Post #789437 by Cammo on Sat, Aug 25, 2018 10:06 AM

Recent Tiki History

1951 Les Baxter’s The Quiet Village song is released on an unsuspecting public. Oddly it is about a village in Africa, not Hawaii.

1957 Martin Denny releases his version of Les Baxter’s Quiet Village song. By 1959 it reaches number 4 on the pop charts, making Elvis Presley a bit nervous.

1959 Hawaii becomes a state. The country goes wild for anything Polynesian.

1959 Adventures in Paradise TV show premiers.

1959 Hawaiian Eye TV show premiers.

1961 Elvis stars in Blue Hawaii.

1961 The Beach Boys record Surfin’.

1962 The Trade Winds motel chain cracks open a few.

1963 Jan & Dean record Surf City

1963 The Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room opens. Walt himself supervises all the details, including that not a single nail, electrical cord, screw or speaker wire shows anywhere inside. The rain effect, subtly moving Tiki poles and birds from the rafters are still astounding.

1963 The film Beach Party opens to an appreciative audience.

1964 The Ilikai opens; the first ultra-modern high rise hotel on Waikiki beach. It’s the one Jack Lord smiles from the top of. A frantic land grab starts and Honolulu tourism skyrockets.

1964 Gilligan’s Island TV show premiers.

1966 Boyd Rice wears a cheap Robert Hall Hawaiian Shirt and the Tiki Necklace sold with it to elementary school. His favorite TV show at this time is Hawaiian Eye, already in reruns. He is part of a huge group of imaginative, often West Coast baby boomers who were more interested in Tikis and Hawaii than the Hippie Beatle Drug shenanigans just starting to explode nationally.

1967 I Dream of Jeannie visits Waikiki for real, visits Duke’s, stays at the Ilikai and hangs out with Don Ho.

1968 The Hawaii Five-0 TV show premiers.

1969 Retro rockers Sha-Na-Na play Teen Angel before Jimi Hendrix goes on the stage at Woodstock.

1969 Arthur Lyman and his Combo continue playing live in Honolulu.

1971 Disneyworld’s Polynesian Village opens for business. Restaurants and bars in the Orlando area stock a LOT more Tiki Mugs, as does the Village itself.

1972 Oahu’s North Shore surfing gets real popular with Californian surfers.

1972 The Brady Bunch visits Waikiki for real; Greg gets cursed, tanned and shows off on his shortboard. Mr. Brady throws back a few tall ones with Florence. The girls learn to hula. The entire nation feels like they just visited Hawaii.

1973 American Graffiti movie is released. Retro is now cool; a PG rating ensures that younger kids just coming of age pack the seats.

1973 American Graffiti 2-LP set goes triple platinum. Classic retro mood music like Green Onions and The Stroll blows boomer’s minds when played on early 1970’s stereo sets with killer speakers turned ALL the way up.

1975 English group ‘Throbbing Gristle’ formed, coining the term Industrial Music. They used Nazi imagery, pornography, glaring lights and clashing noise in their performances. Their last show was in 1981, in San Francisco. Classic Exotica was played at the end of their concerts, partly just to cool the audience down so no riots would take place.

1976 Boyd Rice first listens to Martin Denny albums given to him by a biker friend of his father’s. He starts collecting Martin Denny records around this time.

1978 Grease hits movie screens and the whole world goes nutzo over Olivia and John singing pseudo-50’s songs and dancing in penny loafers and white socks. Japan starts dressing in fluffy dresses and greasing their thick black hair. Even Michael Jackson sits up and takes notice, borrowing the Ravoltish dance moves for the rest of his career...

1978 Boyd Rice sees English group Throbbing Gristle for the first time in London.

1978 Boyd Rice goes to Kelbo’s for the first time. He has a drink that arrives in a skull shaped mug. On fire.

1979 Arthur Lyman and his Combo continue to play at the New Otani in Honolulu.