Post #785642 by HotelCharlieEcho on Tue, Apr 3, 2018 4:49 PM

Suspicions confirmed. According to this article from the Long Beach Independent for February 11, 1949, "[t]he 307 Club adjoins the South Seas."

So this does appear in fact to have been more of a "South Seas Room" connected to a non-Poly-pop bar than a stand-alone Tiki/pre-Tiki bar. It's my understanding there were lots of these South Seas/Hurricane/Palm rooms in non-tropical themed bars and hotels all over the place in the pre-Tiki era. There were several in Long Beach alone during the Poly-pop craze (e.g., the Outrigger at the Lafayette Hotel, the Hukilau at the Captain's Inn, the Palm Room at the Port Hole Café), to say nothing of what must have been one of the originators of the genre, the Cocoanut Grove at L.A.'s Ambassador Hotel.

Also looks like they were trying to revoke the license since at least early 1949, and there are other newspaper references to fights and general misbehavior at the location through the years (SOP for the Pike, no doubt). The fact there were photos taken of the place as late as 1953 suggests the South Seas must have had some good political connections, good lawyers, or maybe both.