from Bob Kamholtz, owner of the Anchor Inn Restaurant in South Melbourne Beach. 'Van Dercar is a Miami artist who's building a statue in front of the restaurant and doing a relief backdrop for the bar. Come meet him.' " Maggie, who at the time was Margot Reis-El Bara,(!? ed.) did. She wrote:
"Possessed by a whimsical, frivolous demon with an incredible sense of the absurd, this poet, philosopher, historian, actor, sculptor and artist is as refreshing as a cold spell in August."
. . . ARRIVING at the Anchor Inn for the interview, Maggie saw his creation:
"Sitting on the front lawn beside the road is a glistening white 12-foot-high, 8-foot-wide giant clam shell. The shell is propped open on both sides by buxom nude mermaids. In the center is a wild-haired King Neptune spouting water from his mouth. Gas bubbles through the water and burns on the surface of the pool, creating a dramatic effect, particularly at night. The glaring whiteness will diminish in time, we are told, as the 'conversation piece' is 'guaranteed to last a thousand years.' "
Almost 32 years later, the mermaids live on, destined to decorate a nature trail adjoining Wayne and Beki Coombs' home on Merritt Island. The figure of King Nepturne has been destroyed."

Now I asked Wayne, and he and Beki don't know anything about him, but the 1969 article continues:

"....INSIDE the restaurant," Maggie/Margot wrote, "Van Dercar is putting the finishing touches on a three-dimensional backdrop behind the bar.
"A conversation with the artist is like being thrust into the middle of the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. . . The man's sense of the ridiculous knows no bounds."
Examples: Classified ad he ran in a Miami newspaper for "Girl seven-foot-seven to pose for tall statue" . . . and one selling a solution to Miami's garbage problem, "Rooftop catapults." (!? ed.)
As a talented artist, Maggie wrote, "his oil paintings command enormous sums, as do his bizarre sculptures and statues. Working in steel and concrete he has constructed a mountain in Storytown, N.Y., and a magnificent gorilla's lair at Miami's Monkey Jungle."

I wonder if he is still around, because he was active until the late 80s, here is a blip about the Arch Creek bridge in Arch Creek Park, North Miami:

"Although the original span collapsed in 1973, it was re-created in 1987 by Lewis Van Dercar, a local artist, and the site is surrounded by a host of.."

OK Florida Tiki agents, you're on a mission!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-01-15 18:51 ]