Post #774707 by TikiTeddie on Fri, Mar 31, 2017 1:22 PM

Hey Takona,

I am new to this forum also but not new to tiki, having lived it vicariously via a family member for 20 years! .!

You state your theory in your first post but to confirm or deny that theory you really have to look at the years before the war. Interest in Hawaii and Polynesia pre-date the war and in fact we saw a marked interest in the are in the 1930's, though I have found "Hawaiian Rooms" in restaurants on the mainland as early as 1916. Don The Beachcomber is a key point in time but also the publishing of Truman Bailey's book Polynesian Adventure that came out in January 1939. This book seemed to cause a semi-tiki craze in fashion and design that was all over the US and other parts of the world, that was referred to as Hei-Tiki. Fashion, make-up and even some restaurants jumped on the band wagon and the public seemed to love the whole idea of remote Polynesia and what it stood for. The war came along that autumn and I think put a damper on things but I always wonder if the war had not happened would the interest have continued? The US was very involved in Japan after the war and if anything you would think there would have been a big tilt towards that style but in fact the Polynesian style really took off, so was it just a continuation of what had started before the war and that was augmented by the US servicemen who came back from that area? I cannot answer these question with any definite response, and I do not remotely have the expertise of the gene like Sven, et. al., but it is some food for thought and it may be hard to conclude what caused the craze without looking back in time a bit.

Just some food for thought!

Cheers, TT