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Tiki Central / Locating Tiki / Pitcairn Motel, Garden Grove, CA (motel)

Post #800632 by MadDogMike on Wed, Feb 12, 2020 12:40 PM

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Got this message from Palmer Utterback, some history of the Pitcairn Motel:

My father, James P. Utterback, was the builder of the Pitcairn Motel. He came up with the Tiki concept for the neon sign and motel. My uncle, his younger brother, was in Tahiti on the sound crew filming Mutiny on the Bounty at the time. This led him to the idea of basing the motel theme on the Pitcairn Island. I remember him showing our family the preliminary drawings for the Tiki sign. I don't know what happened to those drawings. I have a photo of my father on the job site with his architecture plans draped over the hood of his car in discussion with the building foreman. This was during the early framing phase of the project before the sign was installed.