Post #74517 by bigbrotiki on Wed, Feb 4, 2004 3:42 PM

On 2004-02-03 10:56, Swanky wrote:
That tiki?

THAT Tiki is an enigma, a proto-Tiki that, though completely modern and Polynesian Pop freestyle, is FROM Hawaii. This photo, and the one with Martin Denny, must have been taken at the Hawaii National Park Fern Tree Forest (see Columbia Record Club's 1960 "A Colorslide Tour of Hawaii", Slide 18), but it's exact location is unknown.

It would not be so important, had Trader Vic not chosen to use two of these as entrance Tikis to the original Trader Vic's in Oakland (see BOT p.82), in the Outrigger in Seattle (BOT p.86, behind the waiter), and then also as entrance Tikis at the San Francisco Trader Vic's on Cosmo Place. They appear as illustrations in some of his early fliers and menus.
Since Vic started out in the Pre-Tiki aera, when American Tiki manufacture had not become the mode o'day, he got his early Tikis from Tahiti and Hawaii. So WHO carved these elegant and simple modern gods, and where?

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-02-04 15:44 ]