Post #712942 by Swanky on Thu, Apr 3, 2014 12:36 PM

Donn was the master story teller. Phoebe inherited a lot of his records and writings. That got slapped together as the bio we have. A great deal of other documentation is in the hands of a fellow I know who has intended to write a biography of his best friend Donn as well. I wish that were possible. I hope to see the filing cabinets full of photos and documents some day.

If he heard you doubt Donn's veracity, he'd tell you you were full of shit. Donn did more and told better stories about it than anyone he knew, and he hung out with some very famous and imfamous people, himself included!

I have interviewed enough old timers to say their memory of what year such and such happened is generally faulty. I have learned not to argue when they tell me a date and I know for a fact it is wrong. There are key dates in the Mai-Kai history not a single person has been able to reliably tell me. And that is people I know who were there in the 1960s, not dead people who were written about after their death by people who get it 2nd hand.

And my great grandmother was a Cherokee, yet somehow the census didn't get that right...

He also traveled to China in there as well it is said.

Look at the history. The International Market Place is a good example. Donn WAS the trader. Not only that place, but he was in charge of getting imports from around the world at other markets personally. He had the contacts. Look at the freaking riverboat he had built, and how does one get that done without some great degree of international savvy?

In 1937 when Victor Bergeron wanted to turn Hinky Dinks into Trader Vic's the only person around with the items to do it was Donn Beach himself. Vic bought his décor from Donn!

BTW, the Thornton brothers took a trip around the world to the Polynesian Islands and brought back a huge amount of Oceanic Art for the Mai-Kai. And they did that in between seasons at the Mai-Kai. They spent many months traveling around the Caribbean and the Pacific aboard ships. What does the census say they did in 1955 and 1956?

I have heard tales of Donn's exploits that no one I know has ever heard before. We only have scratched the surface of his life. He was perhaps the most interesting man in the world.

I'll try to put all I can into my book.