Post #759370 by kenbo-jitsu on Fri, Feb 19, 2016 12:07 PM

Thanks for the posts, Adam. That's a cool placemat.

Your hypothesis that the photograph was used as a model for the drawing in the placemat is almost assuredly correct. Every item in the drawing appears in the photograph with the exception of the pineapple.

There is not much about the Luaus Room on the internet.

A text-only advertisement appears in the back of the Class of 1957 yearbook for Franklin High School (Portland OR) reading;
LUAUS ROOM
Banquet Facilities up to
150 people
Parking Lot 63rd and Foster

I also found the following in a copyright book;
Luaus Room, Portland, Ore.; placemat. © Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Co., Harvey Paper Division t.a. Harvey; i|Jan57; Ki4.7672.

This dates the placemat (or at least a placemat) to 1957 and also establishes that "Harvey" is not the artist, but rather that the Harvey Paper Division of the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company produced the placemat. Prior to merging with the Kalamazoo Vegetable Parchment Company in 1943, the Harvey Paper Division was known as the Harvey Paper Products Company and, indeed, was located in Sturgis, Michigan.

If your placemat is the placemat in the copyright book, then the photograph in the 1963 cookbook must be from before 1963.

Does the cookbook say the photograph is a Trader Vic's location?

[ Edited by: kenbo-jitsu 2016-02-19 16:37 ]